#mandrake game

[failbettergames]

Meet your furriest neighbour in Mandrake, the Yolf. 

[dailygaming]

Mandrake (TBA) by Failbetter Games

[literallyaurl]

FAILBETTER GAMES FARMING SIM LETS FUCKING GOOOOO

[satoshi-mochida]

Fantasy life simulation RPG Mandrake announced for PC - Gematsu

Failbetter Games has announced Mandrake, a fantasy life simulation RPG coming to PC via Steam. A release date was not announced.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

You are the last of the Mandrakes, a sorcerous line of gardeners. At long last, you’ve returned to your family’s abandoned home. Make friends, tend your gardens, and put down roots. Fish, gather and delve in the wilds. Make a place for yourself, and uncover the mysteries your family left behind.

The Lost Arts of Horticulture

Horticulture is a cursed and forbidden practice… except to you. You come from a long line of sorcerers who practiced the green and growing arts, and you’re able to grow such marvels as: runner beans! Cherry trees! The humble turnip! And as your skills grow, you’ll be able to plant stranger seeds, like thunder-calling taran, or rhewyn, which waters your gardens for you. Perhaps you’ll even grow a goose-tree! (Where did you think geese came from? Other geese? Preposterous.) Place beds, decorations and resting spots. Find, plant, nurture, grow and harvest plants both mundane and magical, and gradually expand your gardens into the tangled grounds of your family’s abandoned castle.

A World to Inhabit

Discover a beguiling new world inspired by British history and folklore. A world of old, wild powers, of uncanny spirits that reside in those places mortals dare not go; of deep histories, and deeper mysteries. You won’t just work in your gardens. Forage for resources in the nearby woods and along the beach. Go fishing (but take care not to be cursed by the river). Delve into dangerous mines in search of bright minerals and stolen secrets. Breathe life into the Mandrake lodge with your choice of furnishings and renovations; acquire old books, and spend the evenings reading in the candlelit comfort of your study. Learn to cook. Meet your neighbors, become entangled in their lives, give them gifts and learn their stories.

Fireside Menace

Long ago, the world changed. The Covenant of the Hearth decreed that the day belonged to humanity, but the night… the night belonged to other things. Now, all earthly lights save hearthfires go out when the sun sets, and the Mara ride the night-winds. Don’t go out after dark—the night is not for you. For now. (After all, what self-respecting sorcerer follows the rules?)

Human, Humble Magic

Magic in Mandrake isn’t about flashy fireballs and shimmering shields, but about folkloric ingenuity, whimsy and patience. Grow a cherry tree from seedling to maturity in seven days rather than seven years, then fashion your sorcerer’s staff from its wood. Befriend a river. Eavesdrop on the dead. Spend a haunted night at the Butcher’s Oak. Drink tea with the god who lives in your chimney.

A Host of Lavishly-Realized Characters

Welcome to the village of Chandley. It’s small, it’s complicated, and everyone’s got their own story. Meet Rosen—bee-keeper, candlemaker, rook-speaker—the even-handed village leader charged with steering this troublesome community of eccentrics. Or Gideon, the somber hunter who makes pacts with the wild powers of the woods. Befriend Nessa, the village smith, whose kindness conceals the scars of an old tragedy; and Thackery, the effusive Voicer, who keeps technology that no-one—least of all he—fully understands. Visit the lighthouse, where Jory and Ruan Vicory live with young Tamsyn: the girl they saved from the sea, and who still hears voices calling to her from beneath the waves… Chandley may be small, but it’s old, thick with secrets, and set in its ways. Is it ready for the return of a Mandrake?

Beyond the Firelight

Encounter the spirits, gods and bogles that live alongside the people of Chandley: the smiling revenant imprisoned in a tree, who claims he knows you (even though he’s hundreds of years dead). Lonely, long-armed Granny Jakes in her hidden orchard, who offers you a sip of a drink that the world has forgotten how to make. The Regent of the Woods, bearer of a white crown. The shy thing that whistles an old tune in the depths of a mine no-one has worked in decades. Hroame, who is sometimes stone and sometimes not.

Watch a new trailer below.

Announce Trailer

[failbettergames]

Folklore in Mandrake

After nearly sixteen years working in the Victorian milieu for Fallen London, Mandrake is giving us an opportunity to draw on a whole new swathe of historical and folkloric sources, and we've been making the most of it. 

Mandrake is set in a village called Chandley, whose people have to get along with all sorts of neighbours, some of which are far from human. There are regal woods-gods; dangerous, rootless spirits roving the wilds; and gentler, more domestic sprites that nevertheless abide by their own, sometimes obtuse, rules. 

Here we present a selection of the folklore that has inspired us while inventing the world of Mandrake, in case any of them catch your interest as they did ours.

Sunken Lands

Atlantis might be the most famous sunken land, but it's far from the only one. For Mandrake, we've taken inspiration from folkloric examples closer to home: lost Lyonesse that lay beyond Land's End in Cornwall, and became associated with Arthurian legend. The lost Brittany city of Ys (or Kaer-Ys), drowned by mortal folly, which features in the collection of Breton folk-songs known as the Barzaz-Breiz. Cantre'r Gwaelod, a land said to lie off the coast of Cardigan, in Gwynedd.

