IKUMA - The Frozen Compass makes the dog a body, not a button

1864, an uncharted island somewhere in the Arctic. A cabin boy called Sam and a husky called Ellie are stranded there together, and the game hands you both of them. Switch between the pair at any moment, or give one of them to a friend and play the whole thing side by side in split screen.

The verbs are physical and unglamorous. Climb. Fish. Forage. Gather what the island will give up and get it somewhere useful before the cold makes the decision for you. Supplies are thin on purpose, and so is the daylight.

What makes this version unusual is that the dog is not a tool. Most games with an animal companion turn the animal into a button on the human — point at a scent, press the key, watch a highlight appear on the wall. Ellie is a body you occupy, with a different reach, a different nose and a different set of gaps she can fit through. A ledge you cannot climb stops being an item you have not found yet and becomes a question about which of the two of you should be standing there.

The other half is a mystery. An expedition came here before you and did not leave, and your route across the island is largely their route — camps, ships frozen into the ice, Inuit legends that turn out to be directions. Something is moving inside the fog that covers their path. The whole thing is fully voiced, which tells you where the studio put its money.

Ico, and Design by Subtraction is the reference that matters most here. The argument is that Ico endures because almost everything failing to serve the bond between its two characters was cut out of it — no competing systems, nothing between you and the hand you are holding. IKUMA is going after the same bond with considerably more attached: a survival layer, a supernatural mystery, split-screen co-op, difficulty options. Each of those is a chance for the relationship to stop being the point, and the test is whether they end up being about Sam and Ellie or merely happening near them.

Why do God of War’s Characters Keep Spoiling Puzzles? names the exact trap a guide dog walks into. Hints exist to stop players stalling, but a companion who solves the room in seconds takes the exploring and the guessing with it. A husky who trots to the correct ledge and barks is that system wearing fur. The structural answer is already in the design: because Ellie is playable rather than an escort, following a scent is something you chose to go and do, not something announced at you while you were still looking.

Why Metro Exodus is so Immersive covers the survival half, and it is worth reading because immersion there is not a graphics setting. It is thin supplies, gear you maintain by hand, and a map that refuses to give you the answer. Cold is a strong version of the same idea: a clock that never stops and cannot be fought, only delayed by something you did an hour ago. That is what turns foraging into planning instead of pickup collection.

IKUMA - The Frozen Compass is developed and published by Mooneye Studios, the team behind Lost Ember. Steam lists it as coming soon on Windows with a 2026 window, filed under Action, Adventure and Indie.

The co-op is shared and split-screen rather than online. Solo, you play both characters yourself. There is full controller support, adjustable difficulty, custom volume controls and camera comfort options — that last one worth noticing on a game built around jumping between two bodies, because switching is where a third-person camera usually goes wrong.

If the switch is the part that interests you, Fresco is the closest thing on this list: one character standing in the room and one living inside the painting on its wall, with neither able to finish the job alone. Same core move, a temple instead of a glacier.