Yes, there is technically cannibalism in every other game we've made. But you can't eat people in this one.
We knew it would disappoint some of you, but we didn't expect the outpouring of anguish at not being able to have a friendly nibble on the other characters in Mandrake. However, we are resolute that our time in the cannibalism lands is limited to Fallen London, and that there are other, new, equally distressing things for you to fall for in Mandrake.
Now we've cleared that up, perhaps the rest of the FAQ will seem a little mundane! But I hope interesting, as it does include more detail about the game than we were able to show in our brief PC Gaming Show trailer.
These questions are taken from the Failbetter discord. If you'd like to take part in future Q&As or get more moment to moment information about the game, that's the best place to be.
(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.
We do plan to release in Early Access, though – and actually, we'd like to run some Steam playtests and put up a demo even before then. It has a lot of non-narrative gameplay, and some of the expected systems are trying stuff that's a bit unusual for the genre. To make the best version of the game we can, we'll be looking to watch people play and gather feedback. Also, it will help us figure out which things we optionally could do beyond what we have firmly planned.
How long has Mandrake been in development, and how much work is still to be done?
We've been thinking about Mandrake since around 2020, and began developing it in earnest last year. We don't want to say anything just yet about when we'll be ready to run playtests or enter Early Access – essentially, it will be when the game is ready for them.
Was this ever going to be in the Fallen London universe? What made you decide to try out a new setting?
It was always going to be a new setting. In this case, because it was justified by the game concept – a dedicated setting could serve the game better. But also, we were keen to be able to write about and draw things like weather and trees.
Will it be Steam Deck compatible?
Yes, Steam Deck is definitely one of our supported platforms. In fact, it's one of the platforms that we'll be building to during development, because it's a nice way for us to test controller support, cross-platform builds, and so on. No promises about when we'll get the compatibility green tick on Steam, but internally we'll be playing builds on it as soon as we can.
Will we be able to remap controls (including the scroll wheel)?
Yep!
Are there plans for consoles and other stores beyond Steam?
We hope to bring Mandrake to multiple consoles once we leave Early Access. We've been developing it with this in mind, and already have it running (with many caveats) on the Switch, which would be the absolute hardest to support due to its limited specs. No promises yet, though! We're going to need to do a bunch of profiling and optimisation, among other things.
Other stores: our plan is to just be on Steam during Early Access, to make it easier to manage the frequent updates. For full release, though, we hope to at least have the game on GOG and Epic as well.
Who’s narrating the trailer?
The announcement trailer was narrated by Tobias Weatherburn! You can hear more of him in the audio drama Camlann, which is how we found out about him (we asked the producer of Camlann for help finding a Welsh voice for the trailer).
Our trailer maker is called Derek Lieu and he made the suggestion to include a voice this time. Conveying a lot of info in just 90 seconds is very much aided by not asking people to read it all. And because a lot of the folklore we're drawing on is Welsh (and Cornish, etc), we thought a Welsh voice would be fitting, and help us stand out in the PC Gaming Show.
Are there any literary or film influences that have especially inspired you in the folk horror area, or have you drawn primarily on historical sources?
There are a bunch. Tons and tons of books: anything by Robert MacFarlane, Eleanor Parker’s sublime Winters in the World, Thomas Williams’ Lost Realms, Tom Shippey’s Beowulf and the North Before the Vikings, Sally Crawford’s slim but powerful book Anglo-Saxon England, Michael Pye’s excellent The Edge of the World, William Ian Miller’s Bloodtaking and Peacemakers, Simon Schama’s Landscape and Memory, Jenny O’Dell’s books How to do Nothing and Saving Time. Plus everything Chris read for his Welsh history degree. Plus loads more – we have read A LOT for this game. Tons and tons of books on folklore.
In terms of film and TV: lots of low-stakes, character focused shows. A lot of sitcoms (though it’s not a sitcom game, but sitcoms require strong structure, strong personalities, and strong payoffs), Gilmore Girls, Robin of Sherwood, the Green Knight, and others.
Why is the player character named Morgan? Is this changeable?
Morgan is the default name, but if you like, you can change it. For Mandrake, we try to draw our names from Brythonic languages – think Welsh, Cornish, Breton – and for the player character, wanted one that didn't strongly suggest any particular gender. Also, it has pleasing sorcerous associations via Morgan le Fay of Arthurian romance.
Will there be any customisability to the main character?
You'll be able to do some appearance customisation in character creation, and also make some choices about your character's life before the start of the game.
Will there be a system of skill points or other sort of character progression mechanic?
There are ways for your character to become more capable as you play, and we’ll probably have more to say about this later!
Does Mandrake use the narrative scripting language Ink, like you did for Mask of the Rose?
The short answer is "yes"! The slightly longer answer is "sort of".
In Mask of the Rose, we used Ink to drive a lot of the game mechanics beyond dialogue: because it was a visual novel, with comparatively few non-narrative systems, it made sense to integrate the non-narrative logic into Ink, so that writers could work on everything in the same place. For Mandrake, we're sticking with Ink for narrative scripting but building our non-narrative gameplay systems in Unity and exposing them to writers using different tools. So, whereas Ink was kind of the "host" in Mask, in Mandrake it's more of a "guest" on an equal footing with other systems, if that makes sense.
Do you plan on getting this one localized?
We're technically better placed to localise Mandrake than any of our previous games — but of course that statement comes with no promises attached at this point!
Will Mandrake be queer-inclusive?
Chandley is a much, much smaller place than Fallen London so we've taken that as an opportunity to be more specific than the broad, everyone-could-be-pansexual approach that we take in Fallen London games. We have queer characters with deep and rich stories, and can't wait for you to meet them.
Can you die? If so, will there be a lineage system?
It’s not a roguelike, so there's no lineage system. There isn't currently a way to get your own character killed, and if we added one, we'd make sure you knew what you were getting yourself into.
Is there a hard mode?
I think we will probably include some harder optional challenges, but you won't need to be amazing at mechanic X to make friends with someone or uncover the main storyline.
Given this approach, we don't currently have plans for difficulty settings. It's more plausible we'd add some setting to address an accessibility consideration that also had the effect of making one part of the game easier.
How much time pressure will there be to get good at the mechanics/achieve goals?
You'll be able to go at your own pace, for the most part. Roughly speaking, how well you play will determine how fast you progress, rather than whether you get to make progress at all.
Is this a game where reflexes are important?
There is one gameplay system that makes some demands on reflexes, but again, we don't intend for it to require you to be great at it to progress through the game.
Will there be cooking mechanics?
There is a cooking system, yes! You’ll cook for yourself each night, and different meals will carry different buffs. Recipes will be discoverable in the world or passed on by other characters. As with everything else, story is built in - these recipes might have been handed down through generations of villagers, predating the curse on horticulture.
How prominent is farming?
Horticulture is important to the plot, and the most important non-narrative gameplay system. A lot of the story is premised on the whole practitioner of a lost/forbidden art thing, so you would miss out on a lot of stuff if you tried to skip it completely!
The game is fundamentally a mix of rural life sim gameplay and a more extensive than usual narrative – they're very intertwined, so you'd have to engage with both quite a lot to get the best out of Mandrake.
What size is Hob?
Hob is Friend sized.
Can I pet the wisent?
He… he might not like that.
Would the Yolf rather wear a ridiculously big hat or a ridiculously small hat?
Alas, we will not be spoiling the big reveal of The Only Story That Matters: What Hat Does the Yolf Prefer? The Yolf will wear whatever hat the Yolf chooses to, and will look magnificent regardless.