Hanok: From Thatch to Palace

Every part is real.

Foundation stones, pillars, beams, purlins, rafters, roof tiles laid from the eaves up — every piece you place exists in real Korean architecture, and the building order follows how carpenters actually worked: frame first, then roof, then walls, so the rain never soaks the timber. Sources: the National Folk Museum of Korea, the Korea Heritage Service, and the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. What we simplified for play, we say so in game — there is a page inside that lists what we left out and what we could not confirm.

Build along — 11 guided builds.

Start with a three-bay thatched cottage. Work up through an L-shaped farmhouse and a smoke-hole house, then tiled halls: a gable roof, a hip-and-gable roof, a lecture hall and a gatehouse. Finish in the palace with a great hall, a gate tower, a two-story pavilion over a pond, and a garden pavilion. Each piece carries its real name and a line explaining why it goes where it goes.

Create — your own town.

210 pieces: thatched and tiled houses, palace halls, government offices, walls and gates, corridors, streams, bridges and city ramparts, rice paddies, market stalls, lanterns, 40 townsfolk and 8 farm animals. Drag to lay whole walls, paths and paddies at once. Double-click a placed piece to turn it, or press R before you set it down. Build a market street of open-front shops, awnings and a cattle market. Six commissions give you goals: a farming village, a market street, a nobleman's house, a village of nobles, a palace throne-hall compound, and the royal rear garden.

Walk it at four hours of the day.

Dawn mist, daylight, sunset and moonlit night — after dark the window paper glows from inside and the lanterns light the lanes. Step in and walk your own town as the king in his dragon robe: up onto the wooden floors, through the gates, into the rooms. Eleven pieces of traditional Korean music play while you build.

Build free.

In house-building mode the parts are yours. Follow the old rules of order — or switch them off and build whatever you like: a huge thatched hall, a U-shaped courtyard house, anything the pieces allow. Then place what you built into your town.

After release.

More palace buildings — the queen's residence and the crown prince's quarters — and more village life are planned as free updates.

Music: "Gugak BGM" series (#35, #44, #45, #61, #80, #81, #111, #118, #129, #199, #246) by ITN Co. (K-SOUND LIBRARY), via Gongu Madang — Korea Copyright Commission (gongu.copyright.or.kr). Licensed under CC BY tracks trimmed and volume-adjusted for the game. Font: Pretendard — (c) Kil Hyung-jin, SIL Open Font License 1.1.