The next League Of Legends spin-off is a deep and crafty blend of Stardew, Spiritfarer and Animal Crossing

When cute crafting RPG Bandle Tale: A League Of Legends Story was first announced at the end of last year, I don't think I really appreciated the fact it was going to be the next game from the devs behind mortuary farming-me-do Graveyard Keeper. I keep turning this fact over in my head as I watch Lazy Bear Games' associate producer Vlada Redko play a portion of Bandle Tale over Discord for me, with creative director Nikita Kulaga and Riot Forge's creative director Rowan Parker telling me about what's happening onscreen in front of me. As Redko explores the whimsical, knitting-themed city of Bandle as one of League Of Legends' tiny fluffy Yordle creatures, it is, to put it lightly, quite the tonal shift from their previous work. But don't let its cute looks fool you.

This is a crafting RPG with a ferociously long set of skill trees to master, with 40-60 hours' worth of new abilities to learn, objects to construct, errands to run, friends to enlist and - crucially - parties to throw. For in the Bandle woods of Runeterra, life's problems are solved by having a good old fashioned boogie, including the rather urgent issue of fixing the world's portal network, which has collapsed in a mysterious accident. It may have a softer, fluffier-looking surface than Graveyard Keeper, but underneath it looks as though there's just as much to dig into here, so here's what I've learned so far ahead of its release on February 21st.

Before we get to the business of putting its frankly gorgeous pixel art world back together again, my preview session begins with a look at the basics, with Redko's customisable Yordle character learning how to cook (and thus farm, and thus collect individual food stuffs) from local chef Winstock, who's one of the 70-odd Yordles you'll meet and befriend across the game. It's classic crafting territory, in other words, and a familiar framework to introduce budding Stardew, Spiritfarer and Animal Crossing heads to its extensive set of systems. Naturally, our first task is to assemble the requisite ingredients, and Kulaga says you'll be able to grow and collect all sorts of different resources across the game's five islands as the game goes on. Doing so will also earn you inspiration points, which you can then pump into its vast array of skills and abilities - and the emphasis really is on the word 'vast' there.

For instance, after consulting her notebook menu and seeing that we need the Natural Gathering skill in order to collect the appropriate ingredients, Redko clicks on the name of that skill and is instantly transported to the Nature tab of Bandle Tale's skill tree menu. This particular strand covers all things cooking, farming and food-related, and as Redko scrolls through the horizontal menu screen, it seems to go on forever and ever. Each node has a number of little icons beneath it, too, denoting what you'll be able to do with that skill, and as you progress further and further along the tree, it will start branching and splintering into even more specific sub-skills.

Thankfully, Lazy Bear Games have presented these skill trees in such a way that, despite their seemingly never-ending length, there are never more than four strands layered up at any one moment, and there was a real sense of clarity in how everything was laid out. Crucially, they felt manageable and not overwhelming, and if nothing else, made clear there will be plenty of things to do and learn in Bandle Tale, especially when Nature is just one of four eventual skill tree tabs you'll be able to dig into.

Each skill tree is also gated by certain badges along their various pathways, so you won't be able to unlock the ability to bake Prism Apples or Honeyfruit, for example, until you've reached Level 2 of your Head Chef badge. Badges are obtained by completing specific quests, such as Winstock's initial cooking lesson, and seeking out additional Yordles to aid and assist will be vital to your character's progression. Especially on the food front, as Kulaga says you're not just cooking for yourself in Bandle Tale, but also for your friends, either in your home's built-in diner, or at those aforementioned parties (more on which in a second).

Speaking of your home, Kaluga is keen to stress that this isn't a permanent, fixed structure in Bandle Tale. Oh no. Your home is actually a magical backpack that you can take with you and unfurl at specific locations on each island - a trick that Kulaga and his team thought was essential to avoid any unnecessary backtracking to your base between tasks. "We wanted to make Bandle City pretty big with the different districts, and we wanted players to travel a lot," he says. "It's always quite a bummer when you need to go back to your house and it's on the other side of the city, so we decided it would be cool to take your house with you. It's also just very cute to have your house on your back!"

Once you've found a good spot, you can also unroll special outdoor carpets - one of which is the diner I mentioned above. You'll also need to construct and arrange (and unlock) specific crafting stations on these carpets to get the most out of them, which in the case of your diner means various ovens, tables and heat conductors to serve up some dishes. You'll also need to set the menu, which is limited by what meals you've unlocked in the skill tree. Opening your diner for business isn't simply a matter of pressing a button and sititng back to reap the rewards for your city's mood, friendship and satisfaction bars, though. You'll have to put your back into it a little bit, as the diner in particular has its own Overcooked/Dave The Diver-style mini-game where you'll need to serve your guests the correct order in a reasonable time limit.

