Whiskerwood

Whiskerwood is a city builder strategy game that puts us in charge of a mouse colony on a remote piece of land. The game was developed by the independent studio Minakata Dynamics, whose portfolio includes the genre-related project Railgrade, and it was published by Hooded Horse, whose catalog includes the game Manor Lords.

Plot

Whiskerwood takes us to a fantasy world inhabited by anthropomorphic animals, or more precisely – to a kingdom ruled with an iron fist by cats, for whom the hard, almost slave-like work is performed by the mice they oppress. Predators are constantly expanding their zone of influence by sending ships filled with rodents to overseas territories.

During the game we lead one of such mouse groups and our goal is to establish a thriving colony from scratch once we reach dry land. It's up to us how we do it - taking care of the needs of our subordinates or thinking only about satisfying our feline overlords.

Gameplay

In Whiskerwood we watch the action from a bird's eye view. During the game all the issues related to the functioning of the colony rest on our shoulders - from obtaining raw materials and constructing buildings, through pleasing the cats, to caring for the needs of the mice that work for us.

Gameplay takes place on islands, and the limited space forces us to think not only horizontally, but also vertically. The game allows us to significantly modify the terrain by leveling plots, digging into the ground or drilling into the mountains. Among the buildings that we can construct, we will find both public utility places, such as hospitals, as well as various industrial and production buildings, and also facilities that increase the comfort of life in the colony.

Of course, for the development of our settlement, we need resources, which we obtain by cutting down trees or sending mice to work in the mines. We use raw materials not only for construction, but also to obtain various types of goods – from basic ones, such as candles, fabrics or ready meals, to luxury ones, such as furniture, tea and spices.

The more complex the products of our colony are, the more complicated production chains we have to create (including the use of conveyor belts enabling efficient transport over long distances). Water also plays an important role here and we can deliver it to specific places using pipelines. Mice need water both for living and for industrial work.

In order to ensure a steady supply of food, our rodents have to fish and also engage in agriculture. The latter requires paying attention to the specifics of each crop. For example, wheat requires fertile soil, mushrooms grow best in damp caves, while potatoes thrive best at high altitudes.

Satisfying the basic needs of mice, starting with food, is important. Otherwise our subordinates may start to leave the colony in search of a better place to live. Additionally, before sending a given rodent to work, it is worth bearing in mind which guild it belongs to. Belonging to a particular faction determines their strengths and weaknesses and influences their preferences, which directly translates into the quality of work they performs in a specific position.

If we do everything right, over time our colony will start to grow, and with it not only our appetite for more, but also the list of needs of our rodents and the expectations of our patrons. We can satisfy the first one by building ships in shipyards and exploring new corners of the game world, as well as conducting research on new technologies that will expand the range of our possibilities. We can both indulge the whims of mice by building additional objects that positively affect their morale (such as parks or fountains), and temper them, for example by erecting statues of cats (reminding them who really is in charge here).

As for the cats themselves - as their expectations become more and more difficult to meet over time, sooner or later we have to choose whether we will try to fulfill the orders of our principals at all costs, or whether we will try to resist them. The situation is complicated by the fact that not only cats are throwing obstacles in our way. Life can be made difficult for us by unstable weather (storms cool down the enthusiasm for work of our subordinates, while low temperatures can destroy our crops), as well as pirates prowling the seas, who are lurking for our ships.