Founded by veterans of Bethesda Game Studios, BioWare and Naughty Dog, the American Nearstudios presented a gameplay trailer for its debut project – the cooperative role-playing sandbox Hawthorn.
Image source: Near Studios
Hawthorn is billed as a village simulator inspired by Victorian-era European fairy tales with the spirit of 80s/90s adventure stories (like Redwall) and anthropomorphic animals.
Hawthorn takes place in a world where forest dwellers live with magical creatures. Players will have to rebuild a village in the Windermere Valley, where resources and points of interest change over time.
Users will be able to create their own animal (a wide selection of species and backgrounds), engage in farming, fishing, exploring the world, decorating houses, and so on. Unwanted tasks can be delegated to AI villagers.
They promise online and local co-op, a changing world with changing seasons, the opportunity to get to know (or offend) memorable NPCs, different ways to resolve conflicts and unique random events.
Hawthorn doesn’t have a release date yet, but it does have a Steam page. Journalists call the game a mixture of Animal Crossing / Stardew Valley and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and for good reason – Skyrim lead designer Bruce Nesmith is involved in the project.
In addition to Skyrim, the portfolio of Nearstudios employees includes such games and series as Mass Effect, Dragon Age, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Starfield, Fallout, Ultima Online, League of Legends and Fortnite.