Blades For Hire — Demo Out Now! Build your guild, take on contracts, and survive
Forget about saving the world — you're not a hero, you're a contractor. Build your guild, take on contracts, and survive
Greetings, mercenaries!
We’re excited to announce that the free demo of our dark tactical RPG Blades for Hire is available now on Steam — a game where loyalty has a price, and that price is gold.
And starting tomorrow, Blades for Hire will join the Steam Next Fest: June 2025 Edition festival — stay tuned for updates, livestreams, and exclusive content on our Steam page!
Blades for Hire is a tactical RPG that doesn’t care about your morals.
In a world no longer worth saving, you command a guild of mercenaries just trying to make a profit from what’s left. And today, you get a first look — the free demo is available to everyone.
You're not the hero. You're the boss.
You don’t play a chosen one. You manage a struggling mercenary guild in a rotting fantasy world. Your crew? A mix of renegades, idealists, thieves, and cynics who follow you not out of loyalty — but because you pay them. On time. Or else.
No grand quest. Just dirty work.
There’s no prophecy or world-saving arc. Instead, you’ll face contracts filled with extortion, blackmail, massacres, and ruthless decisions. Your actions shape your reputation and unlock (or block) new opportunities. The Church may despise you — but the criminal underworld might welcome you with open arms.
What to expect in the demo:
• First missions and early in-game choices
• Tactical combat with indirect control
• Guild economy and basic management
• A glimpse into the world and its brutal rules
What to expect in the full version:
— 150+ contracts and missions: From escorts and ambushes to betrayal, extortion, and moral gray areas.
— Tactical combat with indirect control: Set strategies and priorities — your mercs act on their own (and not always how you’d like).
— Deep mercenary relationship system: Every character is unique, with values, limits, and personalities. Bonds impact efficiency, loyalty, and story outcomes.
— Guild economy system: Salaries, equipment, hiring and firing, bribes, donations — everything has a cost.
— Choices that shape the world and your reputation: Your actions affect which factions you can work with — the Church, criminals, nobles, or outcasts. Your path determines your contracts.
— No good or evil. Just consequences: This is not a game of “right” decisions — it's about what's necessary, what's profitable, or just the least awful option.
— High replayability: Every run is different thanks to branching paths, dynamic events, and your crew’s unpredictable nature.
Wishlist, follow, and remember — there are no heroes here. Just contracts, cold steel, and the price you’re willing to pay.
Join our Discord server to ask the developers directly and share feedback with the community.
Stones Keeper II: Chaos Lord – Demo Version Now Available!
Greetings to all tactical RPG fans!
We are thrilled to announce that the demo version of Stones Keeper II: Chaos Lord is officially live. And tomorrow, we will take part in the Steam Next Fest June 2025!
Join our Discord server to ask questions directly to the developer.
Decadent Heir — Your Story in a World of Change. Coming Soon!
Greetings!
We are proud to present Decadent Heir — a narrative RPG where politics, betrayal, and luxury intertwine in a deadly dance of ambition.
The late 19th century. You are born into a noble family and face the cruelty and injustice of the era from your very first days. What will your fate be? Will you become a loyal servant of the empire, a revolutionary, or forge your own unique path?
In Decadent Heir, you will experience a deep interactive story where every decision shapes your character’s life:
📜 Live a dramatic life — from birth to adulthood.
🎓 Choose your education and career — become an officer, an official, a politician, or a revolutionary
⚔️ Face war and intrigue — the Russo-Japanese War, World War I, conspiracies, and assassination attempts.
💔 Build relationships with family, loved ones, and more — experience difficult choices and defining moments.
Where will your character stand when the old era collapses? The choice is yours.
Introducing Blades for Hire - a strategy game that lets you take control of your own mercenary band.
Greetings, dear players!
It is exciting to see how our community is growing!
Let us introduce you to a new strategy game called Blades for Hire, where you will control a mercenary guild in a realistic fantasy setting.
DoubleTap is the team behind the project.
