ISLANDERS
Islanders Review
This adventure never ends!
Some key points that this game offers:
-
Procedural Generation; the fun never ends!
-
Two gameplay modes
-
Indie Gem 5/5
Gameplay & Controls:
The game is played with your keyboard and mouse; the layout and keys are pretty simplistic. This is in no way whatsoever a bad thing! This is simply a minimalistic game that doesn’t require much to offer you hours of joy.
You start the game on one island, choosing between two build packs. Once chosen it is up to you to determine where to place your buildings. Depending on the position that you build, you will receive a score for each placed building. There are several factors that multiply the score; it can either be increased or receive a loss. It comes down to some strategic thinking.
– Real player with 122.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best City Builder Building Games.
THE ONE-SENTENCE SUMMARY…
Islanders is a simple yet sophisticated city builder that is both incredibly relaxing and delightfully addictive—and a VERY worthy addition to your game library!
[➕] THE POSITIVES
- The ART STYLE. The game makes the absolute most of its colors and shapes to provide a minimalistic setting where you can build and grow your idyllic island city. Everything is themed to “fit” together—from the sprawling farmlands to the Tetris-like cities and manufacturing areas—and ultimately results in an island-scape that feels like your own, personal creation!
– Real player with 73.9 hrs in game
Polyville Canyon
[url] Please see my curator page for more games that are well worth your time[/url]
Approximate amount of time to 100%: 10h, maybe even less
Estimated achievement difficulty: 1/10
Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
Has it been in a bundle: No
Is there a good guide available: You don’t need a guide
Multiplayer achievements: No
Missable achievements: No
– Real player with 13.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best City Builder Cartoony Games.
This is an extremely chill, wholesome and laid-back city builder. If you’re looking for something realistic, this game isn’t for you. If you’re looking to build a fun, pretty city like I was, then it is PERFECT. The mechanics are intuitive and simple. The graphics are aesthetically-pleasing and unique. I often find myself wandering around my city, admiring the views. It’s so easy to get caught up in the nitty gritty details of perfecting a plaza. Too easy, as I kept telling myself “One more street.”, “One more block.” and soon enough I filled up the entire map.
– Real player with 13.0 hrs in game
Hexagourds
Hexagourds is a casual, relaxing builder and puzzle game where you place tiles on a grid to make your own pumpkin patch! Grow pumpkins, feed animals, and pick apples as you gain points for rotating, placing and connecting different tiles.
A personal message from the dev
If you’re in love with the fall season or are in need of a relaxing game to distract you from the stressful day-to-day activities of life, then Hexagourds is definitely for you. This game has no winning or losing. You play at your own pace, gaining points for placing tiles wherever you want. You place some pumpkins here, some goats there, and haybales everywhere. This game was meant to be played on a chill, autumn Sunday morning with a coffee next to you. I hope you try it out and enjoy the game.
For those more strategically inclined, there is definitely some strategy involved with maximizing points. I’ve added dailies and a mutliplayer scoreboard if you want to show the rest of the community your sweet score in Hexagourds. But that’s all up to you.
This game offers you:
-
Chill and relaxing gameplay
-
Fun mix of a tile-matching, puzzle, and builder game
-
Lovely fall/autumn vibes!
-
Many different tiles to play and unlock (each tile can have a combination of unique fall-themed items)
-
Simple, elegant low poly art style with relaxing music
-
A beautiful pumpkin patch that you create
-
Daily puzzles and online scoreboards
This game doesn’t have:
-
Violence/Fighting
-
Multiplayer
-
Background Story
-
Resource Gathering/Harvesting
-
Microtransactions
-
Dragons
Just me, David Dalisay, the solo game developer on Hexagourds. I don’t mind being solo! But I love to collaborate with other devs and other gamers.
Happy Fall-idays!
Read More: Best City Builder Colorful Games.
Before We Leave
I have personally been enjoying this game very much! I appreciate that I don’t need to worry about war or combat, nor must I consider the monetary value of my peoples (ie. slavery). It still can be challenging, and I was pleasantly surprised by the little challenges it throws your way (ex: the gremlins!). The aesthetic is very pleasing, and it isn’t very demanding graphically. I would definitely recommend this! I’ve written out some of my experiences and some tips! ♥
- The Tutorial -
Doing the tutorial is a good idea and I do recommend it, but the tutorial will take you through pretty much the whole game, or at least deep into the mid-game – this could literally be hours and hours lol. But I would suggest stopping after you have started to explore your second planet., then proceed to your own games.
– Real player with 59.2 hrs in game
At the time writing this I have little over 10 hours in the game! You tell me what I end up getting to :)
Check out this Let’s Play for More Visual and Audio Experince!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOdcC0ErbSc&list=PLjMDVXkLIQ3772ETUImsVXS_1AwZFdcKw
Before we leave is one the best games I have played in a long time for getting right into the game and understanding what to do. It’s not because it’s easy or simple. It’s because of the amazing job they did with the tutorial system and explaining the basics of the game.
