PC Preview Code Provided by Hooded Horse
Scotland is a beautiful country, with gorgeous peaks, lakes, and highlands. However, medieval clans trying to plant their own flag found it a deadly place behind all that beauty. Clanfolk, solo developed by MinMax Games and published by Hooded Horse, puts the player in charge of building a homestead for a multi-generational family and seeing them safe and prosperous for even more generations to come. Unfortunately, that means surviving the winters and watching as your family grows old and dies from old age. However, younger generations will continue to contribute, grow, get married, and have more children so they thrive. That is, of course, if the player takes good care of them.
Gameplay
With gameplay similar to Rimworld and Prison Architect, the top-down perspective and building will be familiar to many strategy fans. Managing your growing clan complex is continuously broadened with more tools, buildings, and actions as you continue to expand. Starting with nothing but your characters, the player must build a straw shelter and gather food for the family, but after some time will be able to mine mountains, build stone walls, grow crops, and raise animals.
Those early stages are fraught with a sense of wonder and growth, with every step earnestly feeling like a great milestone. Finally finishing the shelter that took 5 days of work and having the family sleep their first night under a roof felt monumental, and I could see that each member of the family slept better (except for the baby, who was scared of the dark! I installed a torch the next night so everyone got a good night of sleep).
The overall look and feel of the game is wonderful, with expanding menus and easy-to-read tooltips popping up when new actions are allowed, or something is needed. While it is a little fiddly to find out each person’s traits and manage their actions, it is something that becomes easier with time. For myself, I constantly found myself slowing things down and watching each individual go about their daily tasks.
The family patriarch would wake up, check eel traps, gather grain, check eel traps again, and then work on repairing things around the homestead. His daughter had a newborn baby, so she would have to pause periodically to pick up the baby when it was sad. The uncle, who would chop grain and work on the fields every day, was his niece’s favorite person and she would follow him around all day. Seeing how each character had their own personality and was distinctly unique was very cool, and definitely kept me engaged with the family’s story. Every single individual has their own daily schedule that can be modified by changing the order of activities they do. Just make sure you have enough food prep before winter!
Expectations
I came into this game expecting a Rimworld clone in a different environment, but what I found was completely different. The focus of Clanfolk is the clan, and it shows in every single moment of gameplay. I felt myself growing excessively protective of this digital family, and when the grandfather/family patriarch passed away during the first winter it actually hurt quite a bit. That loss was distinctly felt in the next year as the family continued to expand their homestead and interact with a community at large, so when I saw that they had named the newest baby after the grandfather it was definitely a somber moment. Maybe it was random name generation, but I felt so connected to these characters, something I have never felt in other games of this type. With all that, and the lovely modeled graphics, the interesting research tree, and calming gameplay, Clanfolk was definitely something I didn’t expect to enjoy as much as I did.
Verdict
If you can’t tell from reading this, I enjoyed Clanfolk immensely! While I have not played much further than a handful of winters, I can see myself spending much more time in this digital highland. The graphics are crisp and the environment feels alive due to the movement of trees and grasses, and seeing the characters grow and change as the years go on is something I haven’t experienced in similar style games.
As Clanfolk enters early access and continues to grow and expand, I’m very excited to see where this game goes in the future and on full release. Cheers to MinMax Games on this solo development, it truly is inspiring and wonderful. Definitely keep an eye on this game as it continues to develop. I know I will!
Clanfolk is available in Early Access on Steam now, Check out the release trailer below and let us know your thoughts in the comments!
