Press kit · November 2026

Vikings: Northern Colonization

“When the army comes, you had better be at sea.”

Three Viking clans flee a doomed homeland, cross an unknown sea and build a colony with whatever they brought along. Vikings: Northern Colonization is a turn-based strategy game where the exodus, the crossing and the first winter decide everything — alone against the computer, or with three players online.

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Alternative Way Software announces Vikings: Northern Colonization

Paris, November 2026 — Independent studio Alternative Way Software announces Vikings: Northern Colonization, a turn-based strategy game for PC (Steam), set in a Viking world painted in watercolour.

An army is marching on the homeland, on a known date. Build the longships, gather food, choose who boards — and leave in time. Then the sea: fog lifted tile by tile, storms driven by the wind, supplies dwindling every turn. On the island at last, you start again from what is in the hold: forum, houses, workshops, walls, and a first winter that forgives nothing.

Three clans fight over the same island. Turns are simultaneous: everyone gives orders, then everything resolves at once. Play alone against two computer clans, or with three players online at your own pace: a few minutes a day, one game over a few days.

Trailers

Announcement teaser (56 s) · FR 1080p · EN 1080p
Gameplay teaser (85 s) · Download in 1080p

What sets it apart

  • The sea as a playing field

    You only see the longship's tile and its neighbours; the coast appears when you touch it. Food on board decides everything; storms are visible and driven by the wind.

  • Scarcity

    You build with what you brought. Leave light and early, or late and many: timber for the longship against hands in the fields.

  • An economy you can read

    A shared market whose prices are made by the three clans, winters with announced thresholds. The player reads prices and thresholds; never does the maths in their head.

  • Seasons that matter

    Three turns per season: sowing in spring, harvest in autumn, and a mild, normal or harsh winter that burns timber and furs.

  • Watercolour, from the opening to the villager

    A 3D map in a cold palette — bluish greys, ochres, brick red — and a single camera, from the island seen whole to the villager sowing.

Playing with three

  • Simultaneous turns

    Everyone decides on the same state; orders are sealed then resolved together. Nobody waits for their turn.

  • At your own pace

    A few minutes a day: give your orders when you can, get notified when the next turn awaits.

  • A shared island

    One market, whose prices are made by the three clans; explored shores are visible to all.

  • No favoured seat

    The balance of the three starting positions is measured over hundreds of games before anyone plays them.

Born of a book, dice and a calculator

It all starts with Sigur, the story of the extraordinary fate of a Viking forced to leave his homeland. As a child, without a computer, the studio's founder wants to play that story: there is no game for it.

So he designs one, complete: clans, resources, a sea to cross, dice to settle the uncertain, and a calculator, paper and pencil to keep the books of an already demanding economy.

Thirty years later, the game is the same — an exodus, a sea, three clans fighting over a land. The calculator has become an engine that measures every rule over thousands of games; the paper, a watercolour.

Logos & key art

Press contact

contact@alternativeway.eu

Alternative Way Software, 173 rue de Courcelles, 75017 Paris, France

Keys for press and creators: on request, when the demo opens.

Alternative Way Software