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Crucible Of Time
Concrete Games · Published by Concrete Games · Official site ↗
Last updated 28 Sept 2026
A retro 4X game inspired by classic versions of the genre. Lead your people from a small nomadic tribe into a globe-spanning space-fairing civilization. Can your empire survive the Crucible Of Time?
Indie, Simulation, Strategy · More free games
Embark on a journey from nomad to galactic empire in Crucible Of Time. Navigate the challenges of the Crucible Of Time as you guide your people through strategic growth and survival in this indie simulation.
About this game
Re-experience a classic 4X civilization building strategy game with the best modern features of the genre. Discover the optimal army composition for conquering the world with your military might. Or use cunning Diplomacy to manipulate your opponents using soft power. Advance your civilization through the ages, past the modern age and into different possible future scenarios.
Tactical Stack Based Combat
Units fight together in groups; so that army composition matters. Units with different roles can cover each other to boost their effectiveness. Archers are more effective with a front-line. Front line units have high HP but lack DPS. Siege weapons are glass cannons.
Trade And Supply Chains
Construct a vast trade network to supply your citizens' every want and need. Combine natural raw resources into more powerful manufactured goods. Use these goods to equip your army with the latest technology and disrupt enemy supply chains during wartime to cripple their ability to fight.
Discover Powerful Artifacts
Loot ancient ruins, harass local villages, or conquer local warlords to uncover powerful artifacts. Artifacts can be placed inside your cities to boost their output or placed inside your throne room to boost your whole empire. Combine lower tier artifacts of the same type for higher tier ones and trade with other civilizations to maximize your empire's power and prestige.
Diplomacy and Integrity
In other 4X games the AI has plenty of ways to express their distaste for the player. The player however has no way to express their distaste back! Our diplomacy system uses a unique Integrity system that dissuades both players and AI from using sneak attacks, while still allowing for them to happen if the player or AI is willing to take the hit to their Integrity.
Multiple End Game Scenarios
The actions that you and other civilizations take throughout the game shape your future and push you to different end game scenarios. Build a doomsday device and decide if you want to tell the world about it. Pursue a science victory by reverse engineering alien technology. Attempt to achieve world peace with your diplomatic prowess or unite the world under your ideology.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel / AMD
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1050 / AMD RX 460 / Intel Arc A380
- Storage: 10 GB available space
Recommended
- OS: Windows 11
- Processor: Intel / AMD
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA RTX 2060 / AMD RX 6600 / Intel Arc A750
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 20 GB available space
Supported Languages
*languages with full audio support
Latest news
Patch NotesOfficial
Alpha 2.9.1
= 2.9.1. =- Reduced maintenance for buildings across ages.- Increased courthouse overcrowding reduction from -3 to -10.- Rework sickness to be 1:1 with health and a lower base to make trade goods more effective.- Rework happiness to be 1:1 with overcrowding and a lower base to make trade goods more effective.- Added ability to raze cities for a -5 integrity penalty.- Removed coughing sound for sick citizens.- Horses now require domestication to see but equestrianism to use.- Reduced/rebalanced rioting.- Removed river requirement for Mill. Mill now requires Gears instead of Papermaking.- Rebalanced happiness on many trade goods.- Added corruption for unhappy citizens.Read full article on Community Announcements (steam)AnnouncementsOfficial
Alpha 2.9.0
= New =Added Foreign Trade Routes.Added Integrity to diplomatic actions.Reworked Happiness and Sickness. Sickness now makes citizens unable to work. Unhappiness builds until city riots.Added player disconnection panel to gracefully handle player disconnects mid game.Added nested tooltips and tooltip links for keywords Added tooltips to unit icons on unit selection panel.Improved AI technology selection, unit production selection, and public works placement.Added unit stack's owner information to unit context panel.Added religion icon for players' chosen religion to their leader face panel.Cities that have your founding religion now receive +5 happiness (everyone) and +5 gold (founder only).Improved AI religion spreading and diplomacy for spreading missionaries.Added warlord camp difficulty and reward variation. Defeating higher risk warlord camps gives greater rewards.Improved loading game performance.Improved AI planning, transport, and settling across water.Added Scoreboard, top 10 cities, and global completed wonders to new scoreboard UI.