COINBOUND

 

As part of our commitment to storytelling and world-building, we wanted to give you a new, unique way to experience and explore the rich universe we’ve crafted. And to that end we’re incredibly excited to announce that we’re working on a new browser game set in the ancient city of Artem! For more veteran gamers among you this might be a pleasant surprise, considering that most of us grew up playing games like Fallen London, OGame and other similar browser titles.

Naturally a lot of these games haven’t aged well, so we’ve made it out goal to deliver that nostalgic experience but with a more modern and up-to-date twist to it.

 

The Story Begins Behind Bars

You awaken in the damp, torch-lit corridors of the Gates of Rhyne, a notorious prison in the Rhyne Empire where criminals, dissidents, and the unlucky vanish without record.

Fate, however unlikely, intervenes. One night, an opportunity arises, and with the help of your cellmate you make a desperate escape.

In gratitude, your companion grants you a deed for a small, crumbling shack in the city-state of Artem, to the south of that god forsaken prison. The city lies just outside imperial reach and is the only place a fugitive like you can hide for now.

With no coin to your name, your only hope is to lay low in your new home and find work in the turbulent city.

 

Nostalgia Reimagined

Coinbound blends the text-driven immersion of classic browser games with the depth of modern narrative design. Choices matter, progress feels tangible, and the world around you evolves with every decision.

Whether you’re running errands in the Golden Crescent, investigating the strange happenings in The Slums of Artos, or gambling your last coin in The Veil, every path is written to feel alive, reactive, and steeped in the same lore that now defines our universe.

 

(This is an early draft we’re playing with to better visualize our systems. It will probably look quite differently when we focus on the actual UI elements)

 

Features

Every choice in Coinbound shapes who you become. Built as a modern evolution of the classic browser RPG, Coinbound blends story, strategy, and world-building into one immersive experience within the living city of Artem.

 

Progression & Character Growth

Your path is defined by six core attributes:
Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Agility, Intelligence, and Charisma.

• Leveling System
  Complete contracts and expeditions to gain experience, unlocking new and more dangerous contracts and higher-tier opportunities.

• Training
  Spend coin or time at district trainers to increase your stats and tackle harder content.

• House Upgrades
  Spend your hard earned coin to turn your new little cottage into a proper home, each upgrade bringing its own perks.

• Choice-Based Growth
  It’s an RPG after all. Build your character to fit your playstyle, a persuasive charmer, a scholarly tactician, a brutal enforcer or maybe a jack of all trades, the choice is yours.

Progress in Coinbound is not just about levels, it’s about how you choose to survive in this world.

 

Contracts – The Heart of the Game

Contracts are narrative missions that define your rise (or fall) in the city of Artem. Each contract presents challenges that test your stats, equipment, and levels,  and how you grow your character determines if you’ll succeed or not.

• Stat-based Calculations
  A lot of RPG Browser games used stats like Strength, Agility and Charisma in their games. In reality though, the only stats that really mattered most of the time were combat based ones. In our minds this was just bad design and it doesn’t mirror how real life jobs and skills work, so we made a wide variety of contracts that aren’t just about bonking something on the head really hard.

  Some contracts will require finesse or wit rather than brute force. You shouldn’t expect to simply raise Strength and do well at everything. Can you play like that? Absolutely. Should you? Well, that’s up to you!
  
  Train what you value the most: seduce, outsmart, threaten, deceive, or fight your way through the city.
  
  Example: For a contract to recover blackmail letters from a noble’s daughter, you might have to seduce her at which point high Charisma comes in handy.

• Difficulty Tiers
  Contracts come in Easy, Medium, and Hard varieties, each with greater rewards and higher difficulty. 
  Harder missions demand stronger stats and better equipment, providing a real sense of progression as you grow more capable of tackling Artem’s deadliest work.

• Contract Timer
  Accepting a contract sends your character out to work. The duration of a contract is currently set at 5 minutes (subject to change). Once the duration is over you will be able to see the breakdown and results of your mission and claim your reward (or go home empty handed).

• Level Scaling
  Contracts will ALWAYS scale with your level, ensuring relevance and challenge at every stage.

• Contracts Rotate
  The available pool refreshes every few hours, offering new storylines and opportunities each day.

 

 

Expeditions — Beyond the City Walls

Step beyond Artem’s gates and pioneer a dangerous new world: from ancient ruins, forests, or even the open seas.
Expeditions are longer, riskier undertakings with rewards to match their danger.

