Eldrem Studios has announced Eldrem Kingdoms, a companion-driven role-playing game planned for PC through Steam Early Access in 2027. The project combines open-world aerial exploration, dragonback travel, fast-paced combat, creature raising and breeding, crafting, and the construction and defence of a floating fortress.
The Bucharest-based independent developer describes Eldrem Kingdoms as a colourful, story-led adventure in which the creatures players collect are not simply a roster to fill out. Companions are intended to be central to movement, combat and progression: they begin as hatchlings, can grow into rideable partners, offer magical abilities, take on defined combat roles, and can pass traits and distinctive powers to later generations through breeding.
The studio consists of 13 developers, including veterans whose previous work includes Assassin’s Creed and Ghost Recon. Its crowdfunding campaign has already exceeded its initial Kickstarter goal, doing so within five hours of going live.
A creature RPG where companions shape the player’s toolkit
Creature collecting can mean very different things from one RPG to another. In Eldrem Kingdoms, the announced design places companions inside the game’s major systems rather than treating them as optional curiosities. Players will raise creatures, train them, ride some of them, and use their magical skills in battle.
The important detail is the stated ability to switch active companions during combat. That suggests a player’s current companion will alter the spells available and, in turn, the way a fight is approached. A combat role is the particular job a character or creature fulfils in a battle setup, such as dealing damage, applying magical effects, or supporting the rest of the group. Eldrem Studios has not yet outlined individual roles, creatures or spell types, but it has made the broader premise clear: changing companions changes playstyle.
That creates a potentially meaningful link between collecting and action combat. Instead of selecting one favourite creature and ignoring the rest, players may have reason to maintain a range of partners if different magical toolkits suit different situations. The extent of that tactical depth remains to be seen, since specific encounter design, difficulty systems and party limits have not been detailed.
Breeding and evolution are also planned as major progression systems. Breeding, in this context, means producing new companions that inherit traits and powers from parent creatures. Evolution generally refers to a creature changing into a stronger or otherwise altered form as it develops. The announcement says breeding can be used to create companions with inherited traits and unique powers, but does not specify how inheritance will be calculated, whether traits will be rare, or how much player control there will be over outcomes.
Floating islands, flight and dragonback traversal
Eldrem Kingdoms is being built around free-flying exploration across floating islands and varied biomes. A biome is a distinct environmental region, normally defined by its terrain, climate, vegetation or visual identity. The developer has not named the biomes or explained how the world will be structured, but the combination of islands and dragon riding establishes flight as a core means of moving through the game world.
Dragonback traversal refers to travelling while mounted on a dragon. The announcement also describes free flight, which indicates that aerial movement is meant to be more than a brief scripted sequence or a simple fast-travel option. What has not been confirmed is how early players will gain flight, whether every companion can be ridden, how altitude and landing work, or whether there will be aerial combat.
Those unanswered details matter because flying exploration can affect nearly every part of an open-world RPG. It can turn distant landmarks into reachable destinations, make vertical routes part of exploration, and change how players search for resources or approach constructed bases. At this stage, however, those are implications of the announced structure rather than confirmed features. The confirmed promise is free-flying exploration and dragon riding across floating islands.
A floating fortress is planned as the player’s base
Alongside the travelling and companion systems, Eldrem Kingdoms will let players build and defend a floating fortress. The fortress is positioned as more than scenery: it is tied to crafting and NPC automation.
Crafting is the process of making equipment, materials or other useful items from gathered or acquired resources. NPC stands for non-player character, meaning a character controlled by the game rather than another person. Automation usually means assigning repeated tasks to systems or NPCs so that work can continue with less direct player input. Eldrem Studios has not provided examples of automated jobs, building pieces, defensive threats or resource loops, so it would be premature to assume a particular style of base-management game.
