Beyond the Grove arrived in Steam Early Access on November 4, 2025, bringing mushroom warriors, elemental golems, and a refreshing commitment to handcrafted content in an era where AI-generated assets flood the indie scene. Developer Not a Duck Games built this colorful RTS-autobattler hybrid entirely self-funded without publisher backing, and they’re releasing weekly updates while maintaining artistic integrity that shows in every frame.
The premise positions you as a young Grove Keeper defending your home from mysterious corruption spreading beyond the grove’s borders. Your army consists of a steady stream of summoned mushroom warriors and crafted elemental golems combining seven distinct elements to create over 50 unique troop types. The gameplay loop cycles between strategic planning and automated execution, capturing the satisfying decision-making of RTS games without demanding 300 actions per minute.
Seven Elements Create Endless Combinations
The elemental system drives Beyond the Grove’s strategic depth. Seven base elements combine to produce golems with vastly different behaviors, strengths, and weaknesses. Fire golems excel at dealing burst damage. Water units provide healing and support. Earth troops tank incoming attacks while nature golems summon additional reinforcements. Lightning strikes quickly but fragile, ice slows enemies, and light offers defensive buffs while dark deals damage over time.
Understanding which combinations work against specific enemy compositions becomes crucial as you progress through increasingly challenging encounters. The corruption throws different threats at you each run, forcing adaptation rather than allowing you to rely on one dominant strategy. This variety ensures that mastering the game requires learning the entire elemental roster rather than finding one overpowered build and spamming it endlessly.
The golem creation process adds a satisfying layer of planning. You’re not just selecting units from a menu. You’re actively combining elements during battles, choosing which golem types to prioritize based on what the corruption sends your way. This real-time decision-making creates tension and engagement that pure autobattlers often lack, where you typically just set your formation and watch passively.
Blessings Transform Your Strategy
Beyond the Grove includes over 100 upgrades called blessings that dramatically alter how your army functions. These aren’t simple stat boosts adding 5 percent damage. Blessings fundamentally change unit behaviors, unlock new abilities, and create powerful synergies between different golem types. Finding devastating blessing combinations becomes the meta-game that keeps runs feeling fresh.
The blessing system encourages experimentation since you won’t see the same upgrade options every run. Sometimes you’ll build around fire damage amplification. Other times you’ll focus on summoning massive quantities of cheap units. Maybe you’ll discover a blessing combo that turns your water healers into offensive powerhouses. This variability combined with the elemental golem system creates an enormous possibility space that prevents the game from feeling repetitive even after dozens of hours.
The roguelite structure means each run teaches you something new about effective strategies, blessing synergies, or elemental counters. Death doesn’t feel punishing because you’re constantly learning and improving your understanding of the game’s systems. That knowledge carries forward even when your current Grove Keeper falls to the corruption.
Handcrafted With Care
Not a Duck Games proudly emphasizes that Beyond the Grove features entirely hand-drawn artwork and live-recorded music composed in-house with absolutely no AI involvement. This commitment to human craftsmanship shows in the game’s visual charm and musical personality. Each golem has distinct character in its animations. The environments feel deliberately designed rather than procedurally generated. The soundtrack adapts to battle intensity with layers that add as you summon more troops.
This artistic dedication matters more than some players might realize. Games with AI-generated assets often feel generic and soulless because they lack the intentional decisions human artists make about color theory, composition, animation timing, and thematic consistency. Beyond the Grove has personality that comes through in every visual element and musical cue, creating an aesthetic identity that helps it stand out in the crowded indie strategy space.
RTS Feel Without the Stress
One of Beyond the Grove’s smartest design decisions is capturing the strategic satisfaction of real-time strategy games while eliminating the mechanical stress. Traditional RTS games demand constant multitasking: managing economy, controlling units, scouting opponents, and executing build orders while maintaining high actions per minute. That intensity creates barriers for many potential players.
Beyond the Grove preserves the planning and strategic thinking while automating execution. You decide which golems to create and when to summon them, but they fight autonomously once deployed. This structure lets you focus on strategic decisions rather than mechanical execution, making the game accessible to players who love strategy but struggle with or simply dislike the frantic pace of traditional RTS games.
