Townscaper
Townscaper is an indie city builder video game. It was released for PC and Mac on the Steam platform in August 2021 by developer Oskar Stålberg. A port to the Nintendo Switch was released in August 2021, alongside which the Steam version left early access. The mobile version was released in October 2021. It was later ported to Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and Web in December 2021. It features low poly graphics and a simple, minimalistic user interface. Gameplay. "Townscaper" has no inherent objective or story and has been described by developer Stålberg as "more of a  toy" than a game. Users construct an island town by placing and removing colored blocks on an ocean. Various "rules" dictate these blocks' appearances, with some appearing as spires and others as balconies. This method of rule-based decoration allows arches, gardens, and stairways to be created without specific user instruction. Setting. "Townscaper" takes place on a large distorted grid set in an infinite sea. This allows for towns that feel more organic and unstructured when compared to similar games that are based on regular grids. Development. "Townscaper" was developed by Swedish developer Oskar Stålberg, who previously worked on "Bad  North". Stålberg gave a talk at the "IndieCade Europe 2019" event during development, showcasing some of the game's features, including terrain generation and procedural building design. Reception. The game was covered by a number of online journalism websites shortly after its release. It has a 4.3/5 on the Google Play Store and a 4.6/5 on the App Store.