- Sneak Peek Roundup 2 - 10 September 2026
Hey Survivors, we hope everyone is doing well!Today, we’d like to show you some of our latest sneak peeks that were shared on our Discord server but never made it onto Steam. If you missed them, here’s a full roundup featuring new props and weapons, our clothing system, clothing and accessory fitting, a glimpse at our farming system, world design, and much more.Military area One of our lovely Developers, who is focused on bringing the world of Ardem to life, is currently working on a Military Areas and many more with a strong focus on realism. From the buildings and surrounding environment to the props and smaller details, everything is being carefully designed to fit the location and, most importantly, feel right from the moment you first arrive. That’s something we really want to achieve across Minnowa: when you enter a new location, the atmosphere should immediately make sense and gi…
- PUBLIC PLAYTEST OCT 15 · A CLOSED PT BEGINS AUG 31 - 12 August 2026
PUBLIC PLAYTEST OCT 15 · A CLOSED PT BEGINS AUG 31Survivors,Big update on our playtest roadmap and if you want to get in early, you'll want to read this to the end.We've been reading your questions everywhere, "When can I finally play?" and "When is Ardem actually coming out?" Fair questions. Here's the honest answer: the public playtest will be our compass. What we learn there determines how much work still goes into the Early Access build, so long-story short: the public playtest sets the Early Access date.Here's the plan:🔒 August 31, 2026 -> Closed Playtest begins. We'll start with smaller waves, not thousands of players, more like a few 100s on day one.🌍 October 15, 2026 -> Public Playtest follows. This is when everyone gets in.Why this way?Simple: Build is not good enough or neither in a stable state yet plus over 600,000+ of you have signed up.Multiplayer is the heart of Ardem,…
- Sneak Peek: Weapons & World Design - 6 August 2026
Otti and Dini are currently working on all the sheds, barns, and similar locations throughout the world of Ardem. They’re filling these areas with furniture, props, and other details while preparing them for loot spawns. Every piece of furniture and every prop is carefully selected to fit the location and surroundings, making each area feel more natural, immersive, and believable.Our 3D modeler and animation artist, Frano, has been working on a lot of exciting things lately, including weapons, attachments, and their animations. Frano is focused on making everything as detailed and realistic as possible while ensuring that everything makes sense from a practical perspective. For example, certain attachments may require specific additional attachments or components in order to function properly. The goal is to make the weapons and their customization feel authentic, detailed, and logical.…
- Sneak Peek Roundup - 14 July 2026
Hey Survivors, we hope everyone is doing well!Today we’re bringing together several sneak peeks that were previously shared mainly on our Discord server and never made it onto Steam. If you missed them, here’s a full roundup featuring the motel area, new props, clothing updates, a military-style checkpoint, character editor, a glimpse of our UI and zombie facial expressions.Facial Expressions for ZombiesOur team has been testing a variety of facial expressions for different zombie behaviors, including idle wandering, spotting a player, chasing, attacking, and other gameplay situations. The goal is to make every encounter feel more intense and believable.When a zombie notices you and starts sprinting in your direction, we want its face to immediately communicate aggression and danger. Even in these early stages, we’re very happy with the results and the overall direction of the system.Ne…
- Sneak Peek: Summer Camp - 7 July 2026
Our developer, Otti, has been working hard on the Summer Camp, which is still a work in progress. We wanted to give you all a little preview of what he has been building so far! The Summer Camp will be a large, nature-filled area featuring a classic camp lake and everything you'd expect from the perfect camping getaway. Whether you're looking to relax, explore, or roleplay a camping trip with friends, it'll be the ideal spot. More sneak peeks coming soon. Stay safe, Survivors.And don't forget to join our Discord server!
