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Low view through dry golden grass and weeds on bare earth toward a long folded limestone ridge under white clouds.

AKAM: Shadows of Zagros

The Game

A realistic first-person survival game set in the Zagros mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. Cross the cordon, read the land, treat your wounds and get indoors before the Tide. Search for your brother, Jaffan. In development at meroxis.

In-engine capture · development build · 15 Oct 2026

What it’s about

Six pillars

In the build today Pillars 01 to 05. The story campaign is in development.

  1. A real place

    The Zagros of Iraqi Kurdistan, built from the ground up: folded limestone ridges, dry steppe, coppiced oak, poplar rows, and flat-roofed village houses and concrete homes that look lived in.

  2. Every bullet matters

    Rounds are simulated in flight: drag, drop, time to target and penetration by armor class. There is no ammo counter. You count rounds by feel.

  3. Wounds by body zone

    Seven body zones. Bleeding, fractures and pain each need the right treatment, and a wounded arm shakes your aim.

  4. The Tide

    On a cycle, the valley turns against you. Copper sky, siren, silence, then the surge. Get indoors or take the dose.

  5. Listen

    Sound is information: surfaces underfoot, the crack of a near miss, echoes off the ridges, rooms that sound like rooms.

  6. One brother, one search

    Akam crosses the cordon to find Jaffan. The story campaign is being written and built now.

    In development

Playable now

In the build today

In the build today Everything in this section is playable in the current development build.

  • High view past a poplar onto a shallow river spreading across a wide gravel bed, with more poplars along the banks and dry ground beyond.

    The valley

    A fold-belt valley about 6 km across, a 2.8 km river with pools and riffles, oak woodland on the foothills and poplar rows along the road.

  • Looking down over flat earth roofs edged with timber beams: plastic water tanks, a satellite dish, a clay jar, sacks and a straw-roofed shade, with oaks on the dry hillside beyond.

    The village

    Forty-three flat-roofed houses stepped up a foothill, with life on the roofs. By the road, a concrete-block hut and a two-story family home.

  • The rifle

    An AK-pattern rifle aimed down its real iron sights. Simulated rounds with drag, drop and a 100 m zero; recoil you pull down yourself.

  • Dark inventory screen in four columns: gear slots, a body silhouette with seven health zones, a field rifle card, and a backpack grid holding medical supplies, water and food.

    Body and survival

    Seven body zones with bleeding, fractures and pain, each with its own treatment. Hydration, energy and a field inventory.

  • A dark timber-framed doorway in a whitewashed wall in the foreground, with a siren pole and village roofs on the slope beyond.

    The Tide

    A recurring cycle of calm, warning, surge and aftermath. When the siren sounds, get indoors or take the dose.

  • Two whitewashed timber-framed village houses with a narrow gap between them, and a siren pole on the oak-dotted slope behind.

    Sound

    Ten surfaces underfoot, near-miss cracks, gunshots echoing off the ridges, and rooms that sound like rooms.

Full build notes

The valley

  • A fold-belt mountain valley about 6 km across: parallel limestone ridges rising up to about 1.2 km, a gorge cutting the southern ridge, bedded benches and surviving patches of farm terraces.
  • A 2.8 km mountain river, cut so it always runs downhill, with pools, riffles, gravel bars and boulders breaking the surface.
  • Coppiced oak woodland on the foothills (about 47,500 stems with shrub understory), black poplar rows along the road and fields, and about 30,000 dry-steppe plants.
  • A stepped village of 43 flat-roofed houses in six rows up a foothill, with whitewashed masonry walls, lanes, stone stairs and dry-stone terrace walls. Life on the roofs: summer beds, washing lines, water tanks, satellite dishes, woodpiles and straw shades.
  • A two-story reinforced-concrete family home: a whitewashed ground floor and a bare-block upper floor with rebar left for a future story, a walled courtyard with a steel gate, split air conditioners and a breaker box at the door. Inside, a carpet, floor cushions along the walls, a low table, an oil lantern and a stove.
  • A roadside concrete-block hut with a supply stash, a 448 m rural road with a stalled culvert repair, a concrete-pole power line with one snapped wire, and a long-abandoned car.
  • The cordon line (concrete teeth, wire and radiation signs) and the ruined outskirts of Shar.
  • Physically based late-afternoon light, volumetric haze and hardware ray-traced reflections.

