Failbetter announces Mandrake at the PC Gaming Show
Failbetter Games, makers of Fallen London, Sunless Sea, and Mask of the Rose, have announced their latest game: Mandrake, a rural life sim with a twist.
From Failbetter:
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!
From what we’ve seen so far, Mandrake seems to be exactly what you expect from a life sim in the Stardew Valley mold: farming, fishing, and friendship, but with that typical Failbetter flavor of lurking menace.
“In a break from studio tradition, this is a game where you can't eat people, but we can’t resist a little threat.”
As Stardew Valley continues to be the juggernaut in the genre, it’s not surprising that other developers are hopping into the cozy space, but adding their own twist on it. In Day of the Devs, we saw Neverway, a pixel art life sim where you attempt to build the farm of your dreams and deal with an undead god haunting you. While I’m excited to give Neverway a shot, but Mandrake—with its is-it-horror-or-not vibes—is exactly what I’m looking for right now.
Mandrake seems to be taking a calmer approach to the dark life sim than Neverway or Cult of the Lamb, but knowing the slow-rolling menace in other Failbetter games—eldritch horrors and ancient evils lurking in the darkness—I’m sure there’s something we don’t know yet.
Mandrake currently doesn’t have a release date, but Failbetter is planning to launch the game in Steam Early Access, so if Mandrake looks like your flavor of farming sim, you can wishlist the game on their Steam page.
