Valheim's first development blog of 2023 has revealed a lot of major additions coming to the game, including an all-new Ashlands biome and some new NPCs to interact with. Valheim players can also look forward to customizing existing characters and fighting terrifying new creatures, while a focus on accessibility features is aimed at making the game more playable for those with disabilities.
The viral success of Valheim in 2021 came as a welcome surprise to the humble indie studio Iron Gate, which has since remained focused on expanding Valheim and the studio post-release. The game sold an incredible 10 million copies in its first year, which allowed Iron Gate to subsequently double in size and devote more resources to bringing new content to Valheim. As the pace of development picks up, it will likely take far less time than what Iron Gate needed for its first major content drops.
Although not a definitive Valheim content roadmap, Iron Gate's first development blog of the year has revealed a few interesting things that are being worked on. One of the biggest additions is a new biome, the Ashlands, which has a "land of the dead" theme in stark contrast to many of Valheim's lush, vibrant environments. Iron Gate is in the pre-production stage of developing this biome, so it's still a way out, but the studio has promised to be a lot more transparent with the process than it was with Mistlands.
A few enemy design concepts revealed for the biome include the Charred, deformed skeletal creatures wielding various weapons, and Morgen, a vaguely insectoid creature with bony appendages that would fit right in with the enemies in Dark Souls games. Other plans for the year include an Xbox release with crossplay support, new difficulty settings, and new content like Hildir's Quest. Hildir's Quest will introduce a new NPC, Hildir, along with giving players a way to customize their character's hairstyle. Accessibility is also a major concern for Iron Gate moving forward, and the developers have requested that disabled gamers reach out to them to point out problems or solutions in regard to accessibility.
It should be an exciting year for Valheim fans as Iron Gate ramps up its development. Last year's Mistlands update for Valheim brought tons of new features and gameplay into the mix, setting the bar high for Valheim's content updates moving forward. Thanks to Valheim's massive open world and survival crafting gameplay, it's easy to imagine new biomes, enemies, and buildable objects being introduced long after release.
Valheim is available now in early access for PC, and releases in early 2023 for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Valheim Game