Adventure games are a constantly popular, regardless of your play style. There’s something so appealing about stepping out of your own shoes and virtually taking on the role of a whole other person, a much more heroic and brave persona than we could ever be in real life. Green Ember offers that feeling by the bucketload. 

Green Ember: Helmer in the Dragon Tomb is a bunny-based dungeon crawler currently in development by Brazen Games and Longtreader Games. It’s set in the literary world created by S.D. Smith, which itself feels like what you crossed the heartbreaking story of Watership Down with the epic, fantasy tale of The Lord of the Rings.

The demo of this isometric action-adventure game has just hit Steam on September 5. It takes this popular and enduring literary world and puts you in the drivers seat, letting you guide the story and figure out the puzzles that lead to salvation for the land of Natalia.

Straight into the action

The demo of Green Ember throws you right into chapter one of the story, informing you that the ‘true hero’ of this tale is missing, and has been for a while. We all know how this age-old story goes by now: Enter Helmer, the main protagonist of Green Ember and the unlikely hero waiting to realize just how impressive and strong he truly is. 

After throwing some carrots into a cart and seeing off a would-be farm takeover by Nightwalkers, the main enemy of the tale, Helmer is tasked with seeing off an invasion of bats on the family farm. Except, of course, Helmer can’t stop at just the ones actually on the farm, instead heading off on his own trail to seek out the nearby nest and defeat the Mama Bat, thus preventing more issues on the farm. 

Except there’s an issue happening in his absence, and it’s a pretty big one at that. The Nightwalkers are back, and the farm is in threat, all while Helmer’s off poking bats with an old sword.

Long story short, Helmer gets chucked into forced servitude down in the mines, meets his mentor, and thus begins the epic tale of how Helmer eventually goes on to save the world, and his father from farm-stealing meanies. 

Honestly, it’s a sudden descent into utter chaos that would usually leave me feeling thrown off, but, as familiar as I am with Watership Down (and traumatized, more appropriately), I know that this bunny is going to come into his own and save the day, and I’m excited to make that happen. 

I thought I knew what I was doing

While fending off bats and bashing the enemy on the noggin, I was wielding my father’s old sword, pretending to know exactly what I was doing and wondering where the tutorial came in. I couldn’t help but feel perplexed when the X button seemed to produce two entirely different attacks, and the Y button added two more, and I had no idea what I was doing to make either attack happen, or whether it was just random variation to the animation. 

The tutorial came in chapter two, after I’d met my mentor in the mines, and my first lesson was illuminating, to say the least. I learned that attacking while moving created a different attack, and apparently, I could block, which would have been useful to know previously. 

If it sounds like I’m being negative, I’m not trying to be. I actually enjoyed the experience of running around pressing random buttons and seeing what happened. The initial lack of hand-holding was rather freeing, and I felt somewhat accomplished by the simplest of achievements (like blocking) during that epic battle with Mama Bat. 

Then I had my weapon taken away while trying to make a run from a prison cell, and what was supposed to be a sneaking mission to escape the prison ended up being yet more chaos, with me running for my life while chased by hordes of enemy NPCs. 10/10, would recommend, I had a great time. 

Promise of an epic adventure in Natalia

This rabbit-based RPG is still in development, so it’s not fair to judge it entirely based on the demo, but it’s definitely fair to say that there is a huge amount of potential shown off in just this small snippet of what the full game will eventually grow to be. 

It’s a story set in an already established and award-winning world by S.D. Smith, so the world-building is almost entirely done. But even for someone who isn’t familiar with the source material, the story is laid bare for all to see with nothing left to guesswork. 

With the novels being so popular and beloved by their fanbase, it’s easy to imagine the game will follow suit, and I really hope that turns out to be true because Green Ember deserves to be adored. It brings the story to life in a whole new way, and I like to think that as many people could find the books through the game as will find the game through the books. 

The Green Ember demo was released on September 5, 2025, and is available to play through Steam right now. It’s well worth diving into for all RPG fans, or rabbit fans for that matter, and you won’t be disappointed by the gorgeous isometric world that awaits you.