Timberborn, a post-apocalyptic city-builder manned by adorable critters rather than humans, just confirmed that it's due to hit early access next month, in an announcement made during the Future Games Show at Gamescom Powered by AMD.
Mankind might have perished in Timberborn's apocalyptic world, but that doesn't mean that everything else went with them. With a team of beavers at your command, you'll need to create a thriving city capable of surviving drought and famine, drawing on the strengths of your choice of seven factions to hold out against whatever mother nature can throw at you. While some beaver families are skilled farmers, others are keen industrialists, giving you the chance to choose the playstyle that suits you.
As developer Mechanistry declares on Timberborn's Steam page, the beavers of the future have honed their architectural and engineering skills over generations. As well as crafting buildings and farms, you'll be able to sculpt the landscape to your needs, redirecting rivers and building dams to keep your citizens fed and watered and your settlement's lights on. Of course, a thriving city is a happy city, so you'll also need to make sure you keep your toothy citizens' wellbeing at the forefront of your concerns.
Timberborn is set to enter early access on September 15, 2021. While all of the game's core mechanics are in place, the developers plan to iterate on the early access build for at least another 12 months, giving you the perfect opportunity to help shape the game's development.
Here are some more of the best indie games out there.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.