Original The Settlers creator's Pioneers of Pagonia gets December early access release

eurogamer.net:

Pioneers of Pagonia, the intriguing new city builder from original The Settlers designer Volker Wertich and his team at Envision Entertainment, is launching into Steam early access on 13th December, with a public demo and closed alpha planned before then.

Pioneers of Pagonia, for the uninitiated, whisks players away to the procedurally generated islands of Pagonia, where they'll need to establish a presence — steadily increasingly their reach and influence among the islands' many fantastical, not always friendly inhabitants — through production, economic expansion, and exploration, making use of the resources they uncover along the way.

We got a first taste of Pioneers of Pagonia's city building action back in June — via an extremely adorable in-game reveal trailer — and Envision has been sharing occassional gameplay details in posts on Steam. Soon, though, it'll be time for players to get stuck in, starting with a closed alpha in September — which will be available to selected subscribers of the studio's newsletter.

That'll be followed by a public demo «shortly before» October's Steam Next Fest (which is scheduled to get underway on 9th October), with Pioneers of Pagonia then properly entering Steam early access on 13th December this year.

Envision says Pioneers of Pagonia will initially feature 40 different building types, more than 70 different goods and dispersed production chains, plus procedural map generation for «endless fun» when it arrives in early access. It then expects at least six months of additional development before version 1.0 arrives, during which time it'll add new features (including co-op), new buildings, and new production chains, plus technical improvements and balancing.

“We want to ensure