The demo moves to 15 November
I will say it straight away: the demo of HoldStrong is not coming out tomorrow, on 16 October. I am moving it back by thirty days, so it will now be available on 15 November 2026, and it stays free. In this post I want to explain why I made that call, what I am doing with the extra time, and what changes for those of you who have already signed up to playtest. All the screenshots here come from the current work-in-progress build, as of October 2026.
Why I am moving the demo
Over the last few weeks I have spent most of my time on the gameplay itself, and the more I played it, the clearer it became that it is not round enough yet. Some of the balancing is off, a few features do not work the way I want them to, and I am still in the middle of working in the last round of feedback. None of that is dramatic on its own, but taken together it would have meant releasing a demo that I would have wanted to apologise for while you were playing it.
For most of you, the demo is the first time you will actually get your hands on the game, and I only get that first impression once. I want to show you something I am genuinely happy with and that you will have fun with, and that simply needs a little more time. That said, development as a whole is going very well. This is not a rescue operation. It is me giving the last stretch the time it deserves, and I am confident that everything will fall into place.
What the thirty days are for
The biggest chunk of work is the gods. Thor, Loki and Týr, the three gods who stand at your side from the start, are already implemented in the game. Thor sends chain lightning off the tower, Loki puts a double of you onto the field, and Týr takes on a single enemy in a duel. Right now all three are going through balancing, which is exactly the kind of work that only shows its problems after hours of play.
Along with the gods come a lot of new abilities that are getting a real live test for the first time, played and judged by real players rather than only by me. You unlock them in a skill tree that looks like a night sky, with runes as its stars. One of my favourites lets you place Loki’s double yourself, anywhere around you, instead of having it appear mirrored at the tower.
There is also news on the enemy side that I am particularly pleased about. In the bestiary post I wrote that the ice spearman and the Fenrir brood, the wolves descended from the great wolf Fenrir, would only be patched in after the demo. That has changed, and both of them will be in the demo on 15 November. I am glad about that for a simple reason: the spearman drives you away from your tower, and the wolves punish you for leaving it. Only with these two enemy types is the game really complete, so a demo without them would have shown you just half of what holding the tower is supposed to feel like.
On top of that, the last changes to the UI are still coming, along with the last character models and animations. That is the less glamorous part of the work, but it is what makes the difference between a build that works and a build that feels finished. You can even see it in these screenshots, where some of the text is still half German and half English.
One screen I am already quite fond of is the one at the end of every day. You pick one of three rewards there, for example a gift that makes Loki’s double hit harder and drain less energy, so every day nudges your run in a slightly different direction.
If you have already signed up
For you, nothing changes. Everyone who has signed up for the playtest since I first asked for testers stays on the list, and you will get access to the demo in good time before the new date, so that you can play it and send me your feedback. The only difference is that you have to wait a little longer, and I am convinced the wait will pay off, because you will be getting a better demo for it. If you have not signed up yet and want to play early, you can still do that here.
How things go from here
I am sorry that I have to move the date. At the same time, I am really happy that so many of you have signed up and are waiting for the demo, and that is the best motivation I could ask for during the final stretch.
If you want to support me in the meantime, you can find me on Twitch, Discord, X and TikTok. The Steam page for HoldStrong is also going online soon, and I would be glad if you stopped by there as well. Until then, all the best, and see you soon.
Best wishes,
Mathias