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Hi, Ariano here – some of you know me at least a bit, but for many I am an unknown person, releasing just another solo developer dream game…

I am writing for those who are interested in me and the project, and I am writing this furthermore to say thank you to everyone who has helped me during this 4-year journey and made my childhood dream real.

I was seven years old when I discovered video games on my father’s x386 DOS machine, with big floppy disks and a Hercules graphics card.

As I played a game, I was instantly impressed by visual objects moving on the screen as I hit the arrow buttons on the keyboard, or felt a huge blast when an object shot a projectile after I pressed the space bar—followed by incredible excitement as the projectile hit another object and exploded into hundreds of tiny pixels.

This experience was so strong—being able to interact with a “cartoon”, something I had only known from TV as a sequence of images—that I started asking myself how it worked. I told myself, at seven years old, that I wanted to become a game maker—probably what I meant was a game developer, but there was barely any official terminology for that, at least in Poland before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

A few years later, I had learned coding, played a lot of football, and, as a teenager, chased a school love—while from time to time trying to build a game and find a place in the world for myself.
After school, I started studying computer science and decided to move to Germany, where I am currently living.

I wouldn’t be here typing this without the huge support I received from my wife and family and friends, but also from some strangers I met on the internet—people who used their free time simply to help me with the project - this truly blows my mind!
I feel incredibly proud that I met you, that I talked to you, and that with some of you I have even become friends.

I mentioned a few times that I am a solo dev, but this does not mean that I have done everything completely alone on the game. I run a one-person company, ARIANO Games, and I did all the coding, game design, and the entire graphics for “The Settlings” (before a rename at the end of 2024) — but then I met Milan, Pixel artist from Croatia, and many other people from my former publisher, who helped me bring Craftlings to a new level.

I also worked with some contractors to create new sounds, and others are now helping with the release. And I want to say a big thank you to all of you who have been involved.

Craftlings is a passion project — a dream game from my childhood — but it has been shaped over the years by the opinions and feedback of many people, which I truly tried to listen to.

Thank you for all your input. Without you, I wouldn’t be here, and Craftlings wouldn’t be releasing tomorrow.

Take care,
Ariano

P.S. The “Polarwolf” achievement name for completing all snow biome levels is not a spelling mistake 😉

Hello there,

Let’s start with the Craftlings 1.0 Release Date Trailer right away — no long intro!


I guess we’re really getting there. I can’t believe that after 4 years of intense work I’m finally releasing Craftlings next month!

Maybe you’re asking yourself how does it feel?
Honestly — kind of hard to find the right word! On one hand, I feel excitement and happiness that the first big chapter of my indie dev journey is coming to an end — and players will get their hands on Craftlings. On the other hand, I’m a bit uncertain about what the next chapter, starting after release, will be about!

But let’s keep our fingers crossed — because the players from Discord[discord.com] community and I already have plenty of ideas on how we could extend the core concept of Craftlings!

Craftlings has come a long way, from its first prototype and early demo under the old working title "The Settlings" in 2022, to today’s version that we’re currently beta testing heavily with focus on:

• Bugs & stability
  
• Performance
  
• Balancing
  
• QoL improvements

These priorities might sound obvious, but it’s not always the case — and not always possible. After a major change in the project structure back in October, my vision for the release was to reduce scope and spend more time on quality and player experience, rather than pumping out new features or levels.

And at this point, I want to say a huge thank you to all Discord members who are part of the closed beta — chasing bugs, making suggestions, and sharing level design feedback 💙
Believe me: without their dedication, help, and warm hearts, I wouldn’t be here writing this today.


There are 12 unique, handcrafted levels, and all of them are available right from the beginning.

Why?

I tried to offer a different experience and a different type of challenge in every map.
Some levels have layout or resource restrictions; others focus more on combat, including boss fights; and some feel more like a sandbox with freedom and plenty of resources to experiment with.

It was difficult to design them with a steady and consistent difficulty curve where unlocking them one-by-one made sense.
So I decided to open all levels from the start — letting everyone experience Craftlings in their preferred way and according to their own playstyle.

While designing them, I made it a priority that each level should feel different. I hope I managed to achieve this and that you’ll enjoy them!

I could write a lot about other game features like automation, the Town Hall upgrade system, the competitive rank system, or deep dive into economy or combat — but that would go beyond the scope of this post.
If you want me to cover any of these in detail, just let me know!

Before we jump into price, you may be wondering how much gameplay there is in the full game. My estimate was at least 20+ hours, but we already have plenty beta players with way more than that!
Additionally I strongly believe that the global rank system, which has 7 unique ranks for those who seek a bit of challenge and enjoy speedrunning, will offer good replayability on top of that! 🚀


Craftlings will release on January 15th, 2026.
The game will be available for PC Windows on Steam for $14.99.

Of course, a launch discount and regional pricing will apply.


With limited time and resources, I couldn’t keep updating the demo, and it is now outdated and will be removed — for the moment.

I say "for the moment" because I believe in the value of a demo and want players to try the game before purchasing.
However, if the demo no longer represents the game properly, harms the experience, or sets wrong expectations, it’s better to remove it until it receives a proper rework.

The time I’d spend updating both the main game and the demo is now invested into the quality of the 1.0 version — nothing more, nothing less. Just a simple prioritization decision. 😀

Thanks for reading and have a great day,
Ariano

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1771110/Craftlings