Danelaw

Coming soon on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/5438200/Danelaw

Danelaw is a Viking action RPG set in Northumbria in 866, the year the Great Heathen Army took Eoferwic. You come ashore at the Tyne as the least of a Danish war-band. Over a prologue and four acts you work your way up to king in the north.

Combat is directional and runs on stamina, so you pick where each blow goes and when to throw it. You can cut high or low and parry into a riposte, and a guard that takes too much will break. A spear can sweep a man's legs out from under his shield, and a Dane axe keeps battering a guard until it gives.

Seven war-bands roam the north, and their war-leaders and champions have names and remember what you did to them. When one yields you decide whether to finish him, spare him, ransom him or take his oath. If you leave one for dead he may come back later with scars and a new name, and his kin may come asking for wergild.

You ride between fifteen places from Eoferwic up to the Roman Wall, and you can walk into any house or hall without a loading screen. The seasons and weather follow the real year, so there's harvest in the strips, bonfires on midsummer eve and snow in winter. People in the towns go about their day, and if they see you steal from a house they'll call the watch.

Once the story is done the north is yours to run. You grow your steading from a burnt farm into a king's seat and set thralls to work, and you judge disputes and take tribute from your holds. There are side quests in every town, and your companions remember the ones who fell beside you.

Up to three friends can join your game over Steam, in the same story and the same world. Invite them from the pause menu at any point and they turn up beside you. You can even marry each other at the hall, with every rite.

Features

• A prologue and four story acts, then open play
• Directional melee, archery, and fighting from the saddle
• Seven war-bands of named foes
• Fifteen places from Eoferwic to the Roman Wall, houses and halls with no loading
• Seasons, weather and sky by the real year 866
• Your steading, thralls' work, hunting, woodworking and mining
• Online co-op for up to 4
• Full controller support

Danelaw is in active development. Footage and screenshots are pre-alpha.

• Steam page
• Studio page
• Discord
• YouTube