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Press release:
[Aotearoa / New Zealand] – January 26, 2026 – Stormcloak Games and indie.io are proud to announce that Adaptory, the indie survival base-building sim, is now available in Early Access on Steam! This ambitious, systems-driven adventure puts players in indirect control of a crew of Terranean explorers suddenly woken up from cryosleep as their starship crashes into the surface of an uncharted planetoid. A mission of exploration turns into one of survival.

Players start with a four-person crew, each procedurally generated with a unique set of personality traits and specialized skills, and a crashed ship. From there, it’s up to them to figure out how to ensure their party can survive on the planetoid. Interlocking systems simulate chemical and physical properties of over fifty materials offer unlimited solutions in an environment filled with challenges and limited resources. Players need to think ahead in planning their expansion, with complexity naturally growing as the crew explores the planetoid and locates or fails to locate new resources.

Random events will stress test the player’s crew and base constantly. It might be a meteor shower damaging the surface of the planetoid and venting a crucial area to the vacuum of space, a solar eclipse suddenly leaving the base without power, plunging the tree farm into darkness and depriving everyone of oxygen, or an explorer holding their breath a little too long in a cave filled with carbon dioxide.

Beyond accident-proofing, players need to tend to the crew’s mental health: Their randomly generated personalities may mesh together – or drive a wedge between them. Coupled with other pressures, the mood may dip – and that affects the explorers’ ability to work, movement speed, and general resilience. Neglecting the social aspect of the base can lead to a cascading failure even in the most optimized base designs!

While complex, Adaptory ensures that it is not overwhelming through CHARLI, a cheeky artificial intelligence that survived the crash and introduces each system to the player through a series of contextual tutorials. These do not limit the players’ ability to build and explore, allowing them to set their own pace. This also ensures that every mishap is just another step in understanding and mastering the game’s core mechanics and creating a truly sustainable settlement.

Sustainability is the focus of the game’s gameplay, encouraging resiliency and long-term thinking. Instead of terrifying aliens, the challenge lies in surviving on a seemingly barren world. With the right plan, mistakes can be recovered from, creating an experience where nurturing a crew and base back to full health is more rewarding than simply restarting the game from scratch.

As an Early Access title, Adaptory will continue to evolve in close collaboration with its community. Stormcloak Games plans to actively incorporate player feedback as development progresses toward a full 1.0 release. Planned updates include expanding the research tree with new systems, including material refining and smelting, advanced heating and cooling mechanics, and ever deeper layers of simulation that further challenge players to build resilient, self-sustaining colonies.

Are you up for the task? Adaptory is now available in Early Access on Steam for USD $19.99, with a 20% launch discount! Join the Discord server and a growing community of Adaptory fans actively involved in helping shape the game’s design- then follow Stormcloak Games on YouTube, BlueSky, Mastodon, and Instagram to stay up to date!

ABOUT STORMCLOAK GAMES

Founded in 2021, Stormcloak Games is an independent game development studio based in Aotearoa / New Zealand. The talented team of creatives from around the world combines their passion for story-driven gameplay, deep “thinky” systems, and emergent narratives. They are currently hard at work perfecting Adaptory, their bold debut title following its launch into Early Access.