Game: Under Canopies
Developer: Novemtails
Publisher: Assemble Entertainment
Genre: Cozy Open-World Survival Craft
Released: October 23, 2026 (Early Access)
Price: $14.99 (rising at 1.0)
Platform: PC (Steam)
🌲 How we reviewed it: on PC, via Steam. These are Early Access impressions: Under Canopies entered Early Access on October 23 and doesn’t include its narrative finale yet, so we’ve also noted what players are saying and how quickly the developer is patching.
0Combat
30+Recipes
6Patches in 10 Days
~3 moPlanned Early Access
$14.99Price
🦌 Know this first: it’s Early Access, it’s peaceful, and the price goes up at 1.0. Under Canopies comes from Novemtails and is published by Assemble Entertainment. It entered Early Access on October 23 at $14.99, and the developer plans to raise the price when it leaves Early Access in about three months. It’s Very Positive on Steam from 64 reviews. The story doesn’t have its ending yet, and Steam Deck compatibility hasn’t been tested.
🌿 Explore Without Fear
Step into a serene, vibrant forest full of mysteries. There’s no hunting or violence here. Exploration is about discovering unique resources, observing wildlife, and recording each find in your journal.
Raise your cabin from scratch and fill it with furniture and handmade items. Tend a garden, cook over thirty recipes, and live alongside chickens, sheep, bees and wild creatures. Under Canopies redefines survival by leaving behind combat and danger: you don’t fight nature, you thrive with it.
A survival craft game where the only enemy is inefficiency.
When we covered Under Canopies’ announcement, its pitch stood out immediately: a survival crafting game with no combat at all. In Early Access, that idea is already working. It’s a gentle, beautiful game about building a cabin, earning the trust of animals and soaking in a forest. The systems are familiar, the content is still thin, and the story isn’t finished. But a fast-moving developer and a clear roadmap make it an easy game to root for.
Our Early Access impressions: “Under Canopies offers a refreshing escape from survival stress, letting you build, cook, and photograph your way to cozy contentment.”
Life in the Sanctuary
Under Canopies keeps the survival craft loop, minus the fear. Here’s how you spend your days.
🏡 Build
Raise cabins piece by piece almost anywhere, and decorate them however you like. You can build more than one home.
🍲 Cook & Grow
Grow crops, which rain now waters for you, and combine ingredients into over thirty recipes.
🐻 Befriend
Earn the trust of chickens, sheep, rabbits, deer, foxes and even bears for companionship and rewards.
📷 Photograph
Fill your album with rare wildlife and landscapes. Press P to hide the HUD for cleaner shots.
A Genuinely Restorative Forest
🌧️ Thunderstorms, Birdsong and Calm
The atmosphere is the headline. Players describe it as soothing and therapeutic, praising the colorful art style and the sound design: birds in distant treetops, wind through the leaves, and thunderstorms rolling across the forest. One player said a few days of anxiety melted away once they started playing, and they found themselves humming along as they gathered resources.
The no-combat design really changes how it feels. Several players love that it’s built around treating wildlife with care and respect rather than conquering and exploiting the world, which one called “a nice vibe shift” from other survival craft games. Another loved saving photos of animals and landscapes as a little album of peaceful moments.
A Developer That Listens
🛠️ Six Patches in Ten Days
The most consistent praise in the reviews is for the developer. Players say bugs get patched very fast, and one who couldn’t progress because a bear they’d tamed kept getting stuck updated their review to say it was fixed. Between October 26 and November 4 alone, Novemtails shipped six updates with manual saves, a pickup filter, easier crafting, slower hunger and thirst, rain that waters exposed crops, better building snapping, parallel kilns, smarter cooking from nearby cupboards, and a long list of animal fixes.
The roadmap is ambitious: a Photography Lab, a Companion, a Canoe, food preservation, more culinary content, an underground biome with the Great Axolotl, a narrative finale and achievements, all before the 1.0 release. One player is already more than 40 hours in and still exploring.
Where It Stumbles
⚠️ A Few Fallen Branches
1. Familiar mechanics. A couple of players found the chopping, planting, taming and repairing loop very familiar. One compared it to Len’s Island without the combat, and another got bored once the novelty wore off.
2. Inventory and storage. One player criticized the dozen free inventory slots and storage that doesn’t show what’s inside or what’s nearby. There’s no level-up or skill progression either. The newer pickup filter and cupboard-aware cooking help a little.
3. Thin content for now. The map is fixed, so repeat playthroughs can feel samey, and one player said it needs more depth, more animals, more map and more story. The narrative conclusion isn’t in yet.
4. Early Access bugs. Several players mention minor bugs and some instability, although one said it’s surprisingly stable for Early Access. One player also noted the art style won’t be for everybody.
🎮 Controls and Comfort
Under Canopies has full controller support, including Xbox and DualShock pads, plus manual saving from the pause menu and 10 interface languages. There are no achievements yet, but they’re on the roadmap. Steam Deck compatibility hasn’t been tested.
Things to Know
📋 Before You Buy
• $14.99 in Early Access, and the price will go up at 1.0 · bundles with Outbound, Island Beekeeper, Farm to Table and more
• Early Access planned for about three months · no narrative ending yet
• Single-player · full controller support · Steam Cloud · 10 languages · Steam Deck: Unknown
• No combat, no hunting · hunger and thirst, but no danger
• Minimum: Windows 10 64-bit, Core i5-2400 or FX-6300, 8 GB RAM, GTX 670 or R9 270, 3 GB of storage
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
| The Good |
The Bad |
The Ugly |
| No CombatSurvival without the stress. |
Familiar LoopChop, plant, tame, repeat. |
That ChickenIt refuses to be your friend. |
| AtmosphereStorms, birdsong and soft colors. |
Inventory LimitsTight slots, opaque storage. |
— |
| Animal BondsEarn trust, from chickens to bears. |
Thin ContentFixed map, no ending yet. |
— |
| Responsive DevSix patches in ten days. |
EA BugsMinor, but present. |
— |
The Verdict
Under Canopies is a lovely idea already in good shape: a survival craft game that swaps danger for calm, conquest for care, and combat for photography. Its forest is beautiful and relaxing, its animal-trust system gives it heart, and its developer is moving fast enough to inspire real confidence in the roadmap.
It’s still Early Access, though. The mechanics are familiar, inventory and storage need work, the content runs thin, and the story doesn’t have its ending yet. If you need a finished game, wait for 1.0, but remember the price is going up.
The honest read: if you want a peaceful, no-combat survival game and like watching a project grow, it’s worth buying now at $14.99. If you need lots of depth, check back in a few months.
For more game reviews, check out our full reviews section.
Score Breakdown
Inventory & Storage5.0/10
Early Access Score
7.7/10
Under Canopies — Novemtails / Assemble Entertainment
Survival without the stress, and a forest worth returning to.
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