I’m excited to properly announce my next release will be Rat-tailed Rover: Songs from Small Saga. It’s an EP containing the four tracks I’ve contributed to Jeremy Noghani’s upcoming indie game Small Saga, and it’ll come out around the time that game releases – probably in December of this year.
About Small Saga:
Small Saga is a turn-based RPG set in the kingdom of Rodentia, a subterranean mediaeval kingdom of rats, mice, and other assorted rodents beneath modern-day London. It’s a gorgeous, utterly charming setting, full of rich world-building and history. Jeremy’s been developing it since 2018 and has handled all aspects of development themselves: their writing and art style deftly balance humour with real darkness and menace.
The game cuts out grinding and random encounters in favour of tactical play and deep story-telling, which makes it perfect for those of us who love RPGs but have limited time to play them!
From the game’s press package: The story follows Verm, a particularly angry mouse armed with a pen knife, who is hunting for the human who stole his tail. On the way, Verm befriends a mole wizard, a squirrel harlequin, and a lab rat lancer. Together, the party upend rodent society, clash with titans, and eventually face off against the gods themselves.
Check out the demo here.
You can also follow the game on Steam.
About Rat-tailed Rover:
The EP will contain 4 tracks sung by Kofi the Rat-Bard, who can be found in the game playing guitar at the Twisted Tales tavern in the city of Murida. Each of the songs serves to tell us a little bit about the world of Rodentia and its denizens:
“Traveller’s Blessing” is a wayfarer’s song, sung by Rodentia’s pilgrims, merchants, and wanderers: a prayer to keep them safe from the ravenous Titans and inscrutable Gods that rule the surface world.
- This song will actually appear in two different versions – once as a solo acoustic performance from Kofi and once in a greatly expanded arrangement with a full band and string quartet that’s planned for the game’s credits!
“Rat-tailed Rover” is Rat-Kofi’s story, a series of tall tales and nonsensical boasts about his many travels, adventures, and lost loves. Is any part of it true? Who knows?
“The Needle Knight” is the chronicle of Murida’s champion and folk-hero, Sir Leo – the mouse who once slew the great fox Titan, Ironfang, armed only with his needle blade.
- You can read Leo’s story in Needle Knight, a webcomic by Jeremy and Sneaky Gnida.
You’ll have to wait a little longer to hear the full songs, but for now, you can get a sneak video preview of the tavern setting and an early mix of “Rat-tailed Rover” here:
My tracks will also be on the game’s soundtrack album when that comes out. Jeremy is not only a brilliant artist and storyteller but a fantastic composer and it’s wonderful to be included alongside their score. Their soundtrack for Small Saga is going to be something very special indeed – look out for it!
Small Saga is © Jeremy Noghani. Screenshots and game assets are reproduced by kind permission.
Kofi Young 