- Timefront Alpha Playtest - 15 September 2026
Alpha PlaytestI'm glad to announce a new playtest, the first one of our Alpha phase starting tomorrow, September 16th. There is no restrictions for this one so feel free to invite your friends over.On this playtest you can play with the Eldmen or the Travelers in the free-for-all game mode against 7 other players handled by the AI. The Eldmen are only missing two Commanders, while the Travelers are missing two buildings, two units and two commanders as well.You can also play the first two scenarios of the campaign and watch the first two cutscenes. You get only a glimpse to the commander bonuses system we implemented for the campaign but you'll get an idea of what we are going for.Head over to our Discord server, ask in #general for a key and we'll get you one ASAP. Don't forget to fill out the feedback form so your valuable feedback doesn't get lost!This playtest is going to be single…
- Dev Update - September - 1 September 2026
ConceptsFollowing the Tower, we are now working on the next building concepts for the Ironfolk, our third race, focusing on the Extractor (similar to a Collector, to harvest Source) and the Royal Forge, which opens up the Tech Tree for the race. Like always, we are doing this new "metalpunk" identity we found very fitting for them. Needless to say, the top spins while harvesting Source near a Rift.GameplayThe Travelers are now a playable race within the game, the second of the four we have planned. To select it, go to the Loadout and just pick the Travelers. They have an array of abilities, most related to the death of units and the "Cursed" mechanic. Their racial trait is called Void Charges, giving you free units after a certain number of your own units die.NOTE: The race is not fully implemented yet since we are missing animations and models for a couple of their units and buildings.…
- Dev Update - August - 31 July 2026
ConceptsDiscovery for the Ironfolk's design language and mood has finished and we moved right into concepting a building. We came up with a style we like to call "Metalpunk" and here you can see the result in the Ironfolk Tower (at the right). We don't have a banana for reference, but we do have the Eldmen Tower so you can compare sizes. This is, of course, hand drawn by our concept artist on 3D and will not be the final model you will see in-game.Main MenuWe are working on a new main menu to immerse yourself in the world we've been creating as soon as you open the game. This main menu comes with a 3D background scene + a choir music. From here you can launch any game mode.Please note that these are placeholder UI elements, the plan is to replace the 2D clocks with 3D sundials.GameplayMigration to 5.8 is completed so we can now count with the latest features of the engine. We also imple…
- Dev Update - June - 2 June 2026
ConceptsI'm happy to say the concept (and some splash) art of the Travelers is finished. With this we are able to wrap up the second race with all their models done on 2D and just a couple left on 3D.CutscenesWork for the first cutscene is finished and will be included in the next playtest so now the missions you are able to play are chained by it and the story starts to take shape..GameplayPathfinding rework is complete. There are still odds and ends that we will keep iterating on but it is 90% there where we want it to be. Engine migration to UE 5.7 is underway and we expect there will be some friction that we'll need to work around, but this will let us use the latest tools and tech the engine has to offer. Lastly, blockout and internal playtests are underway for the Free-for-all (FFA) game mode. For now it will only be playable against 7 AIs in a similar way you would play a battle…
- Dev Update - May - 6 May 2026
ConceptsRagsul, a nightmare straight from the deepest Void comes to the Known World. This is the last commander for the Travelers and we are only missing a single unit to finish the concept of the Travelers and to move on to the Ironfolk, the last race to concept.UIWireframe exploration for the main menu UI has started. We wanted to use the theme of the game (Time) and portrait that into the menu somehow. So, a changing seasons scene was proposed for the background while sundials will make the primary UI interaction. You can see the beginnings of this below (very much WIP):Engine MigrationWe have been working on UE5.4 for the past year and it has been enough for our purposes. But, lately we found ourselves wanting to use some of the newest tools the engine provides with the latest version, so the decision was to migrate to 5.7. This is not an easy task to do, as with all engine version…
- Dev Update - April - 9 April 2026
ConceptsA new threat comes from the mind of our concept artist, but this time is a double-threat! The abomination is a creature from the void that can only be summoned by the Travelers. The Autumn Lord is a campaign mini-boss. We are gonna experiment with re-using the model and animations but changing the textures to create 2 characters in 1. CutscenesWork has started and has been steadily advancing for the cutscenes of the game. These are not going to have the full quality of a cinematic but it will be the next best thing. They play in-between missions of the campaign and add context to the story of the game.3D CharactersOh, and btw, the Abomination/Autumn Lord is ready and in the engine too!PlaytestLast month, we were busy with a playtest. The main objective of the playtest was to validate the innovative mechanics of the game, such as battle-royale, and that they blend well with the c…
- Dev Update - February - 3 February 2026
Read below what the team has been working on during JanuaryConceptsWe worked on a scene for the background of the campaign lobby plus the tower for the TravelersGameplayCampaign and Skirmish vs AI has been the focus for this month. Below, you can see a short video of how the development progress stands for the prologue of the campaign.Level DesignSkirmish 1v1 map is finished and you will be able to play it during the next playtest, to be announced soon.Join our Discord server so you can stay tuned on when the playtest will start and how to join.
