New online co-op colony sim officially launches on Steam with 1.0 release alongside a 30% launch discount
Pioneers of Pagonia has officially left early access and launched on Steam as a full 1.0 city‑builder that is all about logistics, exploration and low‑stress settlement management rather than warfare. Pioneers of Pagonia is developed by Envision Entertainment, a studio led by Volker Wertich (original creator of The Settlers), and it places itself as a spiritual successor to that style of transport‑chain city builders. The game entered early access on Steam in December 2023 and spent roughly two years in active development. There were multiple roadmap updates on the way that were geared towards overhauling the economy, campaign structure and map generation of the game.
On paper, Pioneers of Pagonia is a fantasy‑themed city builder about reconnecting fractured island tribes by establishing trade, meeting their needs and pushing back the fog‑covered wilderness. Each map is a procedurally generated island where players lay out road networks, housing, workshops and farms while carriers physically move every resource between buildings. There are visible, walkable supply routes instead of abstracted stockpiles. Over 40 constructible buildings and hundreds of production chains are a big part of the game. The developers are framing the 1.0 release as the "home stretch" of a long early‑access process, rather than as a pivot to a fundamentally new game.
Combat is available, but it is optional and presented more as one system among many: players can toggle off enemies and raids fully, and treat it as a purely peaceful settlement builder if they want. As per reviews, the overall pace is relaxed and "cozy". The 1.0 update brings a full seven‑chapter campaign that doubles as an extended tutorial. You get to send your group from island to island, with new buildings and mechanics unlocking in each chapter. Outside of the main campaign, there are freeform sandbox maps with various presets, difficulty options and toggles for elements like combat.
On Steam, Pioneers of Pagonia is being sold as a premium PC title. At launch week, the game is running a time‑limited discount of around 30 percent off its standard Steam price. There is no console version at launch and no firm dates for other platforms. The store page lists full controller support as "not" a focus, instead, the emphasis is on its primary keyboard‑and‑mouse design.
As of writing, the game is sitting at a "Mostly Positive" user rating in English, with several thousand total reviews and an aggregate approval in the low‑to‑mid‑80 percent range according to SteamDB. A number of negative and mixed user reviews refer to the game as being repetitive or overly micro‑managed. Some players also argue that many islands play out similarly and that the satisfaction depends largely on enjoying fine‑grained logistics tuning. Plus, Eurogamer Germany scored the 1.0 PC version 80/100, commending the audiovisual presentation and calm tone, and Metacritic shows critic impressions clustered around the low‑80s.
You can check out the Steam store page for Pioneers of Pagonia here.