Hoiking your home about also lets you solve some of its more specific crafting tasks and puzzles, says Kulaga. Occasionally, for example, you might notice some glowing squares on its isometric plains. These have special magical aura properties, he explains, and only when you place the correct workbench on top of it can you take full advantage of them to craft special items that are unique to that location.

Not all the items you craft will be required for completing specific quests and tasks, however. Once you acquire the shop carpet, for example, you can sell your goods for various types of currency. Now, I'll admit I felt a stab of Mineko's Night Market trauma rear its head here, but I'm hopeful that Bandle Tale won't fall into the same dirge-like grind trap thanks to the way its inspiration system works. A bit like in real life, you'll earn more inspiration the first time you do something, and less as you repeat the task over time. It's very anti-grind, in other words, and is very much geared toward pushing you to experience new types of activities to further your progress. (And for further evidence on this subject, the XP system in Nintendo's JRPG series Xenoblade Chronicles does the same thing to great effect as well, so I'm crossing my fingers that Bandle Tale will be equally successful in stamping out signs of repetitiveness).

As for the inside of your magical backpack home, there's plenty of customisation to be had here as well, tapping into that increasingly deep vein of Animal Crossing-esque home-making that has kept me coming back to Nintendo's life sim for hundreds and hundreds of hours. Indeed, as Redko jumps to a later save file, I get to see the innards of the backpack transform in both size and visual variety, with additional floors, rooms and pocket dimensions all visible, including an enormous garden whose plants keep on growing when it's on your back, so you don't lose time when you're in transit. You can change everything from the wall colour and flooring type to the shape of your windows to name just a few of its myriad options, as well as the types of decorations on show.

Alas, I got the sense that - in the entrance room at least - you can only control the placement of your indoor crafting benches rather than the full extent of your furniture collection, but other rooms look to be more freeform. The aforementioned garden was completely player-designed, says Parker, so even if a lot of its more decorative elements do end up being fixed, I get the feeling that whatever combo of its plentiful options you happen to settle on, it'll still end up feeling reasonably unique.

Finally, I got to see one of its all-important parties in action - although not before Redko had laid out her special party carpet (but of course), and filled it with attractions, entertainment, and decided what food and drinks she was going to serve. Parties aren't just a one-size fits all affair, though. Just like the skill tree menu, there are dozens of different festival types to choose from, and each one has its own set of requirements, conditions and rewards. You'll need to match it with the appropriate music choices, lighting styles and invite the right guests to get the most from it. And crikey, I'm getting wedding planning flashbacks just thinking about.

"The player has had to work for a long time to work up to this," says Parker. "The Yordles that you're inviting - you did quests, you made friends with them, and you had to earn points to invite them. The [festival requirement] stats - that's the puzzle that you're solving on the carpet layout, so all of the activity props add points to the three stats of beauty, music and comfort, and you're trying to manifest the right combination of stats to trigger the party," likening it to "party planning Tetris."

Like the diner's homage to Overcooked, you'll still need to work these parties once you've met their respective requirements. Good hosts will be scurrying around collecting their fun points, boosting guests' enjoyment levels at opportune moments before converting it to inspiration. "It's Good Vibes: The Currency," Parker laughs, even though you've only technically got a couple of minutes to collect said vibes, as parties all have their own time limits. If you fail, you can always just try again, though, Parker adds, as ultimately, the goal is really to just have a fun, chill time with your pals. "All roads lead to these parties," he continues. "You're crafting things, you're inviting Yordles, and you're throwing food stands and running a diner to feed everybody, but ultimately it all culminates in throwing a party and having a cool time."

It's here where my demo ends, and Graveyard Keeper once again enters the conversation, reminding me yet again of the wild contrast between the two games. But as Parker is keen to point out, it was precisely Lazy Bear Games' supernatural take on the hallowed farming game genre that led him to reach out to Kulaga and his team and propose this project in the first place. "Graveyard Keeper showed their knowledge of the genre, and being able shortcut and short-circuit loops was a pretty cool twist for me when I played it," says Parker. "You need a really deep genre knowledge to come up with ideas like moving your base, having pocket space in there, having auras and things overlap, and having five systems all interact and overlay with each other in this deep complex way, but also just have it feel chill and inviting is something I really only think you can do if you've made these games before, which this team has."

Indeed, you might not think to look at it, but Kulaga says the team did, in fact, take a surprising amount of inspiration from Graveyard Keeper when it came to creating Bandle Tale. "We decided just to make everything bigger and better this time," he says, adding that "it's all about having a chilled time, doing your chores, crafting and planting," putting it very much in the same kind of vein as their other two big touchstones, Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley. Here's hoping Bandle Tale makes good on its good vibes promises when it launches in full on Steam and the Epic Games Store on February 21st.