Factorio is a construction and management simulation game developed and published by Czech studio Wube Software.

The game was announced via an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in 2013 and released on 14 August 2020 following a four-year-long early access phase to positive reviews.

The game follows an engineer who crash-lands on an alien planet and must harvest resources and create automated industry to build a rocket; however, as it is a sandbox game, players can continue the game after achieving the end goal.

Did you miss the colonial era ?

A time when strangers just turn up in an undiscovered country and take over ?

Then they strip mine the resources and de-forest the place.

Murder the inhabitants because they don’t look like them. And once the place is a polluted mess, just bugger off, never to be seen again ?

You do ?

Well, welcome to Factorio 

Cities: Skylines is a 2015 city-building game developed by Colossal Order. The game is a single-player open-ended city-building simulation.

This should be better that Sim City. It has a modern interface and better graphics. The interface is the first problem, things swim around like that used in King’s Bounty 2. You can move up/down in and out and side ways. But it’s always too fast. It would be nice to be able to fix the perspective so you weren’t forever dealing  with basic movement.

Then there is the operation. It took me ages to get my head around how the basic services worked.

Was the water supply a well ?.

Why was the only way to treat sewerage to just dump it in the river or sea ?

Eventually I worked out that the water supply and sewer pipes were together in the same trench. Something that should not happen in reality. I did eventually get some buildings going but there was little joy or entertainment , it felt like work.

Overall, a frustrating experience

SimCity 4 is a city-building simulation computer game developed by Maxis. The game was released in January 2003.

I got this to try and as it was cheap. It really looks dated, like it was made in the 1990s. The interface stretches to fit a widescreen monitor.

But overall, a pain to use. Not recommended.

Dorfromantik is a 2022 strategy and puzzle video game developed and published by Toukana Interactive.

The player places a series of hexagonal tiles containing elements of a pastoral environment to create a landscape.

This is the most addictive of the recent games reviewed. It has a simplicity of design that hides the complexity of the puzzles and scoring.

Townscaper is a city builder game by Oskar Stålberg, released in August 2021.

Townscaper has no inherent objective or story and has been described by developer Stålberg as “more of a toy” than a game

Users construct an island town by placing and removing colored blocks on an ocean. Various “rules” dictate these blocks’ appearances, with some appearing as spires and others as balconies. This method of rule-based decoration allows arches, gardens, and stairways to be created without specific user instruction.

While a fun and easy game to play, there isn’t the variety of environments that Tiny Glade has, It is well designed and quick to get into, but ultimately not a lot of gameplay.

What is fascinating is the AI behind the game, as explained here:

Dystopika is a sculpting  game for creating Cyberpunk cities and future noir vibes. No goals, no management, just rich, atmospheric moods for contemplation, creativity and wonder.

Somewhere between Tiny Glade and summerhouse, the game is 3D, but there is a limited number of objects you can manipulate.

The best thing about it is the Blade Runner style soundtrack and atmospheric graphics. But there is not much gameplay to keep you hooked.

Summerhouse is a 2024 video game by independent German developer Friedemann Allmenröder.

The game is a sandbox city-building game in which players decorate environments using building and decorative pieces.

This is a much simpler version of Tiny Glade. The low resolution graphics don’t help and compared to others there is not much to do.

I was not inspired to continue with this game.

Tiny Glade is a cozy, sandbox city-building game where players can construct castles, ruins and other buildings from the medieval era.

It was developed and published by Pounce Light and was released on 23 September 2024 for Windows.

This game has no narrative, objective or rules. Just built housing in your glade. The impressive thing about the game is how it interprets action that join things together. Draw a path up to a building and you get a door. Run it through a wall and you get an arch or a gate.

The only thing holding it back is the interface necessary to implement a 3D construction game. It has a learning curve and can be frustrating. Some actions require precise clicking and dragging.

When you do get used to it, things can be relaxing and enjoyable. Hours go by as you  build your glade into a village.

Joan of Arc is the second campaign in Age of Empires II.

She appears as her own civilization in Age of Empires IV: The Sultans Ascend, in which she is also the hero.

Across six episodes, the games goes from fun to frustrating.

The final, “A Prefect Martyr” occurs after her death, and has the heroes trying to erect a flag in Paris.

The problems occur quickly, with a constant flow of enemy attacks as you try to establish your base. Despite several re-starts I ended up using cheat codes to get to the end. Fortunately that doesn’t stop you moving on the the next campaign.