Get a close look at Smalland, a survival game where you're tiny enough to ride a mouse

You're thinking it, I'm thinking it, we're all thinking it, so let's get it out of the way. Yes, Smalland, a survival game where you're the size of an ant, does look a lot like Grounded, a survival game where you're the size of an ant. There's crafting, there's building, and you encounter bugs and spiders and birds that are extremely large because you are very small.

But there's no rule that says you can't have two survival games with a similar premise, and a new Smalland video, narrated by design lead Kev Harrison from Merge Games, goes into a bit more detail and shows off some intriguing features. Check it out above.

The video, revealed at today's Future Games Show, shows a player using a hang glider made from leaves and twigs to soar through the woods, and a vine that can be swung from like an itty-bitty Spider-Man. Depending on how you build you character you'll be able to align yourself with various creature factions, and even adopt certain animals as mounts. Riding a grasshopper will let you leap through the woods, ladybugs can fight by your side, and you can even fly around on a robin's back.

You can also ride a mouse. I would very much like to ride a mouse.

Smalland has been in development for a few years now, and will be released on Steam sometime in 2021.

Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.