Demo Is Live!

The Demo Is Out: Take the Seal

Free Company's demo is live for Steam Next Fest. Download it, muster your band, and see if you've got the nerve to lead one.

It's A.D. 997. No crown stands behind you, no levy raised by writ. Just a seal, a muster roll, and the contracts you're willing to take. You run the company: you hire the bands, march the roads, pick the fights, and live with what they cost. Every man on the roll is one you chose, and permadeath means every one you lose is one you'll remember.

What's in the demo

The demo is one full season, ninety days in the Elbe and Nordmark March. That's fourteen places to go, a dozen of them worth fighting over, eighteen hand-written contracts plus a season's generated work, and eight of the nine captains to win over. And nothing is trimmed down inside those bounds:

• The whole strategic layer. Take contracts, manage your silver and wages, juggle factions and standing, hold your holdfast, and raise captains and renown as you march.
• The full tactical battle system. Deploy, form up, use elevation and weather, spend your action points and spring interrupts, break a line or hold yours against named enemy commanders and sieges.
• Co-op. Invite a friend with a code and fight a battle side by side, each of you commanding your own bands. It's new this build, and stable in my testing.
• Steam Deck. Full controller support and accessibility options like reduced motion and colourblind patterns. It plays in the hands, not just at the desk.

When the season turns, the demo bows out. The full game opens up the rest of the map, the Iberian frontier, the road to Rome, and the salt road south, along with the three years that follow.

A word on co-op

I honestly wasn't sure co-op was ready to put in the demo. I've been testing it hard these last weeks, and it's good. Two players, drop-in join over Steam, each commanding their own bands in the same battle. I've marked it experimental, but it has held up stable in my tests. If you've got a friend, bring them, and tell me how it goes.

This is where you come in

A demo is only as loud as the people who play it. If the company grabs you, wishlist the full game so you're there on launch day, and tell a friend who'd want to hold the other half of the battle line.

Wishlist Free Company: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5053640/

I'm a solo developer, and this demo is the clearest look yet at what I've been building. Play it, break it, and let me know what you think. The feedback in these two weeks shapes what the full game becomes.

The road's short now. Thanks for marching it with me.

— posting from the workbench