Folk Emerging is a fascinating 4X strategy game about prehistoric nomads that ends where Civilization begins

Folk Emerging describes itself as a turn-based 4X strategy game, but in practice, it's possibly more of a 2.5X strategy game, in that it puts you in charge of a nomadic hunter-gatherer community from before the rise of agriculture and the founding of towns and cities.

As this developer update suggests, it's like the turn or two at the very start of Civilization when you just have one Settler unit, but stretched out across thousands of years, with a social element and rustic spreadsheet aesthetics that remind me of King Of Dragon Pass. It's got somewhat doofy cartoon Stone Age muzak, but is otherwise the most intriguing Civlike strategy game I've laid eyes on since the one that looks like an octopus murder scene - and whadayaknow, by happy coincidence there's a public playtest running from right now till August 18th.

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