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Watch trailer on Steam ↗Gateworlds
Hydrarch · Published by Hydrarch
Last updated 27 Sept 2026
Gateworlds is a colony sim about exploring and surviving a fantasy wilderness. Find your way in a world of floating islands, strange creatures, and fickle gods.
Adventure, Indie, Simulation, Strategy · More free games
Embark on a unique journey through a fantasy wilderness in Gateworlds, an indie simulation from Hydrarch that blends exploration with strategic survival. Navigate treacherous landscapes filled with mysterious creatures and unpredictable deities.
About this game
Gateworlds is a survival colony sim set in a wilderness shaped by five fickle gods. You begin with a small band of villagers, stranded on a hostile world. Lead your people as they survive, build, craft, hunt, explore, and vie for the favour of the gods. Journey across floating worlds connected by mystical portals, each world bearing the influence of a god’s power.
Lead your villagers
Each villager is an individual with their own skills, traits, relationships, and desires.
Manage the wants and needs of your group to maintain harmony in the unforgiving and wild environments of the Gateworlds. If you can keep them happy, loyal, and injury-free, the group will thrive. Neglect and mismanage them and they are likely to perish or disband in the face of the ever-present dangers of a hostile and uncaring frontier.
Devote yourself to the gods—or defy them
Choose your patron, earn their favour, and wield their divine influence.
Choose a patron deity to follow, and reap the rewards of their favour. Divine favour is not without obligation, however: neglect their interests at your peril. Will you follow bloodthirsty Balatoc? Harmonious Levia? Ydrig, far-sighted and versatile? Will you set forests ablaze for Irizaan, or sacrifice everything to appease the One Who Bargains? Will you attempt to balance the interests of all five, or spurn them all and forge your own path?
Explore new worlds
Travel through mystical gates to discover vibrant and dangerous lands.
Explore mountains, deserts, floodplains and mangroves... but be wary of the time, as the gate won't stay open forever. Should a portal close and divide your group of villagers, which side will you abandon to an uncertain fate? Will you reunite with them later? Or will something (or someone) else find them first?
Manage your settlement
Build your base, assign orders, and define schedules.
Life on the frontier requires planning and resilience. Construct sleeping quarters, workstations, and defensive walls for survival, while adding creature comforts to maintain and boost morale. Grow crops, hunt game, and process resources to craft and maintain equipment. Keep your settlement thriving and always be prepared for when the next gate opens.
Face hostile conditions and dangerous creatures
Fight terrible monsters and claim the treasures they guard.
Under your guidance, villagers will endure bitter cold and blistering heat, manage natural disasters, and defend themselves from fearsome predators empowered by ancient magic. Just as your villagers can travel through the gate, some of these creatures may decide to come the other way. Prepare your group in the event that unwelcome, hostile visitors cross the threshold into your sanctuary!
Shape your own adventure
Guide your people through triumph and adversity on the strange frontier of the Gateworlds
Will you advance carefully, or plunge headlong into the unknown? Will you band together with other vaillgers, keep your distance, or plunder their settlements? Will you fight great monsters, find ancient treasures, or seek peace and isolation? Will you champion your patron deity, or spurn the gods and forge your own path?
Key Features
Discover ancient treasures guarded by powerful monsters - Find powerful weapons and armour in the ruins of civilisations lost to time... but be wary of the powerful guardians that keep a watchful eye over their ancient relics.
Nomadic base building - pack up your base and relocate as you explore new worlds in search of the perfect home.
Story generation - Inspired by the likes of Dwarf Fortress and RimWorld, Gateworlds offers rich emergent systems that allow for the weaving of tales in a mystical fantasy setting
Countless worlds to explore - Travel through the gate to a vast variety of worlds from icy tundras, volcanic hellscapes and the void-touched lands, to dense boreal forests and windswept plains.
Lead your people - Each character is an individual with their own skills, traits, relationships, and desires. If you can keep them all happy, loyal, and injury-free, the group will thrive.
Harness the power of the gods - Worship a pantheon of deities each offering unique boons and blessings to your characters.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: TBC
- Processor: TBC
- Graphics: TBC
- Additional Notes: System requirements will be announced closer to release.
Recommended
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: TBC
- Processor: TBC
- Graphics: TBC
- Additional Notes: System requirements will be announced closer to release.
Supported Languages
*languages with full audio support
Latest news
AnnouncementsOfficial
The Gateworlds Playtest is now ended! Thank you all!
