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Watch trailer on Steam ↗Afterglow Fortress
Blacksword Studio · Published by Blacksword Studio · Official site ↗
Last updated 28 Sept 2026
A cute hand-drawn 2D medieval RTS game. Gather resources, build your base, develop by day, and defend against monster hordes at night to protect your realm.
Indie, Simulation, Strategy, Early Access, Casual · More free games
About this game
Build by day, defend by night — a survival war against time.
In a world consumed by darkness, you command the last bastion of light. Each day, you have only minutes to chop wood, mine gold, build walls, and train troops. When the sun sinks below the horizon, monsters swarm from six directions — caves, waterways, and wildlands. Can you hold the line for 30 days and see the final dawn?
A full day-night cycle lasts 10 minutes. Sunlight means safety: chop wood, mine gold, hunt for food, construct buildings, upgrade your tech. When darkness falls, enemies surge from all sides — and your fortifications and troop positioning decide whether the fortress survives. Every sunrise is a relief you've earned with blood and steel.
Build your fortress from the ground up.
Construct and upgrade 6 core buildings, each vital to your survival strategy:
Castle — The heart of the fortress. Upgrading it unlocks new buildings, units, and techtiers.
Barracks— Training ground for melee units. Warriors and Lancers stand ready.
Archery Range— Training ground for Archers. Ranged fire support at your command.
Monastery — Training ground for Monks. Healing and dispel make the difference in prolonged battles.
Watchtower— Defensive fortification. Station Archers here for massive attack bonuses.
Cottage — Expands population cap, allowing you to field larger armies.
Command five unit types and master the art of war
Train and deploy 5 distinct units, each with unique upgrade paths and combat abilities:
Pawn：Handles resource gathering and fortress repairs. Able to switch between four specialized jobs: Lumberjack, Miner, Hunter and Repairman, serving as your core logistics backbone.
Warrior：Frontline damage dealer with Block and Combo abilities.
Archer：Ranged damage unit, deployable atop watchtowers.
Lancer：Garrison defensive troop, featuring damage reduction and thorns (damage reflection) passive effects.
Monk：Healer support, capable of healing allies and dispelling debuffs.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- OS: Windows 10+ (64-bit)
- Processor: Intel Core i5-6600K / AMD Ryzen 5 1600 (4 Core CPU，3.0GHz+)
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 / AMD Radeon RX 560 / Intel Iris Xe or better
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 1 GB available space
- Additional Notes: Vulkan support is required. Older legacy GPUs may not run properly.
Supported Languages
Latest news
Patch NotesOfficial
Demo v0.0.6 Bug Fix Update
⚔️ Combat & Stability- Fixed crash when units attack buildings that have just been destroyed (null pointer guard)- Fixed building burning sound crash when buildings are destroyed during combat- Fixed save/load system field mismatch causing load failures🚶 Pathfinding & Movement- Fixed units getting stuck and looping at navigation mesh edges- Navigation mesh rebaking now has a cooldown to reduce performance spikes🏗️ Production & UI- Fixed infinite resource-shortage hints and rapid progress bar cycling when queuing units without enough resources🎵 Audio- Fixed BGM not looping (day/night music now loops correctly)🔧 General- Fixed menu crash when closing after loading a save- Fixed invalid UID warning in scene files- Added rendering backend diagnostic info to startup logRead full article on Community Announcements (Allen)Patch NotesOfficial
Demo v0.0.5 Bug Fix Update
🐑 Audio - Fixed sheep sounds being audible across the entire map; now fades naturally with distance - Night BGM volume reduced by 40% 🚶 Pathfinding & Movement - Fixed units getting permanently stuck on buildings or other units; now auto-repaths after 0.3s - Added soft repulsion between units to prevent complete overlap - Removed RVO avoidance to prevent crowding jams ⚙️ Rendering - Switched rendering backend to DirectX 12, fixing rare GPU crashes in OpenGL compat mode - Texture VRAM usage optimized (500MB → 130MB)Read full article on Community Announcements (Allen)Patch NotesOfficial
Demo v0.0.4 Bug Fix Update
New Tutorial Step - Added a loot chest guide after training the warrior: defeating monsters may drop loot items, which can be dragged onto units to equip. Compatibility Mode - Added a compatibility mode launch option for older GPUs that do not support Vulkan. Balance Adjustments - Adjusted enemy spawn intervals. Bug Fixes - Fixed a potential GPU memory exhaustion crash caused by excessive cursor sprite creation. - Fixed building menu being obscured during nighttime.Read full article on Community Announcements (Allen)Patch NotesOfficial
Demo v0.0.3 Bug Fix Update
This update addresses the following issues:🛠️ Building Menu - Fixed building context menus (training, upgrading, garrison, etc.) being obscured by darkness at night. Menus now display at full brightness regardless of time. 📋 Build Panel - Fixed new buildings not unlocking in the build panel after upgrading the Castle. 🏹 Garrisoned Units - Garrisoned units in Towers/Castles no longer walk down to chase enemies. They now attack from their post within range. - Garrisoned units can no longer be selected, preventing accidental commands. ⛏️ Pawn Gathering - Fixed pawns returning to their old resource node after being assigned to a new one. - Fixed pawns automatically resuming gathering after being ordered to move away.Read full article on Community Announcements (Allen)
