Rimworld

I remember when this was first came out of the Kickstarter. I think it was in 2014 when I was living with Phil in Austin. It would have been just before or right around when I started working on my own game. It blew me away that someone could make something so fun in such a short period of time.

Rimworld basically delivers on the promise of "Dwarf Fortress but playable for noobs". It's got a solid UI and you can actually tell what's going on without needing to go into so many arcane and nested windows. But at the same time it offers a super deep simulation. You can build a base with walls and items that all have their own stats, whether they're in good condition, or they were made by a skilled laborer. People and animals and robots have body parts that can be damaged and repaired and replaced. There's a bunch of skills for your settlers that all can level up over a long period of time. So much detail to invest and become invested in the game over time.

You also have the story teller which is basically the AI choosing which events happen when to your colony. I think it's the strongest point and maybe at some times the weakest? It's strong because the game does stay entertaining. There's always something going on to shake things up. The downside is there's always something going on to shake things up. At times it feels extremely arbitrary and forced when a storm starts just to clearly start some fires you need to put out. Or any time you get down to 1 colonist there's an NPC called The Stranger or something who comes along to save the day. It feels very scripted.

But at the end of the day these are minor gripes against a game that is essentially my dream game. A full on colony simulator with intense simulation elements. Perhaps my biggest regret is it didn't come out when I was a teenager so I could sink thousands of hours into it lol.