Aquila Interactive has signed Portgate Studios’ combat-free, turn-based settlement builder for a PC release in 2027.
Most roguelite deckbuilders ask you to assemble a deck capable of surviving increasingly difficult battles. HexLands uses the same basic ideas, randomized runs, card synergies, relics, and persistent build decisions, but replaces enemies with something arguably just as troublesome: limited land, unpredictable resources, and approaching disasters.
Publisher Aquila Interactive has announced a publishing partnership with Portgate Studios, the one-person studio of developer Tibor Udvari, to bring HexLands to PC in 2027.
The cards here represent the tools needed to establish settlements. Playing them can place farms, mills, harbors, and other structures across procedurally generated hexagonal islands, with terrain determining where certain buildings can function.
Each island effectively becomes a new strategic puzzle built around the land available, the resources that can be gathered, and whatever environmental problems are on the horizon.
A run stretches across several islands and biomes. Once a settlement has developed far enough, the voyage continues to another shore, but the deck-building layer carries forward. Cards, relics, and upgrades collected along the way remain part of the overall build, meaning decisions made on an early island can shape the options available much later in the run.
That progression system seems particularly important because HexLands has no combat. There are no enemy armies to defeat or tactical encounters separating one settlement phase from another. Pressure instead comes from the efficiency of the deck, limited space, terrain requirements, card draws, and disasters that have to be anticipated before they arrive.
Those disasters operate according to their own schedules, giving the turn-based structure a form of soft time pressure. Knowing that trouble is approaching may force a choice between expanding the economy, securing additional resources, or using precious turns to prepare defenses against an incoming event.
At launch, HexLands is expected to include more than 80 cards and three starter decks, along with relics and modifiers capable of changing individual runs. Players can also deliberately take on additional burdens to increase the difficulty.
Different regions bring their own terrain and resource conditions, including tropical coastlines and colder environments, so a strategy that works efficiently during one stage of a voyage may not translate cleanly to the next. The idea is to continually adapt the same evolving deck to different settlement problems instead of settling into a single optimal building pattern.
The project has been in development for several years under Udvari, a Budapest-based developer with a background spanning modding, browser games, game jams, and commercial PC development. HexLands becomes the fourth game signed by Aquila Interactive’s publishing division.
HexLands is coming to PC via Steam in 2027, targeting a Q1 release window. A separate HexLands demo is also listed on Steam with a planned Q4 2026 release window.
