Game: Inkulinati
Genre: Casual, Indie, Stragety
Developer | Developers: Daedalic Entertainment | Yaza Games
Planned Release Date: TBD
Planned Systems: Steam, Nintendo Switch (Other platforms TBA)
I’ve been following the development of Inkulinati, which caught my eye last year on Twitter. Originally a Kickstarter campaign launched on May 26th 2020 by the end of May Inkulinati was fully funded. During the weekend a demo of the game was available to download from the Steam store, and of course, I just had to try it out. So let’s have a look at the upcoming strategy game Inkulinati by Yaza Games.
Illuminated Manuscripts
Inkulinati uses hand-drawn graphics inspired by the “illuminated manuscripts” in medieval books made by monks. Illuminated manuscripts are hand-crafted books with pages that feature elaborately decorated pages adorned with gold, silver, and brightly coloured paints.
The books were most popular in Western Europe during the Middle Ages, with the majority of them made between 500 and 1600 C.E. Their subject matter mainly focused on Christian beliefs and practice. Many of these remarkable pages were originally created for prayer books or hymnals. If you have heard of the Book of Kells in Trinity College in Dublin it’s a fantastic example of an illuminated manuscript.
Memes of the Day
So imagine the monks writing their manuscripts and doodling at the side of the page as they daydreamed. Did monks daydream? Well, anyway Yaza Games have run with that idea. 700 years in the making, finally, these bizarre art pieces can come alive in a video game.
They show that medieval people also had their “memes”. It shows that they laughed at the same silly things that we do today. You’ll see sword-wielding rabbits, dogs with spears, trumpets lodged in bottoms, human-eating snails, and much more.
Hand Drawn Animals
Inkulinati is an ink-based strategy game that takes part in the pages of a book. You play as an illuminator who is part of a secret society of scribes who fight using the living illustration. You can play as a brave knight that has no fear and will send his loyal troops straight at his opponents. Or if you don’t fancy being a knight you can be a nun who, with the power of prayer, can confuse her enemies and heal her own servants. You use Living Ink to draw your anthropomorphic animal army and lead it to destroy your opponent’s army on the opposite page.
Using your tactical, turn-based battle skills to defeat your opponent, the goal can often be to knock the other players off the book. In each turn, you can move your beasts across the battlefield toward the opponent. Performing actions such as firing arrows or stabbing with a sword to inflict damage.
As you fight and make tactical use of obstacles on the pages, you collect more Living Ink to draw new units which allow you to gain an advantage over your opponent. When it is time to add to your army a hand pops onto the screen and draws it for you. Just as well as some of us can’t draw!
Illuminator’s hand
Playing as the illuminator’s you can take part in the battles, in the form of a hand that appears on the screen. The illuminator’s hand actions are a fun tactic to use in battle, you can squish one of the opponents’ army or flick them a few paces across the page. I really liked the human hand appearing on the screen to push one of the enemies back, it is funny to watch and appealed to my sense of humour.
All the while you’re battling it out on the pages of the book a procedurally generated text appears above the battlefield and describes the dramatic and humorous story.
Environmental Hazards
On the pages, it’s not just the animal enemies you face but also environmental hazards like fire and water and more. However, your army of anthropomorphic animals all have their own special skills to help you out. There will be lots of singing, barking, and purring during battles from the cast of cats, dogs, rabbits and donkeys, and watch out for the snails that can spit acid and eat humans!
When Inkulinati is released you will have two options for playing. The campaign mode pits you against increasingly difficult opponents in a series of standalone maps. You’ll follow a narrative along the way. Alternatively, you can challenge other players in one-on-one battles in the multiplayer.
There isn’t a confirmed release date as yet, other than sometime this year. In the meantime, you can check out the games Steam page. After playing the demo I for one will be looking forward to playing the full game once it is released.