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Press kit

Facts, ready-to-use descriptions, concept art and brand notes for writing about Shellfall. Use anything on this page to cover the game; please caption concept art as concept art, not as footage.

Fact sheet

Title: Shellfall
Genre: Cozy artillery game, single-unit strategy
Developer: Independent developer
Platforms: PC (Steam), aiming for Steam Deck Verified
Release: Not announced
Price: Not announced
Engine: Unity
Languages: English
Website: shellfall.com
Press contact: Contact details follow with the announcement

Shellfall is in development and has no release date yet. The features on this page may still change as the game is made.

Descriptions

One line

A cozy artillery game: command one railway gun far behind the lines, and see the war only through recon on a watercolour map table.

Short · 279 characters, fits a store page

Command Old Marta, a railway gun far behind the lines of a continuous watercolour war. See the front only through recon, work out every shot with a firing table, and keep moving before the enemy finds you. A cozy artillery game about careful shots and what it takes to end a war.

Long

Shellfall is a cozy artillery game played from far above a war painted in watercolour. You are Tilly Brandt, a retired gunnery instructor called back to command Old Marta, a huge railway gun that spent twenty years rusting in a museum depot.

The front is 4 to 15 km away and out of sight. You see it only through recon: spotters, an observation balloon and recon planes paint the fogged map table in, and the map remembers what they saw. Every shot is worked out from bearing, range, charge and wind, then followed through a long, quiet flight while the crew pours tea.

Three armies fight a living trench war whether you fire or not. Your shells cut supply, cover digs and stop charges, and every one leaves a crater that stays. Each shot also tells the enemy where you are, so Old Marta has to keep moving along the rails, and where she stands decides which stretch of the one continuous war you can reach.

The story is told through letters, the radio and a small crew: Fenn the nervous loader, Sergeant Abelard on the radio, Grete on the little tank engine Pudding, and Pip the cat. Some letters ask for restraint as much as accuracy.

Key features

One gun, total ownership. No units to command and no base to build. The cannon is your hands, and moving it is its only defence.
Realistic, readable ballistics. Firing tables, wind, dispersion and bracketing, with assists for players who want the war without the arithmetic.
Fog of war as paper. Recon paints the map in, and the map remembers what it saw.
Shells shape the land. Craters that stay, trenches that collapse, flood and grow over.
Shoot and scoot. Exposure, counter-battery fire and relocation along a rail network that grows and decays with the front.
One continuous war across a 64 × 48 km valley, with no breaks between places.
A story in four seasons, told through letters, the radio and the crew. Lost places branch the story instead of ending it.
Watercolour war, clay gun. Two hand-made looks joined by a dive through the clouds.
Gentle by design. Toy-soldier violence, no blood, and non-lethal shells that matter.
Later, a shared war: every player's front adds up to one war map.

Concept art and early screens

Early concept art, made with AI image tools to set the look of the watercolour war and the clay gun. The finished game is modelled in 3D and painted by the game itself, and screenshots will replace these images as it comes together. The interface concepts are shown at the Steam Deck's 1280 × 800.