The fast-paced cycles between strategy and execution maintain engagement without overwhelming. Each round plays quickly enough that mistakes don’t cost you 40 minutes of progress, but long enough that your decisions meaningfully impact outcomes. This pacing makes Beyond the Grove perfect for sessions ranging from quick 20-minute runs to extended multi-hour deep dives.
Self-Funded Development and Weekly Updates
Not a Duck Games operates entirely self-funded without publisher support, which means every sale directly supports continued development. The team launched into Early Access transparently acknowledging the game remains in development while committing to weekly updates that add content, fix bugs, and implement community feedback. This aggressive update schedule demonstrates genuine dedication to improving the experience.
Co-founder Allen Wang brings over 13 years of product management experience to the project, handling development, game design, priorities, timelines, administration, financials, marketing, and whatever else the small team needs. This pragmatic approach to indie development – wearing every hat necessary rather than letting gaps exist – often determines whether ambitious projects actually launch or remain permanently in development hell.
Early Access Community Response
Player reactions since the November launch highlight appreciation for the game’s charm, strategic depth, and satisfying progression systems. The elemental combination mechanics particularly resonate with strategy enthusiasts who enjoy discovering powerful synergies. The blessing system receives praise for creating meaningful variety between runs rather than forcing players to execute the exact same strategy repeatedly.
Some Early Access feedback focuses on balancing specific golem types and blessing combinations that feel either overpowered or underwhelming. The development team’s weekly update schedule allows rapid iteration on these balance concerns, with community suggestions frequently implemented within days rather than months. This responsiveness builds trust and keeps players engaged with ongoing development.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Beyond the Grove release?
Beyond the Grove launched in Steam Early Access on November 4, 2025. The game remains in active development with weekly updates adding content and implementing community feedback.
Who developed Beyond the Grove?
Not a Duck Games, a small indie studio, developed and published Beyond the Grove. The team is entirely self-funded without publisher backing, making player support crucial for continued development.
What kind of game is it?
Beyond the Grove is an RTS-inspired autobattler roguelite where you command mushroom warriors and elemental golems to defend your grove from corruption. It combines strategic planning with automated combat execution.
How many different golems are there?
The game features over 50 unique elemental golems created by combining seven base elements: fire, water, earth, nature, lightning, ice, light, and dark. Each combination produces golems with distinct abilities and behaviors.
Is there AI-generated content?
No, Not a Duck Games emphasizes that Beyond the Grove features entirely hand-drawn artwork and live-recorded music composed in-house with zero AI involvement. Everything is crafted by human artists and musicians.
What are blessings?
Blessings are upgrades you acquire during runs that fundamentally alter your strategy. With over 100 available, blessings create powerful synergies, unlock new abilities, and change how your golem army functions rather than just providing simple stat increases.
How often does the game update?
Not a Duck Games releases updates weekly during Early Access, adding content, fixing bugs, and implementing community feedback. This aggressive schedule demonstrates the team’s commitment to improving the game based on player input.
What platforms is it on?
Beyond the Grove is currently available on PC via Steam, with Linux support also confirmed. No console versions have been announced yet.
Conclusion
Beyond the Grove demonstrates what passionate indie developers can accomplish without publisher constraints or AI shortcuts. Not a Duck Games built something genuinely charming that respects both player intelligence and artistic craftsmanship. The elemental golem system creates strategic depth while the blessing upgrades ensure no two runs feel identical. The handcrafted art and live-recorded music provide personality that AI-generated assets simply cannot replicate. Most importantly, the weekly update schedule during Early Access shows a development team committed to continuous improvement based on community feedback rather than abandoning their project after launch. For strategy fans seeking accessible RTS gameplay without mechanical stress, roguelite enthusiasts who appreciate meaningful build variety, or anyone tired of soulless AI-generated indie games, Beyond the Grove offers a refreshing alternative. The self-funded nature means player support directly enables continued development, making every purchase an investment in keeping unique indie projects alive. Sometimes the best games come from small teams with clear vision, genuine passion, and the courage to build something entirely their own.