★★★★★ Needs balance in food
Sat May 30 2020 Nick 10baseTThe overall game play is fun and the rotation of worlds and objectives keeps it engaging. My biggest bone to pick is with the food. Tomatoes are so far superior to bread that bread is pointless except for some objectives. It is almost a luxury good. Planting each takes the same time, as does growth to harvest. Each tomato plot produces 2 tomatoes vs each wheat plot making 1 wheat. But later on this gets balanced back when one flour becomes 2 bread despite what the bakery building says. The problem with bread starts with the harvest. Each time the little guy has to go to the barn get the scythe cut the grain then go back to the barn to return the scythe then go back to the wheat pick it up and stock it. For tomato harvest the little people just walk to the plot pull the tomato and trundle to the stock, done food available. The added time for wheat harvest is quite a lot. Then there is the windmill followed by the bakery, more labor, land and resources invested for as far as I can tell no gain. I just feel that the added complexity and inputs should garner some benefit and I do not see it. The brewery you can at least say gives happiness bonus but I am not sure how much. A smaller issue is with how the little guys seem focused on harvest over planning, if they swapped or if workers after the first could focus on planning then the utilization of the land would be much improved.
★★★★★ Great Game, Just One Thing…
Thu Jul 08 2021 evanryanwhelanPersonally this is one of my favorite Apple Arcade games, it has everything you could want out of a medieval town-builder. But it is just a bit too difficult, I want it to be challenging but not too challenging. Maybe you could add a setting where all the levels are unlocked, I tried for days to beat the Gerald level where you have to farm tomatoes. Doing this might defeat the purpose of the game for some, but for others like me it would be a great help. Also maybe you could add civilizations like the Aztec or native Americans. Which would mean adding jungles and maybe even desert environments. It could mean different house designs like Adobe or something like Chitzen Itza. Adding wagons would be a great form of transportation for your towns, and could add animals to the game like horses and mules. Hunting could come along with this, which could mean bows and swords. These could lead to blacksmiths, advanced quarries with ore, and weapon forgeries. I did happen to come across another review which suggested ships and traveling to other islands, and I love this idea. It might start trading and piracy, along with new seaside buildings. Maybe you should be able to make the leaders have children, like all the other people in game, this could upgrade the sophistication of your town and maybe it could come with upgraded leader houses and the arts. You should be able to construct canals for goods, and as your city grows you could use resources to upgrade the businesses to make them faster and more efficient. Thank you for your time
★★★★★ Incredible game, to a point.
Sat Mar 25 2023 Ambiguous fig treeEventually the game goes from a fun challenge, to just sheer absurdity. It gets to point where it’s completely unplayable. I got the wild Josephine level and it was laughable how bad it was. Essentially you need to erode the whole town and rebuild it somehow without everyone dying all while needing an obscene amount of wood to run a camp fire. I did end up beating it but it was not fun at all it was stressful and annoying. So much so it has made me delete the game.
Waiting for those trees to grow is about as fun as just starring at the ceiling. And the waiting is about as infuriating as watching someone kick a dog. Your best bet would be to squeeze in 2 tree farm spaces and plant them at opposite times and do not take your eyes off them. If you do you WILL fail. And you will need a farm and the only place that fits a farm is the place where all the houses are and where the builders house was so I needed to build 3 homes, build ANOTHER builders house and only then could I build my farm all of which was using wood I desperately needed causing me to fail over and over and over and over. So I just made them live off 2 berry farms. Dozens died of hunger.
If they ever decide to fix the tree planting system, I will play again one day. I rated it 4/5 stars because it’s a great game, I’m sure someone out there will love everything about it. But starring at my screen groaning while I waited about 30 minutes for trees to grow while your entire population dies was certainly not for me. But everything else is great.
★★★★★ Very Good Game—Full of Potential
Sun Mar 12 2023 lookingformoonlightTo me, this is the best game on the my iPhone which (far as I know) was made for this platform, though you can now play it on PC. Gameplay can range from blessedly simple to complex and challenging to track, but it ramps up gradually, even in sandbox mode.
However, it still feels a bit like an unfinished game—granted, one with a fair amount of levels, though they go by quickly.
I’ve only played on my iPhone, which may be more prone to these issues (I’m not sure), but sandbox mode can’t handle over 200 followers. Even approaching that limit is a bad idea, and the game with crash and start to quickly overheat my phone long before reaching it. That said, I’ve played enough to know how to delicately balance the population, which isn’t easy but prevents everyone from dying suddenly. Unfortunately, my phone will still crash regularly by the time they have enough people to run the village.
