Folk Emerging sets itself a difficult task: build a 4X game entirely around the Stone Age and somehow find enough depth to make that limited slice of history interesting.
To its credit, it largely succeeds. There are multiple original and interesting mechanics at play here.
There is technology and a path toward proto-civilization, but some of the game’s best ideas exist outside the traditional tech tree. Individual clan members improve in their roles, your clans become better adapted to the biomes they spend time in and level up, and every hex has its own Food Web that can be disrupted by how aggressively its resources are exploited.
Even combat takes a different approach. It wasn’t particularly clear at first, but once understood, dealing with hostile tribes became considerably more manageable. Though I do feel this is an area the game could grow in.
After six hours, the late game remains something of a mystery, more variety in random events would certainly help. The early game, however, revealed some genuinely original systems that deserve more time and I have a curiousity in how it plays out. It is hard to say if all these unique systems work together to produce a satisfying full play through over 300 turns.
Folk Emerging is therefore recorded as Alive.
The tribe endures, though it may mostly be off stream for now.
It may be a little rough around the edges but civilization is still emerging in the stone age.
Pronouncement: Still alive.