Cardboard Town

The graphic design and soundtrack is good enough to attract the players to the game. Resource management and game mechanics are designed well and provides a fine balanced and immersive gaming experience.However, difficulty of redesign the town and disasters leads to a sudden lose and and disappointment.

[h1]Coziest roguelike deckbuilder around[/h1] As avid roguelike deckbuilder (RLDB), i always hunt for any game that can teased my brain. Something about combining puzzles solving and dopamine hit from slot machine that make me craving in multiple games. However, this not like the traditional RLDB where you can specific curate a perfect deck for your run. The game is pretty much a resource management game, where if too many go into negative, you will lose the run. The gameplay is kinda similar to grid-base puzzles, albeit with city building aesthetic. Dont come to this game thinking that you will play it like traditional city builder. The game allowed for some different kind of strategy since you have some upgrades whenever you level, that you can build you strategy around. At least for me there is slow turtle building big stuff and there is spammy cheap / draw playstyle. Both can yield victory, although you also need take notes on your deck size. Everytime you reach some miletones, you will given a booster pack that will bloat your deck. To achieve victory, you will have to go 1 of 3 special resources, each with their own strategy and mega projects. As much as i enjoyed the time playing this game, i can imagine it will be super annoying for many players. First, deck will be super bloated from booster (one of my run get up to 100 cards) , so you pretty much need to learn to thin the deck (one of another run get down to 30 cards) . Main reason is that this doesnt discard your hand (there is alternative mode for that) , instead the default to draw 1 per turn, so you imagine how long it take to cycle your deck. Your hand will get stuck alot too, since most building need to be facing the road and you need to do some planning (usually i do the usual housing / industrial area split). Too bad the game variance and depth arent at the level i wanted, i would say it needed to be tightly designed. tl;dr only buy if you can handle the frustration (i was aiming 100% achievement only) Source : bought on during sale (abit pricey as i can get cheaper AAA games) Alternative games : Concrete Jungle (tetris-ish city builder), Islanders (similar cozy games)

Holy shit just started playing this game and it's already really addicting! love you devs for making this game :D

A decent game you can sink hours into. I play it in short bursts, but you could easily spend a whole evening on one playthrough. It looks simple, yet beautiful. I'd recommend it twice if I could.

