Gorgeous cat-and-mouse city builder Whiskerwood lands soon, with a demo live now

Against the Storm and Manor Lords publisher Hooded Horse has a real knack for finding indie strategy winners, and its latest offering is no exception. Whiskerwood puts you in charge of a community of industrious mice working under the yoke of cat overlords. It's your job to make the most of the resources at your disposal, establish intricate production chains, and fulfill the requests of your feline bosses. But as their demands grow increasingly unreasonable, you'll have to decide if the time is right to cast off the chains of oppression.

Built by Minakata Dynamics, Whiskerwood boasts an immediately striking art style that's notably enhanced by the tight spaces it forces you into. The best city builders use limitations to tease out your optimization skills, and here you're always going to be restricted by the finite nature of the islands you're building on. Fortunately, Whiskerwood offers a Timberborn-tier of terraforming and vertical trickery; grow upwards as well as outwards, or dig into the cliffs and mountains to expand the available area at your disposal.

Likewise, you have the ability to lay out intricate networks of conveyor belts, pipes, elevators, and slides to move goods around your settlement in true Factorio or Satisfactory style. With over 40 different commodities across its raw materials, processed goods, and luxury items, you'll need to be smart as your cities grow larger and the demands of your mousefolk climb in kind. Keep the cats in your favor, and they'll reward you with rarities, or choose instead to trade with other rodent groups and passing pirates.

Size is far from your only consideration, however; climate and terrain play a big role in what you have access to. Constant storms will bring down the mood of your workers, and cold fronts can be devastating to crops if you aren't working to circulate heat around your towns. Wheat needs direct sunlight, while mushrooms crave the damp and dark. It's up to you to decide whether you spread out further to meet those requirements, meaning more transportation, or attempt to create suitable conditions closer to home.

Minakata Dynamics has, naturally, taken "Mouselow's Hierarchy of Needs" into account as well. Fundamentals such as food, water, and shelter can't be ignored, but where do you go from there? Build beautiful spaces and you'll encourage your workforce to live happy, free lives. But decide instead to erect imposing statues of your cat controllers and you can run a more brutal workshop, sacrificing morale for productivity and the satisfaction of the big cheeses at the top of the chain. I will judge you a little for it, however.

Whiskerwood launches Thursday November 6 on Steam, GOG, the Epic Games Store, and the Epic Games Store in early access. It will also be available via PC Game Pass on day one. You don't have to wait until then to get hands-on with it, however, as a demo is available to download right now.

For more tests of your organization, here are the best management games in 2025. Or, if you favor a different breed of rodent, we've rounded up the best rat games on PC.

Which animal would be best at running a humanlike civilization? Let us know in the PCGamesN community Discord server, and be sure to show your reasoning.