There’s a genre of Medieval inspired indie games cropping up at the moment, such as with The Procession to Calvary (2020). Polish indie team Yaza Games has another here in the form of Inkulinati.

Launched in early 2023, this one is a very creative turn-based strategy game. You must paint your army in real-time, whilst battling foes and attempting to get some glory. Hurray!

Master the Bums of Inkulinati

Available on Steam, GOG, and Xbox consoles, Inkulinati is inspired by Medieval marginalia. The developer explains:

“700 years in the making, finally these bizarre art pieces can come alive in a video game and show that medieval people also had their ‘memes’ and that they laughed from the same silly things that we do today. You’ll see sword-wielding rabbits, dogs with spears, trumpets lodged in bottoms, human-eating snails, and more.”

In terms of gameplay, if you’ve been near a turn-based strategy game before (such as Settlers III from 1998) you’ll get the gist.

The difference here is it’s Medieval times and there’s ink. Yaza Games has been helpful enough to create a demonstration trailer of the basics, which covers it better than we can explain it.

You can refer to Medieval Bodies for insights into art during The Good Old Days, but Inkulinati does riff off that plenty good. For example, there are pigeons.

But really this is an offbeat, mildly humourous and good fun turn-based strategy game that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

It’s all tongue very firmly in cheek on this one and your main goal is to have a laugh and revel in the sense of history.

We must say, Inkulinati is a great little game. We weren’t sure what to expect from it, but the tactical element is detailed and you can really throw yourself into the action.

But above everything else, this is just absurd. The game knows it’s absurd (there’s a flatulent donkey on the main artwork, for crying out loud). And we went into it expecting absurdity. That is what we got.

To note, the game is still in early access right now. That means it isn’t finished and will continue to add new elements as the experience evolves.

But in its current state, it’s good old daft fun.

With that distinctive Medieval art style, the game sure looks the real deal. There’s also a great little soundtrack to go along with proceedings, with numbers penned by musician Hildegard von Blingin’.

Inkulinati isn’t a game you take very seriously. That’s kind of clear, we think, but we guess we’re in a state-the-bloody-obvious mood.

During our time with, we were often delighted by its inventiveness. This is a unique (if bizarre) gaming world it’s created for itself here. There’s really nothing else like this around in the turn-based strategy world.

If it’s piqued your interest, for sure give it a whirl. It’s a 4/5 kind of game, notable for its mischievousness and revelling in the joys of being a bit of a silly billy.

For that, we doff our cap to it.