Experience the legendary adventures of a brave courier rider! Bond with your horse and tame the open wilds of 13th century Mongolia.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Alpha Playtest 1.8
12 months ago
– Fri, Oct 31, 2025 at 06:17:17 AM
Dear Couriers,
Three updates in three days? Isn’t that a little scary? Well… Happy Halloween!🎃
But seriously, with the announcement of the new Early Access date on March 3rd, 2026, we’re excited to show you how hard we are working on The Legend of Khiimori, and how we want to make the most of the additional development time!
Happy Halloween
Alpha Playtest 1.8
So, we have a treat for you today... The Alpha Playtest 1.8 is live!
It is an extensive update with new features, content and improvement (see patch notes below).
Contrary to the demo it will have no timer and the game will autosave (e.g. when entering the village of TÖV, nomad camping, or at certain POIs), however, manual saving will not be available in this version.
Important Reminder: NDA
Unlike the public demo, this build is covered by your NDA:
Do not publicly show or post any footage of the game.
Please don’t discuss it in the general areas of our Discord.
Share your feedback in the #playtest-a-feedback Discord channel only.
Please Feedback
As you know, your feedback is not only important to us, it’s at the heart of our journey together. We set out to develop The Legend of Khiimori in close collaboration with our backers, and your insights help shape the game every step of the way.
Please leave a comment below, or even better, head over to our Discord and share your thoughts in the #playtest-a-feedback channel (not in the general areas):
Added difficulty settings and rebalanced “Relaxed” mode.
Horseback Item Pickup - We have updated the interaction for item gathering - Now, referencing the ancient horse-riding skill of "Tenge Ilu", you must lean from your horse and snatch items from the ground as you pass them. Resources as highlighted with a light column when in range. Hold the ITEM COLLECT button to begin the action then RELEASE the button to snatch the item from the ground.
Improved horse behavior, including vertical movement, slope handling, stuck detection, and smoother transitions between walk, trot, and gallop.
Updated horse care system with new animations, tethering fixes, and more responsive interaction prompts.
Introduced new breeding and foal reveal sequences, along with UI and animation improvements. PLEASE NOTE: The foal reveal sequence is bugged and the foal will not show up in the reveal.
Added autosave checkpoints during key missions and events.
Updated mission generation and NPC behavior for courier and cartography quests.
Adjusted stamina, training triggers, and horse stat progression.
Refined terrain impact on movement and sprint restrictions on dangerous surfaces.
World and Environment
Major polish passes across multiple biomes and landmarks, including improved navigation meshes, terrain smoothing, and fixed floating assets (although some minor ones are still being found, please let us know if you find any).
Added new lootable chests, hidden collectibles, and discoverable locations.
Enhanced lighting and foliage to improve readability and reduce dark or blue-tinted vegetation.
Updated sound design for environmental ambience, animals, and biome transitions.
Improved navmesh and collision around villages, rivers, and mountain paths.
Loot me!
Why did the ghost become a pirate on Halloween? Because he heard there was spooky loot to plunder!
User Interface
Overhauled inventory and crafting menus: cleaner tooltips, new icons, improved navigation, and better controller support.
Added Horse Overview UI and updated balance, weight, and condition displays.
Refined Yam Courier and Mission menus with new visuals and input prompts.
Added WIP Breeding UI, foal reveal presentation, and better feedback when using or dragging items.
Fixed multiple issues with tutorials, tooltips, subtitles, and controller input.
Updated text across the entire game for clarity and consistency.
Balance your Inventory
Craft to Survive
Audio and Visuals
Balanced overall sound mix and ambient volume.
Improved voice lines and sound concurrency for horses and NPCs.
Updated visual effects for lighting, particle systems, and post-processing.
Added dithering to hair rendering for smoother appearance.
Improved dialogue cameras and general cinematic presentation.
Performance and Stability
Optimized skeletal mesh and animation systems to reduce hitches.
Disabled costly features (like tessellation) on specific AMD GPUs for stability.
Improved physics, occlusion, and texture streaming performance.
Fixed several crashes related to mission loading, UI transitions, and item interactions.
Miscellaneous and Quality of Life
Updated all engine versions to Unreal 5.6 for better performance and stability.
Added AZERTY keyboard support and new accessibility options.
Reworked camera framing, zoom levels, and field-of-view options both on foot and horseback.
Added new icons for cargo, buffs, debuffs, and various UI elements.
Fixed numerous spelling, naming, and localization errors throughout the game.
Known Issues
There are some issues with the rendering of shadows as you walk toward them.
Some tutorial icons may appear misaligned on ultra-wide resolutions.
Rare animation blending issues may still occur in steep terrain transitions.
Certain NPCs may briefly pause during conversation camera changes.
You can check your horses' hooves while riding, which leads to a broken animation (Halloween special… just kidding)
(no comment)
So, excited to try out the updated Alpha Playtest? Ready to share your valuable feedback with us? We’re all in this together!
Breeding Insights and Demo Highlights
12 months ago
– Thu, Oct 30, 2025 at 06:08:40 AM
Dear Couriers,
Today’s update is about breeding insights and demo highlights - or breeding highlights and demo insights - we've got you covered either way!
Say “Hello!”
