All posts tagged in strategy
Dec 7, 2023
Remember Garden Galaxy, that adorable little cozy idle game I talked about here? In that one, you’re collecting coins from random visitors to spend in order to get decorations. Then, you take the decor and build your own little landscapes. It’s perfect for really casual gameplay, and so is this next game!
Rusty’s Retirement is another idle game I came across, but this time instead of decorating you’re running a farm. The game sits comfortably at the bottom of your screen so you can continue your tasks while it chugs along doing its thing. You’ll plant crops and watch as Rusty does his thing taking care of them. He’ll water, nurture, and harvest everything you plant. And as you progress, you’ll unlock new crops to plant.
Then, take those crops and manufacture biofuel. Rusty’s Retirement’s biofuel is clean and energy-efficient, and sells for a good bit of money so you can reinvest in your farm. You can also employ a host of cute robots who will help with planting, watering, and harvesting crops. Even customize and upgrade them for increased efficiency.
Don’t worry too much about getting distracted by Rusty’s Retirement, though. You can turn on “Focus Mode” to slow down production to allow you to concentrate on your tasks!
Release Date
This fun farming idler is listed on Steam, where you can add it to your Wishlist. However, there is no specific release date listed. It’s set to come out sometime in the first quarter of 2024, though!
- Dec 7, 2023
Pixel Cafe is reminiscent of the cooking games I used to play years ago. You know, like Papa’s Freezeria (and the rest of the Papa’s games), or the plethora of other similar restaurant management games that were out there. What’s cozier than nostalgia, after all! This game is a combination of arcade-style time management and visual novel narrative, after all.
Step into the role of a small-town girl as she embarks on an emotional journey that spans three generations. Pixel Cafe takes place in a gorgeous pixel-art world, and takes place in Karstok. The city sits stuck between a socialist past and a capitalist future. Experience a gripping tale as you explore the past and present. See how memories of your grandparents shaped your life into what it is now, too.
You’ll forge relationships with your Pixel Cafe bosses and clients as you experience the story while perfecting your coffee-making and cooking skills. Your professional career will take place across 10 wildly different bars. You’ll learn new recipes and have the chance to take on 50 optional Nightmare levels. When you’re not cooking up a storm and making customers happy, take some time to breathe a new life into Grandma’s old house. Decorate it to suit your style and make it home!
Release Date
Pixel Cafe is available now on Steam, Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation!
Want more cafe fun? Check out Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe, Cat Cafe Manager, and Cafeteria Nipponica!
- Dec 6, 2023
Station to Station is a relaxing puzzle experience set in a voxel-art world. Transform the world from dull and drab, to vibrant places full of life by building railways. Build connections for commerce and passengers across the countryside. Get the necessary materials to the production plants that need them, and then the finished product to the cities that need them to create thriving landscapes. Complete the puzzle elements and solve logistical conundrums while optimizing your train routes for the best results!
The Maps
Each level of Station to Station starts as a dull, lifeless landscape. It’s uninteresting and borderline boring, and it’s certainly an uninviting place for people and animals to live. However, as you make railway connections, the maps transform into gorgeous dioramas full of flora and fauna. There are six different biomes, each with a handful of levels. Each of those levels, while set in a specific biome, and therefore have the same atmosphere, differ from each other in their layouts. This offers just enough difference to keep the game visually appealing.
The voxel art style provides a visually beautiful and intriguing element to Station to Station, too. I’ve restored the color and life to a map only to sit panning around the map watching the individual pieces. Watching the camels in the desert, or the bustling little villages in the grassy meadows is one of my favorite things to do. Observing all of the little details that were added just absolutely sucks me in.
The Puzzles
Station to Station offers quite a bit of content, plus has announced more to come in a recently posted roadmap. I’d classify the “puzzles” as more objectives than puzzles, but that might be nitpicky. You have a set amount of money to use to build your connections. There are a limited number of cards to help you with discounts and such, too. However, you’re ultimately trying to build railway connections within a specific area of each map. Sometimes that’s easy, and sometimes it takes a little more trial and error. There’s also a few extra optional objectives per level you can complete to increase the difficulty level.
Nothing is overly difficult, though. I didn’t sit stuck contemplating a problem for long stretches. Plus, Station to Station gives you a couple of options for redoing the level. There is a reset button, making returning to the absolute beginning of a level easy. Or, if you just need to redo a little bit, you can return to a checkpoint instead of wiping the whole level. They’ve both come in handy when figuring out how to play and how to complete a level.
Final Thoughts
What Station to Station boils down to, though, is you place train tracks to connect buildings, then you move on to the next level. That’s it. This is not one of your deep, story-driven or deeply puzzling games chock-full of different mechanics and facets. It’s a simple game with a gorgeous art style, and that’s ok! This is perfect for me when I’m in a puzzle mood, but don’t want to be stuck on a problem for long. It’s a great low-pressure, low-stakes experience.
So, if you’re looking for something more, this isn’t for you. If you want that low-pressure experience, though, I recommend this game! I give it:
You can Station to Station on Steam!
Want more reviews? Check out my reviews of Witchy Life Story, APICO, and Little Sim World!
- Dec 6, 2023
Ready for another base builder? Because we have SteamWorld Build today! This is another strategy sim where the world is dying, and it’s up to you to pioneer a new city. Featuring a Wild West theme, and some creative steamfolk (essentially robots) taking the place of generic humans, this game offers a unique story. Your goal is to build a thriving city, uncover lost space-age technology, and make sure your citizens have their needs met!