- Sneak Peek: Character Editor - 27 June 2026
Today, we want to give you a first look at the Character Editor in Ardem.The screenshots speak quite well for themselves, but we still wanted to share a bit of insight into the direction behind this feature. One of our biggest goals for Ardem is to give players as much freedom as possible when it comes to their in-game identity. Your character should feel like your own, and that means giving you the tools to shape them in a way that feels personal and authentic. From the very beginning, we want to support both male and female characters, different body shapes, a variety of ethnicities, and multiple face presets to give players a strong foundation for creating the character they want. On top of that, we have also implemented a more detailed editing system with around 50 sliders for facial customization, allowing you to adjust smaller features and fine-tune your character even further. We…
- Crafting System Expansion | Community Feedback - 13 June 2026
Good day, Survivors, We’re currently gathering feedback and inspiration to help further expand and refine the crafting system in Ardem, and we’d love to hear your thoughts. Crafting is already an important part of the survival experience, covering a range of essential items such as tools, consumables, repair materials, and more. While the core system is in place, our focus now is on identifying gaps, missing items, and additional ideas that could make crafting even more engaging, diverse, and meaningful. That’s where you come in. We want to know what you would like to see added to the crafting system in Ardem. Think about items such as tools, weapons, utility objects, consumables, decorations, or other craftable content that you feel is currently missing or could enhance gameplay. Please focus on the item itself and its purpose. What would it do, and why would it be useful in the game?…
- Sneak Peek: Nature Reclaims Ardem - 18 May 2026
Hello Survivors! It's sneak peek time! 👀 We apologize for the recent lack of sneak peeks. We've been working at full speed behind the scenes and are excited to get back to sharing regular updates. Today, we want to share a glimpse of the world design currently taking shape in Ardem. It is very important to us that the world feels truly abandoned and believable. Nature shouldn't stop at the doorway just because a building exists. Large, open industrial spaces like the Claypit allow wind, rain, and sunlight to enter for years without maintenance, meaning vegetation slowly starts reclaiming the interiors as well. Small details like these help enhance the atmosphere and make the world feel more authentic and apocalyptic. We've also finally started working on the first proper interiors for the Claypit area. A lot of people have asked if interiors in Ardem will stay empty. Definitely not! We…
- A New Era for Ardem - 20 March 2026
Hello Survivors,It’s been a little while since our last formal update, and we wanted to pull back the curtain on what’s been happening behind the scenes at Techtive Games. We are currently in the strongest position we have ever been in, and we’re excited to share the next steps for Ardem. A New Era for ArdemThe biggest change is our foundation and growth. Thanks to new private funding, we are currently in the process of scaling up from a passion project to a "real studio". We are expanding our team to 15 full-time developers and are currently setting up entirely new professional workflows, pipelines, and tech-infrastructure. While structuring a studio takes time, this heavy focus on deep pre-production and organization is already paying off. Our growing team is setting everything up perfectly so that once full-scale development kicks off, we can hit the ground running. With this new fou…
- Dev Diary December – New Systems & Locations - 17 December 2025
Hello Survivors,Our December Dev Diary is now live, and this time we are covering some of the most requested features and systems we have worked on over the past weeks.In this episode, we take a closer look at our brand new interaction system, which replaces the old pixel precise highlighting with a more intuitive and responsive approach. Interactions are now clearer, easier to understand and much smoother to use, especially when dealing with smaller items or complex objects.We are also finally talking about something the community has been asking for for a long time: trailers. We have started implementing multiple trailer types, including storage trailers and heavy utility variants, opening up entirely new ways to transport large amounts of cargo across the world.Another big highlight is a brand new location based resource area. This new location introduces clay as a unique resource th…
- 100,000 Wishlists! Thank You Survivors! - 2 December 2025
Hello Survivors!We are absolutely speechless. We sat down to write this announcement to celebrate hitting 100,000 Wishlists for ARDEM... but you guys are so fast that we have already crossed 110,000!We want to send a massive THANK YOU to everyone supporting us here on Steam, on our Social Media channels, and in our Discord community. Interacting with you, reading your feedback, and seeing the constant stream of ideas is the best part of our day.The huge interest in the game motivates us to work even harder. Knowing that so many of you are waiting for ARDEM pushes us to prioritize your ideas and really focus on making this the Next-Gen Open World Survival Game you all deserve. We are building this with you, not just for you.How you can support us (and get into the Playtest!) Many of you have asked how you can support the development. The biggest help for us right now is simple:Sign up fo…
- New Dev Diary – Monthly Progress Update is Here! - 14 November 2025
Hello SurvivorsWe are excited to share our new Dev Diary, the first entry in a monthly series where we take you behind the scenes of Ardem. In each episode we will talk about what the team has been working on, show progress and give you insights into worldbuilding, systems and upcoming features.This months Dev Diary covers some of the latest updates in environment art and level design, including a look at new locations that are being added to Ardem.We hope you enjoy this deeper look into our development process. Thank you for all your support and stay tuned for next months episode.See you in Ardem
- Ardem - A New Era Begins - 17 October 2025