Demo Success
We are thrilled to share over 54,000 players tried the Steam Next Fest Demo! The Legend of Khiimori even made it onto Steam’s “Most Played Demo” list for the event.
Even more exciting: we’ve now crossed 200,000 Wishlists on Steam!
This is a huge milestone for us! Your enthusiasm, curiosity, and love for this game have shown that the audience is not only real: it is growing, vibrant, and passionate.
We hope you have tried our The Legend of Khiimori Demo on Steam during Next Fest earlier this month. If you haven’t had a chance to dive in yet, don’t worry: we’ve decided to keep the Demo live a little longer!
Thank You!
Demo Insight: Performance
One interesting insight from our analytics: 70% of all players are running the Demo on hardware below the minimum requirements, but many of you are playing on High or Ultra settings. Please be aware that this might be causing stuttering or lag for some of you.
If that’s the case, we recommend heading into Graphics Settings and switching to Low or Medium presets. Under “Show Advanced,” you can tweak individual settings to find what works best for your setup.
We’re working on better presets and performance in general, but in the meantime, this can really help improve your experience. While results may vary depending on your hardware, these adjustments can often help provide a smoother experience.
Performance Tip: Adjust Graphics Settings
Breeding Horses is Relevant
The Demo’s time limit makes it a bit tricky to explore long-term features like Breeding, but it’s absolutely worth checking out! You can replay the Demo as often as you like, and thanks to Steam Community User Gooseberry, there’s a handy guide to help you reach the breeding mechanics quickly:
Breeding horses is not a “cosmetic”, it’s a “play to win” ;) You could think of it a little like an RPG skill tree, exploring better stats and unique traits. And it is not just about stronger horses: it is about building a diverse stable suited to different challenges, from sturdy, cold-resistant mounts to speedy ones for rather urgent missions, and much more.
Breed. Feed. Succeed.
Have you tried breeding yet? Found a favorite horse? Discovered a cool moment in the Demo? Please drop us a message below!
Full Release 2027
about 1 year ago
– Wed, Oct 29, 2025 at 06:00:56 AM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Early Access Delay Announcement
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Oct 20, 2025 at 03:33:01 AM
Dear Couriers,
Today we’re announcing a delay to the Early Access release of The Legend of Khiimori until March 3rd, 2026.
The wonderful reception during Next Fest has led to us sitting down with our publisher and together we have decided to take more time to create a more feature and content-rich experience! While this does mean that you all have to wait a little longer to get your hands on Khiimori, it also means we’ll be able to make sure you get a better game when we do release into Early Access.
We would like to thank everyone for participating in Steam Next Fest, trying out the demo and leaving us with valuable feedback. While it’s clear a huge number of people are enjoying the demo, we believe that it is the right decision to delay to March. This will give us an even stronger foundation to build from when we enter Early Access and then begin the collaborative development of Khiimori with all of you!
With that being said, we’re pleased to announce that as a result of the delay, the demo will not go offline as originally planned on October 20th, but will stay online until November 30th, 2025.
We will spend the time to work on the following areas as our primary focus and then also try to get in as much as we can until the start of Early Access, everything that does not get addressed until then we will deal with during Early Access. Please have in mind that this is not a complete list and we will adapt to use the time as wisely as possible to create the best possible game experience for you.
Player Guidance and World Experience
Camera, Controls, and UI
Lowering Minimum System Requirements
Performance and Optimization
A more feature and content-rich experience
We understand that many of you may have hoped for different news today, but rest assured we will continue to pour our hearts and souls into Khiimori and harness this opportunity to deliver a satisfying Early Access for everyone!
Let the Legend Be Told!
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Oct 13, 2025 at 08:30:20 AM
Dear Backers,
We have thrilling news to share!
Steam Next Fest Demo
Free Steam Next Fest Demo
We have just released a free demo for Steam Next Fest (October 13th – October 20th). It’s the latest version and the culmination of your feedback and passion, featuring an updated user interface!
Updated user interface
Unlike the Alpha Playtest, which is still under NDA and therefore includes a watermark and must not be shared, the Steam Next Fest Demo is your chance to turn your passion into content! Stream it, clip it, write about it, meme it, let your voice echo across the gaming lands (more below).
Akhal-Teke breed now live (for real)
Help us make this demo a success and build hype for The Legend of Khiimori ahead of its Early Access launch on November 4th!
Whether you are a seasoned content creator or just starting out, we’d love to see your take on the game. Share your favorite moments, epic deliveries, serene vistas, or even your wildest bugs, we are here for it all.
Tag us on social media with #playkhiimori and we’ll be spotlighting community creations in future updates!
Important: Still unclear what you can show and what not? It's easy! If the game/footage has a watermark on it, do not show it (NDA is in place), if it does not have a watermark, feel free to share!
Thank you for being part of this journey from the very beginning. Your feedback, support, and now your creativity are helping bring The Legend of Khiimori to life.
Deliver the message, spread the news
Steam Dev Diary with Alpha Playtest Insights
We are grateful for everyone who participated in the Alpha Playtest Survey (not to be confused with the BackerKit survey, which will be sent out soon and will focus on campaign fulfillment and your rewards, including game keys).
Some interesting results from the survey and further info about the Early Access launch on November 4th can be found in our Steam Dev Diary #14:
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