– Real player with 31.8 hrs in game
Imagine Earth
I purchased this game some time ago and have waited a long time to review it, due in part to some issues I had with it, but also because I wanted to be fair, considering that it is an early access game. So with that being said, my review:
So I was flipping through the steam games and I came across this game called “Imagine Earth” in the simulation section, I saw that it had a demo and decided to try it. At the time the demo only had a missions available, a simple interface and not a lot in the way of content… but I was hooked.
– Real player with 41.7 hrs in game
I really like Imagine Earth. It’s a fun, lightweight city building game, where you have to keep track of not only economical, but ecological development as well.
The game has come a long way since its appearance on Steam. I get, that a lot of people compare this to games like Anno, don’t! Anno was made by a company worth billions, this game was made by a small indy team.
And especially in times of heat waves and forest fires in North America and South Europe, never seen floods in Europe and Asia it is good to see, that some people still try to educate about global warning.
– Real player with 29.0 hrs in game
Model City
This is a fun “casual” game as described. This is not true city builder game. So when purchasing this game expect it to be very casual. For what you get out of this it pretty good. It runs very smoothly and I like watching the building upgrade. It is worth a try if you like city building games. My only complaint is the price of the game. I find it a tad too high for what you get out of it.
Review at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWILmr5h5do
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
Once again, steam needs a neutral option for rating games. Is it horrible? No, but I’ve seen more compelling mobile games. I barely feel like I will get my $ worth even though I got it on sale, so it gets a negative rating.
-This is less of a city builder and more like a basic resource-balancing puzzle in the way it functions.
-There is no explanation of what to do or why. You just have to click around until you figure it out, which wasn’t very engaging. It runs smoothly, so if you’re looking for super simple, it might appeal.
– Real player with 0.1 hrs in game
Reefland
Create your own cozy cities while painting uncountable number of islands. Immerse yourself into a calming sandbox mode or go through 20 uncomplicated levels during which you will gradually understand all the gameplay features. The correct building placement will tend your city to grow. It is a colorful journey where you will find your own solutions for transition from one island to another.
Sky Tale
A fun game to pick up and enjoy some nice hours in sandbox mode or try to get the highest points possible. Quite simple but still enjoyable overall.
The achievements are fun and challenging, but the windmill/wheat field one seems to be broken/wrong, as with all 8 wheats placed directly next to water tiles seems to never trigger a progress on the achievement itself.
Some polishing might be required, so that users can actually know how many resources there are on a tile (X rocks, X trees), how many resources are taken by each building (e.g. by hovering over the tile) and how many points you get at the end turn from certain buildings (houses)
– Real player with 10.1 hrs in game
sky tale is an islanders -like, so I’ll be making a lot of comparisons to it (you might want to check the link for my review). this one’s on a grid with a bit more to it than plonking down random buildings where they give you the most points. sadly, neither lets you re-visit previous islands without copying files over, and this only keeps the one currently in progress, not all your previous attempts like islanders. I was hoping they wouldn’t copy this aspect as well…
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
Campground Owner
Campground owner is very suitable to your needs.
I recommend picking a map with more land then water. You can pick seasons (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall).
In creative mode, you have unlimited cash. I almost always do creative mode. If you want to put anything on the map, I’d recommend that. There is also a survival mode where you have to earn money. You can get that from campers.
If you like to speed up time, press 1(slow), 2 (medium), 3( super fast).
You can’t put different camper’s tent, chairs, grill, or camper together, or it will show the camper’s gear red.
– Real player with 6.9 hrs in game
Fun game for some time, I really like being able to place the items of campers down myself in spots that give the most money, and it’s fun trying to get all stars and see money go up.
There are some downsides though, some quality of life improvements that I would like to see.
Once a camper is placed, you cannot see info about them, like with how many they are, how much they’ll pay or for how long they stay. You can see this when they ask to be placed, but still would be nice to keep track of the stay’s duration.
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
City Country
City Country is a city-building game where you manage resources, population, knowledge. You control various sectors of the city like education, medicine, culture, tourism, trading.
You start at some point into the map. Citizens will equally be separated into Men/Women and Farmers/Workers. The population will be separated into 4 different categories: Farmers, Workers, Engineers, and Academics. Any population category will work on different buildings and will have a unique family house.
You have the option to produce whatever you like, and what You don’t like, you can buy it at any time, or sign a contract for a later system that automatically buys the product from another city immediately. After that, you should sell part of the production so you can take some fresh money into the city.
As a governor of the city, your job is to grow your city, improve your resource incomes, sell your resources and take fresh money, make your city better for life, and manage city sectors as best as you can.
Government Sectors
-
Trading: - Sign a contract with other cities (AI) when you have less than N amount of resource, buy M amount of that resource, and vice versa.
-
Education: - Decide what to learn, how long, and when to start people’s education.
-
Medicine: - Improve the health of the citizens, and their lives.
-
Culture: - Improve the knowledge of the citizens. And be a more attractive city for foreign peoples.
-
Tourism: - Make money when you attract tourists. Build Hotels. Some of them can decide to continue to live in your city.
Develop Your City
Knowledge (Technology)
Investigate new products for future production and unlock new buildings.
Production (Resource Management)
Choose what to produce from the Factory profile.
