Treehouse Games revealed the launch date for its upcoming co-op survival crafting game, Voyagers of Nera, at Summer Game Fest earlier this month. According to Treehouse, the game launches in Early Access on Steam on August 5, with the game’s demo being available to play until then. During this period, Treehouse is gathering player feedback as it did during the pre-release period, which influenced how the structure of the game itself.
Voyagers of Nera is a sea-based game, where teams of up to 10 players sail around, battle monsters and build bases. The Steam Next Fest demo features the games first biome, with two further biomes opening during the Early Access period. Treehouse first revealed Voyagers in 2023 at the Wholesome Snack show at the Game Awards, and has since run multiple playtests on Discord and via an early Steam demo.
Michael Chu, Treehouse’s CEO and co-founder, told GamesBeat in an interview, “Before we launch into 1.0, we plan to add at least two more biomes and a series of features in our backlog such as new building types for our super builders, more buildable ships, and more server options for players to customize their experience. We also plan to leave some room to listen to players and hear what they want from Voyagers.”
Treehouse plans to offer several features at launch, including fishing, diving and crafting. Players can also encounter elemental spirits that they can assist and which return to their bases. The game looks different from when it was first revealed, which is thanks to those early playtests and the players who gave feedback.
Chu told GamesBeat, “In all the playtests and streams we’ve seen a tremendous volume of valuable feedback. Our hunger system was totally overhauled based on feedback about players feeling like they had to worry about it more than they thought and also not feeling rewarded enough. Similarly, combat has had a ton of improvements after players felt like they were missing too often, and it felt like the forward movement was messing them up. We’ve rebalanced encounters, added motion warping to dynamically change how far you move when you attack based on distance to enemy, and a ton of feels improvements.”
Chu added, “On the positive end, players have had a ton of positive comments about seafaring. Sailing, swimming, and surfing are all core parts of the game – the first time a player crafts the skimmer or encounters a giant shark is always fun to watch. Our art style has also been getting lots of love, especially the water, the sunsets, and the adorable little spirits you find and aid! We’ve been hearing lots of ‘Moana meets Valheim’ and that feels like a great compliment!”
