What do you get when you cross the chaotic energy of a raccoon, the adorable waddle of a corgi, and the industrial power of a 20-foot mech suit? You get Animalkind, an upcoming open-world village builder from Uncommon Games that’s serving up cozy vibes with a side of hilarious destruction.
The core premise of Animalkind is beautifully simple: you are a hyper-intelligent, ridiculously adorable animal living in a peaceful world that exists long after humans have left the picture. While foraging for berries and frolicking through meadows is all well and good, you eventually stumble upon something unexpected: an ancient, abandoned mech suit, left behind by some forgotten civilisation. Using your tiny little paws, you climb inside this massive piece of forgotten technology.
The game blends the chill resource-gathering and social simulation of games like Animal Crossing with the terrain-manipulation chaos of something like Teardown—but infinitely cuter and with far more zoomies. Here’s everything we know about the gameplay, the story, and everything else.
Gameplay Mechanics: Tiny Paws, Big Power
The developers at Uncommon Games have focused on giving players powerful, flexible tools that let you switch seamlessly between cozy animal antics and mechanical domination.
1. Pilot an Upgradeable Mech
The mech features a charming bubble-top canopy that gives you a full view of your animal pilot inside—so even when you’re causing absolute havoc, everyone can still see how cute you are. Your mech allows you to:
- Gather Resources: Harvest wood, stone, and other materials much faster than you could on foot.
- Shape the Land: Want a river running through your town? Flatten a mountain for a new housing plot? The mech handles heavy terrain deformation with satisfying crunchiness.
- Traverse the World: The mech can likely fly (as seen in trailers) and cross biomes that would be tricky for a tiny animal.
- Battery Management: You can’t stay in the mech forever. It requires battery power, forcing you to hop out and experience the world at ground level as your animal self.
2. Build Your Dream Village (And Fill It With Friends)
Once you have resources, you can start constructing houses to recruit new animal villagers. Your home island transforms from a quiet wilderness into a bustling, quirky community. You’ll lay out winding paths, place decorations that reflect your personality, cultivate gardens, and cook up delicious meals. Every villager you recruit adds to the growing tapestry of your town, each with their own quirks and requests.
3. Play as Your Favourite Furry Friend
Your choice of animal isn’t just cosmetic. Each one—whether it’s the “typical orange cat energy” tabby, the cuddly corgi, or the trash-panda raccoon—comes with unique and “aww-dorable” animations. Expect zoomies (the game’s term, not mine), unique idle poses, and plenty of personality.
Currently, you can choose from:
- The Cuddly Corgi: With that iconic wiggle and stubby legs that somehow move at impossible speeds during zoomies.
- The Typical Orange Cat Energy Tabby: Expect chaotic neutral energy, lots of knocking things off counters (if there were counters), and supreme confidence that the world revolves around you.
- The North American Trash Panda (Raccoon): Let’s be honest—this is the troublemaker option. Those little grabby hands were made for mischief.
4. Explore Dynamic Wilderness Areas
Your home island is just the start. You can venture into the “Wilderness”—evolving destinations with unique biomes. These areas hold valuable resources, new characters to recruit, and secrets about the world’s mysterious past.
These dynamic areas feature unique biomes, each with its own distinct aesthetics and valuable resources that you won’t find back home. As you journey through these wild landscapes, you’ll discover rare materials essential for advanced crafting, encounter new characters waiting to be recruited into your growing community, and stumble upon hidden secrets and surprises. Best of all, these expansive wilderness zones provide plenty of room for mech-based exploration, letting you put your giant robot through its paces as you traverse diverse terrain, uncover ancient mysteries, and maybe even cause a little controlled chaos along the way.
Cozy Co-op for Up to 4 Players
Building is fun alone, but it’s better with friends. Animalkind supports online co-op for up to four players. You can build your town together, explore the wilderness as a team, or just mess around. The game uses officially hosted private servers, so you don’t need to worry about complex networking setups.
The Story Of Animalkind
Beneath the quirky characters and cozy vibes lies a mystery. The world of Animalkind is littered with ancient mechs and forgotten technology. Crumbling structures hint at a civilisation that once was. As you explore and build, you’ll uncover hints and clues about what transpired before your character entered the world.
Who built the mechs? Where did the humans (if there were any) go? Why is the world now run by sentient, mech-piloting animals? And perhaps most importantly, are there more mechs out there waiting to be discovered? The developers promise that exploration will gradually piece together the lore of this strange, peaceful, post-apocalyptic world. It’s a gentle mystery wrapped in a cozy package, giving you reasons to venture beyond your home island and dig into the past.
Animalkind
Forage, frolic and zoomie as an intelligent, aww-dorable animal who discovers an ancient mech. Pilot the mech and use a suite of powerful tools to gather resources, shape the land, and build your ideal town alongside a growing cast of characters—solo or with up to three friends.
Animalkind is scheduled for release sometime this year on PC via Steam, and as of the time of writing, a demo is currently available for you to check out.
