Castle Away offers a fresh take on the roguelite genre by combining classic role-playing game exploration with the rapid pacing of modern indie design. Players who enjoy strategic planning and building management will find a unique loop that removes the tedium of turn-based combat in favor of automatic battles. This approach allows a small development team to deliver a rich, procedural experience without the burden of creating dozens of hours of linear content. The game invites you to construct your own flying castle while exploring diverse realms, making it a compelling option for fans of the autobattler subgenre.
Three-person studio blends classic RPG exploration with automatic combat
Developed by the Castle Away Team, a three-person studio, the title centers on building and defending a mobile fortress. The core gameplay loop involves exploring a world, collecting gear, and experimenting with different build synergies during each run. Combat is fully automatic, shifting the player's focus entirely to strategic positioning and resource management rather than reflexes. You will navigate through five distinct realms, encountering twenty different monster types and facing off against five unique bosses along the way.
The technical scope of the game includes thirty different banner types and thirty boons that players can equip to customize their castle's capabilities. These elements combine to create a highly replayable experience where every run offers new challenges and strategic possibilities. The developers chose an automatic combat system to ensure that the game remains engaging and does not feel like a chore, which is a common pitfall in turn-based indie titles. This design choice supports the roguelite structure, allowing for quick experimentation with builds and immediate feedback on strategic decisions.
Castle Away is scheduled for release at the end of this year on Steam. The developers, including Sim, Rene, and Matthijs, have emphasized their goal to provide an enticing fantasy of building a flying castle within a modern framework. Players can currently wishlist the game on Steam to receive updates and be ready for launch. The release will mark the completion of a project that aims to blend the depth of classic RPGs with the accessibility of modern indie mechanics.
Source: Interview, RetroHandhelds
