I don't see a post about the game, and based on my experience with it and the numbers, it may be because half of you are playing it right now. Game went to the top of Steam's sales list on Day 1, which is impressive, because that list is by volume of revenue, and it displaced CounterStrike 2, the Steam Deck, and Helldivers 2. So, an early access game on sale for $29.99 on the first day made more money than CS2 skins, Helldivers 2, or the Steam Deck. Top concurrent players was in the 160K range, and the game had 3 million wishlists on launch day.
The game is excellent. Imagine if Banished and one of the earlier Total War games had a child, and that child married the offspring of Age of Empires and Cities Skylines and had kids of their own. There's seasonality, you have to plan ahead when you produce food-- but you don't have to micromanage-- and traffic is taken into account, so the more traffic a road sees, the wider and deeper the ruts get. You can double up families in housing if you lay the plots out correctly, and cottage industry can produce food and export goods.
And the game was developed by one guy. He contracted out some work (the music is stellar, and the voicework is atmosphere building), but this is a 7 year passion project from one guy.
Owned the game a day, have played almost 10 hours. 11/10, quintuple A game from one turbo autist with a dream.
This is the story of gaming now. Plenty of small studios are making interesting and good games.
I'm not into RTS or city builders, but a new favorite came out recently.
No Rest for the Wicked is an isometric Soulslike with survival and crafting elements and has a future promising expanded player housing and farming.
It's unlike any singular game I've seen, and the devs stated they're making the game THEY want, and not something for mass appeal.
It has its issues ofc as an Early Access game, but the devs are quick to patch and update, they pushed out like 6 in a week.