Many of us are still navigating the ocean of titles participating in October’s Steam Next Fest and, if you’re in the mood for a low poly city builder with a dash of real-time strategy battles, you may want to give Earth of Oryn’s demo a try.
The work of solo Belgian developer Edouard L. and published by Stray Fawn Publishing, Earth of Oryn is a fairly ambitious project that tasks us with building our very own kingdom, managing its population and resources, waging war, as well as exploring the lands that await beyond our borders.
Earth of Oryn Steam Next Fest Demo
A lot of it will feel familiar to fans of the genre, as you define zones for different types of structures or plop down individual laboratories, walls, and castles. But Earth of Oryn’s detailed building system takes things a step further, allowing both the use of prefabricated buildings as well as creating our own.
Furthermore, the materials we use and how we arrange them determine the durability of structures, offering quite a bit of control while sounding somewhat daunting.
We also get to build roads to help out our workers, walls to protect against external threats, as well as bridges, mills, and “other water-based machinery” to tame nature. In addition, we also have the ability to modify terrain elevation when it doesn’t suit our city’s needs.
As far as Earth of Oryn’s management portion goes, we’ll have several resources to look after and ensure steady production of while assigning workers to specific buildings. We’ll also be able to “create our own politics, laws, and culture,” as well as a religion or cult.
The campaign inevitably sees us exploring beyond our initial borders, encountering new fauna and flora, as well as making decisions that “shape the outcome of our story.” We’ll deal with external threats in RTS-style battles, but also face dangers such as crime, disease, or natural disasters.
Aside from its campaigns that put us in control of four civilizations, a creative mode, which allows us to build our cities in a more relaxed manner, is also planned.
Earth of Oryn’s Steam Next Fest demo only includes a small slice of what its solo developer hopes to include in the full game. Slated to launch in early access before the end of the year, its timeline to full release remains “flexible.”
“I’m not interested in rushing a complex project just to meet a date,” he notes. “Instead, I intend to keep the game in Early Access for as long as it takes to make it stable and enjoyable. If those features need more time, I’ll happily extend the process, and I’ll use the community’s feedback to guide when it feels ready to graduate to a full release.”
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