Ian's Rocket

I was emailed by one of the devs who offered me a key for myself and for my Community. I really enjoyed the game and find myself playing off and on stream alot when i just want to relax and chill

Overall a very fun game with gameplay being interesting. Feel like a interactive civilization building game where you constantly have to be moving and make sure it is not falling apart. Some aspects were a bit disappointing like the limited resources kinda made me frustrated that I always had to keep looking for more and make me feel stuck. But for the amount I've given it so far it has been fantastic with funny game dialog and really putting my brain to the test.

Full disclosure: I was given a key for this game. I did enjoy it enough that I paid for another copy to gift for a friend, so I would still say the price is worth it. What if Civ was a cozy automation game? Ian's Rocket is a charming mix of city-building and logistics, where you're tasked to build a civilization from the ground up and into the space age. You will likely start out with a few small self-sufficient cities and no danger from invaders. However, as you grow, you must learn to transport resources from city to city with trade routes to build more and more complicated buildings and units. Once a city reaches a certain size, nearby NPC cities will send warriors to pillage your resources, so you must begin to balance defense as well. The game is a nice mix of intricate and easygoing since there are rarely any dire timers, and the NPC raiders will only steal from you while leaving your structures intact. You can move at your own pace while building a vast empire, and the helpful NPCs you meet along the way should get a chuckle out of you too. If you like automation, city-building, or a more relaxed take on 4X genre, this game is definitely worth the cost.

Full disclosure: they sent me a key so I could stream it, but I've been kinda surprised by this and have been enjoying it quite a bit more than I thought I would in the couple of hours I've played, so I thought I'd leave a review too. It's a mix of a civ-like 4X game and a city management game, so you place tile improvements on a world map, but you assign your 'pops' more like you would in a city game than a 4X. It also has a plot / story (the rocket part of it) and rpg-like tasks for your character to complete, so it's mixing in some other elements too. It's not super complicated, but there's a good level of interacting systems in the game that make it engaging and fun. I also found it quite funny - well, amusing may be a better term, but I've been enjoying the writing and humour. The negative I'd say is that graphics are a bit of a mixed bag - for example, tiles look nice (they're simple, which actually works well) and have fun animations, but UI/menu graphics look very basic and don't seem to have proper scaling for resolution (so some look like low-res jpgs that have been blown up). There also aren't a lot of settings or customisation options - you play Ian and can't customis…

An interesting, 'lite' take on empire building and trading that is more than meets the eye. There's plenty of influences here and light touches from games like Patrician/Port Royale, older empire building games, and the Civilization is mostly just format and looks. This is a pretty cozy and fun game to grab and just build a little empire, but it has more problem solving and logistics than you would expect. The combat is the more simplistic side of it, but also has a bit more detail than first meets the eye. It's definitely the simplest and weakest point though. I'm still at the start of the Classical Era, but I can see where this is going: building Wonders, defending against attackers, doing quests for your neighbors, exploring to find one more resource node. There's a super fun loop in place, with sometimes multiple venues of possibilities being available, causing ADHD moments of "what was I doing, again?" if you decide to tackle everything at once. I also really like the additional consumption mechanic: your populace will buy your Sellable goods (like Pottery, or Stone Sculptures). As you pay the populace for labor, and you can see how much money a city's populace holds ove…

After the first little while, everything is automated, which is awesome. Also, love the in-game jokes and storylines! The music's great too! Lastly, the game is totally addictive!