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Stonehearth Early Access

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First a disclaimer. The tiny company developing this game is made up of friends and former coworkers, so I can't claim a total lack of bias.

That said, I have a very positive impression of what this game will be like when it's done.

At first blush it seems like a prettier, less intense version of Dwarf Fortress, and I think that's a fair comparison but not a fair accusation.

As the blurb I saw in the stream store mentions, there's less of an overarching story and a lot more room for personalization. Their main goal is that you can grow your own personalized town, with as distinctive a visual and mechanical identity as you want to put effort into.

In Dwarf Fortress there is a constant stream of events - attacks, natural disasters, the arrival of immigrants with special demands. You rarely have any time to just enjoy building your town.

In Stonehearth, even if you play in the normal mode instead of the sandbox one, the number and pacing of such things is much less of a distraction. The attacks, especially, are there to test the quality of your planning and decisions, not to create crises where your town might be destroyed despite your attempts to prepare.

Even with the limitations and problems of very early early access, I'm finding this game scratches my Builder itch in a really satisfying way.

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