There haven't been many games that have held my attention lately, mostly due to the fact my laptop was having a few itsy bitsy issues which have since been rectified.
But despite the audio issues I was facing, there was one cute little game that I couldn't help but dabble in: a colony builder called Founders Fortune (Steam store link).
It's fresh out of Early Access so there are still a few lingering annoyances -- mostly AI related -- but the developer seems to be actively working on things so I'm not too perturbed. The game is addictive and I've started over many times in my attempt to build a perfect little village.
The game feels like a mash-up of the Sims and Banished. You have to watch after your people and see to their needs, just like in the Sims, and you run out of food every two seconds!! Just like in Banished. š
When you start a new game, you get to randomise two people who are essentially the founders of your upcoming colony.
There are many personality traits and skills that can be thrust upon your people and in my quest to get someone who was already an established farmer and someone who was already an established forester, I also got some dude who is a moody arsehole in winter and a lady who is just moody all the time and EATS ALL THE DAMNED FOOD.
After loading into the randomly generated world, I searched for something very important -- apple trees. After finding said apple trees, I was pleased to see the huuuuge tracts of land beside them and forced my people to set forth away from the coast and into the very centre of the island.
Was a bit of a hike, annoyingly, and wasted essential early-game time that could've been used for building, but at least there was a small food source nearby.
Now that we found a location, it was time to start building some houses!
Each villager has wants and needs, and things that help make them happier or sadder. You don't want them sad. If they decide that it's a bad day, they're going to flail their little arms, fall to the ground, have a little tantrum, and refuse to work for 10-15minutes real time.
Not to mention, you won't have new colonists request to join your burgeoning town unless all your current people are properly happy and cared for.
Ugh.
So, best build them houses instead of letting them sleep on the dirt and gress, as soon as possible.
Now that your initial people are happy, new people are fighting to join you on your journey! My people asked this guy about his traits and he told them he was a doctor. Fantastic! I thought to myself. That'll be helpful!
Now that he was a member of my colony I could check out the rest of his traits!
...only to see...
Bad health? Ugh.
Overeater? UGH.
Allergic to apples? Our main food source? UGGHHHH!!
Thankfully there is a tribe of friendly goblins on this island (as well as hostile ones that I'm keeping far away from) and I was able to trade with them for some non-apple foods.
And tamed some sheep for a future meat source.
One thing I'm disappointed with in this game... there is no fishing. You'd assume that in this type of game, fishing for food would be a thing. Even if it were more an end-game or mid-game thing, building fishing boats and going out on a fishing trip... or building fishing nets strung along the shoreline. You're on an island after all!
Food is scarce in this game, to the point where the next time I start a new game I think ALL of my people will be farmers straight off the bat and I won't exceed four people for a couple of years just to get stores up.
Madness.
It really doesn't help when Overeater is a very common trait, and a lot of randomly generated people are allergic to everything.
Thankfully, in a very Sims-esque fashion, as you make your people happy they can get reward points that enable you to harden them up a bit.
You can remove their ill-formed allergies and bad traits and allow them better traits and slowly have them become worthy of being in your village.
It does take a while though -- as it should: you need progression and a reason to keep playing.
As you progress through the game, you can research more and more things to better the lives of your people.
Soon you will go from simple peasants living in wooden shacks, sleeping in sleeping bags, to grand villagers! Living in proper houses, decorated with all the fixings and furnishings and tapestries their little hearts desire, sleeping in comfortable beds, swords by their sides and fireplaces keeping their toes warm on winter nights.
What started out as this:
Soon turns into a bustling village:
I'm still only in early game. I can't yet build taverns or castles, and I don't have a single person trained as a warrior yet so my village is very likely going to succumb to goblin attack, or pirate attack, very soon.
Another annoyance, while I'm thinking about it -- you can't directly upgrade walls and floors. After researching flooring and wall-types, you have to delete sections and rebuild them if you want them to look different.
Pain in the butt.
Still having fun with it though. After I finish writing this up, I'm literally going to open it up again and start a brand new game. This time better prepared for food. Much better prepared.
My word of advice for this game? Don't try to speed through it. Take your time. Don't try to get as many colonists as you can straight away. Starvation awaits.
You can find it on the Steam store here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1104330/Founders_Fortune/
And it really is worth it. It is only freshly out of Early Access, released in December 2020, but it's still being actively worked on and I really hope they introduce fishing at some point soon.
Seriously enamoured with this cute little village builder. š
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Until next time,
Thanks for stopping by! š®
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and are from the game: Founders Fortune.