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. …

We made a video about the fact that, in Mandrake, no-one can grow anything on purpose. Understandably, people have wondered about this since we announced the game last year!

Of course, the player character is exempt, and much of your activity will revolve around discovering your horticultural abilities. But until you return and start planting turnips, no-one has been able to cultivate food intentionally for a hundred years. Not since the Covenant of Weeds.

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Here's Hannah (that's me) giving a demo of conversation in Mandrake!

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In Mandrake, your choices (at character creation and in gameplay) will change the tenor of conversations with your neighbours. Will you be a haughty Doubter, or a good Neighbour?

We'll never lock you out of stories this way, but hopefully offer you a depth and breadth of choices that's unusual in a rural life sim.…

After so many years with Fallen London, one of the pleasures of working on Mandrake is getting to explore things that are barred by the lore of that setting.  The first thing that comes to mind there is weather – Mandrake can have real rain, and snow that is not (usually) supernaturally menacing.

But at this darkest time of year, it's another example I'd like to talk about – specifically death, and undeath.  Although the boundary between life and death is more porous and negotiable in Fallen London than reality, its lore compels us: there can be no true ghosts or hauntings.

Killing the Dead

In video games, the unquiet dead tend to be numerous, anonymous, unrelentingly violent.  And in turn, violence is the answer.  If it doesn't work, probably your weapon just isn't magical enough.…

Failbetter Narrative Director and lead writer on Mandrake, Chris Gardiner, and senior artist Erion Makuo talk about the process of character design as collaboration between art and writing.

Chris: Erion Makuo, we meet again.

Erion: Chris Gardiner, my friend in arms!

Chris:Last time we talked, we discussed your work on the interiors of our characters’ homes. This time I want to talk about your preposterously luscious character designs, and I should warn you I’m going to be embarrassingly gushy about them.

Erion: Oh no.

Chris: They’re just so thick with detail and personality. See, dear reader:…

Here’s Mandrake Art Director Tobias Cook, who was also Lead Artist on Sunless Skies, on how we’ve created a brand new world for Mandrake.

Until now, we’ve mostly been working in Fallen London, a setting that substantively takes place in a cave, with little in the way of sunlight, seasons, or real weather. In Mandrake, we’re making a new visual world from scratch, which as you might expect begins with asking questions: what are our visual touchpoints? What are we trying to say about the world?

A Grounded World

Mandrake has a fantasy setting, but we want it to feel like a believable, natural space. …

The mandrake root has been a staple of folklore and magic for well over a thousand years. Often eerily human in shape, with little arm- and leg-roots sprouting from its 'torso', it was assumed – due to the magical principle of sympathy, whereby a thing is believed to hold power over that which it resembles  – to have various magical properties. The smell of it could drive away demons. It was a popular component of fertility spells. Witches used it in the unguents which gave them the power of flight.…

We're so happy to report that Mandrake has sailed past 50,000 wishlists, and counting. It's wonderful to share our game with you and see your enthusiasm in return! Today, we present a conversation between Erion Makuo, Senior Artist, and Chris Gardiner, Narrative Director, about her work using characters' homes as a vehicle for story and mood.

CHRIS: Erion! Tell us who you are and what you do! 

ERION: Hey! I’m a fantasy illustrator and make art for books, Dungeons & Dragons, and Magic: The Gathering. For Mandrake, I paint the character illustrations and some of the environments. It’s my first time working on a video game.…

We hosted a Q&A about Mandrake just after the announcement went out, on the Failbetter discord. Here are the Qs, and our As.

(This has been edited to combine responses from multiple people and to simplify the questions. If you’d like to read the complete thing, which contains more silliness, there’s an archive in the #answers channel on said discord.)

Will there be a crowdfunding campaign for this game, or Early Access? 

We don't expect to crowdfund Mandrake.  It's already an ambitious game and we think this would push us towards expanding the scope with things like stretch goals.…

When you arrive in the village of Chandley at the start of Mandrake, Rosen – the village leader – greets you. "Welcome to Chandley! It's small, it's complicated, and everyone's got an opinion." 

Chandley is one of the most important places in Mandrake. It has the densest concentration of characters, and because it's where many useful services are available, you'll spend a lot of time there. It acts as a window onto the wider world – this is a whole new setting, with its own mysteries and secrets to uncover. And it gives context to your arrival and actions as its residents react to them.…

Our new game is called Mandrake.

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It’s a rural life sim, though with the kind of complex, playfully responsive narrative you might expect from us, and an unusual art style for the genre. You play the last of the Mandrakes, a sorcerous line of gardeners. Horticulture is a cursed and forbidden practice... except to you. Your family line is steeped in the green and growing arts, so you’re able to grow such marvels as: runner beans! Cherry trees! The humble turnip!

The Mandrake setting takes inspiration from British history and folklore. It’s a world of old, wild powers, of uncanny spirits that reside in those places mortals dare not go; of deep histories, and deeper mysteries. …