Dear city builders,
Today, we are finally ready to announce that:
Mandate Order, an ancient Chinese war city-builder, will launch in Early Access on August 12, 2026, at 02:00 UTC, on Steam and the Epic Games Store.
The Early Access edition will be priced at $19.99 USD, with a 15% launch discount available for the first two weeks.
From our first public playtest to the Pioneer Server tests, we have received a tremendous amount of attention, feedback, criticism, and encouragement from players around the world.
To date, Mandate Order has received nearly 100,000 Steam wishlist additions.
Thank you to everyone who added the game to their wishlist, participated in a test, submitted feedback, or simply chose to keep following the project.
What Have We Done Since the Demo Ended?
The public demo of Mandate Order ended on May 11.
Since then, we have continued updating the game on a weekly basis, using feedback from the public demo and Pioneer Server tests to rework several core systems and address the issues players raised most frequently.
Making Complex Systems Easier to Understand
We improved the onboarding experience and reworked the sandbox opening flow, helping players better understand how production, workers, storage, logistics, agriculture, and military management connect with one another.
The farming system has also been reorganized. We reduced repetitive actions, simplified fertility rules, and added estimated harvest information, allowing players to understand the likely result of a farming season before autumn arrives.
Connecting City Management More Closely With War
We revised the recruitment system and redesigned parts of the invasion system.
Players can now adjust the level of early military pressure. Bandits are no longer enemies that simply appear at fixed intervals—they can demand money or supplies, raid valuable storage buildings, and become an ongoing threat to the city’s economy.
We have also continued improving wall construction, defensive structures, unit pathfinding, target acquisition, and line-drawing formations.
Our goal is for war to be more than an isolated battle. It should test the city you have built: its layout, supply reserves, labor force, logistics network, and defensive planning.
Improving Performance and Stability
Since the demo ended, we have continued optimizing large populations, AI behavior, pathfinding, walls, saving and loading, and higher game-speed settings.
We have also expanded support and configuration options for technologies including DLSS, FSR, and XeSS.
During this period, we fixed a large number of issues involving crashes, UI, farming, logistics, retainers, diplomacy, combat, and visual presentation.
We are not claiming that every problem has been solved. Performance, stability, and hardware compatibility will remain major priorities throughout Early Access.
From the demo to Early Access, our focus has not only been on adding more content. We have also been rebuilding the foundations of the game so that its systems are clearer, more stable, and more enjoyable to manage.
This is the version of Mandate Order that players will experience on August 12.
Why Do We Need More Players at This Stage?
Mandate Order is an ancient Chinese war city-builder made up of many interconnected systems.
Some players may focus on agriculture, using food production and population growth as the foundation of their state.
Others may recruit soldiers early and use military force to secure resources and territory.
Some may prioritize walls and defensive planning, attempting to build a fortress that cannot be breached.
Others may experiment with different retainers, diplomatic approaches, and development paths to create their own solution.
Different building orders, logistics networks, army sizes, maps, strategies, and hardware configurations can produce situations that internal testing alone cannot fully cover.
Through Early Access, we want to evaluate more than whether the game contains bugs.
We also want to understand:
● Whether complex systems are communicated clearly;
● Whether different development paths are genuinely viable;
● Whether city expansion and military pressure remain properly balanced;
● Whether the mid and late game provide enough goals and meaningful change.
We do not want players to simply act as testers for the development team.
We want real player decisions to help Mandate Order find the right direction.
About Our Team and Continued Development
Mandate Order is being developed by a relatively small team.
For an independent studio, continued content production, performance optimization, multilingual localization, quality assurance, and long-term support all require stable and sustained investment.
Revenue from Early Access will be reinvested into the continued development of Mandate Order.
Please make your decision based on the content available at launch, the current state of the game, and whether the experience is genuinely right for you.
A purchase is a form of support.
So is thoughtful criticism.
We Look Forward to Welcoming You on August 12
We know that Mandate Order still has a long way to go before it becomes the complete game we envision.
But this city already has its foundations, roads, farms, defenses, and its first group of people willing to stand beside it.
On August 12, we will place this new version into the hands of more players.
Steam Store Page:
Thank you to every city builder who has offered attention, criticism, patience, and encouragement.
The fires are set, and the battlefield awaits.
We will meet on the battlefield on August 12.
— The Mandate Order Development Team
About Mandate Order
Mandate Order is an ancient Chinese war city-builder set during the turbulent Spring and Autumn and Warring States era.
You take the role of a frontier ruler struggling to keep a small state alive in an age when borders shift constantly and survival is never guaranteed.
Build your city from the ground up, organize workers and production chains, manage logistics, recruit retainers inspired by the Hundred Schools of Thought, construct defensive fortifications, and prepare for large-scale warfare.
Between powerful states, unstable alliances, resource pressure, and approaching enemies, you must build a city capable not only of growing—but of surviving.
Join the Official Mandate Order Community
We also invite you to join the official Mandate Order subreddit, where you can share feedback, discuss strategies, report issues, and speak directly with the development team.
Official Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MandateOrder/
We will continue sharing development updates, answering community questions, and listening closely to your feedback throughout Early Access.