Games like Dungeon Keeper and Evil Genius cast you as the villain repelling heroes as they break on your defences like waves on the shore. Grove Keeper is different. You play a noble god of the forest protecting trees from old-timey woodcutters and hunters who have come to cut down Old Man Willow and shoot all the wildlife. Fortunately, you can build an army of mythical creatures including satyrs and half-naked giants who rend and stomp loggers with abandon. Maybe you are a bit villain-adjacent.

The demo I played at PAX Australia gave me a home tree and a single hut to protect, but let me grow more trees each night to produce the resources I needed to summon defenders. Willows are expensive and finicky about being planted near water, while the spruce don't give a damn where they grow, but

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