It’s time to head to the Arctic and determine who among you is truly the top dog.

Announced just now at the Triple-I Initiative, Ikuma – The Frozen Compass is a wintry 3D action adventure in which a tenacious young buck and his dog get stranded on an Arctic island. The key thing to know is that it’s a co-op game, a co-op splitscreen game, if you please, which means that you and your friends must decide, right now, which of you will play the dog.

This game is described as “a powerful story of love, loss, and endurance”, which doesn’t bode brilliantly for the dog, so whoever dons the collar needs to a great tragic actor. I encourage you to spend a few weeks rehearsing the business of lying bloodied in the snow next to a dead yeti, whining heroically at the back of your departing owner, who has decided he’s more of a cat person anyway. Come now, let me see your expression of puppy-eyed anguish. There’s a nice juicy biscuit in it for you if you can make me cry.

If you don’t have a friend willing to be a dog, the good news is that in Ikuma, you can switch between characters in solo play. Caught between realms, at home in neither: the ultimate nightmare. Each character has unique skills with which to conquer different obstacles. The dog ain’t so hot at rowing boats, while the human is less competent at fitting through dog-shaped holes.

There appear to be elements of survival game here, glinting at us menacingly through the ice. “Use the tools and items you gather on the island to find your way and overcome rough terrain,” explains the Steam page. “Climb, fish, gather resources, do what it takes to get yourself and your companion to safety.” You also have to worry about ancient Inuit legends, and the mystery of a lost expedition. “Retrace their steps but beware of what’s lurking within the fog that cloaks their path,” the Steam page cautions.

Fog, eh? That sounds like the kind of clinging, spectral mist a dog might run barking into, only for the barking to suddenly end in an agonised whimper. How’s your abject whimpering? Carnegie Mellon-worthy? Again, you might want to get in some practice. Honestly, I’d love to play the dog but I’m probably going to corpse it and yell something like “oh fuck, a giant werewalrus”.

Ikuma – The Frozen Compass will release in 2026. Developers Mooneye Studios are the creators of Lost Ember, in which you get to play a whole menagerie of critters, from moles to parrots.