Valheim meets Minecraft and Stardew Valley in new open-world RPG

Romestead has officially been unveiled at the Future Games Show Spring Showcase, a new town-builder that looks positively wonderful.

It’s difficult to pin down exactly what Romestead reminds me of, because it’s very much its own thing.

Aesthetically, it’s perhaps most akin to Stardew Valley, but there’s plenty of RPG and survival elements at play here, giving Romestead a Minecraft or Valheim-esque edge.

The game officially classifies itself as a survival town-builder, where alongside fighting for survival, players can build and expand their homes and venture out on a journey to conquer Rome.

This is something you can do completely alone or with friends via the game’s online co-op mode.

You’ll begin with a small village but before long, with a bit of hard work, you can turn that village into a thriving town.

Each town will play home to artisans, who can help craft you upgrades, and alters to commune with the gods, plus you’ll need infrastructure to support your citizens.

You can take a look at Romestead in action below.

As you can likely imagine, you’ll have to gather resources both out in the wilds and via farming crops in order to get what you need to build and extend your town.

The ‘worship system’ will help you do the same where, it seems, you’ll seek the assistance of the gods.

It appears that completing quests will award you with ‘Worship’, a currency to be spent, as will pledging resources to the gods and sacrificing the odd citizen.

For those seeking combat, Romestead is home to boss fights and plenty of dungeon crawling - and there’s a vast open world for players to explore.

“Romestead hits that sweet spot,” Albert Säfström, co-founder and producer at publisher Three Friends, said in a press release.

“It combines the perspective and aesthetics of A Link to the Past with the progression of Terraria, and it just hits me right in the heart. Also, can we call it a ‘romelike’? I think we should.”

“The idea for Romestead largely comes from our love for the town-building and survival genre,” added Sam Bloom, co-founder and developer at Beartwigs.

“We wanted to create a game that would meld these genres and add a historical and mythological twist. We spent a good bit of time deciding on a setting, but landed on Ancient Rome, being one of the most historic civilisations to date.”

The game remains without a release date, but it is due to launch on Steam and is available to wishlist now.

Hopefully, we’ll see the game branch out to other platforms further down the road.