Screenshots
Watch trailer on Steam ↗Highland Keep
unmanaged · Published by unmanaged · Official site ↗
Content notice: Our game primarily contains violence, including scenes with blood and combat-related injuries. While the game does not depict explicit sexual content, players should be aware that it involves intense and graphic depictions of medieval combat, which may be disturbing to some
Last updated 28 Sept 2026
Highland Keep is a third-person survival strategy set in the dark, mist-covered medieval Scotland. As a clan leader, you will engage in base building, colony management, survival mechanics, and real-time action combat in an open world.
Action, Simulation, Strategy · More free games
As a clan leader in Highland Keep, you'll craft and protect your fortress while battling enemies in misty medieval Scotland. Manage resources, build defenses, and survive the harsh environment through strategic planning and quick action.
About this game
Highland Keep is a third-person survival strategy set in the dark, mist-covered medieval Scotland. As a clan leader, you will engage in base building, colony management, survival mechanics, and real-time action combat in an open world.
Total Freedom of Castle Building
Design and build any castle you want, without presets or limits. Construct walls, towers, interiors, traps, crafting stations, storage rooms, and smaller structures piece by piece. Every keep is unique, functional, and fully explorable your fortress reflects your strategy and your character.
A Fully Simulated Living World
The world runs in real time, even when you are not directly involved. Other clans exist, expand, fight, trade, and raid on their own. Choose diplomacy, alliances, trade, or total war. Your decisions shape regional power, borders, and survival.
Character-Driven Progression
Character development directly affects gameplay systems unlocking advanced building options, improving clan management, influencing morale, and enhancing combat abilities. How you grow your character defines how your settlement and clan evolve.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- OS: 64-bit Windows 10
- Processor: INTEL CORE I5-8400 or AMD RYZEN 3 3300X
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 30 GB available space
Supported Languages
*languages with full audio support
Latest news
Patch NotesOfficial
Development Update: Building a Living World
Hi everyone. It has been a while since we released the Highland Keep teaser. The response went far beyond what we expected, and Highland Keep has now passed 100,000 wishlists. Thank you! In our previous devlog, I mentioned that we were looking for a way to make development sustainable in the long term. We have now secured funding that allows us to work on Highland Keep full-time. Our team has also grown from two people to four, with a programmer and a 3D artist joining us. There is still a lot of work ahead of us, but I wanted to show you what we have mainly been building over the last few months. Most of the work below supports one goal: creating a settlement that continues to live and function, whether you are managing it from above, exploring the world yourself, or preparing for an attack. NPC SimulationHighland Keep takes place on one continuous map. Every human and animal remains part of the simulation, even when off-screen. We are designing the game around roughly 5,000 units, with distant characters updating less frequently to maintain performance. To make this possible, we built BurstCanvas, our custom visual AI system. It defines how characters move between work, rest, combat, player orders and other behaviors. Our previous solution became too expensive at scale. BurstCanvas is lighter and can process many characters in parallel, giving us the foundation needed to reach our target population.We’re generally a bit obsessed with performance. Personally, I’d really like HighlandKeep to run smoothly on a card like the GTX 1080, with quality close to what we’re showing in the screenshots and trailer. Also, I can confirm that Highland Keep will be available on Linux. Ecosystem Our world population system keeps track of the target population for each species and looks for sensible places where groups can live or recover over time. It considers terrain and habitat, whether an area is dry, wet or near a shore, whether it is reachable, how close it is to other animal...Read full article on Community Announcements (HighlandArchitect)AnnouncementsOfficial
Original Game Soundtrack
Hey there, It's Kacper again.Today, we’re sharing the first piece of music composed for Highland Keep.We paired it with a ~10-minute video from a static in-game camera, so you can just let it run and see how it feels to be inside the world:Thanks, KacperRead full article on Community Announcements (HighlandArchitect)AnnouncementsOfficial
Making of Highland Keep!
Hey! I’m Kacper.The first teaser for Highland Keep is out! This post is basically: what the game is, who’s behind it, and what we’re focusing on. What is Highland Keep?It’s a third-person survival strategy set in a dark, misty “medieval Scotland” kind of world.You’ll build a keep piece by piece, grow a small clan, deal with weather/survival pressure, and when trouble comes… You defend what you built. Not just a house - an actual castle you planned.The short version of the pillars is:Castle building + defense (the main thing)A living world with clans doing their own stuffThird-person combat + leadership/managementMood and inspirationsI’m aiming for a gritty, heavy medieval atmosphere: mud, fog, harsh weather, and that grounded “fight to survive” feeling.Scotland is a huge inspiration for me (the weather, architecture, landscapes, culture), but to be clear: Highland Keep is not a historical simulator. We’re focusing on gameplay first, with inspirations more in the direction of Stronghold, The Forest, or Mount & Blade.So yes — we know nobody wore kilts in medieval Scotland 😅Castle buildingWe’re putting a lot of work into building, because we feel many survival games limit your freedom: you place pre-made “blocks” (an entire house, etc.), but meaningful planning and multi-level fortress construction can be tough.In Highland Keep, there are two building modes:Large structural pieces — foundations, walls, roofs, etc. (RTS-style view)Smaller functional items — doors, chests, furniture, defenses, etc. (placed in third-person / player view)The larger building system works in such a way that modules on higher levels must fit into those on the bottom, so you cannot build sideways. Also, each module has its own load capacity, so building upwards has realistic limitations.Clan system and character relationshipsThis isn’t a fixed “you vs. everyone” kind of world. You create your own clan and decide:who you keep peace with,who you go to war with,how you shape relationships with ot...Read full article on Community Announcements (HighlandArchitect)AnnouncementsOfficial
Highland Keep Teaser
Hey everyone,We’ve been working really hard on Highland Keep lately, and we’re excited to finally share our first teaser We’d love to hear what you think, what feels the most interesting, and what you want to see next. Thanks!KacperRead full article on Community Announcements (HighlandArchitect)
