Nova Roma is a new city-builder from the makers of Kingdoms and Castles

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but maybe your version can be?

Marco Wutz | Jun 11, 2023

Nova Roma is a new city-builder from the makers of Kingdoms and Castles /

Lion Shield, developer of medieval city-building game Kingdoms and Castles, and publisher Hooded Horse have announced Nova Roma at the PC Gaming Show 2023. It’s described as a spiritual successor to the studio’s previous title and – as you can gleam from the title – will be themed around Ancient Rome.

You’re given control of a small village and must expand it into a sprawling metropolis by any means necessary – manipulate the terrain and even the flow of rivers to build the city of your dreams. Naturally, this won’t be possible without some hard logistical work and you’ll need to manage ever-expanding supply chains to keep the growing demands of your population satisfied.

Expanding on the foundations of Kingdoms and Castles, Nova Roma introduces new mechanics that challenge players and offers bigger maps than before. Heavy rainfalls and floods can be as big a danger to your settlement as barbarian raids and need to be dealt with, and while medieval peasants may be quite content with their lot in life, the Romans need bread and games to be kept happy.

There are also the gods to consider, for they’ll watch your every move and will need to be appeased – you don’t want to see them upset.

Watch Nova Roma's in-engine announcement trailer below:

“We’re pleased to work with Hooded Horse on Nova Roma,“ said Pete Angstadt, creative director and co-founder at Lion Shield in a press release. “We're building on everything we learned making Kingdoms and Castles and hope to create the best ancient roman-era city builder we can, set in a world informed by both history and mythology."

With cult classics like the Caesar series being counted in the category, Nova Roma certainly has big sandals to fill.

Nova Roma is coming to PC in 2024 as an early access release on Steam.

Make sure to visit videogames.si.com for more coverage of all PC Gaming Show 2023 announcements and reveals.

Published Jun 11, 2023

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg