Over the weekend, we were treated to a world premiere announcement during the PC Gaming Show for Voyagers of Nera, a new co-op survival crafting game set in a magical ocean world that got a demo for Steam Next Fest.

I had a chance to talk to Michael Chu, former Riot Games product lead and current co-founder of Treehouse Games, to talk about what to expect from Voyagers of Nera and just how “cozy” it can potentially be.

Voyagers of Nera is looking to become your next favorite co-op survival game.

First off, thank you for taking the time to answer some questions about Voyagers of Nera. Starting off, in a “sea” of survival games, what made you decide to make your own?

After working on a lot of big (and sometimes competitive) games in the industry, we started Treehouse Games to make great multiplayer games that let friends hangout and share quality time together.

Survival-crafting has all the great ingredients for a wonderful shared adventure: memorable adventures, shared goals and progression, and ways to be expressive and creative with each other. I think that’s why it’s become an increasingly popular answer for “what should we play together next?”

Of course, even with all the new survival games coming out, we hope to offer something fresh and magical that’s unlike all the other games launching right now!

At first glance, Voyagers of Nera makes me think of a mixture of Raft and Sea of Thieves. What other games or media inspired the beautiful designs of characters and scenery in the game?

We wanted to create Voyagers of Nera as an ocean-faring game because it felt like it captured that universal, romantic feeling of exploration that you get when you stare out at the sea and wonder what’s on the horizon. And we saw a lot of opportunities to make it feel more fantastical, wondrous, and dangerous by creating a world of magic.

Of course, in the early days, we talked a lot about games like Raft, Sea of Thieves, Subnautica, Wind Waker, and many more. We also looked at Miyazaki films for that warm sense of magic. Nowadays, a lot of players have described Voyagers as “Moana meets Valheim” and that feels like an incredible compliment!

Is there a central story, more about finding quests as you explore, or a bit of both? What is the story in Voyagers of Nera and who are you as a character?

The ocean world of Nera was once tended and cared for by massive stone Ancients before monstrous creatures emerged from the Deep and devoured their magic. The Ancients are gone now but islands have formed around their remains, and the last drops of their magic have passed on to you, the Echoes.

The Deep continues to corrupt and taint the world, and they now hunt the magical spirits that the Ancients once protected. As an Echo, you’ve inherited some of the Ancients’ abilities and also their mission to protect these spirits, push back the Deep, and restore the world of Nera.

Voyagers of Nera
Voyagers of Nera

Voyagers of Nera seems to be a great mixture of survival games that have come before. What sets it apart from other sea-faring games like the ones I mentioned earlier? What makes this a unique experience that you won’t find elsewhere?

Ocean gameplay, magic, and spirits are central to exploring and progressing in Voyagers of Nera.

From super early into the game, you will be swimming and diving to find resources and gather food. You’ll find spirits in peril that you need to defend, and who will reward you with new crafting recipes and the power to cast magical abilities, like casting lightning or healing your allies.

Before long, you’ll be building ships to explore nearby islands, crafting a magical skimmer to surf across the water, swimming through underwater ruins, and battling huge sharks and Stalkers that are many times the size of your boat!

As you explore and defeat these monsters, you’ll be building your base as a Sanctuary for the spirits you rescue. They’ll start to flock to your base as it grows and in turn they will help power your Mana Forge and other stations with magic. Ultimately, you will restore Elder Spirits in each biome to unlock game-changing abilities and bring balance back to a corner of the world.

As the title, Voyagers of Nera, suggests, you are a Voyager. How big is the world and what will exploration be like in such a vast map?

Nera is vast and getting bigger all the time! The world in our game is separated into different archipelagos of islands that all have a unique setting. We currently have three biomes and you start in the Embrace, tropical islands that formed around the fallen body of a long dead stone colossus. Before long, you will be swimming, skimming, and sailing to nearby islands – the farther out you get, the more dangerous it becomes.

Your goal in each biome is to restore an Elder Spirit that is dormant and scattered, hiding from the monsters of the Deep. In awakening it, you will unlock powerful abilities, and also gain the ability to pass through dangerous storm walls that separate each cluster of islands. 

The boats seem to be smaller, but the homes appear to be on land. Can you tell me more about the experience of building up structures in Voyagers of Nera? Are they meant to be temporary huts or will you have a home base to come back to?

