We recently learned that Banished , the quasi-medieval city builder by solo dev Luke Hodorowicz, will finally be available next month on February 18 . Now a full hour of gameplay footage has been set free, and we can see the ebb and flow of the final release. I've been watching it, and let me tell you: this game is pretty relaxing. Granted, my zen-like calm did begin to crack during the summer famine, when citizens began dying off at an alarming rate.
Unlike a lot of gameplay footage released by Hodorowicz in the past, this video follows a new settlement from the very beginning and shows off a lot of the little tools and features in Banished. The player starts with a dozen citizens collecting resources and clearing fields, and ends up with a bustling—well, not a metropolis exactly. It's just a slightly bigger village.
One of my favorite tools on display is the ability to track an individual worker through their day, as seen around 19:20 . If your poor laborer is trekking deep into the woods just to pick up one bundle of wood, consider building a stockpile depot closer to the action or adding a new house nearby to cut down on the commute and wasted time. It's a great way to get useful data about your city, and it proves that Banished is truly simulating the full workflow of each citizen.
Banished will be available on Steam on February 18. We interviewed Hodorowicz last fall, which you can check out here .