The rifle

  • An AK-pattern rifle with first-person arms in gloves and field-jacket sleeves. Aiming lines up the real iron sights.
  • Timed reloads (2.4 s tactical, 3.1 s empty), and a magazine check that rolls the rifle so you can look.
  • Simulated projectiles: two calibers and several ammunition types, drag and drop, a 100 m zero, armor classes 1 to 6, ricochet.
  • Recoil that climbs up and to the right and only partly recovers on its own. Sway from breathing, fatigue and wounds moves the actual point of impact.
  • Semi and auto selector, lean left and right, and six pace steps.
  • Muzzle flash, smoke, ejected cases, bullet holes, and impacts that sound and look different by surface.

Body and survival

  • Seven body zones (head, thorax, stomach, both arms, both legs) with light and heavy bleeding, fractures and pain. Damage to a destroyed limb spreads to the rest of the body, and falls hurt.
  • Specific treatments: bandage, trauma kit, tourniquet, hemostatic, splint, painkillers and anti-rad.
  • Hydration and energy drain faster with exertion and carried weight. Radiation and psy exposure.
  • Field inventory: worn gear, a body map you click to pick what to treat, a weapon card with a felt magazine estimate, an 8 by 6 backpack grid and a status bar.
  • A minimal HUD: no ammo counter and no crosshair. Condition notes appear only when something is wrong. Tide warnings come over the radio.

The Tide

  • A recurring cycle (45 minutes by default): calm, warning, surge, aftermath.
  • Warning: the sky shifts to copper, the haze thickens, the civil-defense siren sounds across the valley, wildlife falls silent and the radio warns you.
  • Surge: a grey-green fog wall and a darker sky. Anyone outside a shelter takes radiation and psy exposure. The dosimeter clicks faster and radio static rises.
  • Shelters: the hut and the family home protect you, and how much depends on the building.

Sound

  • 10 physical surfaces: dirt, gravel, limestone, concrete, asphalt, wood, metal, flesh, water and grass.
  • Layered footsteps by gait and surface that never repeat the same variation twice in a row.
  • The crack of a near miss and the delayed report of a distant shot. Gunshots echo off the valley’s ridges, delayed by real distance.
  • Room-by-room interior acoustics. Wind, birds and insects are muffled indoors.
  • The Tide’s siren, Geiger clicks and radio hiss are original sounds made for the game.

What comes next

Roadmap

No dates yet. None of this is playable in the current build.

In development

Being built now

  • The town of Shar beyond its outskirts: apartment blocks, the covered bazaar, a mosque courtyard, the school, the hospital and the police station.
  • Bilingual Kurdish (Sorani) and Latin road signs, waiting for native proofreading.
  • The valley changing after each Tide: routes and bridges opening and closing.
  • Akam’s full character and hands, and full-body awareness in first person.
  • The remaining inventory tabs (health, map, radio, journal) and wearable gear slots.
  • The story campaign, from the crossing of the cordon to the search through Shar.

Planned

At the design stage

  • The Shadows, figures who appear when the Tide passes, and echoes of the dead.
  • Anomalies, artifacts and a detector.
  • Human opponents and creatures. There are no opponents in the build yet.
  • The people of the valley: guides, traders and factions.
  • Weather (rain, mist, storms, snow at altitude) and a hideout.
  • The full valley of Gelî Reş, with its dam, oak forest, refinery and high peaks.

Planned locations

  • Smugglers’ Camp
  • Tobacco Terraces
  • Pipeline Junction
  • Outpost 12
  • Gelî Dam
  • Dead Oak Forest
  • Old Citadel
  • Naft Refinery
  • Reed Marshes
  • White Peak Array

See it for yourself.

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