All posts tagged in strategy
Oct 16, 2022
Create Your Village, Craft Its Story
Once upon a time, the beautiful continent of Cataria was home to an ancient civilization. However, the continent disappeared one day, becoming lost to the world for centuries. After hundreds of years, Cataria has been found, and dozens of adventurers have set off to explore the continent and its ruins. People wish to find a new home and resettle Cataria, and uncover its mysteries along the way
You play as one such person. Choose between two ancestries in Ages of Cataria, humans or elves, find the perfect location for your new village, and craft its origin story. Humans are just that, human, while elves are elegant plant-like creatures. Each has their own set of attributes. Each also has their own unique building style, resource requirements, and lifestyle events. Villagers of Cataria all have their own personalities, skill proficiencies, and wellness levels. It will be up to you to manage their wellness so they stay comfortable and productive.
In Ages of Cataria, you’ll perform jobs around town in the form of mini games to boost your character’s productivity and skill level. From cooking to hunting, each job has its own unique mini game to be played. You’ll also get to experience character-driven quests with your villagers. These will be in the form of interactive visual novels that will help define your villager’s personalities and stories. Some quests are minor, while some are life-changing events. And of course you have stylistic control over your village! You’ll be able to customize your town’s buildings to fit your style.
Coming June 2023
Unfortunately, we’re a long way out from the release of this beautiful and unique game. However, it will be on Steam and Switch. It is currently open for pre-orders on the Cataria website, too.
For another cute sim to play, check out Hokko Life!
- Sep 28, 2019
Spellcaster University is developed by indie studio based in France, Sneaky Yak Studio, and has just released on September 24th, 2019 on Steam Early Access here. It is even currently on sale at 10% off from now until October 1st, 2019. This strategy simulation game is about building your own ‘Hogwarts’ for mages and training them. See below for more details about what to expect in its current form.
About Spellcaster University
In Spellcaster University, you take on the role of the director of a magic university in a heroic fantasy world. Build your school, manage your budget, recruit teachers. Will you make it a high place of black magic, with the best necromancy and demonology teachers? Or a school in harmony with nature to train druids and shamans? Or why not train adventurous mages, offering them options to learn how to fight and be discreet? But this will require surviving the ruthless attacks of the orc tribes and the controls of the education authorities.
Key Features
- Build your university with a mechanism of magic decks. Each game will be different.
- Manage the well-being of your students by building refectories, dormitories, rest rooms… and ensure their discipline with a dungeon.
- Customize your rooms with powerful artifacts such as Xar’Saroth’s raclette machine or the Soul Devouring Bed.
- Tame legendary creatures: dragons, fauns, pegasus, janitors…
- Push your students towards a glorious future. At the end of their courses, you discover their future (necromancer, archimage, peasant…) according to the success of their training, and win new bonuses.
- Select your students: traits, personality, alignment, wealth… each decision will have its consequences.
- Escape the armies of darkness by building your university in isolated environments: lake, mountain, desert, volcano, giant turtle back, etc….
- Collect powerful grimoires to strengthen your university and to confront increasingly hostile environments during a procedural campaign.
Looking for more magic and spooky Halloween fun this October? Check out our article here: Mildly Spooky Games You Should Play This Halloween. And for more magic school games, make sure to check out the latest on Witchbrook Stardew Valley of magic by Chucklefish.
- Sep 5, 2019
During Nintendo’s Direct last night we finally got the official title for Town; Little Town Hero! This strategic RPG is created by none other than GAME FREAK, the geniuses behind the classic Pokemon games. With a new trailer we got to see a lot more of the battle system, the townsfolk that will be aiding you, as well as some of the single boss monsters you’ll be facing off against. Little Town Hero will be releasing digitally on the Nintendo Switch on October 17th, 2019 for $24.99 US. You can pre-order it now right here!
About Little Town Hero
The story is set in an isolated village on the edge of the world. The only gate leading outside is heavily guarded by a castle, and the villagers are not allowed to leave. Most of the villagers don’t give it a thought, and happily go on with their everyday lives. However, the protagonist is a little different from the others – he wants to see the world outside. One day, a “Monster” appears in the village, shocking everyone because until then, no one knew such creatures existed. The protagonist is able to fight it using a mysterious Red stone he found in the coalmines. In the course of his defense of the village, he gradually unravels secrets of how the stones and the monsters came to be…
Catch the Live Stream
GAME FREAK’s 30th Anniversary Celebration Stream will go live on Oct 16 (JST), 2019! In this special stream Junichi Masuda; one of the founding members and composers of GAME FREAK, will give us the history of the company, reveal information about their game development system, and give us the latest information on Little Town Hero along with another title. You can watch the live stream on GAME FREAK’s official channels on Twitter Periscope and YouTube Live. You can also check out their official website here.
- Aug 27, 2019
We love cute, affordable Nintendo Switch games, and are happy to bring another rapidly-approaching one to your attention. The first Gnomes Garden released onto Nintendo Switch at the end of 2018. We are now very close to the Switch release of another Gnomes Garden game, called Lost King!
Follow the story…
The Gnomes Garden games are listed as “strategy” games. You must plan out your moves carefully to be able to complete each level before the time runs out! But because time is such a big factor, we also feel that these games qualify for the time-management genre. Like its predecessor, Gnomes Garden: Lost King is an affordable, family-friendly game that operates on a basic story. You are the queen, and your husband went out to hunt, and he doesn’t come back! You must go find him. And the path is full of obstacles!
