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Fantasy Town Regional Manager from developer Caps Collective is an upcoming turn-based city-builder that has a little deck-building sprinkled in and the code is available on GitHub.

"Following a map to ancient ruins, in a long-forgotten fantasy land, you do the only reasonable thing and set up a small town right on top.

Unknown riches and perils await your townsfolk, so your town will require a steady supply of adventurers for both protection and exploration. However, the chaos that the adventuring lifestyle brings can often times cause more problems than it solves!

It is up to you, the regional middle manager of the adventurers guild to grow this small hamlet into a bustling city. Will you stand the test of time, or will your works return to dust as many have before?"

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While the developer says it's "open source", it's not using an approved license by the OSI. They've taken the MIT license and modified it, so it notes that the code us under the MIT license but models, sounds and other bits like that are not. It also relies on the proprietary Unity game engine. If they removed all the parts that were not open source from the GitHub or stored them separately, it would simplifying their licensing. Even so, it's certainly a huge amount nicer than a fully proprietary game and great to see more developers be open with their development.

It's releasing later this year on itch.io and Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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8 comments

Purple Library Guy Aug 23, 2021
I don't really get the appeal of having my building options restricted by which cards I draw. This may be a bridge too far for the deck-building concept.
(Edited to add: Especially if I don't draw the "bridge" card during my playthrough)


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 23 August 2021 at 6:50 pm UTC
PopeRigby Aug 23, 2021
Yay! You got my article suggestion!
Anza Aug 23, 2021
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI don't really get the appeal of having my building options restricted by which cards I draw. This may be a bridge too far for the deck-building concept.
(Edited to add: Especially if I don't draw the "bridge" card during my playthrough)

I guess in games like these you need to play your cards right

In something like Slay the Spire, the random element enforces player to adapt the gameplay placed on the cards they get. It affects even the more long term strategy as you really can't wait forever to get cards for your favorite strategy.

I don't remember Fantasy Town Regional Manager doing that kind of stuff based on the demo. Or maybe I didn't figure out some of the viable strategies. The game isn't ready yet though, maybe the have something planned that makes the gameplay more interesting.

I wrote short review based on the demo earlier: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/06/steam-next-fest-is-live-again-with-new-demos-livestreams-and-more/comment_id=205231
Purple Library Guy Aug 23, 2021
Quoting: Anza
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI don't really get the appeal of having my building options restricted by which cards I draw. This may be a bridge too far for the deck-building concept.
(Edited to add: Especially if I don't draw the "bridge" card during my playthrough)

I guess in games like these you need to play your cards right

In something like Slay the Spire, the random element enforces player to adapt the gameplay placed on the cards they get. It affects even the more long term strategy as you really can't wait forever to get cards for your favorite strategy.

I don't remember Fantasy Town Regional Manager doing that kind of stuff based on the demo. Or maybe I didn't figure out some of the viable strategies. The game isn't ready yet though, maybe the have something planned that makes the gameplay more interesting.

I wrote short review based on the demo earlier: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/06/steam-next-fest-is-live-again-with-new-demos-livestreams-and-more/comment_id=205231
Slay the Spire - type games are one thing. In theory at least (I haven't yet actually played any of 'em) I kind of dig the cards concept for those, and for a few other things.
But I play a lot of build-stuff-up games, and having what I can build determined by drawing random cards just doesn't sound fun to me, and kind of conceptually stupid. Like I'm imagining calling the work crew together and saying "OK, so I know that what the town's economy really needs right now is a marketplace, and I promise that's what I was planning. Unfortunately, everyone seems to have simultaneously forgotten how to build one. All we can remember is house, watchtower or library. Maybe we could, I dunno, build a library and people could trade their chickens there? Anyway, sorry about that, hopefully soon the marketplace concept will pop up in our brains again."
Workers: "Uh, just what drugs are you on, boss?"
Anza Aug 23, 2021
Quoting: Purple Library GuyBut I play a lot of build-stuff-up games, and having what I can build determined by drawing random cards just doesn't sound fun to me, and kind of conceptually stupid. Like I'm imagining calling the work crew together and saying "OK, so I know that what the town's economy really needs right now is a marketplace, and I promise that's what I was planning. Unfortunately, everyone seems to have simultaneously forgotten how to build one. All we can remember is house, watchtower or library. Maybe we could, I dunno, build a library and people could trade their chickens there? Anyway, sorry about that, hopefully soon the marketplace concept will pop up in our brains again."
Workers: "Uh, just what drugs are you on, boss?"

