Among the Trolls News

Another month of intense work has gone by, and it's time for our third "Between Realities" devlog 🪓

This time, we want to update you on the progress we’re making as we move closer, day by day, to the Early Access release. We'll give you a glimpse into some crafting and building dynamics, with a special focus on something that will allow you to explore areas that initially seem out of reach: bridges!

[h2]THE WAY OF THE LUMBERJACK [/h2]

Over the past month, the team has focused on several core aspects of the gameplay experience. We’ve introduced new crafting logic, defined basic behaviors for various types of monsters, and enriched the game world with assets, atmospheric dynamics, and dungeons. The world of Among the Trolls is coming to life more and more each day, and in such a dense forest, a large number of towering trees is a must - they’re an extremely valuable resource for anyone trying to survive under their canopy.

Naturally, you'll be able to cut down trees on the island and use the wood in many ways, but this action won’t be purely functional: it reflects the relationship between humans and nature - a give and take that must be done with respect.

This month, we’ve worked on improving tree physics and animations - for example, how the trunk falls and splits into different parts. We’ve also refined the look of the logs (which Anna can physically carry), as well as the branches and twigs that can be collected and used for crafting and environmental interactions.

Work-in-progress screenshots. Assets are still subject to change.

Cut wood can be used in a variety of ways, but today we’re focusing on one in particular: building your ticket to explore previously unreachable areas... sturdy bridges.

[h2]ALTERNATIVE PATHS: BRIDGES [/h2]

In the wild world of Among the Trolls, you won’t just find pre-marked roads or convenient trails - sometimes you’ll need to find alternate paths to reach your goals, or even create them yourself.

We recently introduced the bridge-building system, which allows you to use the wood you've gathered to construct custom connections - whether it’s to reach a distant island or to cross a challenging path.

Using a ghost placement system and smart anchor points, you’ll be able to preview where each part of the bridge will go, with full control over the rotation of each piece so you can build around any obstacles. We've worked on feedback systems that will always ensure the structure you’re building is "valid," so you never risk reaching the end only to find you can’t place the final piece.

Thanks to these constructions, you'll gain access to new islands, secrets, and - who knows - maybe even forgotten creatures. Bridges will also require maintenance, and you’ll be able to dismantle the ones you no longer need to recover valuable materials. We can't wait to see all the creative ways you'll use them!

Work-in-progress clip. Assets are still subject to change.

We’ve reached the end of this devlog and, as always, feel free to share your questions with us, they’ll help shape our future devlogs!

We also invite you to follow us on our social media channels (X, Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, TikTok) and join our official Discord to share your feedback and stay up to date on our progress.

Welcome to our second "Between Realities" devlog, where we’ll update you each month on the latest developments and behind-the-scenes insights into our work on Among The Trolls!

This month, we’d like to introduce you to our protagonist, Anna, and what led her to embark on this unexpected journey - to a land that should have felt familiar but turned out to be something else. We’ll also dive deeper into the game’s survival mechanics and our approach to these systems.

[h2]INTO THE UNKNOWN [/h2]

The protagonist of our story is Anna, a sharp and determined 35-year-old woman who spent years as a successful lawyer. However, at a certain point in her life, her deep passion for nature convinced her to leave the courtroom behind and pursue a career in forestry, trading legal battles for untamed landscapes.

Raised in the United States, every summer, her Finnish roots called her back to spend peaceful days on her grandfather’s island alongside her brother, Jonas. Perhaps it was among those trees that her love for flora and fauna first blossomed - learning to navigate the woods, one scraped knee at a time.

Now, something is calling her back to the island of her childhood. But Jonas isn’t with her, and her grandfather isn’t waiting at the dock like he always did. Something feels off. The place that once felt like home now seems… different. The colors, the sounds, and the creatures that inhabit it may no longer be the ones she once studied as a child in dusty old science books about local wildlife. And maybe, just maybe, the island itself is not where it should be.



