I rarely play strategy games because they usually time a lengthy amount of time to complete. I never really want to dedicate that much time to a game. I am comfortable with an 8-10 hour game, honestly. This week I stumbled upon a game that embodies a farming sim, a rogue-lite, and a strategy game all in one and I was about it. This week I played The Wandering Village demo.

The Wandering Village is a Rouge-lite, farming/management sim in development by Stray Fawn Studio. It looks like the game will release into Early Access somewhere in the Spring/Summer months of this year. It will be available for PC and current Xbox consoles.

There seems to be a mysterious toxin that fills the planet’s air and luckily enough a group of survivors discovers a gigantic beast named Onbu, who can shelter them from the spores that cover the planet. It is time to oversee and build a new home on top of the wandering behemoth for the survivors.

The Wandering Village is your standard management sim. You have some survivors and they need food and shelter. Navigate some of them to chop down trees, smash some rocks and collect berries to distribute amongst each other. Then, once you have enough resources, build homes, a kitchen, and a farm for the survivors. Rinse and repeat and during the demo, you can get all the way to researching shaman huts for healing and a horn to command Onbu.

The gameplay doesn’t stop there. Onbu walks and that means that it gets tired and hungry. The way to pay Onbu is to give it food and let it sleep to regain its strength. Researching is key in finding a food source to keep it alive. Onbu also may just walk to a destination that traders and/or bad guys inhabit, so watch out for that too.

The controls are pretty simple. If you have ever played a management game and had to command more than one person at a time, you will feel right at home with this game. Everything, so far, is streamlined making it easier for newcomers and keeping it consistent with veterans of the genre.

The graphics are just generally nice looking. Lots of colors and the 2D animations of the survivors look really good. The biome that I was in during the demo was nice and colorful. Onbu itself is just a beautiful creature.

The sound design is fine, not something that I paid attention to much because I was trying to keep my people alive. Onbu makes some sounds every once and a while, and there is some catchy background music, but that is really just it.

The Wandering Village so far is a super relaxing game. I did not encounter much that would make me say otherwise. The gameplay and music are relaxing, the controls are smooth and easy to master. I like being able to view my survivors up close and then be able to scope out and see the village on top of Onbu.

Everything in The Wandering Village is just great. I think I played the demo for a combined hour and thirty minutes. It just flew by. I am glad that I got to catch it before Nextfest ended.