At a first glance, you might not think that Dawnfolk is a city builder. With its tile-based approach and minimalist art style, it perhaps resembles a cozy puzzler more than a Cities Skylines rival. However, you’d be wrong. Built by a single developer, Dawnfolk takes a more streamlined approach to city building while retaining a lot of the deep strategic gameplay fans of the genre love, and it’s just launched on Steam.
While the likes of Cities Skylines engross you with a to-scale recreation of a real metropolis, complete with tower blocks, highways, parks, and even the odd Hadron Collider if you’re skilled enough, it can get rather stressful and bloated. In Dawnfolk, things are a little more stripped back. Presented in tile form, each adorned with charming art of the terrain you uncover and the things you construct, it looks as if it could be one of the most relaxing city building games ever. The Stardew Valley-esque backing track and sound effects add to the vibe too.
However, there is a serious undertone. The realm in which you live is being overrun by darkness. Tile by tile, you aim to illuminate the world around you by expanding your settlement outwards, collecting resources as you go. Certain tiles will also feature unique minigames that will determine how much resource you extract from them.
There is also still a decent amount of strategic depth, despite it being a cozy, 2D affair. Your settlers still need food to survive, materials to build with, and for you to make the right decisions when faced with unpredictable world events like storms.
This looks like an absolute cracker of a game, and despite a modest sample size so far, it’s sitting on a very impressive 96% rating on Steam at the moment. Dawnfolk’s solo developer Darenn Keller has also been super transparent when it comes to the game’s performance, revealing that it achieved over 42,000 wishlists pre-launch and has sold almost 3,000 copies in its first 24 hours.
Dawnfolk is out now on Steam, and up until Thursday, February 20, you can grab it with 15% off, making it just $12.74 / £10.87. Add it to your library, or simple learn more about it, right here.
For some similarly cozy experiences, check out our favorite relaxing games. If you want to uncover some more hidden gems regardless of genre and style, consult our best indie games guide.
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