IKUMA: The Frozen Compass pointing towards 2026 release

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Open-world single-player or co-op Arctic adventure from the creators of Lost Ember coming to PC and consoles

It's out of the fire and into the freezer for Mooneye Games, so to speak, as the indie German developer of 2019's Lost Ember has announced an upcoming new game set in much chillier climes, called IKUMA: The Frozen Compass.

It's 1864 when a ship's cabin boy named Sam gets stranded on an uncharted island in the Arctic, accompanied only by his loyal husky, a sled dog named Ellie. Now, alone in the "unforgiving cold," Sam and Ellie must work together to survive the "unfamiliar terrain and harsh weather" in search of a way home. Utilizing the unique abilities of both boy and dog, you must make use of whatever tools are available to "climb, fish, gather resources ... and try to keep yourself and your companion warm." Along the way, the teenaged orphan Sam will begin to discover his sense of self, but he'll also uncover evidence of a "cursed expedition left buried beneath the ice." You'd best beware what might be "lurking within the fog" if you don't want to suffer the same fate, because this uninviting place is home to the legendary Ijiraq, a creature from real Inuit myths that are "elusive shapeshifters inhabiting a place between the worlds of the living and the dead."

Inspired by the tragic real-world Franklin expedition of 1845, IKUMA is described as an "emotional coming-of-age adventure" that tells a fully voiced tale of "friendship, loss and endurance." The game shares much in common with its predecessor, including its lovely natural environments and third-person 3D controls. Unlike in Lost Ember, however, exploration here is much more open as you "traverse breathtaking Arctic landscapes, from glaciers and caverns to forgotten ships buried in the ice." Under such difficult conditions it'll be a fight to stay alive, though the developers claim that the survival elements are intended more as plot drivers than a significant challenge. The most obvious difference between the two games, of course, is the addition of a second playable character, and how you control each protagonist is up to you. A single player can control both solo, switching between them at will, or you can play co-operatively with a friend, with each partner controlling either Sam or Ellie. 

Having been secretly in production for five years, IKUMA: The Frozen Compass is drawing ever closer toward release sometime in 2026, when it will be launched on Steam for Windows PC, along with console versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.