In Mandrake, our drowned isle is poor Oleas, which lay just off the coast near Chandley, and was home to the Rose dynasty – the historic rivals to the Mandrakes, our protagonist’s family house. The locals say that on quiet evenings, you can still hear the bells of Oleas ringing under the waves…

Seal-Folk

Haunting the sunken streets of Oleas are the korrigan, who swim through the sea in the shape of seals, but can take human form on the shore. They are attuned to the tides of fate, dangerous to cross, and have magics of their own. The local sea-fisherman, Ruan, knows to treat seals with the utmost courtesy.

These seal-folk are of course primarily inspired by the Scottish legends of selkies, with their seal-skins, and their troubled relations with mortals. A favourite modern version of the archetypal selkie story can be found in Kevin Crossley-Holland's short collection Outsiders, which retells a half-dozen folktales from the point of view of those who don't fit in. But their name and their sorcerous inclinations were inspired by the korrigan, another bit of Breton folklore: deadly, capricious fey beings whose demands were dangerous to defy.

Tolkien wrote a great, grim, possibly unpronounceable poem about a ‘corrigan’  called The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, which has been released in a recent edition along with drafts of a couple of earlier poems he wrote about the corrigan. They obviously made an impression on him!

Chimney-gods

You might have seen our friendly-faced character Hob Halfling, who lives in the hearth of your recovered family lodge.

As a helpful domestic spirit, Hob is largely inspired by brownies: shy fairy creatures who lived in a home and came out at night to keep the house in order and do chores… as long as they were well-treated, and you didn't offend them with an inappropriate gift. There are countless brownie stories, but one of my favourites is one from Sunderland: the Cauld Lad o' Hilton. According to Robert Surtees in 1820, the Cauld Lad would cause chaos if Hylton Castle, where he lived, was left in good order – or tidy it immaculately if it was left in a mess. He played largely harmless pranks on the inhabitants, but was eventually banished by the traditional method of leaving out a set of clothes for him. As soon as he found them he put them on, admired himself in a mirror, and left the house never to return. 'Here's a cloke, and here's a hood; the cauld lad o' hilton will do no more good.'

Surtees' version seems to consider the Lad a brownie, but says that it had become identified with the ghost of a murdered servant whose bones were later found in a pond on the grounds. Folklore is rarely neat – stories tangle with each other, or spin off new threads.

There's no murder in Hob's origin, anyway. He's less mischievous than the Cauld Lad, too, but it's still best to keep him friendly with the occasional gift of food.

Ancient Medics and Scholarship

One of our characters, Malory Rosevere, is currently a pigkeeper, but is descended from a long line of doctors who were famous in the region. This concept was a later addition to their character, inspired by the Meddygon Myddfai, or Physicians of Myddfai. The physicians were a famous lineage of doctors in Wales, practiced medicine in an unbroken line from the 13th century to the 18th! Famous throughout Wales, their services were often called upon, and as time passed, so great was their reputation that they became associated with magical remedies and practices, too. Claiming a remedy was one used by the Meddygon Myddfai was a way to grant it a high pedigree.

Malory is also something of a scholar, and proudly owns a small collection of books. Perhaps they'll lend you one – we're working on a scholarship system for Mandrake, allowing you to study in the evening to discover more about the setting's history and myths. Some of the books you'll be able to read draw inspiration from historical texts, like the medieval Welsh Triads.

Restless Spirits

The lands around Chandley are plagued by an unusual number of roving, restless spirits, which without a place to make their own, grow increasingly eccentric and perilous. Josselin, the local witch, calls them the peregrini, and implies there's a reason they're so common hereabouts. 

Each of the peregrini is inspired by different folklore. Anyone familiar with kelpie mythology will recognise the Salt Mare, who only runs on water, and who carries anyone foolish enough to mount it to the bottom of the sea. And wizened old Granny Jakes might seem friendly, but why is she so keen to hide her feet from you? And for you to try a cup of her delicious, homemade, apple-y avalack? Beware: one of her inspirations is the Russian story of Misery. In the version of the tale I read, Misery is a pitiful creature found in a hole who – if you help him – will scramble up onto your back and make himself comfortable. Once he's there only you can see and hear him, and every time you take a drink, Misery demands another. Before long, he drives you to ruin, all the time claiming he's your only friend…

Other Sources

There are many more inspirations we could talk about, like the fact that the many gods of the sea in Mandrake are partly inspired by the Irish Voyage of Máel Dúin, with its magnificent list of completely bizarre islands (tag yourself: I'm "The island of the horse-like beast who pelts the crew with the beach").

But if you're looking for some good modern folklore to read, in addition to the books we've mentioned already, we can highly recommend Amy Jeff's evocative and ingenious books Storyland, Wild and Saints, which retell medieval folk stories from overlooked perspectives. I've also been enjoying Kym Deyn's unsettling, visually rich and occasionally lightly traumatic collection of poetry, Folkish, which often draws on folklore from the north of England, and includes poems about the Lambton Worm, St Hild, Old Mother Shipton and Janet o' the Dales (who we'd never come across before). 

