Architect Of Ruin is a beautiful dark fantasy temple builder from former Valve devs and Hooded Horse

Was your new year resolution to rebuild an evil temple on behalf of a baleful god? I bring wonderful news, then. The former Epic and Valve developers of Dead Money LLC have signed a wicked pact with the strategy game illuminati of Hooded Horse to release Architect of Ruin – a “completely hand drawn” fantasy colony simulation game that looks like Dwarf Fortress twisted by 45 degrees and pumped full of Dungeon Keeper DNA. I am already in love with the trees, their rich foliage flattening to a core of shadow. Do not turn your back on the trees. Especially when you’re chopping them down to make arcane icons.

“The old temple lies in ruins, its power dormant, its faithful scattered,” explains the Steam blurb. “As the new master of these broken halls, guide a growing cult against adversity and meddling heroes. Balance resource management, construction, and survival to the glory of dark gods. Untomb forbidden knowledge, perform sinister rituals, and rebuild a long-forgotten sanctuary one blood-soaked stone at a time. Thus does the age of darkness begin.”

Here are some things you will build for your creepy lair of skulduggery: turrets, tanning racks, storehouses, bedrooms, chimney stoves, pillars and butcher blocks. And here are some beings you will enlist and/or conjure and bend to your will: “irascible sorcerors”, “unstable zealots”, goblins (I think) and “reanimated thralls”. There are also some deer in the screens but they don’t appear to be especially evil deer, and are probably not recruitable.

Aside from tending to your horde, you’ll need to chase away angry mobs, rival cultists, and meddling heroes. By the sounds of things, you’re free to repurpose the bodies of any good guys you slaughter. Hey, walking skeletons don’t grow on trees. Not even trees as pungent with menace as these. Unless we’re being metaphorical and talking about dangling gibbets, or whatever.

Dead Money LLC number three core members in total. They include co-owner Brandon Reinhart, who has credits on Half-Life: Alyx, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Artifact and Dota: Underlords. There’s no release date yet, so you’ll just have to pop along and do blood sacrifices in Timberborn for the moment, assuming that’s possible. I haven’t played Timberborn.