Event: tinyBuild Connect 2026
Host: tinyBuild
Date: Monday, September 14
Time: 17:00 CEST · 11:00 AM ET · 8:00 AM PT
Watch On: YouTube · Twitch · Bilibili
Headline: Kingmakers — 10-minute gameplay deep dive
Milestone: tinyBuild’s 15th anniversary
📺 tinyBuild Connect returns on September 14. The publisher’s annual showcase brings new game announcements, demos and updates — headlined by a 10-minute gameplay deep dive for Kingmakers, the game that’s been silent since its indefinite delay last October. It streams at 17:00 CEST / 11 AM ET / 8 AM PT.
⚖️ Kingmakers Is the Reason to Watch
tinyBuild’s own framing is “the long-awaited return of Kingmakers,” and that phrasing is doing some quiet acknowledging.
Kingmakers has been the most conspicuous absence in tinyBuild’s line-up for nearly a year. Redemption Road Games’ medieval time-travel sandbox — modern firearms against tens of thousands of AI soldiers in 1400 AD Britain — was due for Early Access on October 8, 2025. Days before launch, it was delayed indefinitely, with no new date since.
The developers were straightforward about why: an 80% engineering team unwilling to cut features, chasing tens of thousands of soldiers with AAA-grade pathfinding, destructible environments, explorable multi-storey castles and drop-in multiplayer, at a true 60 FPS on mid-range hardware.
Eleven months later, this is the first substantial look at where it landed.
Fifteen years, and one very overdue castle
A publisher showcase lives or dies on whether it has one thing people genuinely want to see. This one does, and it’s been waiting since last October.
tinyBuild Connect returns on Monday, September 14, streaming on YouTube, Twitch and Bilibili. The publisher’s annual showcase marks 15 years of tinyBuild, and promises new game announcements, demos, updates and trailers across its catalogue.
The headline item is a 10-minute gameplay deep dive for Kingmakers, alongside a hands-on preview for Road to Jukai, fresh looks at The Lift and Graveyard Keeper 2, and updates on several titles already in the wild.
What’s on the Bill
⚔️ Kingmakers
A 10-minute gameplay deep dive. The first real look since last October’s indefinite delay.
🛗 The Lift
A new look at the supernatural handyman simulator.
⚰️ Graveyard Keeper 2
Fresh footage from the sequel to tinyBuild’s cult management hit.
🌲 Road to Jukai
A hands-on preview — and a new name. This was Silent Road until now.
📋 Also Confirmed for the Show
• New game announcements — unspecified, but tinyBuild are promising more than one
• Fresh updates for Hozy, Of Ash & Steel and SAND: Raiders of Sophie
• Demos and trailers across the line-up
• “So much more,” which is showcase-speak but does at least imply the running order isn’t fully disclosed
Fifteen years in, tinyBuild’s catalogue is broad enough that a showcase can reasonably cover horror, management sims, action RPGs and whatever Kingmakers is without feeling scattered.
⏱️ About That Deep Dive Length
One detail worth flagging, because it’s easy to miss.
When Redemption Road announced the indefinite delay in October 2025, the statement promised “a half-hour-long deep dive on Kingmakers gameplay very soon, with a comprehensive overview of everything we’ve been working on.”
What’s arriving on September 14 is a 10-minute deep dive, eleven months later.
That’s a third of what was promised, and “very soon” has stretched considerably. Plans change and ten minutes of genuine gameplay is still a substantial showing — but for a game whose credibility now rests on demonstrating that the ambition is real, the gap between the promise and the delivery is worth noting before the stream rather than after it.
We’d rather be pleasantly surprised than quietly disappointed. Either way, it’ll be the most-watched ten minutes of the show.
Silent Road Is Now Road to Jukai
A smaller piece of news buried in the announcement: Silent Road has been renamed Road to Jukai, and it’s getting a hands-on preview at the show.
Title changes this close to a showcase usually signal one of two things — a trademark issue, or a deliberate repositioning to make the setting clearer. Jukai is the Japanese term for a sea of trees, most associated with the Aokigahara forest at the base of Mount Fuji, so the new name is considerably more specific about where and what this game is than “Silent Road” ever was. The Steam page is still listed under the old name at the time of writing.
Fifteen Years of tinyBuild
🎂 From Indie Developer to Publisher
tinyBuild started as a developer and became a developer-publisher, and the catalogue is a decent map of the last fifteen years of indie:
Hello Neighbor, Graveyard Keeper, Potion Craft, SpeedRunners, DUCKSIDE, ReStory and The King is Watching.
They’re headquartered in the Seattle area with studios across the US, the Netherlands and Eastern Europe — a genuinely distributed operation rather than a single office with a publishing label attached.
Worth noting for anyone who’s been following our recent coverage: SpeedRunners 2: King of Speed, which we reviewed a few days ago, is a tinyBuild release. Their fifteenth year has been a busy one.
How to Watch
📅 Monday, September 14
tinyBuild Connect streams simultaneously on YouTube, Twitch and Bilibili.
8:00 AM — Pacific (PT) 11:00 AM — Eastern (ET) 4:00 PM — UK (BST) 5:00 PM — Central Europe (CEST) 12:00 AM — Japan (JST), September 15
No runtime has been given. If you can only catch part of it, the Kingmakers segment is the one worth setting an alarm for.
📺 Publisher Showcase
⚔️ Kingmakers
⚰️ Graveyard Keeper 2
🛗 The Lift
🌲 Road to Jukai
🎉 15th Anniversary
Who’s Behind It
🏢 tinyBuild
Began as an indie developer and evolved into a developer-publisher built on long-term partnerships with studios worldwide. Dozens of releases including the Hello Neighbor series, Graveyard Keeper, SpeedRunners, DUCKSIDE and The King is Watching. Headquartered near Seattle, with studios in the US, the Netherlands and Eastern Europe.
⚔️ Redemption Road Games
The developer behind Kingmakers, directed by Paul and Ian Fisch, and by their own description an 80% engineering team. The game has attracted enough attention to secure a film adaptation deal with Story Kitchen before it’s even shipped — which is either a vote of confidence or additional pressure, depending on how September 14 goes.
tinyBuild Connect airs September 14. We’ll be watching.
Hi there! I’m Marie, also known as CtrlQueen. I’m passionate about keeping up with the latest in gaming news and sharing my insights. RPGs steal my heart with their rich narratives and immersive worlds, but I also love unwinding with fun, casual games. Whether you’re here for deep dives into game mechanics or just to chat about your favorite casual game, you’ve found the right place! Let’s game and explore together.
