I liked this, although after a few runs it starts to feel repetitive because there's not a lot of depth yet. I played on mobile even though it wasn't really supported and was pleasantly surprised that it worked pretty well. The only difficulty I had was with scrolling the perk and codex windows, which didn't respond consistently.
I think I've seen most of the content in what feels like a demo. I unlocked only two of the base city types even though I found all five of the rare city types. In fact, I think all but one run started with the city of balance. It's apparently incredibly hard to be out of balance even if you try, which is funny.
Also "Guidance of the Codex" doesn't seem to do anything. Every city only ever earned one memory when resetting. This included the run after I earned this perk when I unlocked the city of the golden mean for the first time.
Early on, I saw that some notification popups were still in Japanese. Mostly they seemed to be higher level building fusions. For instance, Farms seemed to upgrade to Farmhouses, Watermills (which look like windmills on the map), and then something else. I couldn't reproduce it later though.
The depth issue is fair -- the current version runs out of things to do after
a few runs. The next update is redesigning this from the ground up: civilizations
stop resetting and the world keeps growing instead, so each run layers onto the
last rather than starting fresh. It should fix the repetitiveness you're describing.
The city-of-balance dominance is a known problem. Almost every run ends the same
way in the data too. Fixing that is tied to the world redesign.
Two confirmed bugs from your report:
Japanese notifications on higher building upgrades: found the cause, will patch it.
Guidance of the Codex: the perk fires internally but the memory formula makes it
invisible in practice. The description is misleading. Needs redesigning.
Mobile scroll in those panels is noted. Not officially supported but worth fixing.
Appreciate you going deep enough to find the rare cities.
You're right on both counts — there is a population cap, and the game did a poor job explaining it. Here's the deal: population is limited by your housing (each Hut/Tower adds capacity), with an overall ceiling on top. And population only boosts production up to a soft limit — past a few hundred, extra population is mostly cosmetic, so that hard wall at the top was mainly just confusing.
I've just changed it: instead of slamming into a wall, population now eases in and grows more gently as it nears the limit, so it feels natural rather than like an invisible brick wall. I'm also going to surface it on-screen (Population X / Y, with a hint that housing raises it) so it's never a mystery again. Thanks for the nudge — this is exactly the kind of feedback that makes the game better!
Good catch, and you're right to expect more than that. The idea is that what you build should pull the city toward different identities, so "always balanced" is something I want to fix. Looking into it now.
really like the idea here, just not really clear on how much things earn so it's hard to make choices. also once you have even not that many buildings they don't all fit on the screen so it's impossible to play at that point sadly. Is the expectation that you transmigrate as soon as it's possible? cause it seems like deeper runs don't increase memory gain unless I'm missing something
Thanks, this is really helpful and you're reading it right.
- I'm going to fix the buildings running off-screen so they wrap onto more rows.
- You're right that it's hard to tell how much things earn. I want to make each building's output clear so the choices feel meaningful.
- And yes, your instinct is correct: right now deeper runs don't really scale memory gain, so transmigrating as soon as you can is about optimal. Giving deep runs a real payoff is what I want to tackle next. Thanks for spelling it out so clearly
Thank you so much — that really means a lot for a fresh release! 🌱 You're right that this is just the starting point: more discoveries, deeper branches, and more civilizations to crystallize into are on the way. Stick around and watch your town grow. 🙏
The pop-up notification at the top, disappears too fast, I can't read most of it. It would be nice with an "Ok" button on it or so. And maybe a Settings option to "auto-skip" after a delay, the delay can be set by a slider by the player.
Alternatively, an expandable "messages" menu, where you can go back & read previous messages. Maybe with an "Archive" or "Delete" button, when the player have read them & no longer have a use for those messages.
This is incredibly helpful feedback — thank you for taking the time. 🙏 You nailed something important: those discovery pop-ups are the heart of the game, so them vanishing before you can read them is exactly the kind of thing I need to fix. I'm working on it right now:
Notifications will stay up much longer and you'll be able to dismiss them yourself (OK / click) instead of them auto-vanishing.
I'm adding a message log so you can scroll back and re-read past discoveries.
Your "adjustable auto-skip delay" idea is noted for the settings too. Genuinely grateful — this kind of comment makes the game better.
Thanks so much for playing and for the honest feedback — and for the follow! You're right: right now it's hard to feel like a game because what your resources and choices actually do isn't clear enough. That's exactly what I'm fixing next: clearer resource feedback and always-obvious actions. I'll ping you when the update is up — would love your take on it.
