You’re a lord, sent into the wild to explore and left-click any bad guys in your backyard. While you’re adventuring forth, your village grows. Acquired items secure different types of citizens, so recruiting new townsfolk will be your main goal. (...)

But don’t expect a medieval SimCity. Hinterland aims for manageable 10-to-20 villager towns, and a relatively small surrounding area that can be patrolled in a few hours (but won’t get old, we’re told). The game leans on randomly generated content to encourage replay and influence your village’s make-up. “If you find a game forest, you can build the hunter,” says Jeff, “but if you don’t... you don’t.” An achievement system will add some structure, but the main idea is roaming the game’s variable world, shaping your own quests along the way. “We talk about how silly it is when you play an RPG, you do some quest and the world doesn’t change,” says Jeff.

“Now, you sort of make your own quests. If you get a sword, and give it to your farmer, and the village gets attacked when you’re gone... you’ve changed the world by giving the farmer that sword. And if he stops making food, it has an actual effect on the world, whether he’s out adventuring with you, or he’s recovering from the injuries he’s sustained helping defend the town.” What could an RPG be? Anything, clearly.​