Indie developer Oriol Cosp just launched his latest project on November 16, 2025, and it’s taking a different approach to the guild management genre. Horde Guildmaster is a dark fantasy guild manager that puts looting and inventory management front and center, turning equipment loadouts into strategic puzzles as important as the missions themselves.
If you’ve played inventory management games like Resident Evil 4 or Diablo, you know the satisfaction of perfectly arranging items in limited grid space. Horde Guildmaster applies that same puzzle-solving mechanic to managing an entire guild of champions, where equipping your team properly becomes a core strategic layer.
What Makes It Different
Guild management games aren’t new territory. Darkest Dungeon stressed players out with sanity mechanics. Guild Master put you in charge of recruiting adventurers for quests. Battle Brothers combined tactical combat with mercenary management. The genre has explored plenty of angles over the years.
Horde Guildmaster distinguishes itself by making the looting and equipment systems central to the experience rather than supplementary features. You recruit champions with different abilities and body types, then equip them with gear that needs to physically fit in their inventory grid. A heavily armored tank requires different equipment arrangements than a nimble rogue or a spell-slinging wizard.
The game leans into its dark fantasy aesthetic, which likely means morally gray decisions and consequences for your management choices. You’re not running a heroic adventurer’s guild – you’re managing a horde, suggesting a more mercenary or morally flexible approach to the business of dungeon crawling and treasure hunting.
The Developer Behind It
Oriol Cosp isn’t a newcomer to indie game development. The Barcelona-based developer previously created The Ouroboros King, a chess roguelike that launched in February 2023 and found significant success. That game sold over 5,000 copies in its first month and generated enough revenue for Cosp to quit his data scientist job and pursue game development full-time.
The Ouroboros King’s success came partly from smart marketing, particularly outreach to content creators. The game accumulated over 4.5 million YouTube views through streamer coverage, demonstrating Cosp’s understanding that visibility matters as much as quality for indie developers. He even wrote detailed blog posts sharing his strategies for emailing streamers and getting coverage.
Following The Ouroboros King, Cosp developed Gods vs Horrors, a roguelike autobattler that released in May 2025. That game sold over 7,000 copies in its first six weeks and generated approximately $25,000 in revenue. Cosp has been transparent about his development process and financial results, providing valuable insights for other aspiring indie developers through his blog.
Strategy and Roguelike Focus
Cosp’s body of work shows a clear focus on strategy games with roguelike elements. The Ouroboros King combined chess mechanics with roguelike progression. Gods vs Horrors brought autobattler mechanics into the roguelike framework. Now Horde Guildmaster applies strategic thinking to guild management with what appears to be roguelike elements in its mission structure.
This consistency suggests Cosp has found his niche and is refining his craft within genres he understands deeply. Rather than jumping between wildly different game types, he’s exploring variations on strategic decision-making and replayability, which are hallmarks of both strategy and roguelike design.
Guild Management Gaming Evolution
The guild management subgenre has evolved considerably over the years. Early entries focused primarily on sending adventurers on missions and managing resources. Darkest Dungeon revolutionized the space by adding psychological horror and permanent consequences that made every decision agonizing.
More recent titles have experimented with different angles. Some emphasize the business side of running a guild, treating it like a shop management sim. Others focus on the tactical combat aspects with guild management as a meta layer between battles. A few have gone the opposite direction, making you the villain who manages an evil dungeon rather than a heroic guild.
Horde Guildmaster’s emphasis on looting and inventory management represents another evolutionary branch. By making equipment loadouts a core puzzle element rather than a simple menu system, it appeals to players who enjoy optimization challenges. There’s genuine satisfaction in finding the perfect gear combination that maximizes a champion’s effectiveness while fitting within inventory constraints.
The Itch.io Advantage
Launching on itch.io rather than Steam makes sense for a developer of Cosp’s profile. Itch.io offers indie developers more flexibility with pricing, allows for quick updates without approval processes, and takes a smaller revenue cut. The platform has become a haven for experimental indie games that might struggle to gain traction in Steam’s crowded marketplace.
For players, itch.io often means discovering interesting experimental games before they hit mainstream platforms. Many successful indie games start on itch.io to build community and gather feedback before eventually launching on Steam with enhanced features and polish. Whether Horde Guildmaster follows that path depends on its reception and Cosp’s plans for the project.
