7 Grand Steps is just a short walk away from its June 7 release

IGF finalist 7 Grand Steps is releasing for Windows and Mac on June 7th, developer Mousechief has announced. We haven't covered the game in great detail before, so here's a recap: it's an innovative mix of grand strategy and board game which has a novel familial take on the much-plundered topic of civilisation. Dan Gril called it "hugely inspiring and strange" and "a must play" after having a go on it at GDC, and there's now a demo version to keep you ticking over till June 7th, when the game will release on both the Mousechief website and on Steam for $15.

You might remember Mousechief for their even more boardgame-ish Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! , which was released way back in 2008. 7 Grand Steps: What Ancients Begat - to give it its full title - is a bit more difficult to describe, but the following trailer might help to clue you in.

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.