Kristala hit 1.0 on Xbox Series X|S and PC this April. Its women-led team told us how a school group project became a studio, how they built a language for cats without lips, and why they kept going when publishers passed.
Kristala made it. Astral Clocktower Studios launched the 1.0 version of its feline dark fantasy action RPG on April 23, 2026, on Xbox Series X|S and PC, after nearly two years in Early Access, and it’s on the Xbox Store with Xbox Play Anywhere support. The studio says the game was eight years in the making, started on Kickstarter, and launched with over 100,000 Steam wishlists.
We fell for Kristala on the PAX East show floor, when we stopped to get our bearings and couldn’t stop staring at the screen. That’s why our conversation with game director Alexis Brutman and co-owner and marketing lead Sarah Schaffstall feels even better now. They talked about the Kickstarter that fueled it, the language they built, the publisher doors that kept closing, and their plan for Early Access.
Why we’re excited
I’ll be straight with you: I’ve been on the Kristala train since PAX East 2024. We got hands-on with it on the show floor (that’s in our EXCLUSIVE Kristala Gameplay and Interview at PAX East 2024), then got more hands-on time at home, and I told Alexis and Sarah exactly how I felt. The stealth hooked me most: “the sneaking really felt like I was in [Sekiro] again, you know, sneaking up on somebody and jacking them up. It was beautiful.” I called it “a quicker paced action spin” on the soulslike formula and said I was “genuinely really excited to play more.” When they told me they still didn’t have a publisher, I couldn’t believe it: “this game is so good, bro.” My RAW IMPRESSIONS back then were simple. “The game’s there, you could play it, it’s phenomenal.” We’ve kept playing it on the channel since, including our Kristala Early Access IN-REVIEW.
Answers below are lightly edited for length and readability.
What you need to know
- Who: Alexis Brutman (game director) and Sarah Schaffstall (co-owner, marketing), Astral Clocktower Studios.
- Game: Kristala, a dark fantasy action RPG. 1.0 launched April 23, 2026 on Xbox Series X|S and PC, $39.99 on the Xbox Store, with Xbox Play Anywhere.
- Length: 2:20:08.
- Highlights: the Kickstarter playbook, the studio origin, the lore and the language, publishers, cats as ninjas, and the episodic Early Access plan.
How the Kickstarter took off
Sarah Schaffstall: “We launched it definitely to get more eyes on the game… We were really blown away by the traction it got… We had just two incredible backers donate at one of our higher tiers… and it just really started this hype train.”
Her advice: “The pre-launch part of the campaign is so important… We had like a 20 to 25% conversion rate… Really focus on pre-launch, and then stay connected with those people who are already following you.”
A group project that became a studio
Context: Bloodborne is FromSoftware’s gothic action RPG, one of the games that defined the soulslike genre Kristala plays in.
Alexis Brutman: “I was in school working on a bachelor’s degree in game programming, and while I was in school I was put into a group project, and I encountered my first other woman in the entire program so far.”
“Part of the reason why I went into game development in the first place was because I played Bloodborne and I was like, man, I really want to make a game I like this much myself… [Tiffany] had an idea for an adventure side-scroller kind of game featuring a cat… It ended up being like this dream game. I didn’t know I was making my dream game, but I totally made my dream game.”
Sarah Schaffstall: “I literally met Alexis at this job she’s talking about, and within a week she was asking me, ‘Do you want to go into business with me?’ We just clicked immediately.”
Marketing a game that doesn’t exist yet
Sarah Schaffstall: “The biggest issue starting out is having to market something that doesn’t really exist yet… As they say in marketing, content is king. So as soon as we started cranking out those first concepts, as soon as the first animations were happening, we were sharing them pretty much everywhere.”
Consoles were always the plan
Sarah Schaffstall: “We were always planning for console releases… Games like Kristala tend to be played best with a controller anyway, so it would be kind of crazy not to release it on consoles.”
