Eldrem Kingdoms: The Creature‑Collecting RPG Made from Indie Aspirations

Eldrem Eldrem Kingdoms: The Creature‑Collecting RPG Made from Indie Aspirations – Photo: CGMagazineEldrem Kingdoms is a title I hadn't heard of until it popped into my inbox, but it seems to have picked up momentum fast! With a successful Kickstarter just finishing up, nearly 300 people tripled Eldrem Studios' $24,000 goal. The company is made up of a team of developers with both indie and AAA experience guiding the way to this success.

Here is a little about the game, directly from their Kickstarter page:

"Explore the Crystal Sky Islands, hunt strange beasts, weaken them, and attempt to tame them. Each creature you capture becomes more than a companion: when summoned, it fights beside you and grants you its unique active abilities and passive powers. Build a roster of creatures with different elements, strengths, and combat roles, then switch between them depending on the challenge ahead. Think of your creature team like a living deck of cards, except your cards can breathe fire, summon lightning, or take to the skies."

Eldrem Studios is building a creature‑collecting fantasy RPG inspired by everything from LOTR to Elden Ring, and of course, Pokémon. CGM had a chat with Eldrem Kingdoms' Game Designer Dragos Inoan and founder John Ispas about how the project began, what's driving the team creatively, and why Early Access is the right path for their growing community.

First, what can you tell us about Eldrem Kingdoms and how it came to be?

Dragos Inoan: Eldrem came as an idea from our founder, John, who is a big fan of Christopher Paolini's Eragon. With the help of George, our technical artist and Joshua, the creature concept artist, the vision started to crystallize. As time went by, a core team was established to build the final versions of the game. It is a passion project that turned very serious really fast.

Eldrem Kingdoms is currently running a successful Kickstarter campaign. How does it feel to have your goal met, and why was Kickstarter the right choice for the team?

John Ispas: It feels fantastic! The campaign will help us complete our next milestone: an early playable pre-alpha. That includes the remaining development work for this stage, alongside the servers and infrastructure needed to give players access.

For us, Kickstarter is an opportunity to accelerate that progress and bring players into development earlier, so their hands-on feedback can help shape the game. The additional funding will also give us room to consider more planned features, while we are keeping our focus on delivering the core experience.

Eldrem Studios is made up of industry veterans from Ubisoft. What kinds of lessons and ideas did those devs bring to the table to develop Eldrem Kingdoms?

Dragos Inoan: One thing to note is that the team is made of people with both small and large team experience. While many of us worked in the corporate world of games in AAA studios such as Ubisoft, we all had side projects or games published as part of smaller indie teams. Large teams allow you to specialize and focus in one field for a long time, while small teams force you to take the big picture into account.

Larger teams can produce impressive worlds like the Assassin's Creed universe, but they are very slow and bureaucratic when you need to change direction. A small team allows you to change directions quickly, adapt and implement test features that are impossible in corporate environments. What we do from time to time as a team is just sit and wonder how much work has been achieved on a month-by-month basis in Eldrem, compared to the "good old days" of AAA.

Of course, we are not bashing AAA development; it's just a very different experience altogether. For some, working in large studios might be just what the doctor ordered.

What were some inspirations for Eldrem Kingdoms?

Dragos Inoan: Apart from the books like Eragon, Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, the Eldrem has a lot of gaming inspirations as well. We are avid players of fantasy and action RPG and creature collector games, and naturally games like Elden Ring, World of Warcraft, and Pokémon were great sources for us to draw on. For combat, we have looked at historical European martial arts books, and we took a page out of them for the fighting styles and stances.

There are also completely new ideas, such as the progression system (which we haven't talked about yet), and other features that really come together to make Eldrem Kingdoms something that we hope to be unique and enjoyable.

Can you share details about the gameplay loop and what players can expect?

Dragos Inoan: There are several intertwined loops in Eldrem, depending on your approach to the game. The most obvious is the combat and progression loop: you engage enemies, and based on your combat performance, you progress to the next level, where you become more powerful, which allows you to explore new and more dangerous areas, and so on. The other loop is the creature loop: you hunt creatures, tame them, train them to become more powerful, defeat other creatures or breed new ones with more exotic traits. Everything, from questing to exploration to creatures and progress, is tied together to allow you to make the most out of the game.

The combat can be approached in several ways, depending on your personal preferences: you can be the "main show" and engage your foes up close and personal with the melee weapon, or you can pick a more ranged approach that relies on your creatures as your tanking partner, and spells to whittle down your enemies. Both approaches work, but people who risk a more daring close combat may get quicker progress.

The plan is to start the game in Early Access. Why do you think that is so much more common in 2026, and what do you hope to gain from that time?

Dragos Inoan: Early access is a great tool for developers to get player feedback, and for the players to get an honest look at a game's progress. On top of that, early access acts like a sale event, allowing the dev team to get extra gas for the development efforts. This is why we believe it's one of the best ways to approach potential players: it's honest, and it helps everyone.

That being said, we are getting close to our pre-alpha stage right now, and Early Access is still a bit into the future, but we hope to deliver something that is loved by the players.

And just for fun, what is your favourite thing about Eldrem Kingdoms so far, whether it is a mechanic, creature, etc.?

Dragos Inoan: Favourite thing? It's pretty hard to choose, but if I had to choose one thing, it's the Argent Eagle. It's a mix of eagle and peacock, with great agility and a personality to boot. Jokes aside, every creature has something special in how it looks and moves. That's why it's a pretty tall order to keep the quality for all the creatures that we are planning to add in the future. Fingers crossed!

Eldrem Kingdoms is available to wishlist now on Steam and the Epic Games Store, and you can find the Kickstarter here.