Still, the announced combination points to a gameplay loop with several connected layers: explore the world, find or raise useful companions, use them in combat and traversal, gather or craft what is needed, then improve a fortress that can be defended and supported by NPC labour. Whether the systems have equal weight, or whether one is the main focus while the others provide support, will be clearer as development progresses.
Fortress building may also give the game a stronger sense of player ownership than an RPG that relies only on fixed hubs. Because the base itself floats, it is thematically aligned with the airborne setting rather than presented as a disconnected building feature. The developer has not said whether the fortress can travel, how much can be customised, or what form defence will take.
Premium single-player focus, with multiplayer planned later
Eldrem Studios is presenting Eldrem Kingdoms as a complete premium single-player experience and says it will not use pay-to-win mechanics. Pay-to-win normally describes monetisation that lets players purchase gameplay power or a direct competitive advantage with real money. That assurance is especially notable for a game whose creature breeding and progression systems could otherwise invite concerns about purchasable shortcuts.
The studio says optional cosmetic content and expansions may arrive after launch. Cosmetics are items intended to change appearance rather than confer gameplay strength. Expansions are larger additions that can add content after a game’s release, though no particular expansion plan has been announced here.
Co-op and competitive multiplayer are planned for future updates rather than positioned as part of the initial single-player offering. Co-op, short for cooperative play, allows people to play together toward shared goals. Competitive multiplayer instead puts players or teams in opposition. There are no announced timeframes, modes, player counts or guarantees for either, so prospective players should view both as future intentions rather than launch features.
The Early Access route is similarly worth reading precisely. Steam Early Access allows developers to sell and develop a game before its final version, typically updating it with player feedback over time. Eldrem Kingdoms is scheduled to enter that programme in 2027, not to launch in its finished form then. The announcement does not set out the game’s Early Access content, its expected duration, its price, or the milestones leading to a full release.
What the funding milestone means—and what it does not
The Kickstarter campaign passing its original goal within five hours demonstrates early financial support for the project’s pitch. It does not, by itself, establish a final scope, release date beyond the announced 2027 Early Access window, or a complete feature list. Crowdfunding can fund development and give a team a visible community, but development plans can still evolve as systems are built and tested.
For Eldrem Kingdoms, the immediate picture is an ambitious independent RPG with a relatively small 13-person team and several interconnected pillars: flight, creature partners, action combat, breeding, fortress construction, crafting and automation. The team’s prior experience on major action franchises provides background for the developers involved, but it should not be treated as evidence that this new project will replicate the scale or structure of those earlier games.
Players interested in the PC development landscape can also follow how other projects change after release; for example, JDM: Japanese Drift Master’s suspension and tyre-pressure update illustrates the kind of post-launch iteration that can matter to a game’s long-term shape. Eldrem Kingdoms has not yet reached that stage, and its announced multiplayer plans are explicitly for later updates.
What is confirmed so far
- PC release through Steam Early Access is planned for 2027.
- The game is a premium, story-driven single-player RPG at its core.
- Its announced features include free-flying exploration, dragon riding, floating islands, varied biomes and fast-paced combat.
- Players will raise companions from hatchlings into trainable, rideable partners with magical abilities and combat roles.
- Switching active companions is intended to change available spells and playstyle.
- Breeding and evolution are planned, with inherited traits and unique powers cited as part of the system.
- Players will be able to craft, build and defend a floating fortress, with NPC automation included.
- The studio says there will be no pay-to-win mechanics; cosmetics and expansions may follow launch.
- Co-op and competitive multiplayer are planned for future updates, not confirmed for the initial Early Access version.
For now, Eldrem Kingdoms is an early look at a game that wants its creatures to matter at every level: as mounts, magical combat partners, breeding lines and a likely part of how players define their preferred approach to the world. More information is still needed on the actual breadth of its open world, the rules behind breeding, the fortress-building interface and the contents of the 2027 Early Access build. But the announcement establishes a clear direction: a single-player RPG in which building a bond with fantastical creatures is intended to be as fundamental as fighting enemies or exploring the sky.
