Jon Van Caneghem signs on as creative advisor as the new Heroes project takes shape.
Jon Van Caneghem is coming back to the Heroes universe. The creator of Might and Magic and the original Heroes of Might and Magic games has joined Olden Era as a creative advisor, working with developer Unfrozen on the upcoming turn-based strategy prequel.
It is an easy headline to understand if you grew up on the old New World Computing era. Van Caneghem helped define what Heroes feels like when it is at its best.
Big map exploration, tight resource routes, towns that matter, and battles that reward planning more than reflexes. An advisor role is not the same thing as directing the project, but it is still a strong signal about priorities.
Van Caneghem framed it as a chance to contribute to the world again after a long gap, and Unfrozen CEO Denis Fedorov called out that it has been more than 20 years since he last worked on a Heroes universe game.
Van Caneghem also described Olden Era as a passion project that captures the spirit of the earlier games, and said he is excited to help carry that legacy forward.
Olden Era is a prequel, and it is coming to PC with a planned 2026 release window on Steam. Unfrozen is developing it, and Hooded Horse is listed as the publisher on Steam, with Ubisoft previously announcing a broader partnership around the project.
If you know Unfrozen from Iratus Lord of the Dead, this is the same studio stepping into a much bigger legacy series.
Ubisoft has already outlined the broad shape. Six factions, a single player campaign, and multiple multiplayer options that include hotseat.
It also calls out randomly generated maps and a map editor, which is the sort of thing that keeps Heroes communities alive for years once the balance settles.
Pulling in the series creator as an advisor is a direct way to sanity check the parts that fans will scrutinize first, like faction identity, town progression, spell impact, and how quickly the strategic layer snowballs once you control the best mines and choke points.
Heroes of Might and Magic Olden Era is still targeting 2026 on PC via Steam, and the team is bringing in the person most associated with the series’ original DNA to advise on the project, and that’s great news.
