The Merlies, a cute city building adventure from Darjeeling and ARTE France, is coming to Steam in 2025.

In The Merlies, a squad of adorable birds explore multiple biomes, filled with remnants of a post-apocalyptic civilization. You’ll unlock new skills on your journey, and discover useful scraps to strategically construct a thriving community of Merlies.

The Merlies doesn’t have an exact release date just yet, and there isn’t a demo either, so I haven’t played. But you can already wishlist the game on Steam.

Although I enjoy many city builders, I tend to prefer those with some exploration. So, The Merlies quickly caught my eye, especially with the nifty little premise.

I’ve seen a lot of post-apocalyptic games lately, so it’s fun to find one that’s intentionally cute! I find that contrast pretty amusing, and the art design is positively adorable, which only reinforces that.

There’s almost a touch of Angry Birds in this. But the post-apocalyptic world and the “Merlies” themselves seem to have plenty of their own personality and potential lore. The physical scale of the objects and stages was a creative move, and the integration of natural elements looks so neat.

The squad-driven gameplay also intrigues me—watching the Merlies stack together in the trailer is delightful! I think the first game that I played with squad-driven, single player gameplay was Sonic Heroes, and I’ve loved that idea since.

The Merlies looks like it could be a unique and friendly city builder. I look forward to seeing more of the skills and “cooperation” promised on the Steam page.

Support LBR and artists by reading more of our Tabletop and Video Game posts!