The two began making the game in their garage, with Armağan working on code and İpek on graphics. According to Armağan, the game's inspirations include "Sid Meier's Pirates!", ', ', and older Koei strategy video games such as "Genghis Khan", as well as historical fiction novels, particularly those by Bernard Cornwell. Prior to its retail release, alpha versions of the game were published on the developer's website beginning in 2004, and feedback was given to the developers. On January 2008, Paradox Entertainment announced they would publish the game and scheduled to release within the second quarter of that year. The game was released on Microsoft Windows via Steam on September 16, 2008.