Blue Isle Studios, the Toronto studio behind Citadel: Forged With Fire, recently revealed new details about their upcoming survival RPG Guardians of the Wild Sky. In an interview, the team discussed the game’s creature-collecting systems, survival and crafting mechanics, and modular airships that players can crew with tamed companions. They also spoke about the Steam demo available for Next Fest.

As explained in the interview, the game is built around guardians, the creatures you tame. They can fight with you, gather resources, help build, and even crew your airship. The developers said what makes the game stand out is that companions do more than fight. They are part of how you live in the world.

The studio also talked about the technical side and explained how Unreal does not handle pathfinding on moving bases the way they needed, so they wrote their own solution. For distant landmasses they built a system to show large continents without slowing the game down. They made most player structures data driven rather than full actors to avoid performance drops when you build a lot.

While playtesting the game, the team wants you to try a few things. Capture at least one creature, see how it helps at a base, and then build a simple airship and fly to a new island. The demo keeps some content out on purpose. Many dungeons, bosses, guardians, and towns are not open yet, and the level cap is set low so players do not see everything the game will offer.

In the demo, you can breed and incubate many creature types and work on inherited perks that affect stats. There are systems for ascending guardians to push them further. The studio hopes players will get attached to some guardians and enjoy the depth once the full game arrives.

The developers recommend 2 to 4 player co-op for the best run, although the game can scale larger. They will offer a dedicated server build so communities can run big worlds, and social tools like houses and parties are built into the design. Parties and most dungeons cap out at 5 players. If you would like to read the full interview, you can find it here.

In terms of the demo update, the developers have announced that everyone who plays the demo will receive an exclusive in-game item: the Majestic Sea Whale. In addition, builders get new structural foundation pieces, including wood and stone options, designed to provide more flexibility and stability for everything from small outposts to ambitious skybound creations.

Guardians of the Wild Sky is set to enter Early Access later this year, and if you haven’t tried the demo yet, now is a good time to begin.