Smalland: Survive the Wilds, a multiplayer survival game with tiny heroes from developer and publisher Merge Games, will officially launch on February 15th, 2024.

It will be available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The game has been in Early Access since March 2023, and that version is available now on PC via Steam.

In Smalland: Survive the Wilds, players explore a natural open world as a tiny hero. You must survive by building encampments, upgrading equipment, and avoiding dangerous wildlife like wasps and spiders. You can also tame and ride some critters, such as grasshoppers.

Today’s release date announcement was accompanied by a brand-new gameplay trailer on the Merge Games YouTube channel. It teases “there are many more adventures to come”, hinting at subsequent updates and support:

Smalland: Survive the Wilds will undoubtedly draw comparisons to Grounded, and other miniature scale adventures. But I’ve been impressed by its ambition during Early Access, broadening its gameplay features.

The emphasis on lore, discovery, and equipment partly resembles an MMORPG. So, I appreciate that the multiplayer mode currently supports up to 10 players in a lobby.

That level of teamwork should make some of the familiar grind, like farming resources, much less tedious.

It also allows players to feel a stronger sense of community, as they connect with the various NPCs. Smalland has quite an epic scope to contrast the scale of its protagonists.

The devs wisely concentrated on gameplay variety in today’s trailer, which runs down some of the compelling mechanics.

Smalland’s visuals and tone are also larger than life, yet less cartoonish than the likes of Grounded—which is still a fun game.

But Smalland’s worldbuilding is what appeals to me most. The details will actually reward players for exploring. Hopefully, the full version will continue to add new playable areas.

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