Steam launch: New ambitious city builder based in Rome launches alongside discount

City-building games usually ask you to think like a planner and an accountant. They turn resource lists, traffic flow and housing into a puzzle where good decisions compound and bad ones don't. That lineage runs from classics like Caesar III to modern sims such as Anno and Cities: Skylines - and now, Pompeii: The Legacy is trying to sit squarely in that niche.

Pompeii: The Legacy launches on Steam early access on 23 September 2025. It has been developed by a small Croatian studio Siscia Games and led by solo dev Željko Kos. The game has a mix of classic city-building mechanics and long-form choices that play out across decades. The launch build ships with three main modes: a voice-acted narrative campaign, a sandbox mode, and a creative mode for players who want to experiment without any economic pressure.

More specifically, the game is about rebuilding and managing a Roman city after catastrophe. The player leads a family rather than just a mayor: founders set priorities, heirs inherit bonuses and political ties, and marriage or alliance choices can affect trade, law and long-term prosperity. This generational mechanic is the game’s main twist - decisions you make early can unlock different research paths or political privileges for later generations. It’s a smart way to add narrative weight to what might otherwise be a purely systems-driven sim.

Visually, the game has isometric and 3D city views with tiled Roman architecture and detailed street scenes. The UI and flow will be recognizable to players of classic city builders. Steam Deck (curr. $752 on Amazon) support is marked as "Great on Deck," and full voice acting is available in the narrative campaign. The Steam listing also notes 11 supported languages and an explicit plan for community-driven development during early access.

Siscia’s background can shed some light on the ambitious scope of Pompeii: The Legacy. Željko Kos has previously worked on mid-sized projects and has built this title using a proprietary engine named WhaleX. The studio is small - much of the work (except code) has been outsourced to freelancers for art and voice work - and the dev has used public playtests and demos through 2025 to balance the game.

Let's talk about early access plans. The Steam page mentions an initial roughly six-month early access phase focused on adding features and mostly responding to player feedback. The roadmap shows expanded military systems and deeper political options as post-launch priorities. That roadmap - and how the developer engages with the community - will be key for players who care about the title moving into a full release.

The game is available for $19.99 at base price on Steam, but for its launch there is a 10% discount, which brings it down to $17.99. As per the developer, the price will likely stay the same after early access, but that might change based on how much content is added over the EA period.