A downloadable game

Sail the seas, captain your crew and seek out treasure and adventure! A turn-based roguelike and role-playing game, in Distant Isles you will explore procedural islands, find treasure, and fight all manner of creatures. Make sure you manage your resources wisely - danger awaits at every turn.

Distant Isles is in early development. This is a playtest, to gather early feedback. Please note that there will be bugs and balancing issues, your patience and input is very much appreciated!

Feedback can be provided using this form.

If you like what you tried, please feel free to Follow and Wishlist us on Steam here.


Changelog
16 Jan 2026

  • Added camera pan with mouse at screen edges
  • Added feedback when party cannot pick up an item due to inventory space
  • Fixed resilience not updating after hiring a PC
  • Fixed going through Cave not revealing fog at the other side
  • Fixed bug that resulted in Fog of War revealing stopping
  • Added saving/loading of player settings, e.g. screen resolution

12 Jan 2026

  • Added Controls & Instructions to in-game Menu, opens following starting screen.
  • Added Abandon Run to in-game Menu
  • Reduced time to hover for tooltips

More information

Download

Download
260116_1_Distant Isles Play Test.zip 38 MB

Comments

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Turtwiggy66 days ago(+1)

Hello! I like the art style, and just wrote down my initial reactions as I played it

  • I wanted to be able to pan the camera with the mouse, not just WASD
  • Theres no consistent way to close ui
  • I wanted to be able to hover on the map to identify points of interest and didnt think this was possible, as I was too impatient to wait for the hover (why is there a delay?)
  • I went to the town, traded away my rope to rest, and then had no idea what to do next. I tried to explore, exhausted again, no items, keeps throwing away items => and now I have 0 gold and cannot rest(?) Also, trying to do anything shakes the screen and informs me i'm exhausted, which I already know but can't do anything about (!). At this point I tried to restart the game to restart the run, but
  • It turns out it saved my progress, and im not sure if I can restart my progress.
  • I kept just trodding on (which feels too over the top), gained some mental injury, and the run ended. There still doesnt seem to be a way to restart
  • I started the game again (and wanted to skip the unskippable intro), and it appears I've started the game with 0 items and 0 energy (as its from my last successful save). It appears I am done!
Reply
worldform66 days ago

Thanks so much for testing it @Turtwiggy, on each of your points:

  • Will add pan with the mouse
  • Will add a consistent way to close UI (e.g. a cross in top-right corner, and press-ESC to exit)
  • Will reduce/remove tooltip hover length for island elements. Just an FYI you can press TAB to highlight all island elements.
    • Just on that, will add a controls / instructions page to the menu that explains that!
  • After you're exhausted, you should pretty rapidly lose the game (i.e. gain an injury, then die and reach the Game Over screen). Clearly that wasn't happening, I'll need to check this!
  • Yes progress is saved - will add an 'Abandon Run & Exit' button to the Menu
  • Will make the intro skip if you have already viewed it!

Really appreciate your feedback.

Cheers

- Elliot

Reply
worldform66 days ago

Hi Turtwiggy, just an FYI I have added 'Instructions & Controls' and 'Abandon Run' items to the in-game menu. I will prioritise skipping the introduction and saving Settings over the next few days.

I would really appreciate any feedback if you get the chance on the new Instructions & Controls item (it will open up following the starting screen).

Cheers

-Elliot

Reply
Turtwiggy65 days ago(+1)

Will give it another go 💪

Reply
Turtwiggy65 days ago (8 edits) (+1)

Feedback round 2! Again just entirely personal preference :) Thanks for the run restart!

  • The Control and Instruction screen makes it a lot clearer what I'm able to do and expecting - so thank you!
  • The game starts a little zoomed out for my liking by default
  • The delay reduction on the hover feels better (or, I just know to leave it)
  • I hovered dry grain, I wanted to know what the little icon is (right of common) was (I was able to find out it's bartering from the player menu), but i think perhaps if you hover something, then hover the ui it should keep it there
  • I tried to hover the icons under the player portrait as I wasn't exactly sure what they are, but I assume (weapon, something, armour) but theres no text that pops up
  • I spent a while faffing with the grain outside of town, and didnt have any feedback that I couldnt pick it up because my inventory was full.
  • I went to the town and hired a party member for some grain. Success? I also traded my other grain for a rumor. I'm also pretty sure my new resilience should be 80 (40 base, 20 party, 20 party) but the resilience in the top of my screen says 60. (note, this eventually updated, but not after I hired the member)
  • I decided to take a risk and sell the newly aquired grain for a bow, as there seems to be something to fight above, so decided to equip it on my newly hired party member. The bow auto-equipped, which made me realise I needed to equip the hatchet and equipment in general (duh)
  • Talked to a random traveller, got in a fight. Got obliterated lol. Went back to town to rest, ( find out it doesnt heal injuries and party members RIP ) Try to fight the traveller again as I assumed there would be 1 injured guy left (as I killed 1 previously), but I think the encounter reset and I have made a big tactical error and this is the end of this run (as no retreat!)  GG

