City Builder / Colony Manager General Discussion Thread

Correct… zero combat missions, which I liked a lot, since those are my least favorite bits of city builders. But otherwise, they absolutely nailed it on cloning the Impressions games. I recall that the devs were posting on the Steam forums for the game, and they said that they had always been fans of the Impressions games and it was their goal all along to create a clone.

The most noteworthy thing that set it apart (only slightly) was the use of steam power in the game. Certain buildings require steam to operate, you’d have to place a steam extractor over geysers on the map and then run pipes all over the map to connect the buildings that required them. Similar to the aqueducts from Caesar 3… so I guess even that isn’t all that original, hehe. Still, I enjoyed having to plan the city, leaving room for pipes and stuff like that.

Honestly, if you can get it cheaply, it’s worth it. Looks like it’s still $20 on Steam, though, which surprises me. I would have expected a lower price by now.

I like the sense of danger, like you couldn’t just make everyone happy and not worry about the world and war, but i never like the combat itself.

I probably will during the next sale. Like I said, it was pretty buggy at release, the review reflected that, the developer released an apology it wasn’t a… great first impression, but if they cleaned it up and it has some Impression feel, hopefully more Zeus than the older ones, it sounds like fun.

Speaking of Aven Colony, it is 50% off on Humble right now.

I’ll have to check out Lethis when it goes on sale. Can you right click on the people walking around and have them tell you how well they’re doing? I always thought that was a cute touch in the Impression games.

I played Lethis and found it to be pretty much not that good. It over-streamlines things a bit too much for my tastes and it got boring pretty quickly. Honestly, for a 2d city builder I’d prefer Zeus or E:RotMK

I worship the Impressions games and replay them regularly, and I felt like there was something missing from Lethis, unfortunately. I went in excited for the exotic setting, but eventually fell out of the game primarily because it turned out bland.

I don’t disagree that the Impressions games themselves were far superior, and I apologize if I gave the wrong impression (ha). As I said upthread, once I finished Lethis, I never had a desire to go back and replay it, as I would rather just replay Zeus, Pharaoh or Emperor.

That said, I still enjoyed it for what it was… a clone of those games that no one else seemed to be making.

Not trying to dunk on you or anything. I’m glad you liked it! I might have liked it too if I stuck with it longer. For me it lacked a hook somehow, despite having all the right elements. Your comparison of the steam structures to aqueducts seems right to me. I haven’t played Caesar III in ages, but I have memories of how you used to have to plan out the aqueducts and cisterns before anything else because of how disruptive they were to your layouts.

Here’s another one in the works. A search of Qt3 shows that @Nightgaunt mentioned this in the kickstarter thread back in Feb:
Foundation: Medieval Builder
The KS was successful, even reaching all stretch goals.

There’s new Pre-Alpha footage out now:

Newest Gameplay Trailer:

I really like the look of this one. Projected release is Q4 of this year. I’ll be surprised if that happens, but regardless, I’ll be following. Speaking of which, it’s up on Steam to wishlist and/or follow, but no mention of EA yet.

I reinstalled Anno 1404 because of this thread and booted it up. Big mistake. Where did those hours go? ;)

This probably wont’ fly but would anyone consider Viva Pinata in this genre? It’s sort of a ‘colony manager’ with the requirements you need to meet in order to bring in certain pinatas. I could be wrong.

I love Viva Pinata, but I wouldn’t put it in this category, no. It fits in more with the likes of Stardew Valley, Rune Factory, Harvest Moon, etc. And even then, sort of loosely. It doesn’t really have RPG elements like the others do, but it is a relaxing, develop your farm/animals type game.

Project Aura released yesterday, 4/17. I was not aware it was close to release.
Direct link to the Steam page:

Seems to have gotten ok reviews during EA. Not many since it came out late yesterday. Anyone biting?

Just noticed @Sonoftgb mentioned this in the Little Indie Games thread too.

So like Frostpunk but in SPACE?

Not in space, but on Earth after the seas have risen. Think Waterworld. And it’s probably closer in spirit to the Settlers games, but without seeing all your little guys running around doing stuff.

I just watched that again yesterday. It’s on HBO and worse than I remember. The concept is still cool though, but I like watching little guys running around and doing stuff.

Wow I was very confused as I thought that was Frostpunk. I looked at the developer profile and was confused why it wasn’t showing them as the developer of “This War of Mine”.

So how is it two different developers are making the exact same type of circle city builder thingie at the same time?

Kind of like how Two Point Hospital and Project Hospital are both being made right now after decades of nothing in the theme? Heh

It is kind of exciting to see this many city builders even if they have similarities.

I’m very glad and all, it is just… odd.

I agree, especially during a time when there is so much in the marketplace you either have to pick one or do both and one winds up as backlog.