The Steam Playtest for The Citadel Must Hold is now open to everyone!
There is no longer any need to sign up and wait for access, you can join directly from the store page and start playing immediately!
Alongside opening the Playtest, version 0.2.13 is now live. This is one of the biggest updates so far. It adds the new Siege Workshop and Ballista, makes the first Monster Tide simpler and more predictable, redesigns the title and loading screens, and includes many improvements to combat, animations, readability, feedback, and performance as well as a very important fix to an issue that can cause the tutorial to get stuck.
If you played an earlier version, this is a good time to return and see how the game has changed.
The game is still in active development, and I would really appreciate hearing about your experience. What was fun? What was confusing? Where did you get stuck or lose interest? You can report problems, send feedback, or join the Discord using the links inside the game.
If you enjoy the Playtest and want to support the game, please also consider adding The Citadel Must Hold to your Steam Wishlist.
Thank you to everyone who has played and helped me improve the game so far!
Version 0.2.13
New building: Siege Workshop - a Citadel level 2 research building with Ballista Construction, Tower Mounts, and Reinforced Ballistae upgrades
New unit: Ballista - a slow, long-ranged, iron-based siege engine with area-damage bolts. Researched Ballistae can be trained at the Barracks and mounted in towers
Fixed an issue where sometimes the tutorial got stuck
Tide 1 is now a simple, predictable Goblin-only attack, with the more dangerous mixed variants removed
New title screen built on the game's key art, with the menu in a clean left-hand column and hover and click feedback on every button
Restyled loading screens with key art backdrops that alternate between loads, the game logo, a loading percentage, and gameplay tips on a plate that matches the in-game HUD
Menu and loading art now fits the screen properly on ultrawide, 16:10, 4:3 and 4K displays instead of stretching
Restyled gameplay notifications to match the HUD, with clearer icons, compact banners, hover feedback, clickable indicators, and smooth fade-outs
Routine successful autosaves no longer post notifications, while failed autosaves still alert the player
Building placement previews now preserve the building's textures and details beneath the green or red validity tint
Building placement rejection messages are now shorter and easier to understand
Reworked player unit coloring to sit more naturally in the world, with toned-down gold and cloth plus improved metallic response so armor reads as real metal
Unit attack animations now match each unit's real attack speed, so damage no longer lands without a visible attack motion
Unit and monster movement animations now match their real move speed, greatly reducing foot sliding and improving animation performance
Fire Tower area fire now burns on the ground where its shots land, making the damage zone much clearer. Its area radius was reduced from 3 to 2
Hero level-ups now shows a clear before-and-after stat summary
Places of Power no longer overlap forests or mountains, and tutorial landmarks always sit on clear ground
Performance improvements during large battles and at high unit counts
Fixed issues in pathfinding
Save compatibility: saves from previous versions still load. Older saves have no research unlocked, which is correct for them