• Three Difficulty Levels
  Easy, Medium, and Hard, each unlocking new types of loot, lore, and experience.

• Gear Dependency
  Before venturing out, you’ll need the right armor, weapons, and attributes trained to survive what waits beyond the city’s safety.

• Rotating Locations
  Expeditions change throughout the day, keeping exploration fresh and rewarding.

• Expedition Timer
  Like contracts, accepting these sends your character out on the expedition. The duration is currently set at 8 hours (subject to change). Once the duration is over you will be able to see the breakdown and results of your expedition and claim your reward.
• Expedition Rewards
  Unlike contracts, expeditions ALWAYS reward something. Your contribution to each expedition greatly influences the reward you’ll get when everything is over.

 

 

City of Artem

Our goal is to make Artem feel truly alive and immersive. For starters, Coinbound will replace static menus with an interactive city map. The city itself will be split into multiple districts, each with their own interactive map with different points of interest. Hovering over buildings and POIs in each district will highlight important locations, each housing unique NPCs, shops, trainers, and more.

Clicking a district (currently listed in the menu, but we’re open to experiment with this further) opens a street-level view filled with interactive points of interest:

• Contract Boards and NPCs
  Take daily jobs, earn coin and learn more about the city you now inhabit.

• Shops
  Artem is a large city with all sorts of goods in circulation. Every part of town has vendors and merchandise unique to its location so make sure to explore them all!

• Trainers
  Arguably the most important part of your progression in Artem. Trainers scattered around the city are willing to increase your base stats for a certain amount of coin. This cost goes up the higher your stats are ensuring a gradual difficulty increase in the game.

• The Undermarket
  Gamble your hard earned coins away or buy unique wares only found away from prying eyes.

• Boons & Bad Omens:
  The city lives and changes with you day by day. From festivals, strikes, curfews, or tax collectors, every day brings temporary buffs or penalties, perhaps changing the way you play that day. (We will expand on this feature in one of our future changelogs)

 

 

 

Gear, Inventory & Equipment

Loot and gear define survival in Artem.

• Vendors & Traders
  Purchase basic supplies or rare imports across different districts. Each merchant has their specialties and shifting stock.

• Auction System
  Rare items discovered in expeditions or hard contracts can be sold to other players through the Auction Hall, allowing a living in-game economy.

• Inventory System
  A clean, grid-based layout for organizing gear and other items.

• Drag-and-Drop Equipment
  Equip weapons and armor directly from your inventory with intuitive, seamless interaction.

• Item Rarity
  Common to Legendary, higher rarities provide greater bonuses, distinct visuals, and sometimes hidden lore.

 

 

Home & Upgrades

You start with a shack, the humble gift from your former cellmate. However, the city rewards ambition.
Upgrade your home and turn it into a reflection of your progress. These upgrades will offer certain bonuses that will help you navigate your new life in the city.

• Passive bonuses
  Gain passive bonuses by completing house upgrades. From buffs to failsafes in case disaster hits, house upgrades are there to make your life easier.

  Example: Building a secret stash compartment might just save the coins you collected when the taxman comes knocking…

 

 

Lore & Narrative Integration

Every contract, item, and location ties into the greater world we created. From the politics of the city to the troubles of the downtrodden, nothing exists in isolation. Everything we’ve built connects through carefully woven history, giving depth and continuity to your every decision.

• Maximum Immersion
  The contracts are given out by specific NPCs around the city. Each of these NPCs has a story to tell that you might just piece together if you do all the contracts they offer. However beware, with the contracts rotating randomly, you have to be vigilant so you don’t miss a crucial part of information!

• Voiced NPCs
  All dialogue whether it’s contracts, expeditions or anything else, will have unique voice acting that you can listen to instead of just reading a block of text!

 

 

A Living, Breathing World

Coinbound is built to feel alive.

Contracts rotate, expeditions shift, daily events reshape the city, and your character grows in response.
Each return to Artem brings new faces, dangers, and stories, ensuring that no two days ever play the same.

 

Closed Beta Coming Soon

Development is well underway, with an early build already playable internally. Expect updates, sneak peeks, and devlogs as we continue shaping Artem’s streets, characters, and factions.

We can’t wait to share more with you in the coming months. This game is only the beginning of what we hope will be a long journey into the heart of this world we’ve carefully built. Stay tuned for more updates, and get ready to dive into a game where your choices matter, the world is alive, and adventure awaits every single day.