The Castle Doctrine
Released Jan 2014
The Castle Doctrine is a massively-multiplayer game of burglary and home defense. It's 1991, and things are bad. You're a guy with a house and family. Other players are coming to take what's yours. Build security to stop them. Study their houses, buy tools, and break in to take what's theirs.
48% positive · 379 reviews
Done
All announced content has been released
High confidence
Done
All announced content has been released
High confidence
Where to buy
Steam $1.99 $3.99 −50%
Can't confirm — worth a look
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Evaluation
The Castle Doctrine launched on January 29, 2014 as a complete, fully-featured massively multiplayer game. It has never had a traditional DLC or expansion model — the game shipped as a finished product with a one-time purchase that includes a lifetime account on the central server and full access to the source code.
Over the years, Jason Rohrer made several maintenance and quality-of-life patches to help the game function better at lower player populations (notably in late 2017 and early 2020), but none of these constituted major new content — they were adjustments to existing systems.
Most recently, on April 8, 2026, Rohrer posted a reflective anniversary post celebrating 13 years of the game and over 2 million robberies. In it, he describes The Castle Doctrine as one of his best works and reflects on his career "from the twilight" of it, with 19 games now behind him. He notes he is "not quite done yet" with his career overall, but makes no mention of any planned updates or new content for The Castle Doctrine specifically. This post reads as a fond retrospective, not a development announcement.
There are no unreleased DLC listings, no announced future content, and no roadmap. The game has been operating as a stable, complete product for over 12 years.
Evidence
Developer Jason Rohrer posts a 13th anniversary reflection on The Castle Doctrine, describing it as one of his best games and looking back on his career. No new content or updates for the game are mentioned or implied.
Store description frames the game as a complete, self-contained experience. Purchase includes a lifetime server account and full source code — no mention of DLC, expansions, or future updates.
Media
Details
Developer
Publisher
Jason Rohrer
Achievements
—
Platform
Windows, macOS, Linux
Controller
—
Steam Deck
Playable
Players
Multiplayer
About this game
The Castle Doctrine is a massively-multiplayer game of burglary and home defense. It's 1991, and things are bad. You're a guy with a house and family. Other players are coming to take what's yours. Build security to stop them. Study their houses, buy tools, and break in to take what's theirs. Everything you do is permanent.
I'm Jason Rohrer, and The Castle Doctrine is my 10th game. It's a bit hard to describe, because there's never been anything quite like it before. It's a brutal game in terms of its perma-death and perma-destruction consequences, and it is turn-based, so it's rather Rogue-like. But building such a brutal game in a multiplayer context, with absolutely no cushion between players to stop them from brutalizing each other, is quite strange and new.
Everything is real in this game. When you rob someone, you are actually hurting another player in a permanent way by destroying and stealing their hard work. When someone dies in this game, they lose everything and start over. If you devise perplexing security systems, you can perma-death other players when they come to rob you. Watching those security tapes, where someone gets what's coming to them, is an exhilarating experience. On the other hand, you just killed someone and perhaps caused them to lose days of their hard work. And you've been on the other side too, losing everything because of some thoughtless move you made in someone else's house.
But there is no randomness in this game, so everything is fair. When you die, it is always your fault. When things get dicey, you can always retreat back out the front door to save your own neck. Of course, human folly will get the better of you.
Here's what you get when you buy the game:
I'm Jason Rohrer, and The Castle Doctrine is my 10th game. It's a bit hard to describe, because there's never been anything quite like it before. It's a brutal game in terms of its perma-death and perma-destruction consequences, and it is turn-based, so it's rather Rogue-like. But building such a brutal game in a multiplayer context, with absolutely no cushion between players to stop them from brutalizing each other, is quite strange and new.
Everything is real in this game. When you rob someone, you are actually hurting another player in a permanent way by destroying and stealing their hard work. When someone dies in this game, they lose everything and start over. If you devise perplexing security systems, you can perma-death other players when they come to rob you. Watching those security tapes, where someone gets what's coming to them, is an exhilarating experience. On the other hand, you just killed someone and perhaps caused them to lose days of their hard work. And you've been on the other side too, losing everything because of some thoughtless move you made in someone else's house.
But there is no randomness in this game, so everything is fair. When you die, it is always your fault. When things get dicey, you can always retreat back out the front door to save your own neck. Of course, human folly will get the better of you.
Here's what you get when you buy the game:
- A lifetime account on the central world server that I'm running.
- Access to the full game source code (after launching the game on Steam, go here).
- Everything you need to run your own game server (requires a PHP/MySQL web server, download the source bundle to get started).
Are these done yet?
Last evaluated Jun 28, 2026
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