The platform also allows developers to offer games at flexible pricing, including pay-what-you-want models. This lowers the barrier to entry for curious players while still allowing supporters to pay more if they enjoy the experience. It’s a model that works particularly well for niche games with passionate fanbases.
What to Expect
Based on Cosp’s previous work and the game’s description, players can expect a focused experience that prioritizes its core mechanics over scope. The Ouroboros King wasn’t trying to be a massive chess simulator – it took one interesting idea and executed it well. Gods vs Horrors similarly focused on perfecting its autobattler roguelike loop rather than adding unnecessary features.
Horde Guildmaster will likely follow that same philosophy. Expect tight inventory puzzle mechanics, meaningful equipment choices, and strategic champion management. Don’t expect sprawling open worlds or complex story campaigns. Cosp’s strength lies in creating addictive gameplay loops that encourage repeated playthroughs, and that’s probably where Horde Guildmaster will shine.
The dark fantasy setting suggests atmosphere and tone will play important roles. Guild management becomes more interesting when you’re making morally ambiguous choices about which missions to accept, which champions to sacrifice, and how ruthlessly to pursue profit over people. If Cosp leans into those themes, the game could offer meaningful narrative weight alongside its mechanical depth.
FAQs
What is Horde Guildmaster?
Horde Guildmaster is a dark fantasy guild management game developed by indie developer Oriol Cosp. It focuses on recruiting champions, managing inventory and equipment loadouts, and sending your guild on missions. The game emphasizes looting and inventory management as core strategic elements.
Who developed Horde Guildmaster?
Oriol Cosp Games developed Horde Guildmaster. Oriol Cosp is a Barcelona-based indie developer who previously created The Ouroboros King, a chess roguelike, and Gods vs Horrors, a roguelike autobattler. He focuses on strategy and roguelike games.
When did Horde Guildmaster release?
Horde Guildmaster launched on November 16, 2025, on itch.io. It’s currently available as a digital download through the indie game platform.
Where can I play Horde Guildmaster?
The game is available on itch.io at oriolcosp.itch.io. It’s a PC game that can be downloaded and played through the itch.io platform or app.
What makes Horde Guildmaster different from other guild management games?
Horde Guildmaster emphasizes looting and inventory management as central mechanics rather than supplementary features. Equipment loadouts become strategic puzzles where you need to fit gear into limited inventory grids, similar to Resident Evil 4’s inventory system but applied to managing an entire guild.
Will Horde Guildmaster come to Steam?
There’s no official announcement about a Steam release. Many indie games start on itch.io to build community and gather feedback before potentially launching on Steam later with additional polish and features. Whether Horde Guildmaster follows that path depends on the developer’s plans.
What other games has Oriol Cosp made?
Oriol Cosp previously developed The Ouroboros King, a chess roguelike that launched in February 2023 and sold over 5,000 copies in its first month. He also created Gods vs Horrors, a roguelike autobattler released in May 2025 that sold over 7,000 copies in six weeks.
Is Horde Guildmaster a roguelike?
While not explicitly confirmed, Oriol Cosp specializes in strategy games with roguelike elements. Based on his previous work and the game’s focus on replayable management mechanics, Horde Guildmaster likely incorporates roguelike elements like procedural generation and permadeath.
Worth Checking Out
If you’re into guild management games or inventory puzzle mechanics, Horde Guildmaster deserves a look. Oriol Cosp has proven he can create addictive strategy games with focused mechanics, and this latest project applies his design philosophy to an underexplored aspect of the guild management genre.
The inventory management angle is particularly clever. Too many management games treat equipment as boring stat boosts accessed through menus. By making equipment loadouts a spatial puzzle where champions have limited carrying capacity and items take up different grid spaces, Cosp adds a layer of strategic depth that could hook players who love optimization challenges.
Being available on itch.io means the barrier to entry is low. You can check it out, see if the mechanics click for you, and support an indie developer who’s been transparent about sharing his development journey with the community. Even if guild management isn’t typically your thing, the inventory puzzle mechanics might be compelling enough to pull you in.
Cosp’s track record suggests this won’t be a half-baked experiment. His previous games found audiences and generated enough success to sustain his full-time indie development career. That’s increasingly rare in the oversaturated indie game market, and it speaks to his ability to identify interesting mechanical hooks and execute them well. Horde Guildmaster looks like the next evolution of that approach, and it’s available right now for anyone curious enough to recruit their first champion.