Our building system is different from a lot of other survival crafting games. Instead of tile by tile, you set up frames that connect to other pieces, like walls, windows, hallways, annexes, or more buildings. It’s a fast and flexible way to build something that looks great and cohesive, but also allows for a lot of creativity and customization.

Each outpost is built around a Spirit Anchor, a small sentient fragment of the Ancients, that serves as the hub of your base. It protects your base from enemies and as you draw more spirits to your sanctuary, they help you use stations that require their magic to run.

As for building in Voyagers of Nera, are we looking at free form or grid-based settings? What kinds of items will you be able to craft, build, and place?

Our building system defaults to a grid, but you can place anything free form with one click of a button!

You can create elaborate buildings in multiple styles super quickly with our frame-and-socket system. These will hold all of your crafting stations starting with a simple work bench and bedroll all the way through creating a Mana Forge to imbue magical items and the crafting stations you need to refine Tidemetal ores.

Beyond the magical shields, Sharpstone Spears and Hardened Scale Armor, you’ll also have tons of ways to style your base. You can craft small Hot Springs for your spirit companions, paintings and rugs to make the base feel like a home, and plaques to mount the trophy from a huge sea monster!

In a multiplayer world, is it possible to set up a full settlement with other players or is it mostly just yourself and/or crew? Are the crew members NPCs or player-controlled?

Voyagers is mostly focused on the experience with you and your friends. You can play Voyagers with up to 10 people on the server, and build settlements anywhere you wish! Very early into the game, you’ll select a spirit companion that will be your floating friend with you on all your adventures.

Beyond that, all of the NPCs you encounter right now are spirits in need of your help. By rescuing them and building out your base as a Sanctuary, they’ll return to your home with you and lounge around, offering their help through recipes and magically powering your stations.

When it comes to battling in Voyagers of Nera, I noticed that it was pretty standard for weapons and abilities. But, what kinds of special attacks, powers, or magic can you learn and use against the monsters and creatures you face?

Starting out, we have a lot of the weapons you’d expect: starting with a wooden club and bow, and spear to fight underwater. Of course, we have the ability to dodge roll and parry when you’re holding a shield.

As you progress, you start unlocking more unique abilities from the spirits you rescue. Some will give you new abilities, like casting a ball of lightning, creating a ring of fire that burns all enemies around you, or a burst of wind that speeds up your ship and gets you out of danger.

Other spirits will give you recipes that you can’t otherwise access, such as teaching you how to craft a magically imbued ingots that you need to create a magical, flaming sword.

In terms of coziness, a lot of casual players don’t necessarily like battling with monsters to progress and it can potentially turn a lot of cozy gamers off from playing a game. Is there a way to avoid conflict while still exploring, crafting, and building in Voyagers of Nera? Or are the monsters central to the gameplay experience?

We’ve seen a lot of cozy gamers check out Voyagers over our past year of playtesting, and I feel like it’s a super diverse crowd – some want to avoid combat entirely, others don’t mind if it lets them build and explore the way they want, and some are downright bloodthirsty!

Although combat is a central mechanic to the game, we are working on server options to let players tune more of their own experience. We want as many players as possible to be able to explore the world of Nera.

To continue the “cozy gamers” thought process, what would be the optimal way to play for someone to achieve maximum coziness while playing Voyagers of Nera?

There have been three things that have been delighting our cozy gamers so far.

1. We’ve been playtesting, iterating on, and improving our building system for a long time. Cozy gamers have expressed a lot of excitement for how easy it is to build something fast, beautiful, and cohesive in our game. There are also tons of decoration options to customize your builds even more.

2. Time of day. Our visuals have been getting a lot of love, but sunrises and sunsets are the most gorgeous time to enjoy your base.

3. The spirits – we recently finished adding a lot of new features that make the cute little spirits feel much more present and part of your evolving base. You can build them little picnic tables and hot springs to attract them to your base, and you’ll see them sitting around or napping as they help you out!

Thank you to Michael Chu and Treehouse Games for giving us some incredible insight into Voyagers of Nera this early. If you have not yet checked out the trailer for Voyagers of Nera, you can do so here.

As mentioned, the demo is currently available until August 5th, when the full game launches. Otherwise, you can head over to their Steam page and wishlist it as that’ll help the developers out and keep you informed when it hits Early Access on August 5th, 2025!