# Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream

Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is an upcoming adventure stealth game developed by River End Games and published by Nordcurrent. Set in the fictional city of Eriksholm, the game follows Hanna—a young orphan whose brother, Herman, disappears—as she embarks on a quest to uncover the truth behind his disappearance. Featuring isometric gameplay, the player can choose from three playable characters, including Hanna, as they explore the city, complete objectives and puzzles, and employ stealth to evade enemies. The game's setting is inspired by early-20th-century Scandinavian cities and architecture. Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is scheduled to release for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S in 2025.

## Gameplay

Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is an adventure stealth game with an isometric view that allows the player to freely move the camera to survey the environment. Initially, the game features one playable character—a young orphan named Hanna, who embarks on a quest to find her missing brother, Herman, in the fictional city of Eriksholm. As the story progresses, two additional characters—Alva and Sebastian, who assist Hanna on her journey—become playable. Afterwards, the player can swap between characters at any time and use them together to complete objectives, which may have multiple solutions, and solve puzzles. Each character has unique skills, tools, and weapons; for example, Hanna can crawl through vents, Alva can climb drain pipes, and Sebastian can swim. The player uses stealth to evade enemies, and if a character is spotted, the game restarts shortly before that moment. Levels can be explored repeatedly, with collectibles to find and various paths and methods available for each character.

## Synopsis

Set in the fictional city of Eriksholm, the game follows a young orphan Hanna, whose brother Herman disappears after stealing a valuable item, prompting a police pursuit. Hanna enlists the help of Alva and Sebastian and embarks on a quest to uncover the truth behind Herman's disappearance, as events transforms them into symbols of change.

## Development and release

Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream is developed by River End Games, a studio consisting of up to 19 members, including veteran AAA developers who previously worked on Battlefield, Little Nightmares, Mirror's Edge, and Unravel. The game's setting is inspired by early-20th-century Scandinavian cities and architecture, notably Gothenburg—where the studio is based—as well as Stockholm and Malmö, Sweden. Initially, the developers established the game's backstory and populated it with characters; subsequently, they selected their favorite characters and developed individual narratives for them.
When the studio began pre-production, it planned to use either Unreal Engine 5 or Unity. However, since Unity had not yet implemented physically based rendering at that moment, River End felt that Unreal Engine would be the "natural choice". Initially, the team employed proprietary face-scanning technology that produced "really good" results, although the process was described as "very slow and tedious". Eventually, the developers adopted Epic Games' MetaHuman technology to transfer actors' facial performances to character models, deeming it "an extremely useful tool" for their small team. For performance reasons, the studio used "baked lighting" while relying on Unreal Engine's Lumen lighting technology for pre-rendered cutscenes.
Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream was announced at the Future Games Show in June 2024. It is scheduled to release for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S in 2025.