9 Kings News

Join us for Steam Next Fest and try an exclusive, brand-new 9 Kings demo!

Explore new kings, face new events, expand the borders of your kingdom and much more in this full revamp of 9 Kings. Play it TODAY, until the end of Steam Next Fest.

Here's what you can expect:


Four demo kings plus a sneak peek at the King Of Nature are available on this unique demo! Try out dozens of unique combos, explore builds no one has ever tried before, and see if you can break the game.



[h2]Expand your kingdom's borders[/h2]
A long awaited feature is finally here: you can expand your kingdom beyond 9 plots, and rule as you wish.



[h2]Face unique events[/h2]
Boss fights, royal councils, diplomacy meetings, unique merchants, and much more. Check out the core gameplay of 9 Kings like never before.



All this and a bunch of spoilers await in the new 9 Kings demo. We've been crafting it with a lot of love over the past year, with the finessing of the community over the last month, and we'd love to hear what you think.

[FULL PATCH NOTES HERE]

Stay tuned, this is only the beginning.

With love,
Sad Socket team

Demo 343 improves the game's performance on endless mode, rebalances some units and improves the game's localization.

New Features:
- Game version is now shown on Main Menu.
- Added Japanese and Korean translation, and new fonts for Chinese.
- Boar revamp: it now raises all rider's stats by 1% for each 1 HP the boar has and can only be mounted by adjacent units.
- Citadel revamp: the King of Spell's castle attacks now cause Static! It gains +1 Static stack per level.

Game Balancing:
- Scout Tower receives less attack speed and more attack power upon leveling up.
- Demon Altar's power stack % rebalanced.
- Mercenary stats improved, costs increased (as per build 342)

QoL:
- Demon's Altar performance rework.
- Improved endless mode unit scaling.
- Bomber unit optimization.
- Spells have been separated into 2 categories: Enchantments (the ones that add effects to troops) and Tomes (the ones that can be used only once for an instant effect).
- Minor battle FX improvements.

Bug Fixes:
- Fixed a game breaking bug where players could place 2 castles after picking a King of Spells decree.
- Fixed the UI count for the amount of imps summoned by king of blood's castle.
- Fixed localization font glitches.
- Fixed King of Nature boss attacks (that made him practically immortal).

We're getting close to the big release, and our team is growing bigger!

Today, we're here to announce a partnership with the publisher INSTINCT3, who will help Sad Socket leverage 9 Kings in the European market! The publisher is behind titles we love like Megaloot and Terrascape, and we share the same obsession for creating solid indie games with a lot passion.



To celebrate the partnership, today, 9 Kings is part of the first ever I3 INDIE EXPO in Berlin! If you're in the area, you can get your hands on an exclusive build on site before anyone else. And if not, make sure you follow the event on Twitch!

Publishing the game independently has been a huge adventure for us. Your support is key. And now, we believe INSTINCT3 will help us keep our independence while bringing their valuable experience to our journey.

We've been working hard on the game and a lot of cool stuff is coming up in the next few days. Stay tuned!

Love,
Sad Socket team

Alright, kings and queens. You've waited, you've supported, you've battled thousands of battles. Now, it's time for the real deal. 9 Kings is coming in April, and we have a lot of other big news to share!

On February 24th, we'll be a part of Steam Next Fest. And it's the perfect opportunity for you to see everything we've worked on last year. There are A LOT of changes in this new demo with a lot of inputs from the community. We can't wait for you to try it out. And here's what to expect:

[h2]1. Kingdom Expansion[/h2]
You've asked for a system that would allow kingdoms to grow beyond 9 plots. And it is here. We've spent the last months rebalancing the game to allow for much more freedom in your kingdom building - including being able to move you castle to whichever plot you want.

[h2]2. New Kings[/h2]
We've got 6 out of 9 kings ready for battle. In the new demo, you'll be able to have a taste of some of these new cards. You can see how the King of Nature looks like above.

[h2]3. Diplomacy[/h2]
Want to make peace or new enemies? With our diplomacy system, you'll have agency to decide what your kingdom is fighting for.

[h2]4. Meta-progression[/h2]
Our meta-progression system is completely ready. The system will be fully available during EA, but in the new demo, you'll get some spoilers of what you can do with it.

[h2]5. Quality of life[/h2]
Countless QoL updates have been made. From aesthetic and UI improvements to performance optimizations and localization fixes, 9 Kings is now better than ever.

[h2]6. Total rebalancing[/h2]
We've learned a lot from the previous builds and you can expect some major tweaks on the game's overall balancing. Some cards will get stronger, some cards will be different, enemies will be more challenging. There is also a major overhaul in the difficulty system and new events. More on that soon!

Please keep in mind that, with Next Fest coming up, we'll be pulling the current demo off Steam this Sunday. So if you wanna play it one last time, take it for a spin this weekend. We promise you won't miss it for long!

We're super stoked about bringing this game to life with all of you. As always, let us know your thoughts. They mean a lot to us!

Thanks,
Sad Socket team

Hey, everyone!

We're super stoked to see the traction 9 Kings has been getting. With the unexpected boom of the last week, we feel it's important to address a few things and make sure everyone knows where we're headed.

[h2]What's up with those bugs?[/h2]
For those who are new and just got the demo, please keep in mind: this is an alpha demo. Its main goal is to validate the prototypical structure of 9 Kings and track bugs. We can't thank you enough for all the reports we've received on the community hub. As a very small indie team, we have a limited number of computers to test the game on, so your support has been invaluable. We just ask for your patience while we work through everything! The unit freezing bug—the main bug we've encountered so far—seems to have different causes on different systems. While we've resolved some of them, others are still being addressed and will be fixed asap. We see you, we're on it, and we're committed to never launching 9 Kings with any game-breaking bugs on the radar.

[h2]When can we expect the game?[/h2]
We're planning to release 9 Kings in Early Access in early 2025. EA supporters will get the game at a discount and, like those of you playing the demo, will be essential in refining the final stages before the 1.0 release.

[h2]Why is endless mode scaling so annoying?[/h2]
The main experience of 9 Kings was designed to end after 27 turns. But after releasing our first demo, it became clear that the community craves more (which is awesome, really). So, we've decided to expand the original scope and make the endgame more central to the core gameplay. We have some exciting ideas in the works. Just keep in mind that they won’t be part of the current demo. We've managed to soften the level upscaling a little bit, but that is the main reason it exists.

[h2]Does that mean I’ll be able to expand beyond 9 tiles?[/h2]
Yes! You’ll be able to have a huge kingdom with more than 9 tiles (!!!). We're very excited about the prototype that implements this feature. But for now, we’re fully focused on fixing the game-breaking bug that has been affecting part of the community.

[h2]What else can we expect from the final game?[/h2]
Tile expansion. Meta-progression. New events. Harder levels. And, well... 9 Kings. Expect a roadmap post soon :)

[h2]What's next?[/h2]
This week, we're 100% focused on releasing a stable alpha demo on Steam. Your feedback is invaluable in helping us get there. We apologize in advance for any potential rollbacks, but we're committed to polishing the experience as much as possible before returning to work on the remaining features. Keep in mind the final Alpha demo will be available for a limited amount of time. Expect a new revamped demo on Steam Next Fest! But for now, please keep the feedbacks coming—we're here and we’re listening.

Thanks for giving us the extra boost to get 9 Kings where we dream it can be. We won’t let you down.

With love,
The Sad Socket team