Game: Tattie Bogle
Developer: PineFog Studios
Publisher: Self-published
Genre: Farming-Defense Roguelite
Release Date: Later in 2026
Platform: PC (Steam)
Players: Solo or 2–4 online co-op
Language: English only
Price: TBA
🎃 PineFog Studios have announced Tattie Bogle, a co-op farming-defense roguelite where you play the scarecrow. Cozy by day, overrun by folklore after dark — and it’s coming to Steam later this year, solo or with up to three friends.
⚖️ You’re the Guardian, Not the Gardener
That’s the whole inversion, and it’s a good one. Farming games almost always cast you as the one doing the growing. Tattie Bogle gives that job to somebody else and makes you responsible for whether any of it survives.
A Tomte — a whiskered little gnome from Scandinavian folklore — comes down from the treeline one night and works his magic on a farmer’s scarecrow. That’s you. The farmer still plants, waters and harvests. He has no idea you can move.
Everything that creeps out of the woods to eat his crops is now your problem, and you have a shed full of garden tools and some folk magic to deal with it.
Nice touch on the name, too: tattie bogle is Scots for scarecrow. Literally “potato ghost.”
Cozy by day, cursed by night
The crops keep vanishing and the farmer can’t work out why. He isn’t a bad farmer. He’s just asleep when the trouble comes — and the trouble knows it.
Tattie Bogle is a co-op farming-defense roguelite from PineFog Studios, announced today for Steam. You play an enchanted scarecrow defending a small farm at the edge of the old woods from pests, critters and progressively less ordinary things, using directional fear blasts to scatter them and defenses placed across the fields to slow them down.
It’s blending three loops that don’t usually share a game — the placement logic of tower defense, the rhythm of a farming sim, and run-based roguelite progression. Up to four players can defend the same farm online, with difficulty and wave size scaling to the group.
The Best Mechanic Isn’t in the Announcement
✉️ You Leave the Farmer Notes, Signed “Ol’ Jo”
This is on the store page and nowhere in the press release, and it’s the most charming idea in the game.
The farmer doesn’t know his scarecrow is alive. So when you need better seeds or a new tool, you write him a note and sign it “Ol’ Jo,” a helpful neighbour. He’ll buy whatever the note suggests on his next market trip — as long as the harvest earned enough to cover it.
So your shopping list is gated behind your own performance, routed through a man who thinks he’s taking advice from someone down the road. That’s a progression system and a running joke doing the same job, which is exactly the kind of thing small teams can pull off and big ones usually sand away.
⚖️ Sell It or Spend It
The other thing the release skips is the central economic tension, and it’s sharp.
Whatever crops stay in the field, the farmer sells to keep the farm afloat. Whatever you quietly harvest yourself becomes your crafting material.
Every ear of corn is therefore either the farm’s survival or your equipment. Take too much and the place goes under while you’re well armed; take too little and you’re defending a solvent farm with a rake. PineFog’s own line is that the farm’s whole fate sits inside that choice, and structurally that looks right — it’s one decision, made constantly, with no correct answer.
Four Shifts, No Breaks
The day-night cycle isn’t just a lighting change. Waves roll around the clock and escalate with every day the farm survives, and what comes out of the woods depends entirely on when you’re looking.
🌅 Dawn
Deer and bunnies nibbling at the edges. The gentle end of the problem.
☀️ Afternoon
Bears lumber in. Considerably harder to shoo off with a wave of dread.
🌙 After Dark
The woods send their strange ones — ghouls and mushroom goblins among them.
💀 Deeper Still
The more the woods get stirred up, the stranger what wanders out of them.
🧰 A Shed Full of Answers
Your arsenal is exactly what a scarecrow would have access to, which is a nice bit of design discipline:
• A wave of dread — the directional fear blast, for sending pests running
• Garden tools — trowel, hoe, rake, shovel, and a pitchfork that flings things clear across the field
• Trenches and lures to reroute what’s coming
• Stinging nettles planted as living obstacles
• Spook stones, raised for area denial
Crucially, you build all of this mid-wave. There’s no prep phase where the pests politely wait for you to finish digging. That’s the detail that makes this tower defense with the safety off rather than tower defense with a farm skin.
