- The first work from the Beijing 3-person development team… Launch of Stove following Steam
- A 2D hand-drawn colony simulation where you pioneer a sky island with a small number of survivors.
‘Cloud Dwellers’, a 2D hand-drawn style floating island colony simulation game, was released as an Early Access title on September 3rd through STOVE, a Korean game platform operated by Smilegate, following its release on Steam last April.
‘Cloud Dwellers’ is a sandbox simulation game set on scattered sky islands where you rebuild a lost sky civilization from scratch alongside a small group of survivors. It features warm, hand-drawn graphics where you gather resources, expand settlements, and build your own air colony.
Rebuilding a Sky Civilization Starting with a Few Survivors
The game begins with a stage where you explore every corner of the sky island and gather resources with a small number of survivors. By constructing essential infrastructure such as housing and production bases, and researching new technologies, you gradually evolve the desolate settlement into a self-sustaining aerial colony.
The game features a multi-branched technology tree, over 100 types of buildable buildings, and an interconnected production system. It also includes puzzle-solving elements while exploring individual sky islands, offering the fun of exploration and discovery beyond simple construction and production.
The core mechanism, the ‘Glimmerwave’ system, also catches the eye. Along with the fun of operating machines by distributing and synthesizing energy, it showcases deep gameplay through a network-building system that connects islands with light.
The development team revealed their intention, stating, “We aimed to create an environment where players can enjoy building at their own pace without being bound by fixed formulas.” They further expressed their ambition to deliver a so-called “relaxed simulation experience” where players can find healing by watching the world naturally change over time.
Full Korean support with the launch of Stove
A notable aspect of this Stove launch is the complete Korean localization. Both in-game text and UI are supported in Korean, allowing domestic users to enjoy the game more comfortably.
The development team plans to continue developing the game by actively incorporating the opinions and feedback of Korean users.
However, ‘Cloud Dwellers’ first entered Early Access on Steam on April 17. This launch on Stove is significant in that it expands the service to domestic platforms and fully launches Korean language support.
The early access version is expected to offer approximately 30 to 80 hours of content depending on the play style.
Beijing-based 3-person development team XinZhi’s first work
‘Cloud Dwellers’ is the first title developed by XinZhi (Beijing XinZhi Culture), an indie game developer based in Beijing, China. The game is being produced by a small development team of three people, and the goal is to complete the game together by actively incorporating feedback from community users during the development process.
‘Cloud Dwellers’ has been receiving ‘very positive’ reviews from users since its Steam Early Access launch. On the other hand, as it is currently in the early stages of release on Stove, there are no registered user reviews yet.
According to the Stove page, the Early Access period is planned for about one year, and the official release is targeted for mid-2027. With the official launch, the development team plans to further expand the breadth and depth of content, focusing on exploration, construction, and development.
Attention is focused on whether ‘Cloud Dwellers,’ which combines the warm atmosphere characteristic of hand-drawn art with free-form construction and exploration, can deliver the fresh fun of building new airborne colonies to domestic users following its release on Stove and support for the Korean language.
Cloud Dwellers (Cloud Dwellers) Related Information
| item | detail |
|---|---|
| Developer | XinZhi (Simji, Beijing, China, 3-person team) |
| Publisher | XinZhi (Self-publishing) |
| Genre | 2D Hand-drawn Colony Simulation/Construction |
| platform | PC (Steam, STOVE) |
| Release date | Steam Early Access April 17, 2026 / Stove Early Access September 3, 2026 (Full release targeted for mid-2027) |
| language | Full Korean localization support (Stove version) |
| Reactions/Evaluations | Steam “Very Positive” (many reviews), Stove has no ratings yet |
| Stove Page | Shortcut |
| Steam Page | Shortcut |
