Valheim

Valheim is an open-world survival game played from a third-person perspective. As fallen Vikings, players must craft tools, build shelters and fight enemies to survive. The game uses low-resolution stylized three-dimensional graphics, with a combat system inspired by action games. Co-operative gameplay with up to ten people and optional player versus player gameplay is also supported.

After creating their Viking character, players can create a world that is procedurally generated from a map seed. Each world is split into several biomes, such as meadows, the Black Forest, swamps, mountains, plains, oceans, the Mistlands, the Deep North, and the Ashlands. Each biome has its own unique enemies, items, and bosses that change how difficult it is to survive there. Valheim operates on an in-game day and night cycle.

Valheim takes place in a world where slain Vikings go to prove themselves fit for the halls of Valhalla. As one such, the player begins with nothing and soon discovers that to reach the Norse afterlife, they must defeat the evils that stalk Valheim. Led only by their instincts and occasional hints from the ravens Hugin and Munin, the player must prepare to fight the sworn enemies of Odin himself.

The term "Valheim" denotes a fictional tenth world within Yggdrasil, the world tree of Norse mythology.

Valheim is developed by Iron Gate Studio, a small Swedish game development studio formed during the game's production. The studio co-founders Richard Svensson and Henrik Tornqvist were co-workers at a local game development company named Pieces Interactive. Before Valheim, Svensson had previously begun development on a simulation game called Tolroko in his spare time; however, this game was ultimately unreleased. According to Tornqvist, Svensson realized that it was "redundant to implement simulation systems for their own sake, rather than for the player". With his next game, Svensson wanted to make an open-world experience where its simulations improved the player's experience.

Svensson began working on Valheim in 2017 under the working title of Fejd (Swedish for "feud"). He ended up leaving Pieces Interactive in 2018 to work on Valheim full time, and convinced Tornqvist to join him later that year. The game was released into alpha in June 2018 and officially released into early access in February 2021.

Valheim received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic. OpenCritic determined that 94% of critics recommended the game.

The early access version of Valheim has received positive reviews from critics. IGN Nordic gave the game a rating of 9/10, stating that the game has "excellent art and music highlighting a world that generates endless exciting stories". PC Gamer called Valheim a "rare exception" for early access games, as well as stating that the game "feels refined and satisfying as it is right now". The Washington Post appreciated that Valheim did not elaborate on certain gameplay and story elements, allowing its fans to build a sense of community with each other by sharing things like design ideas and theories about the game's lore.