We hope there’s something in this list that stirs your interest, and we’d love to hear about any folklore from where you live!

[failbettergames]

We’re showing a game at Gamescom for the first time. Cor! Thanks IndieArenaBooth for having us!

[failbettergames]

Mandrake is in Telltale's Choices Matter Festival this week, so we're taking the opportunity to talk about some of the foundational choices for your character in Mandrake. If you'd like to see a little of the following in video form, you'll be able to catch our segment at 22:30 BST on the 10th of August - today! - and later on our YouTube.

Unusually for our games, in Mandrake a number of things are already determined about your character. You're always a Mandrake, the last descendant of the aristocratic family that once ruled the region. You're always a gardener-sorcerer, resuming arts long-forgotten and long-forbidden. And you're always a newcomer to Penhallion and the village of Chandley, having been born and raised in a far-off land.

But that still leaves plenty of room to decide things about your character: name, appearance, history. We don't want character creation in Mandrake to be complex or time-consuming – after all, you'll have plenty of opportunities to define your character with your choices throughout the game. But we do want to give you the chance to make some basic decisions about their past, to provide an initial glimpse of the world beyond Chandley, and to provide more variety for future playthroughs.

(I’ve used some screenshots to illustrate the choices. Please bear in mind all these are in-progress; they contain placeholder icons, and are subject to change!)

Presentation

The first thing you'll see when you create a new character is this set of options:

Here, you'll make a number of simple choices about your character's presentation: body type, skin and hair colour, facial hair, gender, and the colour of your starter clothes. None of these choices are dependent on others -- all of them can be mixed and matched.

In some of our previous games we've asked you to choose how NPCs address your character, but you don't get to choose a title this time around – that's already fixed: you're a Mandrake, and most NPCs will either call you that or by your first name (which defaults to 'Morgan', but you can change to whatever you prefer). The 'Gender' field allows you to choose male, female, or non-binary. If all goes well, we hope to translate Mandrake into other languages, not all of which share English's approach to pronouns, so a choice of gender which can then inform localisation techniques made the most sense this time around.

After you've made your Mandrake, we move on to a short set of narrative choices which determine some things about their past, and set your initial Traits.

Traits

Traits are facets of your character's personality: the way they see the world and the things they are attuned to. There are five of them, including Neighbour, Magnate, and Romantic. Neighbour represents your sense of community, of the benefits and compromises of being part of Chandley. Magnate, on the other hand, represents your affinity with your Mandrake heritage: your sense of familial pride or responsibility. While your Romantic trait describes your ability to see what might have been, your sense of optimism and tragedy, your poetic streak.

Occasionally, having a Trait at a certain level or above will unlock a new conversation option. But most of the time, what they do is provide Insights: interjections as you're talking to an NPC that provide context and interpretations of their opinions and behaviour. A high Romantic Trait might help you understand a character's regrets. A high Neighbour helps you know what's expected of you at a village festival. (Traits aren't the only things that can provide Insights, either, but that's a topic for another time…)

A specific Trait level will never be required to complete a story, but they might help you find another path through it, or provide additional perspective, or allow you to bond more quickly with certain characters. You'll be able to increase your Traits in play, but your narrative choices in character creation provide you with an initial spread of them when you start the game. And the first choice you'll make is…

Your Homeland

After the Mandrakes fell, their heirs scattered far and wide, their ancestry forgotten. Generations later, you were born and raised in a distant land. But which one?

Perhaps you come from the sea-swept Leeward Isles, to the east? Perhaps you were born in the marshy Heartlands of the old Sophoi Republic – that same Republic whose ambitions grew so great that the laws of the world were changed to overthrow it –  and grew up amongst its ruined bones. Or perhaps you hail from the High Eld: a distant northern land in thrall to the winter-gods...

NPCs might occasionally react to your homeland, or it might give you experience to draw on. A newcomer from the Leeward Isles is likely familiar with boating and its terminology. An arrival from the High Eld might have opinions about the mild winters in Penhallion.

Conclusion

After you've chosen your homeland, you'll also choose the profession you were raised in, and the motive that led you to abandon your old life and take up this new one, each decision giving you another bonus to one of your Traits.

We want your Mandrake character to feel like a part of the world (even if they're new to this little corner of it), and to enter play with perspectives that help them make sense of their new home and new situation. The bulk of customisation will come about in play: through the stories you pursue, the choices you make, and the relationships you form – but in character creation you'll take the first step into a world we hope you'll be spending a lot of time in.

[failbettergames]

Are there.... Are there other books that you suggest someone deeply nerdy read re: #some games set you homework

A sample:

For Fallen London, Kellow Chesney's The Victorian Underworld. And GK Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday.

For Sunless Sea, anything Jack Vance.

For Sunless Skies, the science fiction of H G Wells and C S Lewis, and the planetary romances of Leigh Brackett.

For Mandrake, just one because it's the most recent on the research list: Killing the Dead: Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World, by John Blair.