The Gateworlds Playtest Has Ended... Thank You!Our latest Gateworlds playtest has officially come to an end!Over the four-week test we received more than 1,000 individual pieces of feedback and gained over 3,500 new wishlists. A huge thank you to everyone who played, reported bugs, or simply told us what you liked and what wasn't working. Your feedback has already had a massive impact on the game.Throughout the playtest we pushed out a steady stream of updates based directly on what we were seeing from players. You can now relocate furniture and structures, fight while carrying backpacks, quickly duplicate buildings with the new Build More option, and reunite with Gatefarers who were accidentally left behind on another world. Plus a ton more.We also made major improvements to packing and hauling, character task priorities, saving and loading, world generation, notifications, navigation, and dozens of smaller quality-of-life issues. We fixed a mountain of bugs along the way too.This playtest gave us a much clearer picture of what's working, what's confusing, and what we need to focus on next. We're already taking everything we've learned and putting it towards the next version of Gateworlds.Thank you again to everyone who took the time to play. It's incredibly exciting watching the game improve with your help, and we can't wait to show you what we're working on next.See you beyond the next gate!Also... here's one last set of patch notes:Added"Quit to Main Menu" button on the Create Your Faction interface.Room size is displayed in the tile tooltip (hold ALT and hover over a tile within a room).Shortcut to relocate the selected structure (bound to 'R' by default).Starved/dehydrated characters will wake up whilst sleeping and attempt to seek food/water.Shortcut to select all characters (unbound by default).ChangedItems spoil faster (but crafting items in rooms is significantly less punishing).When choosing which group to follow, the presented options are now clearer.Zoo...Read full article on Community Announcements (Nic)Patch NotesOfficial
Playtest update 3/08/2026
Thank you all for submitting all your feedback. We read every single report and they are invaluable for improving the game.Game build - \ - 28/7/26AddedCharacters abandoned can be reunited with when revisiting their world.Characters are no longer restricted from performing tasks whilst carrying a pack.ChangedFocusing a notification will also select the associated object.Children are no longer restricted from carrying a pack.Deity shrine events influence the interacting character's preferred deity and devoutness.Pack footprint removes underlying zones.Pack footprint placement is more restrictive.Leatherwork Bench texture."Approach" and "Use" task icons are no longer the same as "Move to"."Haul to stockpile" task indicator now displays as a checkmark (✓).When a group of characters is selected, allow selecting an individual without first needing to deselect the entire group.World generation decreases the island size so that there is more distance between the island-edge and viewport-edge.FixedCarcasses in the abyss are set to real creature carcasses.Save failure caused by a relationship-related notification.Character needs (e.g., tiredness, hunger, etc.,) no longer get stuck replenishing.Music issues (more fixes to come!).Various "Haul to stockpile" and "Haul to gate" issues.Character movement line no longer disappears when switching the viewed world.Cosmetic lightning is summoned when the gate opens naturally.Room flooring can no longer cover blocking terrain, such as water.Music playback issue on the Main Menu.Abyss display issue on the Navigation interface.Dead characters no longer incorrectly appear on the Character List interface.Rare game crash when activating Balatoc's Fury.Read full article on Community AnnouncementsAnnouncementsOfficial
The Gateworlds Playtest Has Been Extended!
The Gateworlds Playtest Has Been Extended!We've loved watching everyone explore the wonderful worlds of Gateworlds over the past few weeks, and your feedback has already been incredibly valuable.It's been especially exciting because we're still getting an increasing number of playtest sign ups and feedback reports, so..we're extending the playtest by two weeks!New playtest deadline: August 12th, 5pm (AEST)If you've already been playing, we'd love to hear about your experience. During this playtest we're especially interested in hearing your thoughts on:Does exploring through the Gates feel exciting and rewarding?Which parts of the game did you enjoy?What frustrated or confused you? Which aspects of the game do you think need more work?Your feedback will directly influence the next major update and playtest.If you haven't had a chance to jump in yet, or you have a friend that might be interested, then now's the perfect time. There are still plenty of worlds waiting to be discovered.Thank you again to everyone who's played, reported bugs, shared screenshots, and taken the time to leave feedback. Every comment helps us make Gateworlds a better game.We'll see you in the worlds beyond the Gate!The Hydrarch team.Read full article on Community AnnouncementsPatch NotesOfficial
Playtest update 28/07/2026
New Hot fix now live! Thank you all for submitting all your feedback. We read every single report and they are invaluable for improving the game. Game build - \ - 28/7/26Added"Build More" button on selected walls and doors. This a "Copy" / "Duplicate" function.ChangedIndoor critters (rat and spider) no longer spawn in player-owned rooms.Saving and loading interface includes auto-saves.Saving and loading interface highlights the active save file and displays it at the top of the list."Heavy rain" visual effects are now less intense, improving visibility.Characters will seek drinking water from a greater distance.Task indicator should be easier to identify.Limbless characters can no longer equip armour.Dropping equipped gear now marks it with the "Haul to stockpile" task.Stonecutter texture.FixedHunt quota input inconsistencies.Loading screen persists correctly between mid-game loads.Character task acquisition should be more consistent with their priorities."Haul to stockpile" task appears correctly next to the Selection interface.Highlights!!Fully functioning auto-saves!A build more button! Allowing you to quickly copy the build order of a selected buildingNew task indicators that we're trialling to help improve readability. Let us know what you think!Read full article on Community AnnouncementsAnnouncementsOfficial
We hit 10k wishlists and 3k playtesters!
10,315 wishlists and 3,372 playtest participants 🤯Thank you to everyone who's supported Gateworlds so far!Every wishlist, comment, bug report, and playtest is invaluable to us and our development.We are gaining a ton of useful insights from the current playtest and it's helping a lot in deciding which big feature we cook up next. We'll have a bigger update on our next steps in the coming weeks. See you beyond the gates.The hydrarch team.Read full article on Community Announcements
