Sunderhold
By Rainpiper Games
Games Lift 2026
Sunderhold is a minimalist base-defense game that blends squad tactics, tower defense, and streamlined RTS elements. The goal is to defend a central crystal in handcrafted levels by strategically positioning squads and constructing carefully placed fortifications.
About the Game
Sunderhold is a minimalist base defense game that combines squad tactics, tower defense, and RTS elements. Across compact, handcrafted levels, players defend a central crystal against waves of enemies attacking from multiple directions. Small squads are positioned across the battlefield and attack automatically. This puts positioning, timing, and tactical decision-making at the center of the experience, while deliberately avoiding rapid inputs and excessive micromanagement.
Buildings can only be constructed at designated building sites. This keeps fortifying the base an important strategic part of the game without introducing unnecessary complexity. Enemy portals reveal upcoming units before they appear, allowing players to plan ahead. Careful resource management, synergies between different unit types, and well-chosen upgrades determine victory or defeat.
Each level is designed as a short, intense play session lasting five to ten minutes. At the same time, a persistent upgrade tree featuring new abilities, improvements, and additional unit types provides long-term progression and encourages players to experiment with different strategies and builds.
The world of Sunderhold has shattered into countless fragments drifting through the Aether. With every successful run, players restore parts of the world and push back the darkness piece by piece - until the cycle begins anew.
About Rainpiper Games
André and Maria met at the Indie Treff meetup, where both were looking for a partner whose skills complemented their own. It quickly became clear that they were a strong match: André brings the technical expertise, while Maria contributes the creative vision. Since then, they have been developing their first joint project, Sunderhold, under the team name Rainpiper Games.
André earned his B.Sc. in Applied Computer Science from DHBW Karlsruhe in 2014 and has worked professionally as a software developer ever since. In 2018, he also became a freelancer, gaining experience across a wide range of projects, including the development of a private MMO server. He has pursued game development with Unity for many years and has recently started working with Godot. For Sunderhold, he is responsible for systems design and technical development.
Maria holds a Master’s degree in Games from HAW Hamburg and has worked for several years as a freelance 2D and 3D artist. Her previous projects also include a successfully funded Kickstarter campaign and she is 3D Team Lead on a large Baldur’s Gate 3 mod. For Sunderhold, she handles art direction, assets, animation, UI, and branding. She draws inspiration from tabletop role-playing games and monsters of every kind.
Together, they combine expertise in software development, game design, and art to create focused, replayable games with a strong visual identity.
