Exelio: Everything We Know

So, AI Frog Interactive is cooking up a crafting game for fans of scavenging and building shabby structures that can get you through the night. The story seems to have a lot of mystery, and a looming darkness encroaches on your playthrough. While we wait for the launch, we’ve compiled everything we know about Exelio so far.

What is Exelio?

Exelio is an upcoming 2D survival crafting game. It’ll feature an ever-changing environment that keeps your consecutive runs fresh and exciting. You’ll face lots of threats in a harsh world. This calls for survival measures, which, at the forefront, equip your character with as much knowledge and skills as you can. These will help you venture into uncharted regions and survive the threats that you run into. 

As a whole, your gameplay loop will combine exploration, crafting, building, and combat. You’ll explore stunning vistas and thriving nature. However, you’ll also quickly discover an overarching darkness whose source will be a mystery. The more you play, the closer you’ll get to discovering the dark truth. However, it’ll be all up to you to forge your own path and determine your fate.

Story

Exelio will let you control two protagonists: a boy and a girl. Both are shrouded in mystery, with the boy having fallen from the sky and the girl having seemingly spent her entire life fighting the darkness in the game’s dangerous world. You’ll try to solve the mystery behind their existence. Meanwhile, each character will have a unique story path and skills. By mastering each character’s forte, you’ll be able to advance through the game.

Gameplay

Get ready to head out into unchartered lands and explore to your heart’s fill. Exelio is an exploration game that lets you venture into the unknown, uncovering various threats and opportunities. As the environment is ever-changing, each will feel fresh and exciting. 

Beyond exploration, you’ll acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to survive the harsh realities of Exelio’s world. Sometimes, survival will call for combat as you take on unknown and hostile creatures. As a result, the world juxtaposes charming environments and danger. 

Moreover, you’ll uncover twisted mysteries that lead you to discover your true destiny. Here’s a quick summary of the gameplay elements you can expect in the final game:

• Exploration: The world will be dynamic, with varying biomes ranging from caves, ruins, snowfields, mountains, jungles, and more. These areas will bring unique challenges that demand mastery of diverse skills and combat actions.
• Survival: Food and water will prove essential to surviving the harsh world of Exelio. With the scarce resources you find, you’ll need to “effectively and efficiently” manage your resources to stay alive and reach higher levels of the game.
• Crafting: You’ll need to collect crafting materials that help you make tools and weapons and even build safe havens. Some crafting mechanics will even allow you to make food and plants. As Steam suggests, you can look forward to “countless combinations,” ensuring you can set up a safe and secure home base for survival. 
• Combat: At times, you’ll have to face hostile wild animals. However, when the night sets in, a different kind of enemy will emerge. You’ll need to master skills and efficient strategies to deal with the myriad of enemies you’ll encounter.

Unfortunately, Exelio will only have single-player mode.

Development

Tokyo-based AI Frog Interactive is currently working on Exelio. They are the lead indie developing studio that has so far released a teaser trailer. They will also be publishing the game once it's ready. You probably know the developers on the team from their work in Patapon and Swords of Gargantua. With the teaser trailer, the studio was kind enough to release an English and Japanese version. It suggests the final game will support both languages, too. 

Furthermore, the studio is developing the game using Unreal Engine 5. So, you can expect decent graphics and performance. While the teaser trailer showcases some of the story beats and gameplay you can expect in the final game, there seem to be more features still in development. More particularly, AI Frog Interactive says they are developing a camera system and more innovative features, which they urge expectant gamers to be on the lookout for.

Trailer

Exelio has only one teaser trailer available on YouTube, which was released during the Tokyo Game Show 2024 event. The upcoming game was also playable at the event. It’s likely more story and gameplay trailers are to come. In any case, the teaser trailer gives you quick glimpses into the story and gameplay you can expect. In fact, it’s pretty hands-on with the worldbuilding and crafting elements. 

We meet the lead protagonist, a boy and a girl, navigating a largely uninhabited world. Well, except for the hostile enemies that strike in the darkness. The boy learns to survive alone in an unfamiliar world. Meanwhile, the girl has been here for a while, constantly pushing back the darkness. Still, the efforts of the boy and girl bring hope to a world succumbing to darkness. And maybe, just maybe, their paths may cross or never at all.

Release Date, Platforms, & Editions

The Early Access version of Exelio is slated to launch sometime in 2025. Unfortunately, AI Frog Interactive has yet to confirm an exact release date. We can at least confirm that the upcoming game will launch on PC platforms via Steam. Other than that, we don’t have more information, including if there will be any editions available for pre-order. 

If you’d like to keep track of when the game comes out, you can always add it to your Steam wishlist here to get a notification as soon as it drops. In the meantime, feel free to follow the official social handle here for more updates on the game. We’ll also keep our eyes peeled for more information and let you know as soon as it comes up.

So, what’s your take? Will you be grabbing a copy of Exelio when it drops? Let us know over on our socials here.