Banished (survival city building)

I thought this was very interesting and it is worth reading about a city builder where people are the primary resource. Game is being done by one person and the website is very interesting to read through. Due sometime this year (2013)

http://www.shiningrocksoftware.com/

RPS:

So Settlers II with a bit of a pilgrim-feel to it? Where do I give this fine gentleman my cash?

Man, really strong Dwarf Fortress vibe from the gameplay video as well (albeit above ground).

Wow, that looks really fun. I can’t wait.

Seemed really interesting. I like that there is not combat. Makes it seem rather peaceful.

Definitely. The engine looks quite nice too imo. Bookmarked and hoping for a KS campaign.

I’m very excited by the apparent surge in DF-like games that allow freeform construction and design while modeling/simming your individual citizens. ToadyOne had a good run, but it’s going to be harder and harder to talk myself into relearning the quirks and bugs of the latest DF if there are all of these other games pushing past DF’s limitations to deliver unique experiences in that genre.

Part of me hopes that this will influence ToadyOne’s approach as well, but I kind of doubt it.

Strange name though. Usually city builders have more straightforward names that google better. It will need a subtitle at least.

Looks great, and really impressive from a one man band! I hope he does consider the KS thing later on, as it could raise a nice lump of dev money that way. I also like he is considering adding ‘combat’ as an expansion pack option, so for those that are happy with the quiet life and building/person sim things alone don’t have to get all fighty if we don’t wish too. Maybe just the tonic for all those suffering the recent Sim City blues, even if Banished is not exactly the same?

Yeah, the name needs a tweak, but the game looks and sounds engaging. I will definitely keep an eye out for this one. Hope he makes his release date (programmers are notoriously bad at estimating how long it will take to get things done, plus the fact that he’s working solo means it won’t take much disruption to screw up any schedule he has).

And with prefab buildings. How am I supposed to drive myself crazy on fractal bedroom design with prefabricated buildings?

No reason the placement of said buildings can’t be fractally motivated! :)

Wow that looks awesome and I totally want to play it.

Was very pleased to see that.

Beautiful. Looks to me like a combination of Anno (the theme) and Tropico (the emphasis on people). Looking forward to this. Seems to me this guy really knows what he’s doing; it already looks like it has a reasonably good UI and a lot of building options. And pretty good performance when there are lots of things on screen, if the videos can be believed. Very nice.

Thanks for bringing this one to my attention–like everyone else posting in this thread, I’m very interested.

Certainly!

I figured it was nice to see another type of city builder (after Sim City)

Yeah, I like building rooms and such myself, so I’m hoping that some parts of it are more freeform (the agricultural fields seem to be variable-sized rectangles, and the fact that he seems to be modeling individual workers means that it may be more open than Anno).

Anno could in theory be freeform, but my experience with 1404 is that the designers had a fairly clear city layout in mind when they designed all of the support buildings with their fixed radii. If Anno didn’t have a fixed radius for my firefighters or taverns, it would be up to me to try to optimize distance and path length, but instead they make it so that path length is mostly irrelevant and I’m forced to cluster every single city around the same configuration of churches, taverns, town-squares, doctors, etc.

Dev posts on his site are in full force, there were a few last month covering everything from optimization to weather effects to reflections!

Seasons
Reflections

This looks so damn good! Can I have it now, please?

He said in an interview that the release will be for late september more or less.