Echo Harvest

Echo Harvest is a survival and settlement-building game set in a world that is repeatedly ending. Rather than focusing on the survival of one character, the game centres on building something that can last across multiple timelines. Players take the role of a Keeper who establishes settlements, gathers resources, explores a world that grows more dangerous over time and defends colonies against corrupted creatures. Beyond the protected area around the Home Flame, corruption steadily advances. Time cannot be stopped, so each timeline becomes a matter of deciding what to accomplish before it runs out.

The central mechanic is the Echo system. Whatever the player does during a life, such as gathering, building, exploring, defending, transporting supplies or seeking out Echo Dust, shapes the Echo they leave behind, and these Echoes carry forward into future timelines as a workforce. Over time, the lone Keeper becomes the hub of a network of settlements populated by the remnants of previous lives. Building options include farms, housing, storage, walls and turrets, and players can found new settlements and discover forgotten places and resources, while balancing expansion against the increased threat it attracts. Echo Dust can be used to stabilise a failing timeline, but it is a limited resource. Eventually the player must choose whether to construct a Beacon and Ascend, giving up the present timeline to strengthen the next. Failing to do so means the timeline is lost, while Ascending restarts the struggle under greater pressure.

The game also records the history of each timeline as it is played. Significant discoveries, settlements, battles, losses, periods of prosperity and moments of collapse are compiled into an illustrated Chronicle. When a timeline ends, whether through victory or total loss, its Chronicle is added to the player’s Timeline Library and can be exported as an illustrated PDF.