Marevento awaits you in Bloodgrounds, a new strategy RPG that mixes arena fights and city management
It’s one of the titles I’ve been covering the most lately, partly because the developers have been extremely generous with frequent updates, and partly because I really believe it has genuine potential.
At last, the wait is over, Bloodgrounds is now available in Early Access, bringing Exordium Games’ gladiator-themed tactics RPG to PC under publisher Daedalic Entertainment. The build introduces a single-player campaign that blends grid-based, turn-based combat with city management and roguelite progression.
Set in the coastal city of Marevento, players step into the role of a former gladiator turned wealthy patron, recruiting, training, equipping, and, when necessary, sacrificing fighters to climb a brutal tournament ladder.
Battles play out on a grid with initiative-based turn order and action points, where positioning, traps, consumables, and deity powers can swing outcomes. Crowd demands feed a favor system that pays out bonuses for satisfying bloodthirsty wishes, and a permadeath rule means fallen gladiators, and their gear, are gone for good.
Between bouts, gold flows into city-building, unlocking and upgrading services like infirmaries and markets while dealing with traumas, status effects, and even pre-match sabotage via underworld contacts.
The Early Access launch includes the full narrative, five “Ages” (each with a distinct biome and four challenges), nine gladiator classes with 15 levels and seven abilities each, 13 buildings with 5 upgrade tiers, and 100 Steam achievements.
Exordium targets a short Early Access window, roughly three to six months, focused on balance and UX polish. Community feedback will run through the Steam hub, a dedicated Discord, an in-game reporting tool that posts directly to a Trello board, and through the newly born Reddit and wiki pages.
A free demo remains available and covers the first three to five hours, spanning the entire first Age and part of the second, with seven of the nine classes, level caps up to 7, and nine of thirteen buildings at their first upgrade tier, useful for sampling the core loop before committing.
Daedalic’s latest press update pegs version 1.0 for early 2026 and highlights the same content scope for today’s Early Access build, alongside a new animated launch trailer.
Bloodgrounds is available now on PC via Steam Early Access with English plus seven additional languages supported for interface and subtitles (English includes full audio). Below is the new animated launch trailer.
