Announcing Mandrake
Our new game is called Mandrake.
It’s a rural life sim, though with the kind of complex, playfully responsive narrative you might expect from us, and an unusual art style for the genre. You play the last of the Mandrakes, a sorcerous line of gardeners. Horticulture is a cursed and forbidden practice... except to you. Your family line is steeped in the green and growing arts, so you’re able to grow such marvels as: runner beans! Cherry trees! The humble turnip!
The Mandrake setting takes inspiration from British history and folklore. It’s a world of old, wild powers, of uncanny spirits that reside in those places mortals dare not go; of deep histories, and deeper mysteries.
In a break from studio tradition, this is a game where you can't eat people, but we can’t resist a little threat. Yes, you’ll be making friends, tending your gardens, decorating your home, fishing, foraging and otherwise coming to inhabit the world. But there’s a certain darkness around the edges, too, of a flavour we’ve been calling ‘fireside menace’ – the feeling you might have on a rainy night inside by the fire, while the wind beats branches against the window.
You can read more about it on Steam, where you can also wishlist it, if you like; it would be a great help to us if you did. We also look forward to telling you more about it in the coming months, including all of the adventures we've been on while researching it.
If you have questions about Mandrake, we're hosting a Q&A in the new Discord (for non-Fallen London projects; the old one isn't going anywhere) on Thursday the 12th of June, so drop your questions in there before then.