Townseek

Townseek

Tasked with re-assembling Sir Reginald Sharkingston’s journal, you must travel far and wide, following his footsteps while forging your own path across the skies! The whole world is your sea now, so be sure to see all that it has to offer!

DISCOVER A PICTURESQUE WORLD

Explore this pixelated, hand-drawn world at your own pace, uncovering unique locations, spawning happy trees, blossoming forests, deep reefs, drooling volcanos and beyond! Seek different towns, each with a charismatic host!

TRADE WITH UNIQUE TOWNS AND CHARACTERS

Trade with town hosts for unique items and profit! Complete their requests and improve your trader rank for even more special deals. Discover diverse cultures of sharkfolk, anthropomorphic cats, slimes, regular old humans and more!

FISH, MINE, FARM AND CUSTOMIZE YOUR SHIP

Obtain a fishing rod and catch peculiar fish. Mine for one-of-a-kind artifacts and farm for exotic fruits. Obtain new blimps and hulls to customize your ship and make it uniquely yours!

COMPLETE YOUR JOURNAL

Complete town requests to start reassembling the journal bestowed to you by Captain Jawline, and discover the voyage of Sir Reginald Sharkingston. Fill it with memories of your travels, complete your item collection and make it an unforgettable trip!


Read More: Best Atmospheric Casual Games.


Townseek on Steam

SAELIG

SAELIG

OK this one deserves my 1% of reviewing a game. Mostly because this is better than the Guild, there’s potential if the developer won’t abandon it in the future. I always start as a beggar, grab a couple of abandoned ones and make my money through searching all arround the forest for hiden treasures wich I find enough to repair and start working on my own. It takes 2-5 years maximum to have a decent status and go for the real money - over 20K. Problems start after that - I always and I mean always have a building on fire during winter especially one somewhere in the forest wich cannot have either a watchdog or a well, this totally sucks, I mean I have 20 fckn K why am I NOT able to hire a guard for my building - dev are you listening? It becomes SO boring starting over repairing a building wich I have had over 10 K in material in there - and I’ve lost it burned - waiting to be produced into goods and make my fckn million!!! Game is a lot about gambling cause except of the fish stuff all other business have competition and if you loose your hardly earned products you are in deep shhhiiittt M8s, again dev do something and save my bucks. Game is enjoyable but we need to have some pace in there things get on really slow can’t say it’s boring but IT IS rather slow. More to do especially with our caravans that are naive in gameplay matters (reminds me games back from the ’90s in that area) would be welcome, and hell yeah I may adopt but why can’t I have a mistress with all that money I make? - kidding. Waiting for a future patch I wanna see more to do and more safety for my ingame products and money - it is silly having more than 100K property and not being able to protect it - maybe a castle or whatelse to build or buy with your own private army, stores, moneysafe etch, that people use to have back in 900 AD, can always spend 200 - 300 daily to have 2-3 soldiers of your own as castle guards. Anyway just saying what I think is missing, up to the developer the do or donot thing. Even a DLC would be welcome if it does improve the ingame world and gameplay. I give the game a 7/10 and that’s only cause it has one of the worse save/load system I ever met in a PC game, loading times reminded me Total War Rome II turns before it’s 1st patch - you can have a shower prepare dinner, watch a movie and your save will keep on loading, if it wasn’t that issue a 9/10 for my taste, worth the money and worth the support give this game a try!

Real player with 227.5 hrs in game


Read More: Best Atmospheric Indie Games.


The only other game series I have experience of with a similar storyline/player driven intention is The Guild series, and yet, rather than sink my money into the third (failing) installment of that, I’ve decided to back the solo developer this time.

After having a good dig around in the game for the past few days, I’m really feeling it…the ambience, the gentle pace of daily life, the joy of having made enough money to upgrade something, spending lots of time surrounded by the peacful clucking chickens…er…yes, when you start off as a beggar, you spend a lot of time foraging the eggs at the coops. But, it’s all a means to an end, right? It must have been resonating with me because when I discovered that I couldn’t progress with buying my third building because of my social standing, I felt utterly gutted. (This only because the game has not been developed further than the third social class, being ‘Geneat’, but, I guess we’ll get there in time.)

Real player with 205.8 hrs in game

SAELIG on Steam

Storage Kings

Storage Kings

   This is War!

   Outsmart your rivals by bluffing, raising the prices of useless garages and then

   following up with a crucial decision, to sweep all the best off for yourself.

   In Storage Kings, there’s no place for hesitation or mercy.

   At the end of the day, the best ones count profits and

   the worst ones end with nothing. Which of these will you be?

   Treasure or Garbage

   Not all gold that glitters - don’t fall for your greed.

   Often, what’s old and ragged is worth much more than shining blings.

