Skyrim's lead designer is just part of the RPG royalty bringing this sandbox world filled with anthropomorphic animals to life

Skyrim and Stardew Valley collide with the world of Redfall in Hawthorn, a sandbox RPG from a team of experienced developers that just showed off new gameplay footage during the Future Games Show Spring Showcase.

Hawthorn is a sandbox RPG that can be played either solo or in co-op. It's inspired by Victorian-era European fairytales, and drops you into a beautiful, outsized world where you'll play as an anthropomorphic animal. Running around as an otter, mouse, or owl means that you might be just a little small for the world you inhabit, but that just offers some unique ways to interact with your surroundings.

The team behind Hawthorn boasts some impressive experience, having worked at Bethesda, BioWare, and Naughty Dog on a dizzying list of famous RPGs. Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Skyrim, Fallout, Starfield, Ultima Online and many more all feature on this list of resumés, and between that and the charming setting, it's looking like one to keep an eye on.

Of course, it's still early days, and while developer NEARstudios is proud of its early feedback, there's a long way to go. So far, self-funding has ensured that Hawthorn's unique nature can be preserved, but the team is preparing to open the game up to a Kickstarter campaign, so be sure to keep an eye out for that launch to help bring the game to life.

If you’re looking for more excellent games from today's Future Games Show, have a look at our official Steam page.

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Ali Jones
News Editor

I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.

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