Dive deep into the world where the protagonist, on the brink of survival, is forced to find questionable ways to earn money. Every day you will have to choose between following the dictates of your conscience or giving preference to pragmatism and profit. You will make these decisions through your Guild, and each mercenary will be an asset in your success.
A world of tactical battles, character development, and moral dilemmas awaits you in Blades for Hire.
Create the legend of your guild and shape its future!
But let's take a look at the trailer first.
Subscribe and add it to your wishlist!
A little bit about the equipment in Stones Keeper II: Chaos Lord
Hi!
We are currently testing the campaign of the new chapter of the story, so let me tell you some details about it. Firstly, let's talk about equipment.
The items are divided into three categories: normal, improved, and heroic. Considering that heroic requires a significant amount of gems, it will definitely have a positive impact on the game's economy (the market with the purchase and sale of resources will come in handy). Lore states that these items have additional properties, which is why these gems are necessary.
As an example, the griffin armor will make griffin able to fly farther, while the spider mask will increase the radius within which spider can burrow.
The campaign will require you to recruit the vampire Count Valentine. Using his heroic scythe, you can restore your own health upon successfull attacks.
Aside from the main armament, there are other items as well. The alchemist's belt is one such item. The alchemist's belt increases the duration of elixirs, the overall number of which has also been increased. There is even one “improved elixir." When combined with your battle tactics, elixirs can give a noticeable advantage.
Equipment items can also be replenished in battle. A lot of chests are present in the game, and you're sure to find some equipment in each of them, with its level increasing as you progress through the game. A total of 15 slots have been added to the equipment bag so you can store items you don't want to sell. In addition, maybe we'll stash something interesting in the secret mission we plan to do later.
Here's what the merchant's assortment looks like. Please note that not all items are presented here, because each merchant has an item filter built in, and you are only presented with items that your characters can wear. You will receive new items in the store as soon as a new warrior appears in your army or becomes available in the tavern.
Get 62% off to celebrate the Turn-Based RPG Fest on Steam.
Hi! Stones Keeper is taking part in the Turn-based RPG Festival on Steam, which means that from September 30 to October 7, the game is available for purchase at a 62% discount.
One of the goals of Patch 1.3 was not only to rework the remaining player-favorite early-game ships but also to lay the groundwork for the planned boarding scenes. The ships turned out great.
New ships:
The Valkyrie
The Meifeng
Fluyt
War Schooner
The Principio (DLC)
Improved sail and rigging quality for all ships in the game.
In total, ~30% of the entire game fleet has been revamped by 1.3 - just as planned.
Quests
Extinguished Star We’ve never created a quest this complex, non-linear, and intricate before. It has everything: new content with Mary and Helen, direct impact on the main storyline, cutscenes, crazy flashbacks, and valuable loot. The quest starts at the end of "The Dutch Gambit" and continues through to "Turtle Soup." No spoilers—see it for yourself.
Black Mark A non-linear quest, designed for the early stages of the game, offering valuable rewards and nods to veterans of the "Sea Dogs" series. Available in both Story and Sandbox modes. Part of the "Black Mark" DLC.
Rewards include: a duelling double-barreled pistol, an Italian rapier, an Army broadsword, a Black Spot ward, armor, as well as a new officer—Tommy Irons, and the legendary Pink of Nicholas Sharp, the Principio. The Pink is stunning, but the true star of the DLC is Irons. He's got killer jokes.
Locations
No new locations in this patch, aside from a few scenes for the Longway quest. The boarding decks took up almost all of our time and will continue to do so. All four decks will be included in either Patch 1.3.1 or 1.5.
However, we did update several old locations, especially those that significantly lagged behind the newer ones in quality.
Locations update:
Locations and scenes for the "Extinguished Star" quest
The Old Lighthouse
Port Royal Lighthouse
Several beaches
Indian village
Improved ground textures in towns.
Animations
We continue the challenging journey of bringing quests, battles, and cities life to life. The minimum program has already been fulfilled, and with Patch 1.5, we aim for something even more ambitious. Next-gen is just around the corner.
