Summary
City builder games, likeCities: Skylinesand otherlarge-scale management games, have had a huge impact on gamers. It can feel empowering and challenging to face the puzzles that come from expanding and keeping massive swathes of citizens happy. For many players, though, this large scale can detract from some of the charm and intimacy that comes with being in charge of a smaller group of townspeople, and while building towering skyscrapers can be incredible, sometimes building a cozier town that can provide for its people’s every need can be a more heart-warming experience.
Here are some of the best smaller-scale town-building games, where players have a chance to get hands-on with their people, places, and passions, without have to sweat over the more intricate details of a full-blow city-building game.
7Flotsam
Drifters, Recycling In A Water World
InFlotsam,players take control of a floating town, reminiscent ofWaterworld,in a post-apocalyptic setting.Each of the ‘drifters’ who live in the settlement and work to keep things running have different quirks, likes, and dislikes and are more skilled in some activities than others. They will be diving into the water to collect driftwood, floating plastic rubbish, and eventually, even collecting technology from before the world flooded.
The player’s town will develop, starting with a mad rush to ensure they have a distillery so that they can provide fresh water, and eventually letting them sail around the remnants of the world on their little town. The variety of locations and the consistent progression, paired with the emphasis on recycling and the vibrant art-style, make for a pleasant little voyage.
6Havendock
Be A Part Of Your Island Of Innovation
Another game set on the ocean,Havendocksees players slowly building structures on the water and collecting resources that flow past in the current. The player takes on a character and can wander around their town as it expands and explodes into a busy little hub.
Technology can advance quite far in the game, but getting people what they need and want is still the main focus, even when worker robots and an experimental cooperative mode join the fray. With additions like diving, farming, and befriending birds,Havendockbecomesa go-to cozy gamefor sitting on the water and caring for some townsfolk.
While town-builders are expected to be slow-paced, charming games,Rimworldis tense and brutal. Three characters crash-land on a strange planet and have to cobble togetherthe pieces they need for survival in a hostile world. While more characters can be recruited, they can also be sold into slavery and enemies can be recruited instead.
Interpersonal relationships will be made and broken during play, and any moment of calm farming could be shattered by the arrival of rabid animals, ancient robots, or an enemy tribe. Technology can reach incredible levels, and when a player’s settlement is filled with clones with bionic limbs who are constantly falling out with each other, they will undoubtedly both love and hate their town.
Sleepy Puzzler With Scenic Charm
Dorfromantik
Dorfromantik is a relaxing building strategy and puzzle game in which you place tiles to create ever-growing, idyllic village landscapes. With Dorfromantik, you’re able to immerse yourself in a quiet, peaceful world at any time and take a break from everyday life. At the same time, Dorfromantik offers a challenge for those who are looking for one: To beat the highscore, you need to carefully plan and strategically place your tiles.In Dorfromantik you start with a stack of procedurally generated tiles. One after the other, you draw the top tile of the stack, place it on one available slot and rotate for the best fit. Thereby groups and combinations of landscapes are formed, such as forests, villages or water bodies, and you are rewarded with points depending on how well the tile fits.On some tiles you will also encounter special objects that give you a quest: For example, the windmill wants to border 6 grain fields, the locomotive wants to be connected to 10 tracks or the deer wants to inhabit a forest with at least 50 trees. Fulfill these quests to get more tiles to continue the expansion of your landscape. The game ends when the tile stack is used up.As you expand the landscape, you can advance into new, colorful biomes and discover pre-placed game objects that give you long-term tasks. Through these tasks you can unlock new tiles, new biomes and new quests.What Dorfromantik offers :Building endless and beautiful landscapes, Unique mix of strategy and puzzle mechanics, Relaxing and calming gameplay, Idyllic village scenery, Strategic placement to beat the highscore, High replay value - every session is different, Many unlockable tiles and biomes, Original Artstyle with handpainted boardgame feel.Dorfromantik offers options for any style of play! Take a short break from life in quick mode or try to master the game in hard mode. The Custom Mode allows you to create your own rulesets and share them with others, while monthly mode awaits you with a new challenge every month. If you just want to relax and build your own landscape with no limits, try the creative mode!
For a change of pace,Dorfromantikplays more like a board game or aparticularly enticing puzzle. The meaning of the title refers to the romantic view that people have of villages and quaint towns, and the slow tile-placing gameplay lends itself well to the serene visuals and beautiful landscapes that will be created during a playthrough. Players must join tiles to complete quests, forming sets of forests, rivers, and houses.
Special tiles, like mills, will need to be connected to huge numbers of fields, and it could quickly feel like players will run out of space. The music is calm, and the stunning art direction makes every playthrough a patient breeze as more and more tiles unlock. Although it can feel a little more impersonal compared to other games on this list,it is a tranquil game that invites players to slow down and enjoy the view.
A much more political and human survival sim,Frostpunkputs players in control of survivors in an icy wasteland. The game’s smaller scale pairs well with the harsher conditions and sees players forced to make difficult decisions. For example, will they make child labor legal to have more workers?
Making too many controversial decisions will decrease people’s hope and increase discontent, and if either reaches their limit, the town will collapse.The gritty steampunk visualsreinforce the bitter cold of having to establish order and enforce the player’s will on their people as they prepare for the big chill that threatens to wipe them out.
It will come as no surprise to lovers of the genre thatAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsappears on this list. Nintendo’s town builder begins with a scrappy scavenger chopping down trees for fruit and wood and finding new blueprints to make new furniture and decorations, but it quickly becomes a lavish life of luxury. As the island’s mayor,players decide on the villagers who can stayand the esthetics of the village and their home.
Cutesy friends and requests for players to hunt across the island keep them engaged over the days of playtime. The changes to the scenery over different times of day, and even different seasons, make this a game that is hard to put down. Showing off gardens and intricately positioned fences to friends has never felt so good.
1Factory Town
Industrializing A New Landscape
While it runs the risk of becoming complex and chaotic,Factory Towntasks players with providing everything for their people. For starters, they will need access to water, but as the name implies, the town will quickly become an industrial hub. Loggers are felling trees to collect wood that will be turned first into paper and then books that are shipped to schools to let villagers earn research points.
The lush green grass of the terrain will quickly become dense with villagers running cooked fish to the store for other villagers to buy, while conveyors overhead ship coal to the forges where pickaxes are made. Checking on supply and demand for certain products is crucial to keeping the people happy and keeping the town running smoothly.
