ROADMAP

The Road Ahead

Crucible of Time is in private playtesting now. Here is where it goes next, from the public demo to version 1.0, and the end-game systems being built along the way.

Everything here is the current plan, not a promise. Dates, features and details can change as playtesting teaches us what works. Last updated October 12, 2026.

  1. October 2026 – January 2027 WE ARE HERE

    Private Playtesting

    Closed playtests with a small group of players. Every game is logged, and every bug report shapes the next build.

  2. February 2027 NEXT

    Steam Next Fest: Public Demo

    The free demo opens to everyone during Steam Next Fest. Its one ending is conquest; everything below arrives after it.

  3. 2027

    The Road to Early Access

    The big build-out:

    • The full tech tree, through to the near future
    • Ocean cities and space colonies
    • Generals, and a deeper combat experience
    • The apocalypse, and every ending's final choice
  4. Q4 2027

    Early Access

    Early Access opens with the full tech tree in place. From there, Early Access players help carry the game to 1.0.

  5. Summer 2028

    Version 1.0

    The full release.

ON THE ROAD TO EARLY ACCESS

What's coming

TECHNOLOGY

To the near future, and the futures beyond

The tech tree runs from the first nomads to the near future. Past that point, the future isn't fixed.

We're planning alternative futures: when the world reaches the edge of the known tree, what happened during your game decides which future tech tree opens. Some of the futures on the drawing board:

Climate Change
For a world that cooked itself: underwater cities, and technologies to repair the ecological damage of the industrial and digital ages.
Nuclear Winter
For a world after the bombs fell: growing food and surviving in a post-nuclear wasteland.
The Stars
For a world that avoided the worst pitfalls: space travel and orbital cities.
NEW FRONTIERS

Ocean cities and space colonies

Fans of Call to Power will recognize this one: the map reveals itself in layers.

The ocean floor
Oceanic research opens the sea bed, with cities and resources nobody could reach before.
Orbit
Research Space Flight and the orbital map opens above the world. Launch orbital colonies there; they work as cities in space.
COMMAND

Generals

Generals are powerful units that lead your armies and can swing a battle on their own.

Experience
They gain experience, level up, and grow along an experience tree of their own.
Artifacts
They carry artifacts into battle in their inventory slots.
The tide of battle
A veteran general with the right relics can turn a losing fight around.
THE ENDGAME

Endings and Final Choices

The demo has one ending: conquest. The full game will have nine, and most of them come down to a final choice. Some are victories. Some are the end of the world. A few could be either, depending on what is chosen.

CONQUEST In the demo

Become the Momentary Master of a Fraction of a Dot

Destroy every other civilization. In the demo, the game ends here. In the full game, with the world finally yours, an alien civilization makes contact.

THE FINAL CHOICE · YOU CHOOSE
  1. Accept the alien overlords, and let them guide your people to become an elder race.
  2. Reject them, and fight off the invasion.

The title is Carl Sagan's, from Pale Blue Dot.

SCIENCE Planned

Reverse-Engineer a UFO

UFOs crash-land around the map throughout the game, each leaving an artifact behind. Pay attention: after a few turns the wreck is hidden again. Research Exobiology to train the Man in Black, who can sweep the area around him for artifacts you never saw land. Recovering an artifact starts a countdown, and every further artifact speeds it up. When it runs out, alien technology is yours.

THE FINAL CHOICE · YOU CHOOSE
  1. Reveal the aliens to the world and try to unite humanity. Anyone who disagrees declares war on you, and the alien technology stays yours alone.
  2. Turn it into a weapon. Rival UFO programs carry on (and can take artifacts from your units), and in time they can unlock alien technology for themselves.
ECONOMIC In design

You Can Buy Happiness

Still on the drawing board: an ending built on cornering the world's rarest goods, from culturally unique trade resources to legendary goods, and perhaps one great crafted mega trade good.

Other roads to victory

Not every empire wins with armies, science or money.

DIPLOMATIC Planned

Achieve World Peace

When 80% of the world is bound together by mutual defensive pacts, you can ask the world for lasting peace.

THE FINAL CHOICE · EVERY CIVILIZATION CHOOSES
  1. If everyone agrees, the world is at peace, and you win.
  2. Anyone who refuses finds the rest of the world declaring war on them.
CULTURE Planned

Make the World Live as One

Spread your ideology until 80% of the world shares it, then ask the world to adopt it as the world ideology.

THE FINAL CHOICE · EVERY CIVILIZATION CHOOSES
  1. If everyone accepts, you win.
  2. If anyone refuses, the world splits: everyone who accepted goes to war with everyone who refused.
RELIGION Planned

Convert the World to the One True Religion

Wipe out every other religion and bring every city in the world into your faith. No vote and no second chances: every city, one faith.

THE APOCALYPSE

Not all endings are happy…

Some endings close the game for everyone. Build the wrong wonder, ignore the wrong warning, trust the wrong machines, and the world ends on your watch.

APOCALYPSE Planned

Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Build the Doomsday Device wonder. If its owner is ever nuked, the device goes off and the game ends in apocalypse.

THE FINAL CHOICE · YOU CHOOSE
  1. Announce it, and put the whole world on notice: nuke me and nobody wins.
  2. Keep it secret, and let some unsuspecting rival find out the hard way.
APOCALYPSE Planned

Induce Catastrophic Climate Change

Push climate change far enough to make half the map uninhabitable. Then every civilization faces one question: are we ready to take climate change seriously and join the international effort to undo the damage?

THE FINAL CHOICE · EVERY CIVILIZATION CHOOSES
  1. Yes: join the climate agreements and try to stop it.
  2. No: reject them, and everyone who signed goes to war with everyone who didn't.
APOCALYPSE Planned

Become a Biological Bootloader

Build a military that is 80% automated units, and every turn there is a chance your machines wake up. Nobody gets to vote on this one.

Help shape what comes next.

Join the mailing list for playtest invitations, dev diaries and the demo date. Wishlist the game, and come argue on Discord about which future your world deserves.

Sent rarely. Unsubscribe in one click.

Wishlist on Steam Join the Discord