We are thrilled to announce that the Coloniser demo is now ready to play for everyone!
Massive persistent RTS multiplayer - forge alliances or fight for dominance for up to 90 days
Battle with up to 25 players at the same time on one map against each other and hostile wildlife in a dangerous alien world
Progress through Eras, unlocking new units and buildings as your colony expands
Experience an old-school RTS with survival stakes, evolving strategies, and massive scale
You can play the free demo here:
View game pageTell your friends, join our Discord to share feedback, and be sure to give us a review so we know if we’re on the right track. The demo will be active from August 11th until August 25th, so download it and let us know how it goes.
Your support means the world to us, and spreading the word can make a huge difference in today’s market.
The last time we launched a public demo was during February’s Steam Next Fest, and a lot has changed since then. Your feedback helped us get here. There is still a lot to do, but we know this is a marathon, not a sprint. If you’re curious about what has changed since the last version, check out the highlights below:
Orthographic camera implemented
Coloniser is heavily inspired by old-school strategy games that use an orthographic perspective, and for good reason - it’s a great way to show scale without losing detail. To make this work, we heavily tweaked the in-game lighting, field of view, and our camera controller, and the result is shown above.
Valor mechanic
We wanted to balance the game and introduce a proper sense of progression. The result is a new combat-focused resource: Valor. It’s earned through proactive gameplay and rewards you for leveraging your tribe’s strengths. Valor is crucial for researching advanced technologies, recruiting advanced or unique units, and progressing through different Eras. It can also speed up research or construction time. Speaking of technology…
Redesigned tech tree
Now each unit, research item, or building improvement is tied to a specific structure. Select a building after construction to see its available upgrades. Will you prioritize resource gathering, strengthen your defenses, or unlock new building and unit options? Shape your strategy and prevail.
Diagonal wall placement
One of the most frequent requests from the previous public demo was the ability to build diagonal walls. Good news - you can now do that. We rebuilt the wall/gate placement system to support drag-and-drop, including diagonals. More improvements are planned, including updated diagonal wall visuals, but this is a great starting point. Let us know what you think.
New map
We’ve created a new map designed for 32 players. For testing, servers are currently capped at 25 players to help us gather feedback on map size, composition, and layout. More maps are planned, but for the demo, you’ll have access to this one.
Updated visuals & audio
New server UI, a new chat system, updated unit and building designs, new icons - we’ve overhauled a lot. We’ve also added new sound effects, particle effects, and more. There’s still plenty left to refine, but we’re committed to pushing the quality forward.
Optimization
With 25 players on one map, and each player able to create 200 units and 200 buildings, optimization is critical. We’ve worked to ensure the game runs smoothly under these conditions without sacrificing performance. Later in the development we plan to increase player count to 32. Then to 90. Yeah. 90 players at the same time.
A lot of bug fixes
Seriously - a lot. Game development is a constant learning process, and new features can sometimes break old systems. We address these issues as quickly as possible, which you can see in our frequent patch notes. We’re here for you, and we want to make a game we’re excited to play ourselves.
And that’s the abridged state of the demo. If you have any questions, let us know in the comments or check our FAQ page.
Play the demo, leave a review and wishlist the game on Steam.
Thanks,
Cantos Games