Greetings Romans!
It is only V days remaining until Romestead's Early Access! Romestead will officially release on the 26th of May, at 08:30 CEST
As the sun rises on the horizon, we'd like to share some additional information regarding what Early Access means to us.
New Art!
You might have noticed that we've changed the art on our store page!
We received feedback that our original artwork made Romestead look like a pure city builder. While managing and building your towns is a core pillar of the experience, the game is also heavily focused on survival, exploration, and adventure.
The new visual matches the true energy and scope of what you'll actually be playing. We hope you like the new direction as much as we do!
Launch Times
As mentioned above, Romestead launches into Early Access on May 26 at 08:30 CEST.
However, for those of you not currently a resident of the former Roman Empire, that means:
Region
Launch time
US West (PDT)
May 25, 11:30 PM
US East (EDT)
May 26, 02:30 AM
London (BST)
May 26, 07:30 AM
Rome (CEST)
May 26, 08:30 AM
China (CST)
May 26, 2:30 PM
Korea / Japan
May 26, 3:30 PM
What Can You Expect?
Early access contains hours of exploration and town-building, including three biomes, five bosses, and over 50+ dungeons and locations to explore.
What's New Since the Demo?
Romestead has changed significantly since the demo, shaped directly by your feedback. Here are some of the biggest changes coming in Early Access:
Smoother Onboarding
We’ve improved the opening hours with clearer quests, more detailed journal entries, better progression guidance, and adjusted early-game resource placement.
System Polish & Rebalancing
We’ve done a broad balance pass across combat, weapons, bosses, raids, food, citizen loyalty, and the worship system to make progression feel smoother and more rewarding.
New Progression Biome
The largest addition is a new progression biome, bringing new enemies, bosses, dungeons, resources, building tiers, and gear sets.
Early Access also introduces several major new structures:
The University: Research advanced recipes and craft powerful scrolls.
The Trading Post: Automate the transfer of resources between your towns across the world.
The Sculptor: Craft stone furniture and ornaments, alongside a completely overhauled furniture system with clearer UI, smoother controls, and much more placement freedom.
Please note that demo saves will not be compatible with the Early Access version of the game. Everyone is starting over together.
Ways of Play
Romestead is built to be enjoyed both as a standalone single-player journey or as a cooperative multiplayer experience.
The game is finely tuned for 1-4 players, but scales for groups up to 8 players. Additionally, we are releasing our standalone dedicated server software alongside the launch, so you can host your own persistent worlds from day one!
Early Access Is Only the Dawn
Launching into Early Access is a massive responsibility, and it's one we take seriously. While we have internal plans for future progression biomes, new building tiers, gear, and bosses, we want your help to shape Romestead's future.
Our immediate focus post-launch is to listen to your feedback and build our long-term plan together. The Romestead Discord server is the absolute best place to chat directly to us devs, share feedback, and organize play sessions.
A Final Note
Finally, we want to send you all of our heartfelt love and gratitude. It has been an incredible journey for our small team, and it feels surreal to finally release the game into the wild.
Thank you all so much for your support, feedback, and companionship along the stone road. We hope to bring you cartloads of content and fun in the updates to come.
Thank you.
-The Beartwigs Team