Hey! So, a lot of thoughts on this one. I'll start off by saying that this is a positive review, and I'm leaving it because you really have really stumbled upon something utterly novel, unique, and heretofore unidentified in the market. Your creative vision here is delivered clearly. Aesthetically and in terms of game-feel: this is an absolute treat. Deck rotation and the "objective": I will not lie, though. Game design-wise, there is much that I feel could use some more iteration or experimentation. In other words: it feels like there are still a few avenues still unexplored and some left, in the present state, a bit rough around the edges. The following will detail some of my observations and experiences, I hope some of which are useful or constructive to a fellow designer :^) First, let's talk about your hand. Deck rotation is utterly minimal. Each turn sees your hand, typically, increase in size with very few regular opportunities for discarding or flushing out your hand to get a new one (referred to in game as your "plan" or a "change of plans"). The narrative implication here seems to be that you, the mayor, are regularly coming up with new ideas and putting those on the burner, so to speak, so that at some point they might be implemented. But, in contrast with a regular deck-builder's regular per-turn discard and, in fact, with the experiential aspect of in-fact Being the one planning your decisions in your own head, the effect of having this bulky, burdenous deck with minimal opportunities for flushing it (and, in the case of the mayor button, costly) decreases the possibility space for our decisions in the long term by making us think less about our deck as a machine and more as a checklist of tasks we "have" to complete or somehow get rid of strategically. This, I think, is the game's biggest flaw. If the hand represented moreso "what the mayor is more likely to do" based on how they've built their deck over time (eg, I wanted to focus more on tourism rather than education so i can build a tourism-centric deck that then reflects in the cards I end up playing more often), I think the player would feel and gain more agency over time with how they chose to build their deck meaningfully. Like, instead of having to "get rid of all these cards" to arbitrarily increase the play-space while balancing resources and trying to level up the star-number of our city (also arbitrary, but fine) as our dominant "objective", what if the dominant objective is building the city you want to build In Spite of all the obstacles or challenges you're trying to overcome while doing so? Such a paradigm, supported by more regular deck rotation, would, I think, HEAVILY benefit this game in any future iterations / sequels / what have you. Quest system: Yes yes yes yes YES! This really impressed me. Quests being a persistent card stuck with you that you have to deal with or else face the negative consequences of? Brilliant! There are just, again, some things that aren't quite working for me here. First of all: does this card need to be in your hand? Moreover, does it need to be a card? With the present objective being "get rid of all the cards in your hand", yes, I think it works. In the universe where this game has more regular deck flushing, though, you could do something fun where the next time you see this card or it comes up after a shuffle, you're required to play it. That could cause some actual anxiety, ludo-narratively something stuck in the "back of the mayor's mind" that they need to deal with... Alright, secondly, simply: I am not a fan of the Lock this causes on the "3-strikes and you're out" alarm system. It just seems to me like having its negative consequence be something tied to gameplay directly (e.g., -10 to a random resource or destroy a section of town in an environmental disaster) could be way more interesting and mechanically engaging for the player. They could strategically let some quests die and quickly try and fix others! Additionally- I'm not sold on why players should get to choose what quest card they take on. It feels like these are burdens given to you by the city's counsel or just planners making decisions you have to carry out procedurally. So... shouldn't they just- be given to you at level up? There could even be some fun flavor text when this happens. Idk, just feels like there could be something There. UI, QOL, and gamefeel stuff: There is presently no indication of how big your hand can be that is readily apparent in the UI. Because of this, sometimes cards are discarded automatically from your deck to discard without you really recognizing that this was going to happen. Just feels bad to have a card you were waiting on be unplayable for the next 20 or so rounds simply because we didn't know we were at the limit (which, the limit seems flexible too depending on how many quest cards are in your hand? though I'm uncertain). Additionally, and some people have already pointed this out, an undo button for actions carried out On your turn seems almost necessary. Assuming this is a strategy game, there should be multiple ways to play your hand (and in your game by god are there many haha), some that we might not even notice or make full use of until we've shopped around at what might be the best option. Dominion desktop has this, it doesn't detract from the game at all. And you're not making a multiplayer game so you really don't have to worry about people having decision paralysis increasing downtime (not that it necessarily would intensify that paralysis since, as is, there are but so many things you can do in a turn unless your hand becomes ginormous). So yes: undo would be great. As a last note: I couldn't really see what level mayor exactly I was after the stars were gone. Maybe I'm just blind but it was not clear in the UI. Would be cool if that was bigger so I could see exactly how I'm scaling with time as the player! Anyways: those are my game design notes. Great job on a really fun game and I'm excited to see where you go with it or any future projects. Thanks!

Really fun for a bit but I couldnt get more mileage from this one because of repetitivness.

[h1]Would love more interactive meta progression[/h1] Stuff like upgrading or removing cards manually. Right now game just says I leveled up, shows what was added and that's it. Not even some kind of codex to see what is currently available. Also, adding tooltips on various stuff would go a long way - guessing what one or another icon means is pretty annoying process. Otherwise - it's okay card/city builder, just not that much in terms of replayability. Worth picking up on sale.

like the idea of the game, but so many bugs regarding card function. will change to a positive review when the bugs are fixed.

Casual runs would benefit heavily from a "1 Turn Undo Button" Game is difficult but equally satisfying This isn't a 20$ game, but its still good.

This game has a downward slope of enjoyment. When you first begin playing, it seems cutesy, calm, relaxing. Then it gets stressful (in a good way) where you have to carefully place your buildings and manage your resources meticulously. However, in the endgame, when one finally manages to begin their final projects you realize that this game, albeit overall good, has a few major flaws that make it thoroughly unenjoyable. One such bug being filling 3 alerts out of nowhere causing your run to end without listing a reason as to why - which is what caused me to initially move to write this review. When it ended my run the reasons it listed for my 3 "mistakes" were as follows: - Insufficient education (true) - - Objective card ran out (I never had any in my hand but sure, thats fine.) Now tell me, what was reason 2? Yeah. Thought so. Overall, while the game IS pretty fun, its bugs make it all feel meaningless. Do not buy this game at $26. And personally, when a game is reviewed as "only buy it on %75 sales," why would you buy it at all, when the devs "value it" 75% higher than what you should buy it at?

