Chronicles: Medieval is a stunning sandbox RPG coming in 2026, and despite a past commitment to generative AI, its studio says it’s ‘100% handcrafted’
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I noticed earlier this week that there was a studio I hadn’t heard of among the Summer Game Fest partners, Raw Power Games, which said it was building a “vast medieval sandbox.” Sure enough, we got a glimpse of the game, called Chronicles: Medieval, at Geoff Keighley’s show today.
With the caveat that trailers don’t always reflect the final product, it sure looks pretty. I especially like the colorful scene of what is apparently gameplay at the end, some contrast to the standard dark ages gloom and muck that comes before it.
When I looked into Raw Power earlier this week, I discovered a 2022 interview with two studio heads in which they showed off AI-generated concept art and discussed how excited they were about using the technology to make games. Apparently, their attitude has changed.
In a statement shared with PC Gamer this morning, Raw Power CTO Caspar Strandbygaard said that Chronicles: Medieval is “100% handcrafted with no use of generative AI.”
“To elaborate: We are curious about new technology and keeping up with the latest tools,” said the company. “That said, our upcoming medieval debut title is all about handcrafted experiences. Every asset in the game is built by our extremely talented team of passionate developers. It is not generated by AI.”
Raw Power’s AI tools division is working on AI tools (naturally), but not on AI tools for Chronicles: Medieval, according to Strandbygaard, though he did say that the development team employs AI in other ways.
“As a techsavvy workplace, we too embrace AI-tools where it helps make our work smoother,” said Strandbygaard. “Like testing or optimizing performance. But when it comes to creating the world you’ll dive into as a gamer, that’s 100% human creativity.”
That’s very different from what Strandbygaard said in 2022, when he stated that the studio’s 10-year-goal was to become so reliant on AI that its job would become “almost to make tools that will generate the game—rather than to make the game ourselves.”
Perhaps the plan changed; public perception of generative AI has certainly evolved since 2022, although it was already controversial at the time.
Chronicles: Medieval is due to release in early access in 2026.
