The Colony 2044

Daisy's grandma went out for clover one evening and didn't come back. Daisy is a rabbit, she is not very big, and she has decided she's going to go out after her anyway. She's keeping a diary so that if she doesn't make it back, whoever finds it will know where to look.

That's the whole game, really. You spend your days at the camp and your nights out in the woods where the horde is, and every morning there's a new page in the diary about how it went.

During the day you walk around the yard, tap on the fire or on one of the bunnies or on a building, and decide what to put up next with whatever wood, metal, and scrap you managed to carry home. A tent so people have somewhere to sleep, a seed bed so there's something to eat, a fence so the horde has something to chew on other than you. The bunnies who live there will tell you what they're worried about, and they're usually right.

At night you pick a spot on the map and head out. You move with one thumb and your weapon aims itself, so it's easy to pick up but it gets hectic fast. Every time you level up you choose one of three cards (a longer barrel, a wider swing, a faster reload, that sort of thing), and you go looking for crates. Some of them have scrap in them. Some of them have a bunny in them who's been waiting a long time for somebody to open the lid. The hole you came out of will take you home whenever you want, and Grandma's rule is that you should use it. Don't be a hero. Be back.

Everyone you rescue comes home with you and joins the camp, with their own name and their own way of looking at things. If you go down out there, you get dragged home hungry and the horde follows you back, so whatever you built during the day had better hold.

There's a diary page for every night, written in Daisy's hand, about what happened and who came home and what she noticed. You can add a line of your own at the bottom, and you can share a page if one turns out well. The seasons turn every eight nights. Fog rolls in and swallows the sound of the howling, and there's rain and snow and the occasional thunderstorm. There are fifteen hunting grounds to work through, from Whimsy Woods out to a place called Last Midway, and if you have a friend who plays, the two of you can pair up online and run a night together.

Somewhere out there is Grandma. Bring everyone else home first and the woods will give her up.

The game is free, and there are no ads, no timers, and no energy to wait for. There are a few optional one-time packs: the far hunting grounds past the grove, where the later crates are; more diary paper and ink; some hats; and Grandma's old trunk.