Craftlings looks like Terraria and plays like an iconic 90s strategy game

Over 30 years after Lemmings first sent unfathomable numbers of anthropomorphized rodents off of various cliffs, the groundbreaking puzzle-strategy game’s influence is still strongly felt today. Nintendo, in particular, went through a spell of dishing out ‘Lemminglikes’ with the Mario vs Donkey Kong Minis series, alongside the poyo-powered Kirby Mass Attack. More recently, games like Mankind have set out to harness some of that mass-extinction magic. Now, Ariano Games is trying its hand at innovating on the timeless formula, paying homage to the pioneering strategy series while infusing it with resource-based puzzles influenced by the classic 90s city builder, The Settlers. Having spent a power hour with Craftlings at publisher Raw Fury’s Stockholm office, my singular brain cell has been left battered, bruised, and baying for more.

The premise of Craftlings is simple. The eponymous tribe sets out to sea in search of a home to call its own. However, the upcoming PC game’s episodic mission structure has them scuppered by a new big bad at every turn. It’s a bit like One Piece, albeit more dumb-dumb than gum-gum. The first mission I played, which saw my ship ensnared by a giant squid, serves as the game’s tutorial, giving me ample space to get to grips with some of its core constructive (and destructive) systems.

As I load in, one by one, my merry band of not-Lemmings hop out of a portal, ready and willing to do whatever it takes to take the suckered sucker down. Squiddy is to be dispatched via ballista, and the gang must work together to gather the necessary resources and lay down the mighty weapon. The only issue is they lack the infrastructure, so we’ll have to take a few extra steps.

Propping up houses grants extra workers, boosting productivity. Building mining outposts produces pickaxes at the cost of wood, though you’ll first have to generate axes to chop said wood with at lumber camps. Assigning these tools to your Craftlings gives them a raison d’être, beyond ambling back and forth like a seagull patrolling a promenade in search of some poor kid’s sandwich to liberate – the joys of employment.

Now, our waddling workforce begins extracting materials. But, another problem arises as Craftlings carrying the goods are incapable of navigating the ladders into which I’ve invested some of my gold, itself a scarce resource at first. So, having emptied my coffers some more, I implement a pulley system that raises them to the next available level. Before I know it, I have a pretty slick operation going. The lumberjacks feed the mining outposts, which provide the pickaxes to the miners, who head down the ladders, mine, and pop stone into the pulleys, which are then emptied by the runners up top who carry them towards the ballista site.

I say ‘towards’ instead of ‘to’ because I forgot about one teeny tiny thing: gravity.

A deserted island in the middle of the ocean doesn’t exactly come with its own health and safety regulations, and I lack the hard hat and bureaucratic nous for red tape. What this does mean is that there are plenty of ways for our crafty crew to meet its demise. Sheer drops are, in keeping with Craftling’s main source of inspiration, the primary death count driver, and, annoyingly, my witless workers are so committed to their graft that they lack the means to stop for anything, even nature’s one-way elevator.

Horrified, I watch them try and fail to deliver the goods one by one, stumbling off the edge and tumbling into the briny depths of Davey Jones’ locker. More gold is extracted from my near-depleted piggy bank, and Stoppers are put in place to redirect the flow of death. I don’t care for the Craftlings (they respawn), but the loss of my goods is a tough pill to swallow.

In search of a way to help my runners cross to the ballista, I seek out divine intervention, which is bequeathed in the form of dynamite. Because of course it is. Dynamite is a constantly recharging tool that blows up any terrain square you use it on. What’s more, if used on the wooden boxes scattered around the map, they’ll appear in your inventory as a means to alter the terrain. As a deviously dark tip, if you give your Craftlings a piece of dynamite near a tree – a more unorthodox means for deforestation – they will blow themselves up, generating extra wood without having to use up an axe.

Now that the redwood carpet has been rolled out for my runners, my path to freedom is assured. The materials are deposited at the ballista before I instruct one of my Craftlings to put it all together. It’s now primed, ready to fire, and, wait, what do you mean I need to spend gold to fire the bloody thing? As you can imagine, I’m facing down the barrel of bankruptcy at this point, but hope is not lost as long as the free market is accessible. Up goes a market, in go more resources, and out comes enough cash to land the money shots on the constricting cephalopod. Sweet, delicious victory.

With the beastie felled, I’m invited to dip into Craftling’s third level. Though only a single mission is skipped, there’s already far more to be getting on with. Logs can now be refined into planks, while skeletal monsters guarding resource caches have spawned. Oh, and there’s magic now. Craftling’s magic system is an imaginative aid to your endeavors that doesn’t spoil you. This finite resource can be dished out to cast various spells, granting the means to, for example, parachute Craftlings down to the next available layer, or even move entire structures to a different part of the level. Considering how early into Craftlings these mechanics are introduced, it’s clear there will be many more surprises in store as you progress.

After reuniting with my group of press playtesters later in the day, a few of us quickly took to comparing our different methods of conquering Craftling’s demo slice. The vast variance in approach is a clear indication of just how well the puzzler’s strategic layer is coming together, and I can’t wait to see how the most lateral thinkers will make my resource convoy look like convoluted shit.

I came away from Craftlings with only good things to say, and it has the potential to land as one of the better strategy games of its year, whenever that may be. The synthesis of its core influences is so far spot on, and it feels equal parts challenging and rewarding. It crucially retains the dark humor that tonally hallmarked its forebearers, making for a sadistically delightful time.

While Craftlings is still a ways away, with no concrete release date set, you can add it to your Steam wishlist here. While you’re waiting, check out more of the best puzzle games and best strategy games you can be wrapping your brain around right now.