You ride for the crown. Nobody trusts the crown.
Kingdom Courier is a turn-based strategy roguelite about carrying the King's mail through a kingdom that has long memories and bad roads. Every run is a contract: a route to plan, a wagon to keep moving, and a hundred small decisions about who you can afford to disappoint.
There is no army behind you. There is a horse, a wagon, whatever you loaded before you left, and the road.
The route is the game
Plot a course across a branching hex map where every leg costs you something - time, supplies, condition, daylight. Push for the fast road and arrive with nothing left in reserve. Take the long way and watch the contract deadline close.
Bandits on the road are not a battle to win. They are a bill to pay, in cargo or coin or risk, and the choice is yours.
Rumors are only as good as the source
Villages tell you what's waiting on the road ahead...which passes are washed out, which routes are being watched, where a load is worth more than it should be.
How accurate that is depends entirely on what they think of you. A village that trusts you tells you the truth. A village that doesn't will still talk. It just might not be right.
The kingdom remembers
Every village keeps its own memory of how you've treated it. Shorted them on a delivery, played favorites, ran straight through in a hurry...it remembers, and it changes the prices you're offered and the rumors you're told.
And the two things you're building don't pull the same direction. Village Trust is earned on the ground, one honest delivery at a time. Royal Favor is earned by serving the crown, which frequently means doing something a village won't forgive. You will not finish a run with both.
Every run makes the next one different
Runs end. Your Charter Reputation doesn't. Build it across attempts to open new contracts, new regions and routes you had no standing to attempt on day one.
And you are not the only courier on the King's roads. Rival couriers are out there working the same contracts, and they are not waiting for you.
In development
Kingdom Courier is a solo-developed game from Hydran Software, targeting early 2027.
Wishlist now to hear when the demo goes live later this year - it's the single most useful thing you can do to help a small game get made.
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