   Improve your skills and become an expert in auctions.

   You can go anywhere…

   Do you feel better on the suburbs of Manhattan or rather

   among an exclusive neighbourhood of Hollywood?

   Travel through all of the States of America to

   get all the best items and face the locals.

   If you can afford it

   Everything is about money! Make only smart decisions.

   If you lose a couple of biddings and get a bunch of crap

   from the ones you’ve won, your budget will melt away faster

   than you think and you’ll have to come back to your old, boring job.

   Don’t let it happen and become the Storage King!


Read More: Best Atmospheric Indie Games.


Storage Kings on Steam

Barn Finders

Barn Finders

I do recommend the main game, just not the DLC at this point (Sep 22, 2021) since it is pretty buggy.

(They did releases an update 12 Aug 2021 though but not everything is fixed)

The main game is not perfect, but it is fun, IMHO. I enjoy the auctions, and the selling, tending the place. I’ve been playing recently but in total I have about 62 hours of game play. I try to always haggle to make more but you’ve gotta be quick with the button.

It shows icons for who is at your homestead during sales (top left) and I’ve seen a glitch with it but usually it’s accurate. You can move things from one shelf to another if one empties and the other has a few more things. You can customize the place and truck (but make sure you can afford it. I’ve saved most of that for when I’d already had enough for the trips and auctions) I still have things I can change :)

Real player with 68.8 hrs in game

Many people already claim that simulators has become an exhausted genre of games. I do not think so… and Playway, the ultimate simulator king, has a different opinion as well. In their newest title, Barn Finders, you take the role of a redneck shopkeeper who, along with Uncle Billy, runs a store selling antiquities (or old junk, depends on the point of view). In the game, you scavenge through old (surprise, surprise) barns or similar locations, participate in auctions, bid wars, or even meet aliens. Combine it with cheesy (yet witty) humor, and you have a perfect game for long and casual evenings.

Real player with 25.6 hrs in game

Barn Finders on Steam

Medieval Shopkeeper Simulator

Medieval Shopkeeper Simulator

Medieval Shopkeeper Simulator

A visually unique shop management simulator with all of the epic tropes of a medieval fantasy, Medieval Shopkeep Simulator lets you live out your wildest dreams of toiling endlessly under the primitive and patriarchal rulership of your King.

An in-development resource management and shopkeep sim that already has a whole lot of flair in its hybrid presentation, and a solid vision for its routine of medieval handyman and salesman. Medieval Shopkeeper Simulator has so much room to grow, but it already shows a great deal of promise and is quite addictive in its simplicity.

Real player with 20.2 hrs in game

Everything listed is what is wrong with the game, however, the game is abandoned (not by choice, the dev stated the files got corrupt) and there is no fixing it right now, so if you do wish to play, here is what you will most likely have to deal with…

1 - When you hit escape, you can’t access the “report a bug” nor take a photo options

2 - When farming there are several occasions where you have to leave the game and come back just to see what you have to do

3 - the Tutorial & ability to Jump were removed in most recent patch?

Real player with 13.1 hrs in game

Medieval Shopkeeper Simulator on Steam

BlueBete

BlueBete

This was on a deep sale, so I figured why not, but wow, it was not even worth it at that price. The character movement feels awkward, like you’re moving a frozen mannequin. The first region is so blacked-out in spots it feels like the whole thing is one giant bug. Then none of the buildings were accessible, making the objective impossible as far as I could tell. Don’t bother! I should have refunded this but missed the window.

Real player with 0.1 hrs in game

BlueBete on Steam

Book of Travels

Book of Travels

This is a very unusual mmorpg. It uses small servers, and many of them. The setting is pleasantly exotic. The artwork/graphics style is truly beautiful. The music is atmospheric. You play as a lone nomadic wanderer travelling a strange but peaceful land. You have to discover things as well as getting good at trading. The combat is pretty unique. Periodically you find stat-based object encounters called Endeavors, that will richly reward you. There are also plenty of worthwhile roadside encounters. There is a very unusual method for handling co-operative party play too. It is all simple, intuitive, and innovative.

Real player with 266.8 hrs in game

There is something meditative about this game. While you can fight, you really don’t have to. I will admit at times it gets buggy, but I can look past that to the gem it is. Where other games give you a list of things to do and employ constant action to engage you, Book of Travels engages you with its world building, slow and introspective journeys and it’s skill system that you uncover along the way. There are so many secrets and much knowledge that you uncover as you walk the bereft of it’s massive, mystical world. I think, with time and more updates, this could be a incredible game.

