December 5, 2025 - Hooded Horse and Lion Shield are pleased to offer the chance to try out upcoming Roman-themed city-building game Nova Roma ahead of its early access launch. The free demo – out now – offers a taste of the early portions of the game, letting would-be Caesars establish a new Pax Romana on faraway shores. The game is now also coming to GOG and the Microsoft Store (as well as PC Game Pass).
Starting from a humble village, lead a small band of citizens fleeing the decaying empire and build a society that will be the envy of the world for millennia to come, provided the Gods are kept happy and the Barbarians at bay. Nova Roma’s demo offers:
- Learn the basics of the game’s mechanics and production chains on small, procedurally generated islands.
- Interact with a small selection of the game’s Pantheon of Roman Gods, and meet their requests to gain special currency…
- … which can be used to unlock the early portions of the tech-tree - develop industries to improve food offerings, create advanced goods for trading, and unlock vital engineering technologies, such as Aqueducts.
- Conduct mighty feats of Roman engineering by bringing water down from on high, using specialised water towers to service the population’s water needs.
- The dangers of the old Empire will find Nova Roma eventually – marshal the citizens into a Militia to fend off pirates and invaders, but try not to keep them at arms for too long – the crops will need harvesting…
The full early access launch will feature later-game techs, advanced buildings and production chains, and expanded combat systems to offer a more complete foundation.
Nova Roma will release into early access for PC on Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store, and the Microsoft Store. It will also be available via PC Game Pass on day one.
A press kit is available.
Press inquiries: press@hoodedhorse.com
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About Hooded Horse™
Hooded Horse is a publisher of deep strategic and tactical games, including Manor Lords, Against the Storm, ENDLESS™ Legend 2, Old World, Norland, Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, and 9 Kings. With people and partners around the world, our goal is to empower and support developers in doing what they do best: creating world-class experiences for their audiences.
You can find out more about us on our Steam publisher page or website, as well as our social channels: Twitter, Bluesky, Facebook, YouTube, and Discord.
About Lion Shield™
Lion Shield is an American studio founded in 2016 by Peter Angstadt and Michael Peddicord, two high school friends with a mutual interest in creating and playing games. Their mission is to create experiences with three core values: players' creative expression, strategic decisions, and beauty. The studio’s debut title was Kingdoms and Castles, and it is currently working on Nova Roma, a new city-building game themed on ancient Rome.
You can find out more via the studio’s official website and YouTube channel, as well as Twitter, Facebook, and Discord.