Five Relics, Five Prices
The risk-reward layer comes out of the ground. Five relics from old folklore lie buried beneath the fields — a dwarf’s ring and a pair of dancing shoes among them, both of which anyone who knows the source material will recognise as bad news.
Each grants a powerful ability. Each has a cost, and PineFog are upfront that you’ll learn what it is the hard way. The announcement mentions cursed relics spawning skeletal threats after dark and risking corruption of the crops they’re supposed to be protecting, so the drawback isn’t a stat penalty — it’s a new problem added to a farm that already has several.
When a run ends the fields reset, but the scarecrow remembers. Advancement points spent on permanent upgrades carry into the next attempt, which is the standard roguelite promise and a sensible fit for a game this structurally busy.
One Thing to Know Before You Wishlist
🤖 The Soundtrack Uses Generative AI
This isn’t in the press release, but PineFog have disclosed it plainly on the Steam page, so we’re reporting it plainly too.
The game’s music was created using generative AI tools — specifically Suno — with human curation and selection. The developers state that all other content, including artwork, animation, design, code and writing, was made by humans.
We’d note two things. First, the disclosure is exactly what Valve’s system is for, and PineFog filled it in properly rather than leaving it blank — that’s to their credit and it’s how readers get to make an informed call. Second, a meaningful chunk of the cozy-game audience treats any generative AI as a dealbreaker, and this is a cozy game. If that’s you, better to know now than after you’ve bought it.
Nothing else in the game is AI-generated by the developer’s account.
Platform and Availability
🖥️ PC via Steam, Later This Year
Tattie Bogle is PC-only with no console versions announced, and no price has been given. The press release says later this year; the Steam page still reads “Coming soon,” so expect that to firm up nearer launch.
It’ll run on nearly anything: Windows 10 64-bit, a 2.5 GHz dual-core, 4 GB of RAM, Intel HD 4000 graphics and a 2 GB install. That’s about as accessible a minimum spec as you’ll see this year.
One limitation worth flagging — the Steam page currently lists English only, with no other languages for interface or subtitles. For a co-op game leaning on a folklore setting with international appeal, that may widen later, but it’s what’s listed today.
🌾 Farming Sim
🏰 Tower Defense
🎲 Roguelite
🤝 Online Co-Op
🧙 Folklore
👾 Pixel Graphics
Who’s Making It
🌲 PineFog Studios
Founded by Andy Johnson, who left full-time work to build games independently. By the studio’s own admission, an early attempt at a custom engine in Rust was abandoned in favour of actually shipping something finished — and Tattie Bogle is what followed. That’s an unusually honest bit of studio boilerplate, and the right lesson to have learned.
🗣️ Andy Johnson — Founder, PineFog Studios
“We wanted to flip the perspective on farming games and make you the guardian, not the gardener. Tattie Bogle combines the strategic depth of tower defense with the satisfaction of farming and the replayability of a roguelite — then throws friends into the mix for some wonderfully chaotic co-op moments!”
One more co-op detail worth knowing: veterans can dial their own upgrades back down to keep things fair when playing with newer friends. That’s a thoughtful inclusion for a roguelite with permanent progression, and it solves the problem where a well-upgraded player trivialises the game for everyone else at the table.
Tattie Bogle arrives on Steam later in 2026, and is available to wishlist now.
Hi there! I’m Marie, also known as CtrlQueen. I’m passionate about keeping up with the latest in gaming news and sharing my insights. RPGs steal my heart with their rich narratives and immersive worlds, but I also love unwinding with fun, casual games. Whether you’re here for deep dives into game mechanics or just to chat about your favorite casual game, you’ve found the right place! Let’s game and explore together.
