Your Island -KIMI NO SIMA-

Your Island -KIMI NO SIMA-

You know what…? Despite all the issues and wonkiness of this game, I love it.

I like the engrish. I like the difficulty (eh, for the most part), I love the graphics. The menu system reminds me of retro city builders. When I get free time these days, this is my go to game when I need a little break. I do wish there was a less tedious way of reassigning workers when someone dies – but look… this is one dedicated dev making this game, and I got far more than I expected from this adorable indie gem.

Real player with 111.5 hrs in game


Read More: Best Farming Sim Indie Games.


This is the most fun city building game I’ve played in a long time. I already spent a long time with it without having unlocked everything. The graphic is lovely and there are small details that make me smile. The structure is very well and it’s not that easy in the beginning to find out where everything is connected and what would be the best way for building your production chains. But it’s fun to explore.

Beside the endless game there are some challenges which you can take. I think I will spend much more time with this game. It can be slow paced at times but this is also something I quite enjoy.

Real player with 74.5 hrs in game

Your Island -KIMI NO SIMA- on Steam

XenoBloom

XenoBloom

Xenobloom basically comes down to a plant simulator. While the idea itself isn’t too terrible, the execution is mindbogglingly shoddy. While being able to unlock new lifeforms and changing their behaviour and climate preferences, the game completely fails making this anywhere near cromprehensibly. Even after spending several hours I am pretty sure that changing the plant behaviour from “Hostile”, “Solitary”, “Hearty” to “Friendly” does absolutely nothing except killing entire populations the second it is changed while not doing at all what one might think it is supposed to do. The only real changes which can be made is changing whether plants grow upwards or downwards and whether they prefer the upper, middle or lower part of the playing screen. Even for a game that only costs 5 bucks this is way too little content to keep anyone entertained for a reasonable amount of time.

Real player with 39.5 hrs in game


Read More: Best Farming Sim Indie Games.


Xenobloom is an interesting, slow-paced ecology simulator.

It’s less of a game and more of a “fish tank”. You have some tools with which to affect an environment, and you use them to help various organisms grow and thrive. Some organisms have different unchangeable rules than others (ex: trees can grow up or down, but never underground or sideways, while worms and bacteria can only grow in soil), but all can be tweaked in one way or another. There are various soil/environmental conditions and nutrients that affect everything on the screen.

Real player with 5.3 hrs in game

XenoBloom on Steam

Human Factory

Human Factory

Human Factory has so much potential that it was able to keep me hooked despite bugs that would normally cause me to instantly abandon E.A. I play a ton of simulation games, and I sincerely hope this one doesn’t get abandoned (the dev’s fast response on the discussion board suggests otherwise).

Pros:

Easy to understand process with fairly optimized factory production. I wasn’t able to find anything that was too over or underpowered: the numbers felt just right.

Solid music, a must have if a simulation game is to keep you hooked

Real player with 9.6 hrs in game


Read More: Best Farming Sim Strategy Games.


I’m not a hardcore gamer and this game made me play for almost 8 hours straight. Yes, it’s very good.

Real player with 9.4 hrs in game

Human Factory on Steam

Vilmonic

Vilmonic

Vilmonic is a sandbox game which focuses on the evolution of alien species called anims; they adapt to environments, go extinct, go through periods of population peaks… Anims change shape as they try to find a way to fulfil their role in a niche, when faced with competition from other anims. I have high hopes for this game, and I believe the developer will continue to grow it.

Vilmonic for me is a concept game, it is still in beta as I write this, the game has potential to inspire many into pursuing perhaps even careers in genetics, or simply educating people in times where evolution has been considered controversial. It has a friendly aesthetic for new users, the control schemes can be somewhat clunky.

Real player with 151.7 hrs in game

The ONLY modern A-Life game you can do a successful Wolfing Run.

For the young ones, that is a term coined by the Creatures series community, which has been on the net since 1999.

Wolfing is leaving your artificial lifeforms to their own devices for several hours, maybe while at work or sleeping, and coming back to a population that has changed, persisted, and survived natural selection factors. Mods are needed for Creatures 2’s bugs but the three games can theoretically support a “wild” population of creatures without player input for extended periods.

Real player with 30.8 hrs in game

Vilmonic on Steam

Castle Manager

Castle Manager

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1730240/Cruise_Ship_Manager

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1349300/Yakuza_Empire/

  • deploy the chambers, armoury, dungeons, throne room, and other rooms

  • take care of the castle expansion

  • repair damage on an ongoing basis

  • extinguish fires

  • build a moat

  • ensure that the blacksmith forges swords and the armourer makes the armour

  • see to the butcher slaughter the pig

  • make sure that the farmer sows the field, harvests the crop and the baker bakes the bread

  • ensure that the winemaker delivered the wine…

  • …and that the tables are laden with food

  • resolve conflicts

  • punish criminals

  • take care of the spiritual development of your people

  • suss out intrigues

  • plan sieges

  • negotiate with other kingdoms

  • take control of plagues

  • fight against epidemics

  • deal with natural disasters

Remember that your king must be satisfied with your work! Do your best to keep the castle alive, the people happy and the army ready for battle!

Castle Manager on Steam