When looking at strategy games, especially in the 4X genre, the most interesting and still unsurpassed integration of vertical terrain elements into the economy is in Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri from 1999. On the most basic level, land scarcity will motivate the player to build “tall” and conserve as much land as possible for food production to support a larger population of working beavers. The dynamic way in which complicated cities can be constructed is one of the most interesting features of the game and, most importantly, it is incorporated into the gameplay and is not just a gimmick. This allows for “stacks” as building blocks for larger buildings. One of the definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary for “vertical” perfectly describes how cities are built in Timberborn: “having a structure in which there are top, middle, and bottom levels.” All constructions come in two varieties, the ones that can support another level on top and the ones that cannot. #2: Vertical by Design: Building Up is Essential and Creative While From Dust shared this problem, which limited its replayability and ultimately pushed it into obscurity, Timberborn has the city-building elements that allow for multiple playthroughs on the same map and result in very different cities, as well as an active community that regularly offers new maps to try.
STEAM TIMBERBORN GENERATOR
There is no random map generator and players will either have to design their own maps or download them. Much like From Dust, Timberborn itself suffers from a lack of diversity when it comes to available maps.
The only other game that has shown such a faithful simulation of water (better in many ways) and made it the central point of its gameplay was Éric Chahi’s From Dust, a game worth checking out, even today, for the way it manages to simulate fluids and incorporate them in both puzzles and terraforming. Buoyancy and water pressure are not implemented in any way, both elements that could have opened up many other mechanics and possibilities. A fast-flowing river will never damage anything based on its speed and mass (although it can flood an area). The speed of the water flow will determine the power production of waterwheels but not much more, and that’s where the physics system fails to live up to its potential. All the dirt blocks that the terrain consists of (as well as some buildings) have a volume, and they will influence the water’s level and how it flows around them. While well implemented, the system is fairly simplistic. The physics system that governs the movement of water is well-made and mostly intuitive: a basic understanding of Archimedes’ laws of fluid dynamics is much more than what’s needed here. As the game progresses, research will provide the technology to control water levels with pumps, as well as change the terrain in which it flows. Large reservoirs and irrigation channels provide the water needed to sustain both farmland and woodland during droughts and wet periods. This forces the player to find a way to survive on the reserves they have stored, either in water tanks or by constructing dams.ĭams serve the same purpose as aqueducts in Caesar III, a central feature of the way water is managed throughout the game. Water is available in abundance during the wet season but, as time passes, droughts remove the water from the map. In Timberborn it is present in three ways, and it forms the basis for almost everything: as a basic resource consumed by the beavers on a daily basis, as an irrigation tool used to change the landscape to allow for wood and food production, and as a fluid governed by physics that influences the way the player changes the map and builds the city.Įvery map starts as a relatively desolate area with more or less water flowing through it. The idea to gamify water has always been out there, winding its way through games in many forms. The number of games out there that have water as a resource is astounding, so it comes as a surprise that in most of them, it isn’t much more than a number or a “blue” terrain feature. Here are four things you should know before buying Timberborn! #1: Water: A Faithful Simulation and a Core Game Element Yet what they share with the real water engineers of the natural world is also what sets the game itself apart, water!
They walk upright, can operate complex machinery, and even create robots. In many ways, the beavers in Timberborn are far more human than their wild counterparts. While many similar games are banished to dusty corners of Steam libraries after just a few hours, it has some unique features that help it stand out like stackable buildings, realistic water physics, and…beavers.īut a question immediately presents itself – “Why beavers?” City-builders have a long history and typically feature humans or relatable fantasy creatures.
Timberborn is a city-builder with survival-oriented gameplay.
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