Conquest and calamity go hand in hand in the settlement-building strategy game TownsFolk. One moment your cozy pixel-art farms, mines, and workshops are thriving; the next they’re being raided by barbarians or ravaged by a deadly snowstorm. Scout new lands to expand into, and make smart choices to keep resources flowing and your population booming.

What we love: The delicious depth. Once you’ve established your colony, you can find and experiment with dozens of new structures, including factories that’ll make you fantastically wealthy and strange obelisks that could unleash terrible curses. Tread carefully—the town’s counting on you!

Quick tip: Forests regrow after being chopped down and friendly animals like cows and chickens repopulate their habitats—so long as you leave the tile empty and don’t build on it. But the same goes for aggressive critters like wolves and bears. Build something to block those pests from reappearing!

Meet the creator: Stockholm’s Short Circuit Studio made TownsFolk out of a love for classic strategy board games like Catan and 7 Wonders. Much of the game was developed by a single member of the team during a two-week vacation.

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