…past all the obstacles!
Gameplay in the Gnomes Garden game is quite simple, but becomes difficult more quickly than expected. In some levels you will need workers to clear some obstacles. So if the first thing you did was not to add another worker to the hut, you won’t have enough help to clear obstacles to other important points on the map. If that happens, you’ll fail to get through on time and have to restart the level. Or maybe on another level you’ll need a magician. Or perhaps you’ll need to build bridges, which makes resource gathering as important as bringing in more workers. Each level has different challenges, so you can’t use the same strategy every time.
Perform with skill
Gnomes Garden games are simple but quite diverting. And if you’re goal-oriented, Lost King has lots of trophies to earn. Aim for the best possible performance and you’ll be able to admire the results of your accomplishments any time you like.
Gnomes Garden: Lost King will release on the Nintendo eshop on September 5th, for $9.99. If you’re eager to try your wits against the many tasks on the road to your goal in Gnomes Garden, you can buy the first game on the eshop for $4.99 right now! In the first game the king falls ill because his beloved garden has withered, so his daughter must save the gardens to save her father. (We must say…this Gnome King sounds like a high-maintenance kind of guy!)
For other affordable, family-friendly Nintendo Switch games, why not take a peek at our little list of cooking games, all available now on the Switch eshop!
- Aug 8, 2019
Pajama Llama Games, the developers behind Flotsam, along with the publishers Kongregate, have just announced that the game will be coming to Steam Early Access on September 26th, 2019! Wishlist this unique town-builder on Steam right here and be one of the first to attempt to survive on the ocean in a post-apocalyptic world! You can check out our previous article on Flotsam here in case you missed it.
The old world has flooded and the driftwood, flotsam or garbage can be recycled by your drifters then turned into boats and buildings. Explore ruins, other small islands, and submerged cities to find items to salvage or people that may want to join your town. You can do this via boats, by swimming, or even by unfurling your sails and moving your entire town (which is usually anchored). Help your drifters to collect rainwater, fish for food, have storage for those resources, by building various workshops and tools. Watch as your drifters construct step-by-step in detail but make sure they’re all taken care of by keeping an eye on their meters, just like the Sims! Continue to build more efficient structures, homes, and other fun stuff as your floating town grows. You can even control the layout of your town and therefore make it your own!
More Information
Follow the developers on Twitter here so you can
stay afloatbe apprised on the latest features with concept art and videos. You may also want to download these awesome wallpapers from the official website here, as seen below. Enjoy their colorful and quirky art style, including the most dashing of seagulls, right on your desktops!New Release Date Trailer
- Jul 26, 2019
City builders are the go-to genre if you want to relax and lose yourself for hours. There’s something the MyPotatoGames fam loves about being able to build a town or world and watch it flourish. Add in some gorgeous graphics, and the ability to colonize space…Before We Leave, in development by Balancing Monkey Games, definitely has our attention.
About Before We Leave:
Your people emerge from underground to a world they’ve forgotten about. You have to rebuild civilization, which includes an assortment of fun tasks. There are resources to manage, huts to build, and potatoes to harvest. Once you’ve expanded your world, you can expand across the universe.
By expanding through space, you’ll create a multi-planet system of colonies to care for. The needs of your civilization aren’t going to be your only concern. There’s a reason your people were forced underground – disasters. These disasters left their mark on your planets and with improper management, they can once more cause issues.
On top of that, there are ancient guardians – remnants of your ancestors – that will challenge cities and demand attention. Oh, and the space whales. Yup, there are giant planet-munching space whales floating about.
Watch the announcement trailer:
There’s no set release date yet but the game will be coming to PC. You can wishlist it now on Steam. You can also follow development updates on Twitter and the dev blog.
We love talking about city-builders of all shapes and sizes! For the city-builders with a love for animals, make sure you’re up-to-date with Planet Zoo. Love to micromanage? Two Point Hospital is coming to consoles!
- May 24, 2019
In Merchant of the Skies you’re the captain of an airship! Sell items, gather resources, and build your own trade empire in the clouds! Merchant of the Skies is the trading game with light base-building and tycoon elements. You start off as a captain of a small cloudship and work your way towards establishing your own trade company. The game is created by indie developer Coldwild Games and will be available on Steam Early Access July 30th, 2019.
Key Features
- Become a trader! Find the best trade routes and profit from them.
- Discover the world! Travel between flying isles and face different encounters.
- Sandbox gameplay: do what you want at your own pace.
- Gain experience and become more savvy when it comes to trading, then start your own goods production.
Current Updates
Coldwild Games is currently working on adding set goals for Merchant of the Skies. In other words, you will have tasks to complete for those of you that like to have a purpose. For those of you that don’t, you can always set the game to “no objectives” and play at your own leisure. The goals will vary by length which you can often customize. For example, it will take 20, 40, 60, or 90 minutes to complete.
Uncover new islands on your map and visit each destination for information and goals. Once you have discovered the area and see what it has to offer, you can easily plan your trade routes accordingly.
With this game you can build a company in the skies. Similarly, check out our article on Flotsam where you build your village on the open seas!
- Become a trader! Find the best trade routes and profit from them.
