Set in an unforgiving Lovecraftian stone age, players must find ways to grow and protect the tribe from what lurks in the surrounding shadows. All the tribe members have their own personality and an AI-driven will-of-their- own that will govern decision making.

Fortunately you can influence them with rituals, buildings, upgrades and other difficult decisions to get things done!

Whatever it takes... The Tribe Must Survive!

Starbreeze has signed an agreement with development studio Walking Tree Games to publish their upcoming game The Tribe Must Survive, marking a return to the world of third-party publishing by Starbreeze, the team behind the commercial hit Payday series. Today’s announcement also includes a newly dedicated publishing arm of Starbreeze, who will apply their deep expertise in marketing, community management, and development to bring 3rd party games to the world at large.

“The Tribe Must Survive is a game that immediately gets you hooked and allows for a lot of innovative additions over its lifetime,” said Tobias Sjögren, CEO of Starbreeze. “We are certain that this game will be greatly appreciated, not only by our existing audience but also a whole new player base. Starbreeze's growing publishing team can help with our known expertise in keeping players engaged over a long period of time.”

Walking Tree Games was founded in 2021 by two friends with a combined 23 years in the game development industry. They previously worked on titles such as Zombie Gunship on iOS. and Dawn of Steel. A brief demo for The Tribe Must Survive was released on Steam in February this year and was downloaded over 4.8 thousand times, with the full game being wish-listed by more than 6.7 thousand players.

Through their publishing efforts, Starbreeze will support marketing, community management and platform relations, while also providing funding for the game development. The publishing agreement with Starbreeze is pending that the developer gets funding from the German federal games industry-funding programme. The full game is scheduled for early access launch in 2023 and full launch in 2024.

“With The Tribe Must Survive we want to offer something really fresh and unique,” said Simon Mittrücker at Walking Tree Games. “A big part of that is fostering a community that helps the game with feedback and ideas. Starbreeze has a great history of creating outstanding IP, building huge communities, and successfully running games-as-a-service, making them the ideal partner for The Tribe Must Survive.”

“We are excited to embark on this journey together with Walking Tree Games to restart our third-party publishing,” said Staffan Nyström, VP Publishing at Starbreeze. “Our strategy is focused on publishing the right games for our community. By utilizing our expertise, leveraging our specific publishing skills, and broadening our games portfolio, we will be growing our community and strengthening Starbreeze’s future reach.”

The Tribe Must Survive is in development for PC (Steam) with Early Access planned for 2023 and full release in 2024.