Cluckopia won me over with plump chickens in a blocky world

I’ve never really been a fan of voxel exploration games like Minecraft. I can appreciate why people love them, lord knows my daughter does, but the blocky aesthetic just doesn’t usually appeal to me when I’m choosing a game. But with that said, every so often I’m willing to admit that some games in the style stand out, which is the case for Cluckopia. 

My first thought when I saw Cluckopia, by Andre Themistocles, was “Minecraft with chickens,” and now that I’ve experienced the demo, I’m 100% convinced that my initial thought was spot on. However, there’s a lot more to Cluckopia than my first impression gave it credit for, and I can now say there’s another voxel game I actually enjoy. 

Note: The Cluckopia Steam page includes the following AI disclosure: 

“Some of the game’s art (3D models and icons) was created with generative AI tools, then edited and reviewed before shipping. The game does not use AI to generate content during play.”

Plump little chickens in a blocky world

I think part of the reason I struggle to get into voxel games is because everything is so… square. Which, yes, is kind of the whole point, but I like soft round edges; they make my brain happy. So I’m starting to realize, as I play more games like this, that voxel games with a softer aesthetic are my happy medium, and Cluckopia firmly falls into that category. 

It’s hard to categorize Cluckopia as a single genre, but I’d argue that it’s closer to a cozy life sim than anything else, while still offering RPG-style personal progression and enemy encounters. While you can spend endless hours exploring, building a base, and getting to know the other chickens, there is a familiar main story to follow as well.

You play as Tuti, whose sister has been kidnapped, and now it’s up to him to go and rescue her. To do this, Tuti sails off to a distant land in search of Legendary Roosters, who will teach him new skills to help him get his sister back. It’s an age-old RPG tale that is instantly familiar, but it took a back seat to wild exploration during my time with the demo. 

Collections and goals

If there’s one thing that will keep me coming back to a game for more, it’s giving me goals outside of the main story and a bunch of skills to level up, and Cluckopia has a ton of small, achievable goals that have nothing to do with the main story at all. 

There are challenges that reward you with golden eggs for completing actions a certain number of times. I’ll be honest, I still haven’t figured out what golden eggs are or how to use them, but I am hoarding them like my life could depend on them at some point. You can find them in the wild, too, but they’re not all that common, so challenges are worth completing. Probably. 

Then there are skill levels for things like combat, gathering, cooking, and mining. These increase passively as you play, unlocking new things as you reach new levels and, in the case of combat, making it much easier for Tuti to deal with enemies. My demo experience was broken into days with different focuses, such as one day dedicated to foraging items to increase my gathering level, and the next spent hunting down enemies to defeat.  

And last but not least are Honor Points, which are earned through developing friendships with the other chickens by giving them gifts or, weirdly, staying close to them while they’re in the pool. Thankfully, the RoosterWiki lets you know all the details for each chicken you meet, including what gifts they like most, so building up Honor Points isn’t as hard as it seems.  

Getting ahead of myself

I did mess up a little bit, which I’m willing to admit, although it was less my fault and more a case of me getting ahead of myself. On day one, I went off to explore the island and see what kind of resources I could gather, finding some scarecrows along the way. They’re enemies, so of course I ran in headfirst and started fighting them 

Then on day two, Lucinda told me I had to defeat three scarecrows and collect a bunch of resources to make a stove. I already had the resources, so I went ahead and made the stove, which I thought would bypass the quest steps… Except it didn’t, so I ended up defeating far more scarecrows than necessary and gathering more resources to replace the ones I’d already used.  

To be clear, this is very much a pattern on my end rather than a problem with the game. This isn’t the first time I’ve gotten ahead of a game’s quests, and it won’t be the last. On the plus side, I ended up with two stoves, which at least means I get double the production capacity for cooked food. 

Cluckopia is set to release at some point during Q2 2027, so there’s a while to wait until the full game is available to play. There is, however, a demo available on Steam right now if you want to get to know these little chickens and explore the island.