The lore of Ailur
Alexis Brutman: “There was a meteor that hit the planet, and when it hit, it split into six different pieces, and it basically called to itself… all of the rodent and feline creatures on the planet… The feline creatures could interact with the crystals. They do so telepathically.”
“When you start the game, you’re… the chosen warrior from your clan. There are six clans… and you’re chosen to go on what’s called the Raksaka Proving.”
A story you can actually follow
Alexis Brutman: “I really like the games that FromSoftware makes, but I feel like the stories are really cryptic and kind of hard to follow… So I wanted a really detailed, interesting story that was also easy to follow for anybody… like you could write a book about it and it would be fun to read.”
A language for cats without lips
Alexis Brutman: “Her original idea was… the text should look like a cat who had just been evolved… could scratch these letters into the sand… She came up with the letters and then she created the corresponding sounds, and then we made a font out of it.”
Sarah Schaffstall: “The phonetic sounds of the different words are intended to be made by a creature that doesn’t have lips, because cats don’t have lips. So you won’t see a lot of M sounds.”
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The publisher problem
Alexis Brutman: “We spent years tailoring Kristala. Each time we’d meet with different publishers, they’d tell us what they thought was wrong with it, so we would go and make it even better and show back up, and then they would just find some other thing.”
“It just seems like a lot of what you see are very safe bets right now.”
Sarah Schaffstall: “We’re not delusional about it, but I mean, we think the content we’re presenting, the gameplay we’re presenting, speaks for itself.”
Playing as a ninja cat
Alexis Brutman: “If we were to play as a cat being, how do we think it should feel? It should feel like you’re a ninja… You can jump, you can climb, you can crawl.”
“Every build is a magic build, because your clan choice determines what magic tree you can level through.”
“Every time we ever see cat games, they’re always cutesy and funny… We wanted a game where it was their game, and they weren’t just cutesy… I’ve been rescuing cats for a long time, and they are very resilient animals.”
The Early Access plan
Context: this plan played out. Kristala spent nearly two years in Early Access before its 1.0 launch on April 23, 2026.
Alexis Brutman: “There’s the six clans and the six biomes, and so we made it like it’s six episodes… Each time we do a big major update, you get a whole new area and a bunch of new content.”
“It allows it to be a more collaborative experience with the people who are playing the game, so this can be their dream game too.”
OnPoint’s take
Some games make you stop in the middle of a crowded convention hall, and Kristala did that to us. Hearing Alexis and Sarah explain the years of work behind it, from a school group project to a Kickstarter to a whole language built for cats, makes the 1.0 launch on Xbox Series X|S even sweeter. Publishers kept passing, the team kept building, and now it’s on the Xbox Store with Play Anywhere. That’s an indie story worth celebrating, and a soulslike worth your time.
Watch the full interview
This interview streamed on our show Her, Him, and a Dev in May 2024, before Kristala’s Early Access and 1.0 launches, so their timeline talk reflects that moment.
Eight Years, a Kickstarter and a Language for Cats: Kristala’s Alexis Brutman and Sarah Schaffstall on Building Their Dream SoulslikePhoto: Astral Clocktower Studios. Graphic: OnPoint 4 Gamers
Sources
- OnPoint 4 Gamers interview with Alexis Brutman and Sarah Schaffstall (YouTube): www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN3STpxW174
- Xbox Store, Kristala (release date, price, Play Anywhere): www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/kristala/9p3k93p2mj1q
- Astral Clocktower Studios, “KRISTALA 1.0 IS LIVE NOW!” (April 23, 2026): www.astralclocktowerstudios.com/post/kristala-1-0-is-live-now
- OnPoint 4 Gamers, “EXCLUSIVE Kristala Gameplay and Interview” at PAX East 2024 (YouTube): www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo5X75I-clY
- OnPoint 4 Gamers, “Kristala Early Access IN-REVIEW” (YouTube): www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNNYt_npi1Y
- RPG Site, Kristala launch report (Kickstarter, Early Access history, wishlists): www.rpgsite.net/news/20189-feline-dark-fantasy-rpg-kristala-now-available
