Working on a minimalist citybuilder game

DNNIS

I've been working on this game for a few weeks now.
It's a relaxing citybuilder where you gather (or loose) resources by placing buildings next to each other. Resources are needed to complete missions which will then increase your build area (water in this case) and give you XP to unlock new buidlings!

Missions are at the top of the screen

The blue missions are the normal missions, which will increase your build area and give you XP. You can fill them up by placing compatible islands next to each other (indicated with a green symbol)

If you create a bad combination, the blue missions will loose progress and if it reaches 0, the red mission will appear.
The red mission will fill up when you create more bad combinations. Once its full, your build area will decrease.

This whole mission system with red and blue missions was created so that the player can't just randomly place buildings.

The game ends once you run out of space to build!

Here's a gameplay video (recorded before the visual overhaul): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYyh35W2Bm4
And if you want to wishlist 😉 : https://store.steampowered.com/app/2648420/Pico_Topia

Toxe

DNNIS Oh I quite like that art style!

MikeCL

This looks fantastic! Also love the feel, looking at the video. Great job! Wishlisted! 🙂 . Also amazing how far you've come in just a few week.

When do you plan to release it?

DNNIS

MikeCL Thank you very much! I'm not sure about the release date since there is still quite some stuff I need to add. Its probably either at the end of the year or after the steam next festival in february 🙂

DNNIS

Toxe Thank you very much 🙂

Capella

It looks very nice. I like the simple yet highly recognizable art style. I usually find a big problem with city builder games is that they often look very cluttered and it's hard to tell things apart.

What determines if a placement is good or bad? Are there rules of which buildings/blocks should be adjacent to others?

Tomcat

Capella What determines if a placement is good or bad? Are there rules of which buildings/blocks should be adjacent to others?

There don't seem to be any rules. A green or red marker just appears.

DNNIS

Capella Thanks 🙂
It's just combinations that players need to learn while playing. For example, a mill wants to be placed next to a field because it needs wheat, that's why it's a good combination. But houses/citizens don't want to be placed next to a mill because it's noisy (at least that's what I figured).
The goal is to roughly place buildings like you would place them in reallife.

MikeCL

DNNIS Nice! That's earlier than I thought, hehe.

Tomcat

DNNIS For example, a mill wants to be placed next to a field because it needs wheat, that's why it's a good combination. But houses/citizens don't want to be placed next to a mill because it's noisy (at least that's what I figured).

It's not entirely obvious. It would be nice to have some guidance.

But then, it's more interesting.

DNNIS

Tomcat I probably need to think about ways to show combinations that fit to the whole style, which isn’t that easy.
It’s not a high priority though, since players in playtesting usually just looked at the red or green icon and were still able to play the game without any difficulties 🙂