Castle Away has the Perfect Playtest

Playtests are a dangerous proposition for developers. Whether you call them demos, alphas, early access, or something else, you’re releasing a part of your game before it’s finished and opening it up to the cynical eyes of players. Castle Away, a new autobattler from a small three-man team, has managed to get the playtest right in a way that should teach other developers a thing or two.

Castle Away has a simple premise – you start off as a tiny castle with a single turret on top and roll around the landscape looking for upgrades, fighting monsters, and completing a couple of basic objectives – which is coincidentally also the premise of Wanderburg, another indie game that did well in the Steam Next Fest, maybe we’re all looking for castles to hide away in right now – but Castle Away has a much more sedate pace, and a different approach to strategy.

You quickly figure out that the map is separated into encounters that offer different chances for developing your build, with monsters or skill checks blocking the paths between them. Each encounter or combat takes up a unit of time, and eventually you’ll have to fight a boss in order to keep on going. If you manage to complete your objectives and defeat the final boss, you win and can move on to the next difficulty. 

The combat is a classic autobattler; you have no direct control and just watch while your castle design faces off against the enemy. Simple structures like turrets do direct damage, while a wall will slowly build up shields. More exotic turrets and towers might freeze the enemy or set them on fire. Everything has a type and synergies to exploit – and in this playtest you just get a couple of categories of structure and spells to play around with.

But you want more.