I guess I'm just coming from bit different angle. As long as it's fun, it's valid design choice. Card games in general might have little trouble of being exactly realistic and might have lot of things that make sense from card game perspective, but don't have reasonable in world explanation why things work like they do. Or at least some imagination is needed.

I guess more realistic version of a town management game would be game where you spend most of your time in meetings where you go through complaints about the new building plans...
Purple Library Guy Aug 23, 2021
Quoting: Anza
Quoting: Purple Library GuyBut I play a lot of build-stuff-up games, and having what I can build determined by drawing random cards just doesn't sound fun to me, and kind of conceptually stupid. Like I'm imagining calling the work crew together and saying "OK, so I know that what the town's economy really needs right now is a marketplace, and I promise that's what I was planning. Unfortunately, everyone seems to have simultaneously forgotten how to build one. All we can remember is house, watchtower or library. Maybe we could, I dunno, build a library and people could trade their chickens there? Anyway, sorry about that, hopefully soon the marketplace concept will pop up in our brains again."
Workers: "Uh, just what drugs are you on, boss?"

I guess I'm just coming from bit different angle. As long as it's fun, it's valid design choice. Card games in general might have little trouble of being exactly realistic and might have lot of things that make sense from card game perspective, but don't have reasonable in world explanation why things work like they do. Or at least some imagination is needed.

I guess more realistic version of a town management game would be game where you spend most of your time in meetings where you go through complaints about the new building plans...
I did mention first off, did I not, that it seemed like not fun? It being counterintuitive is just the icing. I think it would be frustrating to have a building-the-place-up type game where it's random whether you're allowed to build the place up. Just let me do it.
Deleted_User Aug 24, 2021
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Anza
Quoting: Purple Library GuyBut I play a lot of build-stuff-up games, and having what I can build determined by drawing random cards just doesn't sound fun to me, and kind of conceptually stupid. Like I'm imagining calling the work crew together and saying "OK, so I know that what the town's economy really needs right now is a marketplace, and I promise that's what I was planning. Unfortunately, everyone seems to have simultaneously forgotten how to build one. All we can remember is house, watchtower or library. Maybe we could, I dunno, build a library and people could trade their chickens there? Anyway, sorry about that, hopefully soon the marketplace concept will pop up in our brains again."
Workers: "Uh, just what drugs are you on, boss?"

I guess I'm just coming from bit different angle. As long as it's fun, it's valid design choice. Card games in general might have little trouble of being exactly realistic and might have lot of things that make sense from card game perspective, but don't have reasonable in world explanation why things work like they do. Or at least some imagination is needed.

I guess more realistic version of a town management game would be game where you spend most of your time in meetings where you go through complaints about the new building plans...
I did mention first off, did I not, that it seemed like not fun? It being counterintuitive is just the icing. I think it would be frustrating to have a building-the-place-up type game where it's random whether you're allowed to build the place up. Just let me do it.

Coming from an European Country it seems totally legit to me. It's like the mayor wants to build up a new Recycling Facility but only gets funding for public transport system.
Purple Library Guy Aug 24, 2021
Quoting: Deleted_User
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Anza
Quoting: Purple Library GuyBut I play a lot of build-stuff-up games, and having what I can build determined by drawing random cards just doesn't sound fun to me, and kind of conceptually stupid. Like I'm imagining calling the work crew together and saying "OK, so I know that what the town's economy really needs right now is a marketplace, and I promise that's what I was planning. Unfortunately, everyone seems to have simultaneously forgotten how to build one. All we can remember is house, watchtower or library. Maybe we could, I dunno, build a library and people could trade their chickens there? Anyway, sorry about that, hopefully soon the marketplace concept will pop up in our brains again."
Workers: "Uh, just what drugs are you on, boss?"

I guess I'm just coming from bit different angle. As long as it's fun, it's valid design choice. Card games in general might have little trouble of being exactly realistic and might have lot of things that make sense from card game perspective, but don't have reasonable in world explanation why things work like they do. Or at least some imagination is needed.

I guess more realistic version of a town management game would be game where you spend most of your time in meetings where you go through complaints about the new building plans...
I did mention first off, did I not, that it seemed like not fun? It being counterintuitive is just the icing. I think it would be frustrating to have a building-the-place-up type game where it's random whether you're allowed to build the place up. Just let me do it.

Coming from an European Country it seems totally legit to me. It's like the mayor wants to build up a new Recycling Facility but only gets funding for public transport system.
Ha! OK, point.
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