mellowtigger | gaming updates (Reply)

Read about some games from the past...

There was a period of time when people were trying to recreate that classic of the city-building genre, Pharoah (and the related Cleopatra, and the prior example Caesar). I was happy to "donate" money by buying development projects in the works. Three of them are officially out now or soon, with 2025 January for the latest. Here are my ratings for them:

Pharaoh: A New Era
By far the best of the lot. They practically copied the original graphics and music and narrator, although they are new resources. Definitely fun like the original.
Nebuchadnezzar
A good original work. It's the same style without being such an exact replica. Worth playing.
Builders Of Egypt: Prologue
Another original attempt. Not as smooth as the others.

I crowdfunded Dwarven Delve on Kickstarter back in 2013. While I got a playable version on Steam (usable on Linux with Steam's Proton), they stopped updating their Kickstarter in 2020. I assume it's an abandoned title now. :(

I crowdfunded Star Citizen on Kickstarter back in 2012. Their funding page says they've collected over US$721 million during development. That figure is not a mistake. High quality games are as big a business as Hollywood. More, actually. This game definitely is far along in development, but it's still not "out" yet in 2024. While it certainly has playable gameplay and impressive graphics, the UI in it is just awful. I first complained on the forum about a decade ago, but I can't tell that there's been any improvement at all in the UI. Despite all the money that I gave them over the years to fund their development (and I attended their CitizenCon convention in 2018), the UI still hasn't improved. I probably won't play it much, if the UI stays in its current form. :(

The games that I keep returning to, instead, are No Man's Sky for the exploration, Oxygen Not Included for the base building (and I recommend the Spaced Out expansion), and Timberborn (a game I keep mentioning, most recently in 2022) for the adorable city-building beavers.