It is a toy after all, there to play with, experiment with, and let your imagination run wildĮverything in the game is designed to be stress free. Thinking of Townscaper is this way is essential for understanding why it’s an experience built for relaxation and creativity. To me, ‘toy’ invokes a childlike sense of wonder, and the idea of playing without having to achieve. It seems odd to try and market a game by saying there’s ‘no real gameplay’ but it’s accurate and not a bad thing at all, especially as Stålberg describes it as more of a toy than a game. That’s it,” developer Oskar Stålberg says in his description for the game. Just plenty of building and plenty of beauty. I’ve been able to make big castles with towers, archways, and courtyards, simple rows of houses in clashing colours, and buildings with parts that jut out into the sea held up by pillars. Blocks of buildings next to each other will merge together, while roofs, gardens, and stairways are all added automatically when the program thinks it appropriate. In Townscaper all the hard work is done by an algorithm, which means you can sit back and enjoy whatever creation emerges from a few simple actions select a colour, left click to add a block, right click to remove a block. Instead you just click away, creating sprawling seaside towns full of brightly coloured houses in the middle of an infinite and still ocean. The game focuses entirely on the design aspect, which means no citizens bothering you to request more schools, no traffic clogging up your streets, and no industry polluting the air. Luckily, June saw the release of Townscaper, which takes all the stress out of city building. Having ruined one of my beloved builds due to a series of poor decisions that included forgetting to save regularly whilst restructuring a lot of roads, and then accidentally burning down a recently finished part of a city, I haven’t been back on Cities: Skylines for a while. It’s one of my favourite genres, and I’ve spent more time than I’m willing to admit on them, however they can also become pretty stressful. Whilst the genre is expansive, most of the games are built on the same foundations making sure there are places to live and places to work, collecting resources, and keeping an eye on the needs of your citizens. City building games can be a lot of fun, whether you prefer the idea of building your dream city here on earth, or taking off into the universe and creating a new colony where the survival of the human race is at stake, there’s bound to be one that appeals to you.
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