[h2]SURVIVING THE WILDERNESS [/h2]

When Anna sets foot on her grandfather’s island, survival becomes key. The survival system is one of the game’s core pillars and has been carefully designed to integrate seamlessly with the rest of the mechanics. It revolves around four primary needs: hunger, thirst, sleep, and temperature.

The goal is to encourage players to explore and interact with the world around them. Food can be found, cooked, or hunted; sleep becomes necessary over time and is affected by the day/night cycle and weather conditions; cold, especially at night or in certain areas, must be countered with fire or shelter - and so on.

All these survival needs are connected to Lykky, the balance of the region’s energies. The lower the Lykky, the more hostile the world becomes: animals grow more aggressive, resources become scarcer, and tools wear out faster.

You'll be able to monitor Anna’s needs not just through the in-game HUD, but also through visual and audio cues that reflect her physical state. Survival is important, but rather than feeling like a punishment, we want it to be a constant invitation to engage with the world around you: gathering what you need, learning how to use resources wisely, and making the right choices at the right time.



As always, feel free to share your questions with us, they’ll help shape our future devlogs!

We also invite you to follow us on our social media channels (X, Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, TikTok) and join our official Discord to share your feedback and stay up to date on our progress.

Welcome to our first devlog "Between Realities", where we'll update you each month on the latest developments and behind-the-scenes insights into our work on Among The Trolls!

Since our announcement in January, we've started sharing glimpses of the game's gameplay on our social media - where we highly recommend following us if you want to see them in real-time - and answering some questions on our official Discord.

Today, we'll shed some light on the work we've done over the past few months, our thoughts, and what you can expect to experience in the world of Among The Trolls.

[h2]STRONG FOUNDATIONS ARE KEY [/h2]

As you already know, the project has been entirely rebuilt to transition from Unity to Unreal Engine 5, a crucial step on multiple levels. First, we wanted to leverage more advanced technology to achieve dynamic and realistic lighting, allowing us to better recreate the atmosphere of the Finnish forests - the primary inspiration for Among The Trolls' setting. On the other hand, this transition also impacted the art direction, leading us to revisit many assets and shaders to maximize their visual quality and reach a higher level of detail.

Once we made this decision and established the foundations, we spent the following months focusing on implementing the core gameplay mechanics, such as the survival systems that will define your time on the archipelago, resource management, environmental changes, and combat.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]ENEMIES AND CHALLENGES [/h2]

Once you set foot on the island, you'll quickly realize that the archipelago hides various threats, across different... realities. Learning how to survive among them will be crucial, as will understanding them to take advantage of their resources, nuances, and dangers. One of these threats comes in the form of hostile characters you'll encounter throughout your adventure, whose behavior has been a key focus of our work in recent months.

We want the enemies you face to have dynamic and responsive behavior, reacting to your actions and adapting to their surroundings. Each enemy will have a unique attack pattern: some will attack in packs, while others will prefer a different approach, using ambush tactics. It will be up to you to figure out the best way to fend them off and stay alive.



[h2]BETWEEN MYTH AND REALITY [/h2]

We want Among The Trolls to be more than just a survival experience but, as you may have gathered, a true journey between different realities, separated only by a thin veil. The story follows Anna, the protagonist, looking for her missing grandfather and finding herself immersed in an unexpected world ruled by ancient forces and forgotten spirits.

The narrative we are crafting draws inspiration from Finnish mythology and the Kalevala, Finland’s national epic, shaping a setting where the boundary between reality and myth is dissolving. This will inevitably lead to the emergence of legendary creatures and supernatural phenomena, many of which are deeply rooted in folklore.

In the coming months, we hope to immerse you even further into the atmosphere we are meticulously crafting for this project.



At this point, all that’s left is to ask you to share your questions with us so that we can collect them for our next devlog!

We also invite you to follow us on our social media channels (X, Facebook, Bluesky, Instagram, TikTok) and join our official Discord to share your feedback and stay up to date on our progress.

See you soon, explorers!