Fun city builder with deck-building roguelike elements. Has a lot of content and ways to customize the experience. It has a very relaxed vibe, helped by colorful art and a rather cute framing. I'd definitely recommend it.

I like the idea of the game and the gameplay is fun, but it seems there's some functionality missing with the controls. On my Mac, I can't access the settings menu to be able to save and quit the game or turn off the tutorial after I've started a game. On my Steamdeck, I was able to map "R" from the keyboard onto one of the unused back buttons, but I still had trouble navigating some of the actions, and I had to quit the game because something popped up on the game and I could not get the pop up to go away. Also, I really wish you discarded and re-drew your hand each turn to give you more options each turn.

i can't stop playing, it has consumed my life. i'm not mad about that, i just need to do things other than play cardboard town over and over and over all day. i have started trying to trick my friends into getting it to derail their lives as well.

The controls are a bit buggy and unruly, the UI is not crystal clear and its elements sometimes forcefully obstructed. Played through twice, on default difficulty. First game I lost after finishing the star quests, while trying to finish the special project. This playthrough was marred by unclear mechanics, sometimes with extreme consequences (one of those was unlocking Tourism - special resource that is lowered by every disaster. The end-game project causes NUMEROUS disasters, leading to an immediate game end if you forgot what tourism does, as it is only ever properly conveyed at the resource's unlocking). The gameplay was unsatisfying, which I mostly accredited to me not knowing enough about the game. I consistently blocked of roads, sometimes forced myself into placing living houses into bad tiles or replacing forests. This is, in hindight, a problem of the game as much as of the player. During the second playthrough I noticed that I was consistently bricking on roads. Sometimes I wouldn't get one in 10 turns of playing, yet other times I would draw only roads for 5 turns with me pressing the "Mayor Button". The gameplay was STILL unsatisfying, despite my better planning. I managed to get to the special project, place the site, and finish the first stage (scaffolding for the roket, I assume). I NEVER GOT THE CARD FOR THE SECOND STAGE. Does it exist? I have to assume so based on other people's screenshots, but either I had to do something that was not conveyed by the game, had to wait for some time to progress further (which was not conveyed by the game), or I couldn't do anything in the first place because the game bugged out. I tried playing for a couple more turns, and lost, again, because I forgot what a special resorce does, and it lowering after my actions was not conveyed anywhere. I do not recommend this game, despite the fact that I find visuals pretty nice, and music, while not stellar, is also oerfectly fine. Refunded.

Omg this game is addicting! It says I've played for 12 hours. But mind you, I've only been playing it for a collective of a few days. I can't help but go to this game whenever I open Steam. Gameplay: The premise is simple. You have a gameboard layout. You pull a card every round (unless you've activated a negative effect or a disaster is triggered). Then you strategically place buildings and amenities on your board. You have different resources available, such as water and electricity. If you go into the negatives, you will lose the game eventually. It's a matter of placing buildings, juggling resources, and crafting roads to connect your town together. The only con is that it's taking time away from me doing my chores!

Funny game for walking the streets.

Sort of hard (maybe I'll get better lol) but cool, addicting even

Very fun game, highly recommend if you enjoy puzzles and city builders. Because the cards are random you can't get so good at the game that every playthrough is the same, sometimes you just get 7 roads and lose because you had nothing else to play.

DONT PAY ATTENTION TO THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS!! THIS GAME IS GREAT!! Challenging yes! Don't play every card you have, some are meant to be destroyed! games so freaking addictive and the soundtracks 10/10 BUY IT!

Entertaining for like 3 hours, just above the 2-hour gametime refund window :C Even the sandbox mode is boring. Sad because the art style is so cute.

I hated this game. Would rather be punched in the crotch repeatedly.

Fun little roguelike card city builder. Easy buy for $5

I really like this game, but I think you should wait and buy it on sale.

very fun game!

Take a dip and do the trip!

Fun game.

Great game!