As Katie noted back in February, Settlement Survival isn't the most creative name for a city builder. But what's in a name? Much more important is what's behind it, in this case a Banished-inspired survival city builder that Katie said quickly became one of her favorite colony sims, "with oodles of depth, a homey atmosphere, and a gorgeously mystical soundtrack."
At the time Settlement Survival was in early access, but that's about to end. On October 24 Settlement Survival will launch into 1.0, and to mark the occasion there's a new trailer to check out above. Feast your peepers on the beautiful low-poly world, a settlement being carved out of the wilderness by tiny workers, and threats to the city in the form of fires, floods, earthquakes, and devastating tornadoes.
Even when their houses aren't being torn apart by cyclones, your citizens won't have an easy time of it. Your villagers' clothing and tools will slowly deplete as they toil in the fields and hammer together buildings, they'll freeze their butts off when the temperature drops, and if they get too unhappy with their living conditions they'll eventually resort to crime. Plus, there's always the threat of the plague that can wipe out a bunch of your population. Either get some soap production going early so they can practice proper hygiene, or make sure you've got a nice big graveyard.
Along with a tech tree for unlocking new buildings and choosing a direction for your village, which can include agriculture, mining, resource processing, education, and more, there's a pretty robust trading system. You can swap goods with traveling merchants who visit your trading posts, but you can also form caravans to go out into the world to trade with different factions, though that comes with the risk of being attacked by bandits.
But with all the death from plague, floods, and bandits, there's still somehow a cozy and comfy feel to Settlement Survival. It's also mod-friendly via the Steam Workshop, and there are plenty of mods that let you tweak the difficulty of various settings like villager happiness, tool durability, immigration levels, and more.
You'll find Settlement Survival on Steam, with the 1.0 launch planned for Monday, October 24.