New animations:
Unique animations for the "Extinguished Star" quest
7 new contextual death battle animations
2 prayer animations in churches
2 animations for drunks in towns
Tavern musicians no longer drown out the game’s music
Fishermen, blacksmiths, and musicians now work according to the time of day
New Hero
Due to popular demand, Helen McArthur is now a fully-fledged character in Sandbox mode. She is compatible with the "Vile Little God" and "Black Mark" DLCs. She has unique dialogues in her hometown Blueweld, unique achievements, loot, and starts her pirate career on a war schooner.
For now, she doesn’t carry a musket or visible armor, and there may be some "gender errors" :rofl_pirate: in the dialogues. Her development will continue in Patch 1.5, along with other Sandbox characters.
Notification System
Traditionally, games in this series have never been known for being player-friendly or transparent, often requiring guides. What happened to my character? Why did I fail a dialogue check? What reward did I just receive? Any game needs to communicate with the player—and now Caribbean Legend does. I consider this the key feature of Patch 1.3.
New notifications:
Over 100 new format notifications on sea, land, and in dialogues
Combat statuses—from poisonings to critical damage
Loot markers—so far, only for plants in the jungle, but this is just the start
Quest navigation—so far, only for the beginning of the game
More quest markers over characters and on the global map
New tutorial videos for core game mechanics
Interface
Let’s be honest, we have the best interface. But somehow, the list of fixes for it has already stretched to three pages. :rofl_pirate: The first half of the first page finally made it into Patch 1.3.
UI update:
Unlimited key remapping—adjust the controls to your liking
Control hints in loot, trade, and exchange windows
Highlighting new entries in the ship’s log and documents
Highlighting available skill points for characters
Keeping the selected character when switching tabs between inventory and skills
Displaying character roles in officer assignment windows
Improved interaction with items in the inventory
Added a DLC button in the menu—if all are purchased, it will be inactive
Miscellaneous
13 achievements
New ward
New sword
Automatic crash reports sending - let's see how bad it really is out there
Longway can now carry muskets
New dialogue camera
Missing textures restored for some objects in the "Flying the Jolly Roger" quests
Claude Durand now reliably triggers his loyalty event after a set time
Obtaining a patent removes pirates from the crew
Reputation no longer drops if the player exits "Flying the Jolly Roger" questline before Cartagena
Fewer soldiers in towns, and they stop the player less often
Chance to deceive the guards can no longer exceed 90%
Governors no longer ask you to infiltrate friendly towns
Passengers no longer ask to be taken to hostile towns
"Iron Will" perk no longer allows intimidating officers
Missing item descriptions—skill bonuses, etc.—have been added
Additional optimization of the tutorial on Martinique
Spelling and grammar corrections - thanks to all reports you have been sharing on Discord
Numerous bug fixes
Improved overall game stability
1.5
That’s all for now! Over the past six months, we’ve done an incredible amount of work together. We’ve done everything possible and even more. Except for the Story mode epilogue, of course.
We could have done it already, but it would have been too... simple? I want to create something special and worthy of Charles de Maure's story—call it a "director’s cut" of his storyline, if you will. Plus, the game has long needed list of truly new mechanics, fixes for old ones, a complete rebalance, a new loot category, and a proper uplift of Sandbox mode. Not to mention improved controls, gamepad support, Steam Deck experience.
Patch 1.5 will take at least six months, and it will definitely require starting the new game. So for now, we’ll take a short break, rest, and then get back to work.
Leave reviews ːsteamthumbsupː as blue as the Caribbean Sea, download the patch, buy the DLC—and if you’ve been putting off playing the game for any reason, now’s the perfect moment to start!
Coming soon...
:jollyr:
Stones Keeper Joins the Isometric RPG Sale – Get 61% Off Until September 1st!
We're excited to announce that Stones Keeper is participating in the Isometric RPG Sale! From now until September 1st, you can get the game at a 61% discount.