= Balance =Increased unit maintenance costs. Starting at 1 gold and increasing by 0.5 gold per age tier.Added +1 caravan route bonuses to Stables, Grocery, Guild Hall, Castle.Adjusted building maintenance costs to by around 5x and increasing cost across ages.Moved Horse Archer from requiring archery to requiring artisan tools.Polytheism now requires Literature.Monotheism now requires Masonry.State Religion now requires Architecture. Moved to Medieval era.Righteous Law now requires Drama and Calendar. Moved to Renaissance era.Justice System now requires Writing and Monarchy.Currency now requires writing. Moved to Ancient era.Removed Scholarships Technology.Feudal Estates now requires Justice System, Currency, and Architecture.Philosophy now requires Feudal Estates.Merchant Guilds now requires Apprentices, Algebra, Bureaucracy, and Currency.Alchemy now requires Merchant Guilds.The Enlightenment now requires Music, Merchant Guilds, ...Read full article on Community Announcements (steam)Patch NotesOfficial
Alpha 2.8.1
= 2.8.1 =- Fixed Public Works not working on mountains.- Fixed doodads like oasis spawning on top of mountains.- Fixed barbarian camp sometimes leaving ghost units behind.- Prevent units from getting stuck when a hostile unit occupies the same tile.Read full article on Community Announcements (steam)AnnouncementsOfficial
Alpha 2.8.0
= New =- Added Autosaves.- Added Gunpowder and Niter trade good icons.- Settlers now show workable boundaries when selecting settler.- Added religion icon to unit stacks for missionaries to display their religion type.- Steam Cloud Saving Support.- Load/Save dialog distinguishes between Single/Multiplayer games and support Cloud saves.- Added ability to delete saves from in-game.- Updated Minimap to render isometrically. =Tech Tree=Merchant Guilds now requires BureaucracyEnlightment requires merchant guilds.Gunpowder no longer needs merchant guilds.Clockwork now requires mechanical engineering.Steam Engine now requires Steel.Railroad now requires clockwork.Democracy now requires liberalism/economicsCentralized banking now requires democracy/corporationPrinting press no longer requires clockwork= Bugs =- Fixed city center tile not changing visible yields on map.- Fixed city center tile yields not being correct. Added 2 Food, 2 Production, 1 Gold to center.- Fixed being able to move units while they're fortified.- Fixed broken UI when backing to main menu from inside game.- Fixed host sending map too fast to clients causing game to not load. - Fixed PW unlocks not showing in build menu on the same turn a tech is unlocked via goodie hut.- Changed Oasis from 1 food to 3 food. - Fixed scenario "flooded fields" with incorrect science cost.- Fixed Zoe Warlord unit being considered melee/frontline. Now stays in back line to do big flanking damage.- Reduced culture output on city center tile from 4 to 2.- Fixed terraforms not changing visually to the new tile type.- Fixed trade goods being revealed by their bonus yields on map. Yields no longer apply until good is revealed.- Fixed civilization bonuses not appearing on the map's tile resource icons.- Fixed unit stack flags showing duplicates when moving camera in/out of view.- Fixed capitol relocation partially showing capitol UI through darkness and fog.- Fixed Public Works construction sprites not rendering across mirror bo...Read full article on Community Announcements (steam)AnnouncementsOfficial
Alpha 2.6.0
NewAdded Wonder combat modifier effects.Added Policy combat modifier effects for Warrior Code and SparabaraAdded Warlord Unit, Portrait, and difficulty to warlord camps. Fishing hotspots now spawn on rivers.Added copy button for Join Code.Leaders now show their chosen religion next to their leader face icon.Added more specialists and reworked item/inventory UI. Removed throne room.Added more village scenarios.Added Zoe, Garrick and Ragnar warlords.Warlords can now join army when captured.Added in game tech tree. Bug FixesFixed single player games from displaying as joinable from multiplayer lobby.Fixed several multiplayer desync sources from RPC calls running out-of-turn on non-hosting clients.Fixed exiting wonder placement mode from inside the city inspector locking the camera when returning to the map.Fixed players from being able to join in-progress games until this feature is supported.Fixed AI and players not being able to convert to a Religion.Fixed tile improvements being placeable on doodads.Fixed tile improvement types like pasture and plantation from being buildable without trade goods.Fixed public works context menu not refreshing after game is loaded from a save.Fixed double clicking on city tile being inconsistent and colliding with unit stack cycling.Fixed text for incoming video message queue not being queued properly alongside the corresponding video.Fixed some issues with unit selection after battles and with galleys loading/unloading cargo.Fixed caravan routes not being reset after cities are captured or destroyed.Fixed missionaries being buildable without a monastery.Read full article on Community Announcements (steam)
