I just love it when a new and interesting indie game comes up on my radar. I have to admit to not doing a great many game previews, mainly due to a lack of time. But, every now and then, a game pops up that just makes me find time to play and preview it. Today, for your reading pleasure, I present The Settlings.

Relaxing settlement builder & resource management game in retro pixelart optic. Gather, deliver, build & fight – All this in your own pace with atmospheric music and many unique mechanics!

When I first saw The Settlings in action, I was instantly taken back to the early-mid ’90s. Long story short when I was a kid, I pretty much only played arcade-style games. Platformers, shooters, etc. Fast-action and games where using the old noodle was not required. One day, my older brother came home with a copy of Peter Molyneux’s Populous, and my gaming life changed. I got drawn into slower games, titles where thinking and strategising became paramount. Fast forward  a couple of years and DMA Design released Lemmings, a handful of years after that and Blue Byte released The Settlers. Two of my all-time favourite games. Fast forward three decades and developer/publisher Ariano is working on The Settlings.

Yup, some crazy genius has taken Lemmings and The Settlers and smashed them together. As this is a preview, I’m not going to go into great detail but, you can try out the demo for The Settlings on Steam right now… and I suggest that you do because this is shaping up to be something pretty damn awesome.

The basic gist is that you indirectly control little The Settlers-type sprites as they walk around a level all Lemmings-like. Give a settling an axe and he’ll chop down the nearest tree, give him a pick axe and he’ll cut away some stone, etc. You place plans for buildings and the settlings will use the gathered resources to construct them. Different buildings will provide you with different resources and goods. Build a shop to sell unwanted resources, and use that money to buy new equipment. Construct houses to increase the population of your settlings and more. Your settlement builds and builds as you prepare to take on the challenge of the level. As I said, this is just a preview, so I’m saving my main thoughts for the released game, which is yet to be announced, but sometime in 2024. 

I’ve been playing the demo over the last week and really enjoyed it. There’s a nice balance between building your settlement, managing resources and problem-solving. The demo on Steam gives you a great teaser of what to expect, without spoiling too much and it offers a fair challenge too. My advice, get The Settlings on your wishlist and check the demo out. A great little indie title that I’m very much looking forward to playing when released.