Winterfall is a sandbox RPG influenced, gameplay-wise, by experiences as diverse as Mount and Blade, Mass Effect, DayZ, The Sims, the Elder Scrolls games and, of course, the latter Ultima games (7, 8 and Online), set in a fictional late antiquity/early dark ages setting. Contrary to most RPGs where the player is in control of a single hero character from beginning to end, the focus of Winterfall is on a House, or Household, which is grown and developed through deeds performed by the player's successive characters.
Concept art for the "Skathà" culture, one of the antagonist cultures in the game, drawn by Alice Müller at Split-heart.deviantart.com
"Within the great wooded expanses of Wilderland exists also a strange people of many tribes and ways, known as the Skathà ("the People"). A civilization fierce and barbarous to the onlooker, their entire existence is centered around a relationship with Those of Wildermore who are seen both as overlords and prey, whose might it is important to fear and revere, but whose blood and select organs, if consumed, may grant great power. Licentious and mystical, brutal and cunning, the Skathà prowl the forest in their hunts, games and forage but just as well are prone to raiding the settlements outside Wilderland, claiming life and bounty and wreaking great destruction."