Hey everyone,It has been a bit quiet around Ardem lately and for good reason. We have been working hard behind the scenes on some massive changes and today we finally get to show you what we have been up to.Ardem is getting a completely new look!We have reworked the entire visual style from stylized and low poly to hyper realistic. This change has been part of our long term vision and allows us to build a world that feels more immersive, authentic and intense than ever before.Check out the brand new announcement trailer right here!But that is not the only big change.After a lot of feedback from all of you, we have decided to replace the robot enemies with zombies.Yes, that was a tough call for us, but it is clear this direction connects much more with our community. And do not worry, human bandits might still make their way into the game later. 😉Looking ahead, the next few months are g…
- Sneak Peek Roundup - April Edition - 2 May 2025
Hey everyone! If you’ve been hanging out in our Discord lately, you’ve probably seen a ton of bite-sized sneak peeks popping up. But if you missed them - or you're more of a Steam scroller - don’t worry! It’s time to round them all up and drop them here for your viewing pleasure. Let’s take a look at what we’ve been working on over the past few weeks in Ardem: So, let’s round up another month's worth! #1 – Locked, Loaded, and... Kinda Sarcastic? We kicked things off with a new weapon in the works—the M14! It’s one of ten new guns coming to Ardem, and while it's technically for shooting robots... well, we’ll let your moral compass (and server rules) decide what really happens out there. https://playardem.com/images/roundup/april25/ROUNDUP_APRIL_M14_01.png #2 – Custom Characters Are Coming The days of playing as "that one bald dude" are coming to an end. We shared our first look at the up…
- The Open Alpha will REMAIN OPEN! - 9 April 2025
Hey, everyone! We’ve been blown away by the response to the Open Alpha! We’ve been getting a ton of feedback, squashing bugs we didn’t even know about and having fun jumping in and playing with people. It’s with that in mind that we’ve made a decision… We’re keeping the Alpha OPEN! We may close it as we get closer to our Early Access launch but for now, the gates are staying open! We hope you stick with us on this journey as we work towards making the game we all want to play! See you in Ardem, - Techtive Games
- Getting Started in Playtest 4 - 28 March 2025
Hi everyone! We've loved seeing so many of you jumping into Playtest 4 for Ardem already but if you're going in for the first time this coming weekend (or any time really), this video should help get you started! We can't wait to see even more of you checking out Ardem! If you run into any issues, you can raise a bug report by pressing * on your numpad. And if you need more information, have some suggestions, or just want to find people to play with, head over to our Discord! The community over there are finding all sorts of stuff (seriously, finding bugs is actually a good thing while we're still in alpha!) and giving us some great feedback and ideas! See you in Ardem, - Techtive Games
- Playtest 4 is LIVE NOW! - 24 March 2025
Hello, everyone! That's right; the playtest is LIVE RIGHT NOW! If you registered, you should be able to start your download immediately. If you haven't, just hit the button on the main page, and you'll be able to join us as well! We've created this getting started guide, which you might find helpful if this is your first time playing Ardem. We can't wait to hear what you think of the game, so join us in Discord and let us know! Also, if you find any bugs (which is a good thing, as this is an alpha test after all!), please hit the * button on your numpad to submit it! See you in Ardem! - Techtive Games
- Get Ready! Ardem Open Alpha Returns March 24th! - 21 March 2025
Hey everyone, Mark your calendars, the next Ardem Open Alpha is happening on March 24th! If you’ve already signed up on Steam, you’re all set. But here’s a heads-up: if you’ve played in a previous test, Steam won’t automatically notify you when the playtest goes live. You’re still registered and good to go, but to make sure you don’t miss out, hit that Set A Reminder button on this post to get a notification when it’s time to play. Also, make sure you’re in our Discord so you’ll know the moment you can start downloading and playing! We’d love your help in spreading the word, tell your friends, share it online, and let’s give the servers a real workout while you check out the latest updates! We can’t wait to see you all in Ardem on March 24th! See you there! – Techtive Games
- Our Next Open Alpha Takes Place March 24th! - 10 March 2025
Hello, everyone! You read it right: the next Open Playtest will happen on March 24th! If you've already registered on Steam, you're good to go! However, if you have played in one of our tests before, Steam won't let you know when it goes live by default. You are already registered for this next playtest and will be able to download and play on the 24th; Steam just won’t send you a handy email reminder! You can, however, click the Set A Reminder button right here on this post and you will get a ping from Steam. Also, make sure you're in our Discord to know the second you can download and start playing! We would love it if you let your friends, communities, and the internet know about this alpha so we really can stress test the servers while you check out the new things we have to show you! We will have more news on what those things are as the weeks continue. We can't wait to join you al…
- Design Competition Winner - 3 March 2025
Hello, everyone! You may recall a month ago we launched our Design Competition over on our Discord. We have read all the entries and considered all the options, but we have finally chosen the winner! Congratulations, elizarya, for coming up with the winner! "A drive in theatre could be fun maybe. You could even have it able to play a movie if you wanted Theres a survival game I am playing and in it you have a stress level you have to manage, and one of the ways to destress is that you can put a DVD disk of "Night of the living dead" in your TV and actually watch the entire movie in game. That movie is in the public domain so there are no copyright issues to using it if you decided the theatre should work and actually play a movie for fun. There are other pub domain movies also so you could even have finding new movie reels to play/collect be a thing. You could go for irony and do "It's…
