Interview: Pioneers of Pagonia creator Volker Wertich on reaching the end of the Early Access road

It’s become an annual ritual for me to meet Volker Wertich – the mind behind one of my favorite series from childhood days in the form The Settlers – at Gamescom to speak about Pioneers of Pagonia. The city-builder is not only a spiritual successor to his older brainchild, but one of the most popular indie games Germany has produced in recent years. Released into Early Access in December 2023, the game is finally reaching the end of its long road to Version 1.0 with its planned launch on December 11, 2025.

In Cologne, Wertich gives me the rundown of what’s been happening with the game and what the big plans are for its full launch — and beyond.

A proper campaign mode has long been one of the most requested features by the community and Envision Entertainment will finally fulfill that wish with 1.0. In the campaign’s story, a grave disaster has shattered and split the world’s continents into small islands, covering the lands in mysterious fog that holds all sorts of dangers which hadn’t existed before. It’s the player’s job to pierce this veil, combat the new-found threats, and resettle the islands to unite the lost Pagonians once more.

However, the campaign will not simply consist of a series of standard skirmish matches. There will be special mission types, Wertich says, such as having to hold locations in a timed defense, and the campaign’s islands will feature unique landscapes and scenes. In addition to in-game videos teaching players how to play the game, which have been added in a previous update, the campaign will function as a tutorial, as players will unlock more and more buildings and options over the course of the story. In total, Wertich tells me, the campaign will last for about 30 hours. At the end, players will be thoroughly prepared to take on custom matches.

Among other new features of the campaign are powerful leader units and massive landscape obstacles — but Wertich keeps his cards close to his chest, where these are concerned. Like skirmish maps, the campaign can be played in co-op mode with two players teaming up and controlling the same settlement together, which is a neat addition to make the experience more social. Watching my father play The Settlers was the first way I ever connected with gaming, so the ability to play a game like this together would have been amazing back then.

Another massive addition coming with Version 1.0 (though the beta will be available in October) is the ability to create custom maps using an editor, which Wertich shows me. Imagine a D&D map with empty hexagons. You start off with those blank hexagons and fill them with resources, points of interest, enemy camps, and terrain types, transforming the map until it looks somewhat like Civilization 6’s strategic view — and then you’re basically done, because the game handles the rest.

“And here’s the clue,” Wertich says. “We’re using procedural generation anyway, right? We’re using that to create all the visuals for you, so you won’t have to place down individual flowers and shrubs to make it pretty.”

Wertich shows me the progress from a hex map over a height map to an actual 3D model of the island, which is then transformed into a playable map. It looks impressively easy to use, though he says that players will certainly have to spend a bit of time getting used to the tools.

As someone who used to dabble in StarCraft 2’s map editor back in the day and always lost the necessary patience when it came to actually decorating maps, having the game take over this particular task is very intriguing. Naturally, there will be some people who’d love to beautify their creations manually — as always, you can’t make everyone happy.

Once a map is done, you can test it yourself and share it with the community. PoP will feature in-game map sharing via mod.io to ensure compatibility beyond just Steam — a confirmation that Envision intends to bring the city-builder to other storefronts in the future.

Aside from adding more content and overhauling several of the game’s systems in response to community feedback, the team recently enabled a new way to start the game, which has really resonated with the players. Instead of starting with a good amount of people and resources, the new kick-off conditions throw players onto an island with the bare minimum — it’s a challenge many players are enjoying. Being able to deliver such vastly different experiences to players is one of PoP’s big strengths, says Wertich.

Combat has always been a bit of a hot topic for PoP and Envision had to rework the system a few times before finally reaching a good spot. 

“I didn’t mind it, but some players got very aggravated by the randomness of how you or your foe could have heroes with the power to defeat ten opposing units,” Wertich explains. “We did some tweaks to ensure that things are more balanced and people get less unlucky.”

Another change allowed multiple units to engage with a single unit, departing from the previous system that favored single combat between troops. “A lot of units just stood by and watched and that didn’t look great,” Wertich says. “People really wanted us to change that and now combat is looking a lot better. But what we always have to consider is that we don’t want to be an RTS. In that case we’d attract a totally different playerbase that would say, ‘Oh my god, why is building up so complicated?!’ That’s why combat has to remain simple enough that you don’t need any micromanagement or activate any special abilities. It’d speak to a different audience.”

I add that the same argument can be made against adding a PvP mode, which Wertich agrees with: “It would only be interesting for a very small part of our community. The only way I can see PvP happening for us is if things just happen to align that way because of something else. It’s not something we’ll be targeting.”

Despite Early Access ending in December, Wertich wants to continue working closely with fans, which he says was one of the biggest advantages of using an Early Access model. 

“I can only say that it’s been a great experience. It not only secures the continued funding of the project, but you get so much feedback and that leads to your actual release being better. That’s not to be underestimated, because that’s far more valuable than what you get from a beta test a month ahead of release,” Wertich says. “Working with the community is super positive. We will certainly use Early Access for our next project as well, whenever that might be.”

Version 1.0 will not put an end to PoP’s development. Envision will continue to support the game on a technical level as well as with content. A fresh roadmap will be revealed in January 2026 to inform players about what’s to come. While Wertich, naturally, doesn’t want to say too much too soon, he tells me that players can expect a mixture of free updates and paid expansions — the winning formula of many modern strategy games.

“What I can say is that we’ve already been very focused on the economy with over 70 buildings and over 100 goods. We don’t plan on doubling those numbers,” Wertich teases. “We’ll focus on other points.”

Wertich takes Envision’s engagement with the community very seriously, however, so what will be on the roadmap will be heavily influenced by what players will be saying about Version 1.0 — the developers might have some ideas and a direction of their own, but they are ready to put it behind people’s wishes in the pipeline.

“We want to work with the community,” he says. “If we’d have set plans for the next two years, we’d be lying about that intention.”

Pioneers of Pagonia’s full release on PC is scheduled to take place on December 11, 2025.

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