Game of Thrones: Tale Of Crows

A great white storm is coming toward us. Without edge, without end, drowning all the north.

Game of Thrones: Tale of Crows is an idle simulation game where the player commands a fort alongside a Great Wall. The player is presented with a number of choices, typically regarding their meager supplies, quality of recruits, and regarding political favors.

The game features minimalist aesthetics and slow gameplay centered on narrative, meant to be played intermittently over long periods. The App Store page describes it as a "narrative idle game", which accurately describes the gameplay. The dialogue bears some of trappings of a Strategy Role-Playing Games, but it is a game about narrative and stories first and foremost. A good game to play while waiting other things, as it takes place in real time, and a typical playthrough will needs several minutes every so often spent over several days or weeks depending on how often it is played.

This game for iOS and Mac OS devices was published in 2020 by American publishers HBO and Devolver Digital, and developed by British outfit That Silly Studio. Support for Apple Vision Pro was added later.

• Abandoned Area: The fort "Castle Black" is abandoned at the start of the game. Save for the stranger beneath the pink ice in the wormwalks.
• Animal Motifs: The people of the fort are called crows, and use ravens to send and receive messages quickly from afar.
• A Taste of the Lash: Flogging is sometimes an option given to the player as a means of providing discipline.
• Badass Creed: The oath taken by the crows.
• Barbarian Tribe: The wildlings live beyond the wall, and seem to be treated as less civilized.
• Cannibal Clan: An expeditionary party can come across a Thenn campsite, with cookware containing partly eaten fingers.
• Curse: A crone can trade for a tale of a huntress who is cursed after seeking to rescue her husband, who was also cursed in a different way by demons.
• Downer Beginning: The story of the first commander establishes the Crapsack World of the crows.
• Easy Communication: Downplayed, messages sent by raven are reliable, but do take some time to be relayed.
• Everything's Deader with Zombies: The white walkers are effectively zombie hoards, and can only be truly killed in specific ways.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Expeditions north of the wall face a number of threats.
• Fantastic Racism: Some of the options relating to wildlings involve treating them as basically equivalent to beasts.
• Flavor Text: Comes up frequently, especially when on "The Watch" screen.
• Great Wall: The wall is quite extensive, both geographically and in sheer height.
• Grim Up North: The wall and the lands north of it are barely inhabited wilderness where everything is trying to kill you.
• Haunted Castle: Downplayed, Castle Black has many secrets and grim stories.
• It's Raining Men: A counting party can report bodies falling from the sky, speculating that they have been thrown by some strong entity.
• It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: Not told through text, but shown through a weather animation of thick black rains and rapidly moving dark clouds.
• Kraken and Leviathan: An expedition can be launched to slay a Kraken.
• Licensed Game: Based on the Game of Thrones franchise, which itself is based on A Song of Ice and Fire.
• The Lost Woods: The Haunted Forest north of the wall has strange occurrences.
• Mysterious Protector: The painted short man "A Stranger from the Dark" is sealed behind pink ice under Castle Black, aiding the wall. When the White Walkers approach the wall in the intro, their aid is implied to be instrumental in driving them back.
• Our Dragons Are Different: The player character can send an expedition to capture a dragon.
• The Plague: A bloodplague can infest Castle Black.
• Properly Paranoid: Many of the decisions the player have an option to take well justified caution.
• Rapid Aging: The fate of the first player character, who ages fifty years in the span of just one hour.
• Sealed Good in a Can: The Stranger from the Dark doesn’t reveal a lot about themselves in their brief meeting with the player, but they do strengthen the wall and aid the player against the white walkers.
• Scenery Porn: Despite its minimalist diagrama-like graphics, the view of the fort is striking. There are small dioramas available when selecting expedition parties as well. In "The Watch" screen, one can rotate the camera and inspect points for Flavor Text.
• Video Game Caring Potential: The player character can order supply surplus to be spent on comforts for their men.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: The player character can order their men punished for small infractions.
• Villain Protagonist: Depending on player choices, the Lord Commander may cross into straight villainy.
• Zombie Apocalypse: What is implied will happen should the white walkers make it past the wall.