My biggest pet peeve with sandbox mode is that you can’t use certain styles of buildings, because they will change to a different theme when the game crashes, which it inevitably does. I’m sure if the developers keep committed to it, this will be a fantastic game. Maybe the PC is its future. I have yet to try it, but I’m sure I will eventually.
★★★★★ Loved this
Thu May 06 2021 deedledugUpdated review spring 2021: still love this game. I have a couple recommendations! 1) level 11 instructions should be reworded, says everyone needs a home when guests arrive. I will have homes for everyone when the new followers arrive, and as soon as there’s a surge in babies you automatically lose. If the prompt is meant to be “no followers without a home *after* the new followers arrive,” I would make that shifting wording, “after” vs. “when.” 2) every now and then when I am recycling something it’ll leave the little dashed white border on the ground after the item is removed. Sometimes it’ll prevent new building in that spot, sometimes it allows it. I think more often than not, it allows building on top, but it’s a little annoying. Def not end of the world though, just thought I’d mention it ☺️ 3) some fun employment opportunities for the followers could be a printing press, textile maker, laundry, fishing, dairy farm, apothecary! Maybe even a theater / amphitheater :-) (could possibly add “health” and “hygiene” scales in addition to hunger and happiness)
Original review summer 2020: Very addictive, I couldn’t put it down! Would enjoy more levels (Not necessarily harder, just more prompts to do. The last two levels were quite challenging, haha.)
★★★★★ This game is everything I have been looking for
Tue Jul 18 2023 PhxThePizzaI started my journey a few years ago, I wanted a civ sim game that was fun, had no ads, was not a “god” sim and had a lot of people working for you. I wanted it to have custom world generation, like Minecraft. There are only three problems I have with this game. I wish it had a better sandbox mode, like world box’s debugging thing, where you could give your civilization infinite resources. Another thing I wish this game had, is, again like WorldBox; a favorites system. I really liked a character named “germán” for instance; and wished there was a favorites feature where I could get updates about them, for instance if they are harvesting crops or if they die. And lastly; I have never seen a civ game do this. GIVE THE PLAYERS THE ABILITY TO SEE WHAT THE CHARACTER SEES!!! Make first person mode! I know it’s SUPER hard and I mean that. But I just KNOW that it’s possible. Do that and you have made the PERFECT civ sim game!! Thank you for ending my journey, I hope you read this. If you are thinking of getting this game; JUST DO IT. THIS GAME IS WORTH BUYING APPLE ARCADE FOR, I would say. Take my word for it. There is nothing on Apple Arcade or just- anywhere that is even remotely close to this. Thank you so much for reading all this.
★★★★★ Cool game
Fri Jul 02 2021 DjdeesterI play this game all the time and completed all the levels . I believe in waiting for new levels to upload that once completing all the levels that it should unlock new things to build in the Sandbox for example being able to build a fire place for the villager or certain things you had access to build through the levels should happen in the Sandbox. I believe you can have fun with this game until the new levels upload also have more interaction with the villagers just like the sims game would make this a little bit more fun. It gets boring when you only have a few things to build and only three landscapes. I wish the developers put more into this game because it’s definitely my go to game when I’m bored and have nothing to do. Please develop this game and give better features.
Do the developers even read the reviews?
The head leader of the village should be able to die too and have a vote in by the other villagers. I’m tired of just seeing the villagers just work and sleep. I wish there was more engagement with the villagers. Additionally what’s the whole point of knowing about each villagers if that feature has nothing to do with the game. Also when is the next update to the game ?
★★★★★ Excellent game/must download/Bug fix Request
Wed Jun 03 2020 SargSkySlayerFirst want to say, Excellent update, if someone hasn’t downloaded the game yet it is a must. Now onto the bug or possible feature...
I am currently playing sandbox mode on the 3rd map (four separate land sections split by rivers). I am on day 360, with the Love each other decree on. I cannot seem to get my population over about 219 max. My food is at 2800 tomatoes, 400 bread, and a lot of the other resources. There have been countless times that a handful of villagers will die of hunger, even when the stock piles are spread throughout the islands all full of food. The other cause of death is old age, I understand that if 5 people were born on a day, they will also all 5 die on that same day, so my adult/child population goes up and down regularly with the child to adult conversion offsetting the old age deaths at times and others my adult population plummets while my child population skyrockets. I can’t get over the 220 population.
It would also be cool to be able to click on the hungry notification and be directed to someone who is hungry, so I can see if they are working in an area far from food or if there is something I can do to make food more readily available for them.
