City-building games are always so big, and heavy. Islanders is coming at the genre from the other side, pitching itself as a light, quick and breezy way to build some nice buildings then get on with your life.
The approach is eerily similar to what Bad North did to the RTS, in that it breaks a longer experience up into bite-sized ones spread across a number of cute lil’ islands (or in this case infinite ones, since each map is procedurally-generated).
The official pitch from the small three-man development team is:
ISLANDERS is a minimalist strategy game about building cities on colorful islands. Explore an infinite number of ever-changing new lands, expand your settlements from sprawling villages to vast cities and enjoy the relaxing atmosphere.
It’s the last part especially that’s got my interest, as the chill atmosphere looks like a lovely old way to spend a rainy afternoon.
Islanders is due out on April 5 on Steam.