- Dev Update - January - 4 January 2026
First of all, happy new year! We wish every one of you a prosperous 2026, surrounded by the ones you love. ConceptsConcept art has been progressing steadily for the Travelers' buildings. We are discovering the right design language for the structures that involve portals/gates as you can see below.GameplayCampaign mission 1 is ready and we are starting work on mission 2. The idea is for February have a build ready on Steam for testing both scenarios. Upgrading your Commander between missions is also planned to be released as well as Skirmish against the AI.UI/UXSpeaking of upgrading your Commander abilities, we've been progressing with some UI/UX designs towards this end. You can see a small example below (not final).We took these last two weeks for a well deserved rest but now we are back in full force to reach February with a playable build and to launch the Kickstarter campaign. We h…
- Dev Update - December - 2 December 2025
November has been busy! Lets go over what we were working on:ConceptsWe've been working on the last concept for the buildings of the Eldmen: the Imperial Stable. Without breaking stride, we moved over to the Travelers buildings and started with the Harvester.LightingWe decided to step up our game with our lightning and we are re-lighting most of our levels. "Lighting makes or unmakes a scene". This resonates true for all artistic endeavors and you can see a clear example below.GameplayOn the gameplay side we are still solving bugs and optimizing for multiplayer, while we work on adding new stuff for single-player modes. The campaign has a dedicated Trigger & Quest system now and the adversarial AI is being rehauled to make it smarter.Level DesignWe redesigned the first level of the campaign. If you played the last version, you'll find this one is similar but with better distribution of…
- Dev Update - November - 4 November 2025
New CharactersEfecius, Quintus' right-hand man and a high-ranked leader between the Legionnaires, is an important character within the story of Timefront and will play a key role during the campaign.New BuildingsThe Sanctum is a place of contemplation, study and healing. It functions as a hospital and university fused into one and it is the center of learning for curious citizens of the Twin Empires.New ConceptsThis is the concept art of a Siege Workshop. You can probably see the clear influence from good old Age of Empires II.Aside from these updates, we've been working on new lighting, unit flocking, pathfinding and combat to have a smooth multiplayer experience when we start playtesting (soon).
- Dev Update - October - 1 October 2025
UpdatesWe updated the website, you can find it at: https://playtimefront.com.We also updated our Steam page, namely we added:New videos, screenshots and descriptionsNew trailer:New game poster:New models and conceptsThe Luminarcher is a ranger from the Motherworld of the Travelers, you can see her in action on the trailer linked above.Concept is ready for the Longcannon (name not final), which is the first Siege unit type of the game. Can you guess to which race it belongs to?KickstarterAs stated before, we are happy to say the Kickstarter's pre-launch page is ready. We'll be filling out the story shortly but for now you can follow us to be notified at launch and grab those early birds discounts!https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/flama/timefront-high-fantasy-rts-game-with-innovative-gameplay
- Dev Update - September - 9 September 2025
August has been busy! This is what we've been working on:ReplicationOptimizations for multiplayer. We now do not replicate what is it on the fog of war. This gives two competitive advantages: the first one and the obvious one is performance. If the engine doesn't have to render what the client is not seeing, then we save a lot in terms of optimization.The second one is anti-hacking. Yes, it is still early to think about this but if we build from the ground up with this in mind, we build a robust system that is hard to circumvent. And it comes for free with our architecture design, is not that we are diverting resource to do this.New CharactersThe Carnager is the first mounted unit for the Travelers. They do not only look menacing, they also ARE menacing. Swift and hard-hitting this double-threat will be a staple in your Traveler army.New BuildingsThe Eldmen Trading Outpost is currently…
- Dev Update - August - 3 August 2025
We have been silent for a while but for good reason. See the updates below:Multiplayer ReadyThe game is now on a multiplayer playable state. The core gameplay loop is functional and other loops such as base-building are still under development. We are also polishing how it feels to play over the internet for long distances and optimizing replication. First internal playtests were promising in terms of performance which was our main concern.New CharactersIntroducing the Evocator, this ranged unit from the Travelers can debilitate that pesky front-line with Curses and status changes. They are squishy but can make for a good back-liner.New BuildingsThe Tower of the Eldmen not only looks beautiful, but also can guard your base against enemies trying to sneak up on you.New VFXsSource Collection is now functional and stylish! We'll still have to polish it but we have an initial visual indicat…
