KINFOLKS

The pitch

KINFOLKS follows one family on a creek in the southern coalfields from 1858 forward. You do not play a person. You play the family line: heads of the house age and die, and the place passes to whoever is standing there.

Every birth, death, marriage, feud, conviction and bad year goes into a register. There is no ending. If a line runs out of blood it closes, and a new one opens on the same creek.

Screenshots

How to play

1. Make the choices the house puts in front of you: marriages, succession, what to do with the place.
2. Send what the place makes to the store, or nail it to the barn.
3. Mind the tithe, the feuds and any mortgage. The creek, the forks and the church all keep books on you.
4. Close the tab and come back. The family goes on while you are gone.
5. Read the register to see what your people did. Hide the bookkeeping if you want just the story.

Controls

Details

• Starts in 1858 and runs forward with no ending
• One game year passes every 45 real minutes
• A family register that runs past a thousand entries in a long line
• Childbirth, infant mortality, land prices and hard years use odds from historical records

Facts