Knights of Frontier Valley

[Asid]

Go from humble beginnings to glory in this challenging, roguelike RPG inspired by classic titles. Explore a unique open world each new game, face enemies in tactical combat, venture from bustling cities to dark dungeons, customize your character, solve quests, make impactful choices, and survive!

Home page
Steam


Single-player


Knights of Frontier Valley Early Game Trailer




About

Get ready for unlimited adventures in Frontier Valley, a mystical and fabled place. Take on the role of an adventurer and guide him through years of his life in this unique and ever-changing world. Gain fame and fortune, while never losing sight of the most important goal: surviving!

  - Explore a vibrant and dynamic world with realistic day/night-cycles, seasons, weather changes, and townsfolk working their shifts and meeting at the local tavern after hours.
  - Fight in gridless, turn-based tactical combat, or choose to have battles automatically resolved for you quickly.
  - Survive the dangers of both the wilderness and faction politics in a procedurally generated world full of secrets and lore.
  - Choose your character from a number of different classes, customize his skills and appearance to your liking, and pursue a profession that fits your style of playing.
  - Join a faction to gain titles and glory, or go at it alone in your search for long-lost wisdom and powerful artifacts.
  - See your actions become part of the valley's story, impacting friends and foes alike.
  - Hand-drawn art with no generative AI content whatsoever.
  - A true indie game with a homebrew engine, created by just one person.




Get immersed in a world that feels real
In many ways, the world of Knights of Frontier Valley feels familiar. Days grow longer in summer and shorter in winter, weather changes follow a realistic pattern according to the season, and even the moon phase changes as days pass by.
Honest citizens sleep at night, work during the day, and enjoy their time off. Less honest ones might have different working hours.

You will get hungry, thirsty, and tired. You will suffer from the heat or the cold when wearing garment that is inappropriate for the season. You can get sick, poisoned, intoxicated, encumbered, and more.
Wounds sustained in combat will take time to heal. Protecting yourself with armor, and avoiding the attention of powerful enemies, is safer than relying on a backpack full of potions. Taking risks can be lucrative, but it can also end badly.





Old-school gameplay
Knights of Frontier Valley was inspired by classic titles from the golden age of RPGs in the '80s and '90s. Like many games from back then, it is not easy to beat and making it to the end is a true accomplishment. Since your choices really matter, important decisions such as skill selections are usually final.
All information needed to proceed and to win is out there waiting to be found, but there are no quest markers.

The game was designed to be played many times. Most aspects of the world are procedurally generated, including most maps, characters, items, faction relations, and more. No two games will ever be the same.


Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

As a fantasy role playing game with tactical combat, the display of violence is common, and mention of fantasy religion, magic, and the occult are part of the narrative.
Some quests may encourage the player to perform criminal activities. Story elements are sometimes kept purpusefully unclear to add mystery, which might cause uneasiness for some players.
Dialogues may include rare uses of crude language and profanity. Characters may consume alcohol or drugs and rare visuals of partial nudity might appear.

[Asid]

[Asid]

Coming soon: the Public Demo
Wed, August 6, 2025



Can you help Aldhelm out of a tight spot?

Most venerable Knights,

The public demo is coming soon! Everyone (read: You) will be able to download it for free and enjoy hours of gameplay. Mind that this is not Early Access, and it will not yet be what I have in my mind as the full vision of this game. For example, you will not be able to join factions yet or play past the third chapter. But it is going to be a very representative demo, and if you like it, it is safe to say you will like the finished game even more.

I am about halfway through the development cycle for this version and can now share the scope. The list is still subject to (minor) changes, but in general, this is what you can expect:


Quickdemo

So many demos to try, so little time. The quickdemo is a separate adventure called "Aldhelm's Path" which showcases some of the game's highlights. You will play a premade character named Aldhelm Sanderford who got himself in trouble... help him out, and then help him get rich!

Following the plot tightly, you should be able to complete this story within two hours (the original plan was 30 minutes, but that turned out to not be enough to make the story immersive). The background story is presented with a new "slideshow cutscene", similar to those describing the history of the valley.

Of course, aside from this quickdemo, the main game will also be available.


Early on, Aldhelm was forced to steal to survive. But maybe now, life has a bit of luck in store for him?


Crafting

In this version, you will be able to craft a number of items utilizing your crafting skill and corresponding "schemas". Over time, more schemas will be added, and the feature will be extended to also include smithing and alchemy, as well as maintaining and even improving your equipment.


You will need the skills, materials, and a "schema" to craft an item. Some items might have additional requirements, like only being craftable in certain places.


Prison mechanics

As part of the "Crime and Punishment" feature set, handling of your character being in prison has been added. You can try to break out in various ways (some are faster than others, but also riskier). Alternatively, if your sentence is short, you can choose to sit it out and get released with a clean criminal record. This comes at a price, though, as you might lose a few skill points due to malnutrition and neglect for the time you spent in the foul cell.


Unsurprisingly, you will spend most of the time in your cell while in prison. But sometimes, you might get an opportunity to leave the stinking hole. Here, the guards need help picking the lock of a rich man's villa who lost his key. Do you think they will share the reward?


New gameplay mechanics

Some QoL features have been added, including the option to upgrade your satchel for an extra quickslot, and attaching a lantern to your belt to keep both hands free for your weapon and shield when exploring a dark place.


Two new items expand your inventory's capabilities. The "Lord's satchel", a fine leather pouch of exquisite craftsmanship, can hold a bit more than the standard variety, but comes with a hefty price tag.
The "belt clip" allows for attaching certain items to the belt, including a lantern.


Interactive tutorial

Knights of Frontier Valley is a complex game with many features, and some of them are presented in unique ways. The new interacive tutorial will guide you through the most important and interesting ones.


Design goal for the interactive tutorial: "make it not be annoying". Let's see if I can pull it off.


Improved NPC behavior

Like in every prior version, NPC behavior including daily routine, reaction to threats, handling of combat, and more has been tuned. But this time, entirely new behavior patterns will be added for city inhabitants, making cities feel much more alive.


New content

There are new items, objects, and characters. There are also new graphics, animations, music, sfx, and PC voice output.


Many other improvements

There are improvements to the UI, the handling of audio playback, the main menu, the credits screen, and many internal things for performance and stability. 23 bugs have also been fixed so far.

I hope you are getting as excited about this release as I am... there is a bottle of Zinfandel I have been saving for this moment for eight years.

Until next time,

Martin