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
I liked this, although after a few runs it starts to feel repetitive because there's not a lot of depth yet. I played on mobile even though it wasn't really supported and was pleasantly surprised that it worked pretty well. The only difficulty I had was with scrolling the perk and codex windows, which didn't respond consistently.
I think I've seen most of the content in what feels like a demo. I unlocked only two of the base city types even though I found all five of the rare city types. In fact, I think all but one run started with the city of balance. It's apparently incredibly hard to be out of balance even if you try, which is funny.
Also "Guidance of the Codex" doesn't seem to do anything. Every city only ever earned one memory when resetting. This included the run after I earned this perk when I unlocked the city of the golden mean for the first time.
Early on, I saw that some notification popups were still in Japanese. Mostly they seemed to be higher level building fusions. For instance, Farms seemed to upgrade to Farmhouses, Watermills (which look like windmills on the map), and then something else. I couldn't reproduce it later though.
Thanks for this write-up. Really useful.
The depth issue is fair -- the current version runs out of things to do after a few runs. The next update is redesigning this from the ground up: civilizations stop resetting and the world keeps growing instead, so each run layers onto the last rather than starting fresh. It should fix the repetitiveness you're describing.
The city-of-balance dominance is a known problem. Almost every run ends the same way in the data too. Fixing that is tied to the world redesign.
Two confirmed bugs from your report:
Mobile scroll in those panels is noted. Not officially supported but worth fixing.
Appreciate you going deep enough to find the rare cities.
oh nice, visual update for the game lol. Very nice :)
Thanks! Just redid the whole art style -- glad it reads well.
Why am I pop capped at 50k, with no explanation?
You're right on both counts — there is a population cap, and the game did a poor job explaining it. Here's the deal: population is limited by your housing (each Hut/Tower adds capacity), with an overall ceiling on top. And population only boosts production up to a soft limit — past a few hundred, extra population is mostly cosmetic, so that hard wall at the top was mainly just confusing.
I've just changed it: instead of slamming into a wall, population now eases in and grows more gently as it nears the limit, so it feels natural rather than like an invisible brick wall. I'm also going to surface it on-screen (Population X / Y, with a hint that housing raises it) so it's never a mystery again. Thanks for the nudge — this is exactly the kind of feedback that makes the game better!
City is always balanced no matter what...
Good catch, and you're right to expect more than that. The idea is that what you build should pull the city toward different identities, so "always balanced" is something I want to fix. Looking into it now.
really like the idea here, just not really clear on how much things earn so it's hard to make choices. also once you have even not that many buildings they don't all fit on the screen so it's impossible to play at that point sadly. Is the expectation that you transmigrate as soon as it's possible? cause it seems like deeper runs don't increase memory gain unless I'm missing something
Thanks, this is really helpful and you're reading it right.
- I'm going to fix the buildings running off-screen so they wrap onto more rows.
- You're right that it's hard to tell how much things earn. I want to make each building's output clear so the choices feel meaningful.
- And yes, your instinct is correct: right now deeper runs don't really scale memory gain, so transmigrating as soon as you can is about optimal. Giving deep runs a real payoff is what I want to tackle next. Thanks for spelling it out so clearly
There needs to be a second row for buildable buildings or a way to scroll, when they're all unlocked there's too many to fit on screen.
You're right, thanks for flagging this. I'm going to fix it so buildings wrap onto extra rows instead of running off-screen. Coming in an update soon.
Hoping for more! cool start
Thank you so much — that really means a lot for a fresh release! 🌱 You're right that this is just the starting point: more discoveries, deeper branches, and more civilizations to crystallize into are on the way. Stick around and watch your town grow. 🙏
The pop-up notification at the top, disappears too fast, I can't read most of it.
It would be nice with an "Ok" button on it or so.
And maybe a Settings option to "auto-skip" after a delay, the delay can be set by a slider by the player.
Alternatively, an expandable "messages" menu, where you can go back & read previous messages. Maybe with an "Archive" or "Delete" button, when the player have read them & no longer have a use for those messages.
This is incredibly helpful feedback — thank you for taking the time. 🙏 You nailed something important: those discovery pop-ups are the heart of the game, so them vanishing before you can read them is exactly the kind of thing I need to fix. I'm working on it right now:
Your "adjustable auto-skip delay" idea is noted for the settings too. Genuinely grateful — this kind of comment makes the game better.
Its hard to call whats here a game.any functional use of resources or options or anything would help.
Thanks so much for playing and for the honest feedback — and for the follow! You're right: right now it's hard to feel like a game because what your resources and choices actually do isn't clear enough. That's exactly what I'm fixing next: clearer resource feedback and always-obvious actions. I'll ping you when the update is up — would love your take on it.
Sounds good, I'd be happy to check back in when you're ready to show more!