SteamWorld Build offers an in-depth base-building and management experience with five distinct maps to choose from. Dig deep into the underground world full of ancient technology that might help society survive. Collect ore while you’re down there, and gather resources above ground to help craft your successful society. Even attract some wealthy robots and engage in trades at the local train station. Ensure you keep your own good flowing to create a prosperous city. And don’t forget to manage your steamfolks’ needs. Their survival is key, but their happiness is just as important!
Release Date
SteamWorld Build is available now on Steam, Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation!
Synergy is another end-of-the-world type base building and management game you should check out! - Nov 30, 2023
The planet has become hostile to humans, but they persist despite natural disasters and harsh living conditions. Your job in Synergy is to develop a thriving city while facing those natural disasters head on, making choices that will affect your people, and meeting the needs of those people. You’ll need to explore, analyze your surroundings and things you find, and experiment!
Analyzing your environment will be necessary for survival in Synergy. You’ll learn information about the plants and other elements of the world that will help you survive. This information will help you obtain new resources, as well as providing safety for your people. Plus, your new knowledge can help you build a more sustainable city suited for the environment, thus improving survival odds. You’ll also be able to assign jobs to your city-dwellers, like research! Their research will help further your goals of building a thriving city. Even exploration parties will help you discover necessary information.
Your choices matter in this strategy city-builder, so be sure to choose wisely!
Release Date
Synergy is coming to Steam at the beginning of 2024! You can currently add it to your Wishlist to keep up with it, though.
If you prefer brighter colors or pixel graphics, dotAGE is a great option for survival city-builders!
- Nov 29, 2023
Have you been looking for the next great tycoon-type game? You know, like Zoo Tycoon and Rollercoaster Tycoon where the focus was on using your creativity to build parks, while keeping guests happy. Perhaps one without puzzles or roguelite elements. A game that gets back to the roots of the genre and is just purely a tycoon game? Tavern Master might be for you, then! This is a cozy medieval management game where you’re in charge of building, maintaining, and running your own tavern.
Tavern Master equips you with many different tools to help you create the perfect business. Craft impeccable layouts and choose from any number of walls, flooring, fences, and stairs to build your tavern. Add decorations for a personal, cozy touch, too. Be sure to include a kitchen and rooms for guests to stay overnight! Arrange enough tables and chairs, plus light sources, to attract customers. Hire staff to run the kitchen and serve guests, and optimize the workflow. Customers will only wait so long!
What will your successful tavern look like?
Available Now
Tavern Master is available now on Steam!
Perhaps you’re looking for more of a life sim? Then checkout Circadian City, Little Sim World, or even Paralives!
- Nov 16, 2023
Fantastic Haven is a lovely Zoo Tycoon type game where you run a safe haven for magical creatures. As people move towards more advanced technology, their desire to live in harmony with the magical creatures wanes. This puts the balance of magic under pressure, and it’s up to you to restore that balance. Take in magical creatures that are injured or endangered, and restore them to health. Then, release them back into the wild to help restore the magic of the world. Even try diplomacy and education to teach humans about the importance of these creatures. It’s not an easy job, but it’s worth it!
The Demo
I had the pleasure of playing the demo for Fantastic Haven and I have to say, it was SO short. I got a very small taste of what the game is about, and it left me wanting more. Building facilities necessary for taking care of animals, as well as advancing your research is great for game progression. Hand-crafting the biotopes needed to house the magical creatures is fun and lends a sense of creativity outside of building what amounts to a village with your buildings.
It’s apparent that, despite the short demo, Fantastic Haven will be fully involved and perfect for spending a day gaming. You conduct research, build golems to help you in your tasks, care for the creatures’ medical needs, build biotopes, feed creatures, and much more. It has a very apparent depth to it. However, that means there are menus upon menus for you to navigate. That by itself is fine.
Many complicated strategy and management games have that. Fantastic Haven’s research menu, building menus, creature menus, etc. are common enough. The only problem I found is that the text is TINY. It’s difficult to read, which makes it difficult to accomplish things in the game. The lack of tutorial was mildly frustrating, too. I don’t know if that was demo specific, but I hope so. The starting quests ask you to pan the camera, move around the area, and similar. It doesn’t tell you how to do that, though. So, if you’d never encountered using Q and E to turn a camera, you’d be totally lost and unable to progress the quest line.
Final Thoughts
That said, Fantastic Haven is absolutely beautiful and offers an immersive storyline along with its game play. I could see myself spending hours upon hours perfecting the layout of my village, negotiating with humans, and carefully building biotopes for creatures. It’s a magical adventure that calls me to play!
I’ll hold off on rating the demo, since they’re not always accurate to what the final game will look like. Just know that I think it’ll be a worthwhile game!
You can find Fantastic Haven on Steam, where you can Wishlist it. It’s not projected to release until Q2 of next year, though. There’s also plans for releases on Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox!
- Nov 1, 2023
Looking for a relaxing and strategic game to play? Look no further than Growth! In this gorgeous hex-grid based strategy game, you explore and populate a procedurally generated world. Campaign mode puts your skills to the test by having you grow your own idyllic landscape. During your explorations, navigate around obstacles like mountains as you transform the landscape from a wasteland to lush forests, beautiful meadows, and many more biomes. Expand these biomes to discover 8 different animal species, each with their own abilities. Those abilities will help you further explore and create a beautiful map full of different landscapes. And with a super replayable gameplay loop, paired with intuitive gameplay, this game is perfect for filling up a few minutes of free time or relaxing after work. So what are you waiting for?
Available Now
You can find Growth on Steam now!
Equilinox let’s you nurture your own flourishing ecosystems. Or if you like Zoo Tycoon type games, check out Fantastic Haven.
