Riding high on the breakout success of Manor Lords but insisting it's "a little unfair to judge us" on one runaway hit, publisher Hooded Horse announced a new city builder today that looks equal parts cute and engrossing. It's called Whiskerwood, and it's about colonies of mice toiling away "under the iron paw of cats."
🐈 We're happy to announce a new city builder today.🐁Whiskerwood: Mice Build Empires, Cats Call the ShotsIn Whiskerwood, you create towering cities, manage mouse colonies, and explore new lands under the iron paw of cats. Master automation and keep your mice thriving! pic.twitter.com/voCXjPL1ESJuly 17, 2024
Picture Don Bluth's An American Tail spliced with Disney's Aristocats and you're most of the way there – just add a few shakes of feudalism and then accidentally drop the whole dang bottle into the pot. In Whiskerwood, oppressive cats force the mouse proletariat to create offshore colonies on untapped islands and ship their resources back to the motherland. "Come rain or shine, the shipments must be fulfilled to feline satisfaction lest they call upon their henchmen to violently remind you of your duties," the game's Steam page reads. "Will you forever serve this oppressive paw? Or will you raise your whiskers in defiance?"
Developer Minakata Dynamics, previously known for the well-received train RTS game Railgrade, has given that premise a lovely look and some flavorful mechanics, using mice as a thematic base for automation and simulation within the "grand cities" you'll be building. At first glance Whiskerwood smacks of colony and automation sims like Rimworld and Oxygen Not Included, with plenty to delegate and oversee in between the actual building.
Limited space seems to be a recurring point with Whiskerwood. As mice, you'll need to tunnel into the ground or build towering structures to make the most of relatively constrained islands. "Verticality is key in Whiskerwood," Minakata Dynamics says.
Immediately, we're introduced to lengthy, interwoven production lines – you might call them rat's nests – with "40 different commodities for you to gather, manufacture, or trade in the interest of your colony's well-being and the satisfaction of your overlords."
All the sim staples are here: terraforming, agriculture, seafaring, industrial pollution. You've got workers with unique skills to leverage and specific needs to satisfy, various factions for trade and politicking, and technological advances to pursue. There's a lot to dig into here – Whiskerwood's Steam page writeup is over 1,000 words – and the mousey wrapper helps it pop, even compared to the rat-themed colony sim Ratopia. Rodent sims: they're the new hotness.
Whiskerwood doesn't have a release date yet, only a tentative "coming soon" on Steam.