Real player with 58.0 hrs in game

Book of Travels on Steam

Pharaoh: A New Era

Pharaoh: A New Era

Immerse yourself in the history of Ancient Egypt with 50 missions and over 100 gameplay hours in Pharaoh: A New Era, a remake of Pharaoh (and the expansion Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile), one of the best city builders from the golden age of Sierra Entertainment. Stone by stone, build your city and manage all aspects of its development to ensure it prospers and makes you a powerful and revered Pharaoh.

Develop your city by cultivating the fertile lands along the banks of the Nile valley. Erect the iconic monuments of Ancient Egypt, including the pyramids, the Sphinx and the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Build temples and mausoleums to help manage all aspects of your city’s health and culture as well as the predominant polytheistic religion of the time.

Ensure your city is prosperous enough to deal with economic or political crises, or even plundering by enemies. A Pharaoh takes care of its people and does whatever it can to earn the favour of the gods.

Pharaoh: A New Era celebrates 20 years since the release of the famous franchise with a complete remake, including more than 50 playable missions and over 100 hours of gameplay. Rediscover the map and mission editor mode that allows you to shape your very own Egypt over thousands of years.

The “Campaign” mode teaches you the game basics while allowing you to experience a unique story in the heart of Ancient Egypt and explore all aspects of life in a thriving city.

You have everything at your disposal to build an entire city and manage all its fundamental elements to ensure it flourishes: the economy, internal and external trade, culture, health, agriculture, education, etc. To help you monitor your progress, various indicators show you the overall well-being of your city and its residents.

The journey back in time is really brought to life with this Ultra HD remake, which upgrades the gameplay mechanics to modern standards and completely redesigns the captivating soundtrack and gorgeous isometric 2D graphics.

● Rediscover the classic city builder Pharaoh and its expansion, Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile, in an all-new remake

● Explore Ancient Egypt and its 4,000 years of history across 50 missions

● Marvel at Ancient Egypt’s most iconic and beautiful monuments with completely overhauled Ultra HD graphics

● Erect the Egypt of your dreams with the map editor mode

Pharaoh: A New Era on Steam

Frontier Pilot Simulator

Frontier Pilot Simulator

I can’t. I want to but, I just can’t endorse this. This is sci-fi jet plane trucker simulator and it looks cool and I love the idea, but the execution is lacking. This isn’t some honorably realistic aero simulator so don’t expect that from it. Actually, don’t expect anything at all from it other than a challenge and cost effective entertainment.

This is a Unity game with Unity problems. Sometimes the game will hitch when other aircraft fly by or it updates the weather. Early it just completely flips out. Depending on your situation, you either have to re-trim or it kicks and spins out the bottom of your aircraft in a unnatural way. Having played KSP for thousands of hours and using planes in that game: I can see the frayed edges left by Unity in this one. What has been built so far is an accomplishment, but it will forever be held back by this. It needs to look better than it does, play better than it does, consume fewer system resources than it does, and hold fewer frustrations to compete with other games or even other sims. It has performance issues that might prevent them from ever implementing VR or increasing world detail.

Real player with 51.2 hrs in game

I absolutely love this game and fully recommend it to people who know what early access is and are willing to look past some bugs/systems that haven’t yet been added.

Pros:

-Stable. (I’ve only encountered one crash in this game and it only happened because of a series of unique incidents that I caused.)

-Easy to learn flight mechanics that are still challenging at times and will punish you if you ever get too cocky.

-Weather events that will break the monotony of flying straight and force you to change the style of your flight. (In some situations, you’d be best just to land and let the weather pass by itself since most events force you to fly low and low altitude, clouds and mountain ranges just don’t mix.)

Real player with 46.8 hrs in game

Frontier Pilot Simulator on Steam

Drifter

Drifter

I have been playing this game a lot and dearly loving it.

Drifter is still in “Early Access” at this time, which basically means it’s in beta. I’m playing version 0.6.3. Even though it’s in beta it’s surprisingly bug-free, but not every feature intended for the final game is implemented yet. That’s ok, the game is actually quite complete as it is. More content and additional features are just icing on the cake. While there are some glitches, most are minor and generally just cosmetic. Expect subsequent versions of the game to be improved.

Real player with 274.6 hrs in game

I’m editing this review to include the following, at the top so it’s the first thing you read:

I’m so glad I got this game. I’ve really been stressing over RL crap and finding it difficult to unwind with my usual passion: video games! But Drifter strikes just the right balance, for me, between therapeutic and engaging. And that is a big deal. Now, on to the review.

Drifter is a small indie studio’s contribution to the space-pilot sandbox genre. It is set to small but evocative soundtrack by the acclaimed Danny Baranowsky (Binding of Isaac, Crypt of the Necrodancer, etc.) and features a 2.5D game engine.

Real player with 62.5 hrs in game

Drifter on Steam