[PREVIEW] RAEV: Kingdom on the Distant Shores is shaping up to be an incredible city-builder

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I’m a huge fan of the city-builder genre, with incredible games like Manor Lords, Against the Storm, and Foundation shaping what we love about it. So when I stumbled upon RAEV: Kingdom on the Distant Shores at Gamescom, I was immediately intrigued. This game combines the familiar city-building mechanics with 4X strategy, allowing you to not only build your kingdom but also conquer a massive map, a unique twist that reminds me of KAISERPUNK.

“The game starts with a small group of citizens around a bonfire, and your goal is to grow your settlement into a kingdom that can explore an entire continent. There are different modes to suit your play style”, developer told us. In fact, if you prefer a more peaceful experience, a dedicated mode removes attacks, but still allows you to start a war if you choose. For those who want a real challenge, the Epic Mode is designed to test your skills. The standard mode, however, is the intended experience, offering a balanced mix of both building and conflict.

Expansive gameplay with a deep focus on its citizens

RAEV also features six different climates. Three will be playable now in the demo that is coming soon, while the other three will be available in early access. These climates aren’t just for looks; they affect gameplay. For example, the tundra is a harsh environment that makes survival difficult, while the savanna has very little food and water but is rich in minerals. The temperate climate is gentle, with an abundance of basic materials. Terrain is also procedurally generated to match the climate, so a forest will have lots of fields and mountains, while the savanna is mostly flat.

“There are a few reasons we chose foxes. We’re huge fans of Studio Ghibli and their work, which was a big stylistic influence. We felt that generic human characters have been done a lot, so we wanted to try something different with anthropomorphic animals. Foxes are clever, so they seemed like a good fit. We should also point out that it’s not just foxes in the game: foxes are the playable characters, but there are other species like bunnies, muskrats, crows, and otters that also exist in the world.”

RAVINE Games

You have full control over your kingdom’s name, crest, and city names. Interestingly, you can’t customize your citizens as they are meant to be their own individuals, and you are their king, not a god. You can give them a few dispositions that will influence their behavior. The game has a narrative, but you have the option to skip the dialogue on future playthroughs.

A key feature of RAEV is the individuality of its citizens, who each have their own traits and preferences. A citizen’s performance is directly tied to whether they like the job you’ve assigned them. The game’s complexity builds slowly, but after a few hours, your small settlement can grow into a powerful kingdom with multiple cities, allowing you to control a large portion of the continent by the endgame.

A massive world to explore, filled with enemies to fight and landmarks to discover

At a certain point in the game, you’ll unlock the Explorer’s Tower. Imagine Frospunk 2, where your explorers go out and discover a world map. You can claim other regions and create new cities, all of which are simulated in real time. This means you can start building something in one city, go to another, and come back to find that the buildings have been completed.

The world map is quite large with 500 regions. Even with only six climates, every region is unique in its combination of resources. This means you’ll need to establish trade routes with convoys to bring resources from one city to another, especially as your kingdom’s needs grow. You can also build an escort to defend your convoys, or you can secure a region to prevent enemies from spawning there.

“In the current build, we just have simple, aggressive units. In early access, there will be other kingdoms on the world map, but you won’t be able to interact with them much. We plan to expand the enemy AI and the governance system between early access and the 1.0 release.”

RAVINE Games

Additionally, you’ll encounter landmarks like dungeons and volcanoes, which have unique effects on the surrounding area. For example, a volcano might make a tundra warmer, but it also creates the risk of rain, ash, and fire. You’ll need to be strategic about how you use them. These landmarks can spawn dangerous creatures that will invade your city, so you’ll need to defend it with towers and your own troops.

You’ll be able to play the demo later this year

An endgame city can have between 500 and 1,000 people. RAVINE Games assured us that the game is highly optimized and won’t lag, as they built the terrain from scratch using a custom engine. As your city grows and becomes more complex, features like the Council will help manage it. The Council allows you to automate basic tasks when you have multiple cities, which helps keep things from getting overwhelming.

Perhaps the most impressive feature is the real-time combat, where you can adjust the speed. The game simulates every piece of a city’s defenses, from walls to towers, and all attacks are highly detailed. You can even travel between your cities, and they will continue to be simulated in the background. The developers have also designed the game to balance both micromanagement and macromanagement, so you won’t be overwhelmed by both at once.

What we saw in the demo was impressive: over 60 unique building types, more than 20 unit types, and three distinct biomes as mentioned before. The game feels massive, with every element intentionally added for a purpose, not just dropped in at random. While a demo is expected later this year, the full game will be released on PC via Steam in 2026. It looks like we have a lot to look forward to.