LakeSide

LakeSide is nice cozy retropixel... well, lets be honest here, LakeSide is NOT a game. Its more like an art project or programming exercise. Good looking and not always working... But dont get me wrong here! You still can play this game and beat it quite easily. Relaxed, I would say. The issue is that more "complex" game mechanics just do not work and probaly will never be fixed. In everything else its quite pleasing art piece.

Pretty but quite slow, basic game loop is not very engaging.

its a very shallow game.

The game is very chill and relaxing. Pixellart is good quality and building designs are great. The game play quickly becomes repetitive and eventually you just sit and stare at the screen waiting for new building to unlock. Achievements are bugged : i have not gotten any achievement for finishing a game in either of 3 ways. Would recommend if you like to build a good looking cities :)

LakeSide is a textbook example of a game that is carried by its aesthetics. The gameplay itself is very simple and I was able to do three complete playthroughs and get all achievements in under six hours, but the pixel art is so beautiful that I cannot resist giving it a positive recommendation. It literally looks like you are painting a Chinese watercolor step by step as you play, and the sight of waterfalls in the background and boats sailing by in the foreground add to the serene and calming vibe. The most common complaint I am seeing in the negative reviews is that people are confused about how the buildings unlock. Here's what you need to know: culture points, not population, are the key to unlocking new buildings. The most efficient way to play the game is to have a stable population of around 80, then stop expanding and focus on buildings (mainly temples) that generate culture points. With a population of 80 you will unlock a new building for every 99 culture points. Just run the game at triple speed and let the culture points accumulate until all of the basic buildings have been unlocked (it doesn't take that long). That will give you the freedom to build the city however …

I've had my eye on this game for ages, waiting for it to go on sale, as although I loved the graphical style seen in the trailers, the "Mixed" review score did put me off. Arguably, it is a cosy city simulator as it states, but it also has some weird roguelike elements and very heavy building constraints. It does not play like a typical city builder/simulator, instead placing you on a random map with very limited build space, which you cannot increase. The gameplay here is that you start out with a select few basic buildings, and as you hit milestones, like population total and hitting the culture cap, you will get the option of unlocking 1 new building out of a selection of 3. After a while, you will have upgraded versions of all the basic starting buildings, so you need to destroy the old ones to replace them with the upgraded ones. These unlocks are pure RNG though, so it is possible to get the "Greater" versions of buildings, before you even see the initial version or the +1/+2 upgrade. Also while playing, you will get events pop-up like traders/merchants and more civs migrating in. On higher difficulties you will also get negative/debuff events happen too. I personally…