Upcoming RTS-RPG fusion dares to ask big questions like 'What if the Vikings were riding dinosaurs?'

Personally I quite like Age of Empires, Warcraft, and Stronghold games. I also like dinosaurs. So, naturally, I like the concept behind Dinolords, a recently announced fusion of medieval city-builder and action RPG with RTS combat and also, you know, dinosaurs. Set to release into Early Access in the first few months of 2025, Dinolords is developed by new studio Northplay and published by the publishing arm of Ghost Ship Games, the developer behind Deep Rock Galactic.

You'll control a single hero character whose job is to establish a settlement, attract villagers, and have them take over gathering resources. You'll then train specialists, establish infrastructure, and expand your town with an army to defend against the enemy's conventional and dinosaur-using troops. You'll also, obviously, get your own dinosaurs eventually or why are we even here.

Northplay describes it as "a modern genre hybrid with a player controlled protagonist in a realtime strategy setting." They also let us know the reason why there are dinosaurs in the medieval period.

"In the year 985 AD Eric The Red makes a discovery on his voyage to Greenland that would forever change history. Encased in the Sermitsiaq Glacier he finds ancient eggs that, when thawed and hatched, produced creatures that hadn't walked the Earth since the dawn of time. Dinosaurs help build the settlements of Greenland and is [sic] brought back to Scandinavia to be domesticated and later bred for war. In 1002 The King of Denmark, Sweyn Forkbeard, launches the first dinosaur-powered conflict with his invasion of England, shocking the defenders and forever altering the course of history. The English King, Æthelred the Unready, is [sic] fighting a loosing battle against the invading forces. He sends his son, Edmund Ironside as a last resort to defend his Kingdom and learn the secrets of these great beasts," reads the official description.

So blame Eric the Red, I guess. That's Leif Erikson's dad. So, uh, maybe we'll go to dinosaur-inhabited America or something. Starting to feel like pretty much anything's on the table for this one, folks.

Whatever. I'm in. This idea is too goofy to not be at the very least hysterical. You can learn morea bout the development of Dinolords on Youtube. You can find Dinolords on Steam, where it'll release into Early Access in early 2025.

Contributor

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.

Read more
doctors treat plague-stricken peasants in the medieval-ish city-builder Nested Lands
Nested Lands is a 'brutal' survival city-builder about guiding villagers through a plague-infested world, and you can play its open alpha right now
Earth vs Mars screenshot - Martian troopers vs Earth light tanks
Relic's new project is a 'smaller indie-style' game about a martian invasion of Earth
Manor Lords promo art - knight on horseback looking at a medieval village in the distance, viewed from behind
PCG's best city builder of 2024 is adding a map with a gigantic hill in the middle: the perfect spot for your next castle
Screenshot from tile-based city building game Dawnfolk
Dawnfolk is a satisfying city builder puzzle game that works great on Steam Deck
Wartorn
Wartorn is a top-down fantasy tactics game co-created by BioShock's lead designer, inspired by a forgotten Bungie title where you command dwarves to blow up zombies
Two people with swords, shields, and armor fighting
Rust goes medieval with the Primitive update: siege weapons, swords and shields, and maybe a few jewel-encrusted assault rifles
Latest in RTS
Earth vs Mars screenshot - Martian troopers vs Earth light tanks
Relic's new project is a 'smaller indie-style' game about a martian invasion of Earth
Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition promo art
Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition DLC promised last year is cancelled: 'We announced content before it had been built, and we now feel that announcement was premature'
Tempest Dynasty faction
The first multiplayer demo for my most anticipated RTS, Tempest Rising, is out now
Former Age of Empires developer says the RTS genre's stuck in a rut: 'you're still playing the same game'
Creeper World IXE
Creeper World IXE breaks the RTS mold and adds a dash of Noita's alchemy to the gooey war
A large blue factory complex in Industrial Annihilation
Planetary Annihilation successor has a bumpy landing on Steam, and the backers aren't happy: 'So bare bones that it's basically an asset show without a game'
Latest in News
Intel engineers inspect a lithography machine
Finally some good vibes from Intel as stock jumps 15% on new CEO hire and Arizona fab celebrates 'Eagle has landed' moment for its 18A node
Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale, who played femshep, 'saw no line' before she recorded them for Bioware's flagship trilogy: 'It was all cold reading on the spot'
A side by side comparison of two Asus Q-Release systems, with the original design on the top and the bottom showing the apparently new design.
Asus appears to have quietly changed the design of its Q-Release PCIe slot after claims of potential GPU pin damage
Microsoft's Task Manager in Windows 11
After years of complaints about Windows Task Manager displaying CPU utilization incorrectly, a fix is finally on its way
Sony RGB LED panel tech
Sony's fixing the wrong panel problems while showing off its new 'RGB LED' backlight tech with outrageous colours and brightness
Super Mario World
Super Nintendo consoles appear to be running ever-so-slightly faster as they age and speedrunning detectives are hot on the case