Manor Lords too realistic or grimy for you? Try cosy survival townbuilder Diluvian Winds, out today
Spiritfarer with less grief
Manor Lords is obviously this week's big survival-citybuilder game release, but I suspect Diluvian Winds is more my pace. It's a "relaxing management game" about building a town for anthropomorphic animals around the foot of a lighthouse, although exactly how relaxing will depend on your ability to prepare for tsunamis and other weather emergencies which can strike and destroy your buildings. It's out now.
The art style - cute, 2D, hand-drawn animals and buildings on stilts from a side-on perspective - invites obvious comparisons to the wonderful Spiritfarer. There's a similar tend-and-befriend quality to the residents of your hamlet, too, who arrive with their own needs and skills and must be assigned efficiently to tasks like gathering wood or preparing meals.
It seems like it's much more of a traditional town builder or colony sim than Spiritfarer, however. You can expand your hamlet underwater and into the sky with new buildings, must re-enforce those buildings against coming storms, and can eventually begin to explore and trade with neighbouring towns.
Diluvian Winds has been in Steam Early Access for around a year, and previously had a demo available. This 1.0 release adds aerial buildings and the final chapters of its campaign. There's also a sandbox mode if you don't want the leading hand of a story to guide you, though.
There simply isn't enough time in the world to play all the games I want, but Diluvian Winds looks like a cosy time. With a 30% launch discount, it'll currently cost you £11.19/€12.59/$12.59 on Steam.