Cluckopia Demo Review: A Cosy, Feathered Take on Minecraft
We played the Cluckopia demo on PC: a charming block-building adventure about a rooster searching for his sister, with fast, easy crafting and clunky building.
Somewhere at the bottom of the Steam page for Cluckopia there is a line that tells you most of what you need to know about it. The game, it says, was made by a solo developer “in memory of a very special white rooster named Tuti”. Tuti is also the name of the hero: a small, brave white rooster who sets out across a chain of blocky islands to find his missing sister.
That mix of sincerity and silliness runs all the way through the demo we played. Cluckopia is a block-building adventure with farming, crafting and a light RPG layer, made by solo developer Andre Themistocles under the Ovo Dourado Games name and planned for release on PC in the second quarter of 2027. We requested a demo key from the developer through IndiePump, spent our time in its little archipelago, and came away charmed, with a few notes.
A rooster, a missing sister and a lot of blocks
The setup is simple and works well. Tuti’s sister has vanished, and her trail leads to a forgotten archipelago where the legendary roosters once hid their powers. Each legendary rooster you track down teaches you a new ability, such as an energy pulse or a lightning dash, and those powers are what you’ll need when the islands stop being friendly. According to the store page, creatures have come to life to serve a handful of bosses, and the Scarecrow King is only the first of them.
The twist, as the game puts it, is that Tuti has to do something no legendary rooster ever did: build. And this is where the first comparison everyone will make comes in. Cluckopia looks and plays a lot like a modernised, softer Minecraft where you happen to be a chicken. The world is made of chunky voxel blocks, you dig and gather and place them, and you slowly turn an empty patch of grass into a home with walls, a door, a bed and a roof.
The demo walks you through all of this as part of the quest line. You learn to move around the map, gather materials, build, plant and fight, and each step pushes you a little further along your sister’s trail. It never feels like a tutorial you have to sit through. It feels like the story is giving you a reason to try the next thing.
Farming and crafting that respect your time
The best surprise in Cluckopia is how quick everything is. Planting, gathering and crafting are genuinely fun, and a big part of that is pace. The whole game moves fast. You’re never stuck waiting around for long, and crafting a new item is a matter of a few clicks at the workbench, not a spreadsheet.
Crafting doesn’t ask you to think very hard, and that’s a good thing here. Recipes are straightforward and you are rarely more than a minute away from making something useful. If you’ve ever bounced off a survival game because you had to look up a wiki just to make a pickaxe, Cluckopia is the opposite of that.
Behind the easy surface there is more going on than the demo shows at first. The full game promises six skills to level up (Farming, Mining, Foraging, Cooking, Combat and Forging), and you split your energy between health and powers as you grow. It’s the classic loop of levelling up your rooster while you level up your home, and it’s satisfying in the demo already.
Building is where it gets clunky
If crafting is the highlight, building is the part that needs the most work. Placing blocks takes more effort than it should. Lining up walls, getting a block exactly where you want it and moving the camera around a tight space all feel a little clunky right now, especially next to how smooth everything else is.
It’s the one place where you feel the difference between Cluckopia and the games it’s compared to, and in a game that asks you to build so much, it matters. That said, this is a demo of a game that is still months away from release, and building controls are exactly the sort of thing that improves with player feedback. It’s the first thing we’d want to see polished before launch.
Combat, bosses and legendary powers
Combat is simple and approachable. You attack, move around your enemies and use your powers, and fights against the living scarecrows in the fields are short and easy to read. It won’t challenge anyone who’s played an action RPG, but that isn’t really the point. It gives the adventure some stakes without getting in the way of the cosy parts.
The bigger fights are where the legendary powers come in. The store page shows Tuti squaring off against the Midnight Scarecrow King in a desert arena, and the game includes a bestiary, the GalloWiki, for studying enemies before you take them on. It’s a nice touch that hints at a bit more depth in the full release.
Day, night and a good night’s sleep
What holds it all together is the atmosphere. Cluckopia has a full day and night cycle, and the sleep system is a lovely little ritual: build your bed, head home as the stars come out, and wake up to a new day of chores and exploring. The islands look great at night, with glowing torches, a deep blue sky and the sea shimmering at the edges of the map.
The colours are bright and friendly, the music is pleasant and never intrusive, and the little details (hens chatting, butterflies, the way characters react when you walk up to them) make the world feel lived in. The village hens, like Lucinda and Magali, have their own routines and stories, and you earn their trust through conversation and, yes, cuddles. In general, Cluckopia is simply very pleasant to play.
There’s also a Photo Mode, which we used for the screenshots in this review. You can pause the world, frame a shot and zoom in, and it’s a nice addition for a game this colourful.
What others are saying
Cluckopia is still very early, so there isn’t much coverage out there yet, and the demo has no Steam user reviews at the time of writing. The game was part of October’s Steam Next Fest, where The Nerdy Type picked it as one of ten cosy demos to try. They found it adorable and described it as Minecraft with the harsh edges softened, which matches our experience. They also noted that you can largely ignore the story and focus on exploring and levelling up your skills, which is fair: the quest line is there to guide you, not to hold you back.
A few things to know
- Co-op: The main island has room for up to four players, who can build together on the same ground. Co-op is one of the headline features on the store page, so it’s worth keeping an eye on how it develops.
- Languages: The game is planned in 12 languages, including English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese. Greek isn’t one of them, though the English is simple and easy to follow.
- Your PC: The requirements are modest. The minimum is a dual-core processor, 8 GB of RAM and a GTX 660 class graphics card with Vulkan support.
- AI disclosure: The developer states on Steam that some 3D models and icons were made with generative AI tools and then edited and reviewed, and that the game does not generate content with AI during play.
Who is Cluckopia for?
As a game, we’d say Cluckopia is aimed mostly at a younger audience. The controls are easy, the challenge is gentle and the whole world is designed to be friendly. But that doesn’t mean adults should skip it. If you enjoy games where you build things and level them up while you level up yourself, all in service of a clear goal, there’s a lot to like here.
If you loved Minecraft but want something cosier, with more story and less stress, give Cluckopia a look. And if you grew up playing Minecraft and want to introduce your kids to that kind of game, this is a great place to start them: it teaches the same ideas of gathering, crafting and building, wrapped in a story about a rooster looking for his sister.
Our verdict: Hit
Cluckopia isn’t a Crit, not yet. Building needs more polish, and the demo only scratches the surface of what the full game promises. But it’s a clear Hit. It’s charming, fast, easy to pick up and genuinely pleasant to spend time in, and it’s obviously made with a lot of love. With the right feedback and a few improvements before release, the full game could be really fun.
The demo is free on Steam right now. Give it a try, and if you like what you see, add Cluckopia to your wishlist. For a solo developer, wishlists make a real difference.
Watch the trailer
Where to follow Cluckopia
Cluckopia doesn’t have a standalone website yet. You can find it on Steam, follow the developer on X, join the community on Discord or subscribe on YouTube.
We received a free demo key from the developer for this review, through IndiePump, a free platform that connects indie developers with streamers, reviewers and press. You can find Cluckopia’s press kit on its IndiePump page. The developer had no input on this review.
