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Raw Fury 10th Anniversary Preview: Craftlings

Raw Fury 10th Anniversary Preview: Craftlings

Many of us play with the idea of being the leader of a group of people, though I’d argue most would quickly buckle under the pressure of command and rip their hair out trying to keep everyone alive. This little factoid was proven exceedingly true in our recent excursion to Raw Fury’s office in Stockholm, Sweden, where we tried out their upcoming title, Craftlings!

In this love letter to 90s problem-solving strategy games, we take on the role of… well, we don’t have a set role, but we are in charge of a cluster of the titular Craftlings. These little creatures are not exactly the sharpest pens in the box, so if left to their own devices, they will roam around the 2D landscape until they can no longer progress, only to turn around and see if the other direction is any better. Thankfully, just like the noble chameleon, your subjects will grab any tool or resource they walk over.

Your job as the resident project manager is to look after your flock of buddies and slowly build up a small settlement for them to live in. Your new abode starts off simple enough, with a few hammers and the plans for a town hall. After determining where to place your new home and handing out your mallets, the Craftlings will eagerly build the structure once they meander over to the correct area. After completion, new building plans are unlocked, and your journey into a full village begins!

In addition to giving your bumbling buddies tools to use, you also have multiple tools to manipulate and direct the citizens. For example, you can add Stoppers and Signs to decide which villagers, if any, can pass certain points, or you can add ladders which only allow going up! The number of tools you have is honestly great, and I can only imagine the different solutions players will come up with! It can be a bit saddening (and stressful) to keep your little guys from falling off cliffs and out of danger, but luckily, the game is pretty wholesome in general, so don’t feel too bad; any Craftling that is lost is quickly resummoned from a big portal.

On release, Craftlings will offer 12 Campaign levels across multiple biomes, each with its own objectives and unique quirks. In addition to new buildings and resources, the stages also introduce new methods to confuse your loyal citizens, such as magic spells! If you find yourself hungry for more after the dozen trials, the game will also offer unique scenarios in a separate Challenge mode.

During our 30-minute demo, we checked out the first two levels of the game, wherein we got to grips with the mechanics and played around with some of the different resources and dangers. After (hardly) making it through my playthrough, we were given a sneak peek at the third level, the Abandoned Mines, where we got a taste of some more advanced gameplay.

Two aspects I look forward to seeing in the finished game are efficiency and emergent gameplay. Craftlings is the kind of game that lets the player choose their own level of depth when playing. If you want, you can place buildings willy-nilly and just brute force your way through the levels. However, if you have the penchant, you can make some truly impressive villages with complex automated systems and factory-grade processes.

Considering the possible combination and tools at hand, I’d be surprised if Crafltings didn’t spawn some emergent qualities as gamers get their hands on the full release. Though no release date has been announced, I’m already pretty excited to see where this modern classic goes! I do wish I could just tell all of my Craftlings to take five while I panic, though.

Martin Heath

Martin Heath

Staff Writer

Professional Bungler

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