Roots of Yggdrasil Announced for 2023

I keep my ear to the ground when it comes to city-builders and Rogue-likes. Doing this job, I tend to run across all sorts of games in general, so that isn’t too difficult. To my surprise, the developers of Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan (Manavoid Entertainment) have announced their next game. Roots of Yggdrasil is a Rogue-like city-builder set in Norse mythology, coming in 2023.

It is rare to see a Viking-themed game set post-Ragnarok. Nonetheless, in Roots of Yggdrasil, you guide the final Viking tribe after Ragnarok has decimated the World Tree. Here is what the press release says about Roots of Yggdrasil.

“Roots of Yggdrasil is a turn-based Rogue-like city-builder set in Norse mythology. After Ragnarok, the World Tree Yggdrasil has been obliterated. Only shards of the nine realms remain – scattered about the cosmos. Against all odds, a tribe of Vikings survives on these remains, caught in an endless time loop. Can they break the cycle and repair their broken home?

Following the devastation brought by Ragnarok, most of the Norse gods are dead and the remnants of the World Tree are in constant danger of being swallowed by a dark void known as Ginnungagap. The players’ colonies will therefore have to move from island to island in order to survive.

Each new island encountered will be procedurally generated, offering a new opportunity to build another village. By choosing the appropriate buildings, players will be able to harvest the surrounding resources necessary to evacuate before being plunged into darkness and fleeing to the next island.

In Roots of Yggdrasil, players’ settlements will constantly be in a race against time to avoid the Ginnungagap. Each failure will bring them back to the beginning of their adventure, where they can start anew with more knowledge and a better understanding of the game mechanics.

Failure will therefore be necessary for success, since players will start the loop each time with new tools, but also new challenges. The game will immerse players in a never-before explored post-Ragnarok era in Norse mythology.

We created our own original story about the aftermath of this cataclysmic event! Explore a colorful world with a variety of different biomes, fauna and flora in this beautiful low-poly city-builder, with hand-painted visuals designed by our amazing artists!“

This seems like a unique idea and a nice twist on the formula. I love Norse Mythology, so seeing a game that steps out of the usual tropes is very exciting. We don’t have an exact release date yet, but I’m eager to see what happens.