About the project
What we are building
A persistent, browser-based, multiplayer text world. One place, many players, a long memory.
The shape of the thing
There are two true descriptions of Iron Psalm. One is that it is Dwarf Fortress crossed with RuneScape, with the MUD tradition standing behind both: a single shared world, walked by many players at once, played in a browser, mostly in text. The other is that the project is an argument with itself about what a simulation owes its inhabitants.
Where the work is
The world is being built before the game that lives on top of it. What has been done so far is the land itself: continents, weather, water, the materials in the rock. The people come next, and that is the work of years rather than weeks. Kingdoms and gameplay follow once the people are in.
There is no release date. The devlog is where progress lives until there is one.
Common questions
Frequently asked
- Can I play it right now?
- Not yet. The world itself is still being built, and the people who live in it are the next major piece of work. There is no public client to log into.
- When will it be playable?
- No date. The next public milestone is a closed alpha for early correspondents, and that will settle itself once the world is ready to admit visitors. What has shipped this season is in the devlog.
- What happens when I die?
- Most deaths the soul comes back from, in a body it did not choose, after a passage it does not always remember clearly. A few deaths it does not come back from at all; there are kinds of harm that a worn charm and a quick friend cannot reach. Either way, the things a life touched do not unmake themselves. An orchard you burned is still burned ground next season, and a reputation a decade in the building does not lift away with the body that earned it.
- How does combat and progression work?
- Combat is turn-based with real-time complications. Timing and rhythm matter as much as which command you queued, so tactical thinking and a steady hand both have to be in the room. Character development runs down a deep class and skill tree, and two players who start the same can end up playing very differently depending on which branches they walked and which crafts they took up alongside.
- Will it cost money?
- Undecided. The way the world is built means it does not need a subscription to survive. Whether there is one anyway, and what shape it takes, is a question for after the alpha.