Slavic witchcrafting game Reka is equal parts cozy and creepy and it's coming to early access in August

I've been anticipating Reka ever since I saw its developer Emberstorm Entertainment post a gif of a little wood cabin bursting out of the ground on a massive pair of chicken legs. It inspired a deep-seated glee in me not unlike the "See that mountain? You can climb it," proclamations of game trailers past. See that freaky chicken house? You can build it. And soon, it turns out, because Reka has shown off a new trailer in today's PC Gaming Show announcing that you can play its demo right now and that it will be entering early access in August.

Reka is a singleplayer exploration and building game that definitely falls on the dark side of cozy gaming. As an apprentice to the legendary witch Baba Yaga—though it's "Jaga'' as spelt by German developer Emberstorm—you'll build and decorate your belegged cabin, explore its procedurally generated world, tame wildlife, and concoct potions to help or hinder local villagers.

We get a fresh look at all of that in its new trailer: assembling a cozy cabin with a precariously steep roofline, foraging for plants and wood out in the forest, cooking herbal concoctions in a hearth, and stumbling upon some talking wooden carvings out in the wilderness. And would you look at that, it looks like you can gather wood for building with a bit of magical hand gestures. I'll take that over crafting an axe any day.

"We based the world of Reka on the slavic mythology, especially that of the Slavs of eastern Germany," Emberstorm's Tobias Hermann told me back in 2022. "The combined result of the two is that you, as the player character, are the apprentice of Baba Jaga and you inherited her chicken-legged house to travel the world and work as a wayfaring witch, fulfilling contracts to aid or curse people and mythological creatures."

Emberstorm is planning to bring Reka's prologue and first chapter to early access, saving the complete story for its 1.0 launch. "We plan to add new areas, quests, recipes, items and more with each update," it says. "We’re aiming for these updates to bring other elements too, like new accessories for your witch, furniture and side quests!"

You can download Reka's demo on Steam right now or wishlist it until it launches in August.

Lauren has been writing for PC Gamer since she went hunting for the cryptid Dark Souls fashion police in 2017. She accepted her role as Associate Editor in 2021, now serving as self-appointed chief cozy games and farmlife sim enjoyer. Her career originally began in game development and she remains fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long fantasy books, longer RPGs, can't stop playing co-op survival crafting games, and has spent a number of hours she refuses to count building houses in The Sims games for over 20 years.