Timberborn is a construction strategy game where you control a population of beavers, building a civilization and preparing for drought. You build waterways, storage houses, dams and more in a densely packed city as you manage resources, allocate buildings and ensure you have enough precious water. The impending drought, limited city footprint and focus on water preservation makes this an unusual city-building game, and allows for creative problem solving and strategic thinking to take the forefront.

Set in the far future, long after humans have wiped themselves out and decimated the world, causing almost weekly droughts, beavers have emerged as a new dominant species. You take control of one of the two beaver factions (Folktails or Iron Teeth), and help them overcome the ecological challenges facing them by constructing a settlement capable of withstanding even the most severe drought.

You can build a variety of different structures, and, unlike on other similar games, build upwards instead of outwards, saving space and creating truly unique structures. Build canals and rivers, create dams and reservoirs, and build water tanks so you can continue to grow food and drink water when the dry season comes, and see how long your colony can last. You need to carefully manage your resource consumption by replanting trees and carefully managing inventory, or you risk running out of precious items in the middle of a long dry spell, spelling the end of your colony.

It's a unique take on the city-building strategy game genre, which features a message of environmentalism and responsibility, while also offering a deeply involving system of pre-planning, resource management and creative problem-solving.