Will try another run again :) For me, next run I'd focus more on seeing what melee/ranged stats impact the weapons as my bow-guy missed all his shots.

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Deleted post65 days ago
Deleted 65 days ago
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Turtwiggy65 days ago (9 edits) (+1)

Feedback round 3! (my 3rd run)

  • I notice I start with inventory size 6 not 4 so know i can immediately pick up grain.I notice by this point I start to feel some familiarity in items and strategy - which is fun. I hire a guy. I buy him a mace. I manage to use the hatchet to chop down some trees. Noice! I manage to climb a lookout with rope.
  • The pathfinding seems a bit weird. Like I'd rather go through trees and chop them but it seems to be taking me weird routes around the outskirts costing way extra resilience. (I think the boar I was trying to get too was in a closed off area surrounded by trees).
  • I fight a boar with a bit more prep (which is good, as my resilience is super low by this point and not much I can get too). Oh lord. The boar has murdered both my guys. At this point im out of supplies and think this run is GG. ( -- I manage to get to the shrine in the next run, after I hire a combat-oriented member first).

General feedback

  • I'd like is to see the stats of the person I'm hiring before I hire them
  • I went through a cave (without a torch), and when I came out the cave the other side is just black, and cant see my party (after moving once, I can). This may be intentional, but maybe highlight squares in a 1x1 radius to see where your party ends up
  • I think if you pathfind beyond your energy, it should stop at your max energy, to give you a chance to eat if you can.
  • I think you should not be able to sell items equipped, or at least they should be in a separate place in your inventory
  • Moving to a tile with something on is fiddly
  • After visiting 2 shrines, not sure what else there was to do
Reply
worldform65 days ago (3 edits)

Thanks so much for coming back and providing further feedback Turtwiggy! To address your feedback we'll:

  • Add feedback when the party can't pickup an item due to lack of inventory space
  • Add tooltips for Resilience, the Equip slots, and the Party & Character sheet
  • Check if/why Resilience bar isn't updating after you hire a new party member
  • Figure out how to present stats of the Hiree's in a better way
  • Check if/why fog isn't revealed on the other side when you move through a Cave tunnel
  • Give an opportunity to eat when resilience hits zero
  • Sounds like you got beaten fairly easily by a boar and pirates who were guarding a traveller. I'll also look at encounter difficulty.
Reply
sicave66 days ago (1 edit)

incredibly difficult to understand. also can't move more than two tiles at a time for some reason.

Reply
worldform66 days ago(+1)

Thanks for testing @sicave, we will add an instructions / controls page to the menu to explain how the game works!

Reply
worldform66 days ago

Hi @sicave, just an FYI I have added 'Instructions & Controls' and 'Abandon Run' items to the in-game menu.

I would really appreciate any feedback if you get the chance on the new Instructions & Controls item (it will open up following the starting screen).

Cheers

-Elliot

Reply
sicave61 days ago(+1)

Now that I've gotten a chance to play it, I think the starting difficulty curve is (with respect to preferences) way too high, it is incredibly difficult to get anywhere farther than the first couple days, if the profit of the day-to-day is made by exploring, then why is it nigh-impossible to explore anywhere actually distant without incurring some losses? It's easy to get into a hardlock where you have nothing to sell to regain resilience, which you need to get sellables.

Reply
worldform61 days ago(+1)

Thanks sicave that's really helpful (and exactly the sort of feedback we're after!)

Did you essentially find you weren't able to get far across the island without running out of resilience (and food), and you didn't find enough food along the way?

Reply
sicave61 days ago(+1)

there was some food, but the food was usually more useful for trading than eating, you were kind of anchored around the towns while trying to find food, which is exhaustable.
Maybe food can regenerate else where? or the trees have fruit in them?

Reply