[p]
Dear Players,

It’s been a while since we last talked about Among the Trolls, and a lot has happened behind the scenes. After months of hard work, we’re finally ready to announce that the project is back on track, with plenty of exciting updates and changes we can’t wait to share with you! [/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]
Let’s start from the beginning: what is Among the Trolls?

Set on a secluded Finnish archipelago, Among the Trolls invites you to explore lush forests, survive against the odds, and unravel ancient mysteries. One of the core pillars we aim for is letting you experience a dynamic, living world where your actions not only affect survival but also influence the environment and its creatures.

One of the biggest changes to this project lies in its development. After the closure of Forbidden Studio - the team that originally laid the groundwork for Among the Trolls - 505 Games decided to keep supporting the project by entrusting it to the passionate developers at Avantgarden Games, who are working hard to bring this experience to life with their own unique vision.

Starting from scratch in 2024 and with a new engine - transitioning from Unity to Unreal - the new team has respectfully embraced the soul of Among the Trolls, breathing it into something personal and unique. We hope you’ll appreciate their efforts as we share more with you in the coming months.

By now, the most attentive among you might have noticed that the game is no longer published by 505 Games on Steam, but rather by 505 Pulse. This is none other than 505 Games’ indie division, specializing in projects from independent studios that often take their first steps through Early Access!

We know, it’s a lot to take in. But we wanted to provide an overview of the current situation and starting point, because now it’s time to move on to the most exciting part: the journey to Early Access.


While we can’t share a release date just yet, we’re ready to give you glimpses into the game’s world as it takes shape. There are new characters, creatures, challenges, and threats we can’t wait to introduce to you, and we hope you’ll join us on this journey despite the challenges. We firmly believe it will be worth it.

In the meantime, we invite you to join the discussion on our official Discord, read the updated FAQs, explore our revamped Steam page, and follow us on social media to stay up-to-date with all the upcoming news.

If you have any questions, leave them here, and we’ll do our best to answer them or use them as inspiration for our next devlog.

Here’s to the beginning of a new journey, explorers 🍻[/p]

In our first Dev Blog, we introduced our studio. Now, it’s time to take a deeper look into Among the Trolls and how the idea came to be.

[h3]THE STORY[/h3]
Among the Trolls takes place in a world that looks a lot like our own. Our protagonist (either Anna or Alex) is a Finnish-American in their mid-30s. After their estranged parents pass away, they want to reconnect with their roots and their Finnish grandparents. The protagonist decides to travel from the United States to Finland and revisit the special places from their childhood where their fondest memories took place.

Anna/Alex decides to leave the hustle and bustle of city life in the United States behind. They’ve finally made their way to Finland and they’ve acquired a boat to reach their grandparents’ cabin. The sun is setting, but they still have a chance to make it to the cabin before it gets too dark. It’s been over 20 years since they’ve last seen their grandparents but the cabin seen across the water looks very familiar.

Suddenly, the water stirs. A monster that looks like a gargantuan pike crashes the rowboat to smithereens and drags Anna/Alex under the surface, towards the bottom of the lake. Everything goes dark for a moment, and as the protagonist washes ashore, gasping for air and taking their bearings, they realize that they must have reached the island their grandparents inhabit. But the cabin is nowhere to be found… The cabin and their grandparents seem to have vanished into thin air. Anna/Alex is feverish, cold, hungry, and thirsty, and darkness has fallen. This is where the game and the journey to survive and solve the mysteries begins.

It’s time to embark on a quest to find your missing grandparents and learn how to survive in the wilderness, dealing with the supernatural creatures of Finnish mythology and the animistic nature of the world. Anna/Alex must follow in their grandfather’s footsteps and discover the rune-singer within.



[h3]SURVIVAL, CRAFTING & BUILDING[/h3]
Among the Trolls is a survival and crafting game based on a world where the folklore, folk beliefs, and the spirits and creatures from grandmother’s stories are undeniably real. Due to this, the survival mechanics of Among the Trolls will be somewhat different from other games in the survival genre. Because the folklore aspect plays a crucial part in the world, the survival elements will also be affected. Instead of leveling enormous areas of the forest, hoarding resources, and taking without giving back, the protagonist must sacrifice, give offerings, and consult the spirits.

If Anna/Alex wants to avoid angering the forest and ward off the malevolent, corrupted creatures, they must make amends and sacrifices to the folk of the forest at cupstones (sacrificial places made up of large rocks with small indentations carved in) that can be found in the woods.

Building and crafting play a critical role in the game and are part of the core gameplay loop. Among the Trolls will include a modular building system that will allow players to build different types of creations from basic shelters to multi-level cabins and chalet structures. The system allows and encourages you to also create these structures together with your friends in co-op mode.

In addition to regular crafting, which includes items such as knives, spears, and axes, you will also have the ability to create “familiars”. These “familiars” are magical beings that may help you during your journey to find out what happened to your grandparents.

During the Early Access period, we want to develop the building and crafting features together with the community and explore what kind of things could be created in-game. We also want to give the players the ability to create something uniquely their own.



[h3]INSPIRATION[/h3]
The inspiration for the world and story of Among the Trolls came to fruition years ago when our CEO, Veli Kokkonen, had interesting and thought-provoking discussions with his friends from a university’s folklore department and a study line specializing in ancient artisan crafts. How would our world and our lives be different from the ones we lead if we were more spiritually connected to the old folklore beliefs and if the ancient crafts had persisted, and the know-how would have been carried over from generation to generation.

Through the journey of learning artisan crafts and what one can make with basic resources like mud, sticks, and branches that are easy to find, we came to realize that a simpler way of life can be something to strive for, even in the world of video games. We wanted to combine forest dwelling with magical elements, and looked, yet again, into the past. You don’t have to look too far back to find remnants of Nordic shamanism and the shamanistic traditions that took place in certain communities. These shamans, sages, or “tietäjät” were part of everyday life.

We really like how Studio Ghibli has captured the, often forgotten, cultural roots of their stories, yet observed them through a modern lens. We also love how they tend to combine the natural with the fantastical. It’s very similar to what we want to achieve with Among the Trolls.



[h3]TECHNOLOGY[/h3]
Many of our peers have asked us whether we’ll be using Unreal Engine or Unity to bring Among the Trolls to life. To many people’s surprise, we’re using Unity. Our team has some bona fide Unity experts and vast experience developing games within Unity in the past. Our CEO and Technical Director, Veli, used to work at Unity Technologies, creating the 2D framework for animation tools, lighting tools, and different core engine features. Later on, he had a chance to work on Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps, which both pushed the Unity engine forward.

Now, we want to take those learnings and see what kind of 3D games we can create by pushing the engine even further. Among the Trolls felt like a natural progression. We want to use all of the engine’s capabilities to create beautiful worlds with a minimal amount of loading screens, a streamlined experience with stunning graphics, and where your computer’s CPU and GPU are taken advantage of, so you’ll get the best possible experience. You didn’t pay for all those cores for nothing, right? Reaching these goals as a small indie team is something that no other engine has been able to provide.



[h3]LET’S CHAT![/h3]
We’re so lucky to have you all following along this exciting game development journey of ours!

If you want to chat about game dev shenanigans, Among the Trolls’ development, or what it’s like being a small indie dev studio in Finland, you can find us here or on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. If you’re more into the business side of things, you can even follow us over on LinkedIn.

If you’d like to get concentrated Among the Trolls content only, the official Discord and the Steam page are your best bet, but we like to share some development screenshots, video clips, and bits of lore on the official accounts, as well. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are updated regularly, and you might find us infiltrating TikTok, every now and then, with our peaceful (and sometimes not so peaceful) forest scapes, too!

We hope you tag along, let’s get lost in the forest — among the trolls!

[h3]Wishlist Now![/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1675260/Among_the_Trolls/