Founders' Fortune , Colony Simulator Focusing on Well Being
1Disclosure: This game copy was bought by the reviewer.
Colonists migrate to a new island and must survive in a seasonal environment with some unsavory natives. The main focus is on ensuring the well being of your colonists, whether it is medical, psychological, or socially as your small little group expands as each new settler arrives. The staples are here: researching, building, crafting new items, profession based progression, and simple tactics to fend off the orcs calling the island home. Resource gathering is crucial, whether it be crystals to lend to research or farming certain produce in their respective seasons to fend off hunger. Traders will also periodically land off shore, allowing to trade for goods you probably haven't unlocked yet or scrolls that are critical for late game progression (and only available through random trade inventory).
I won't be able to really recommend the game at this time, mainly due to the lack of content and the pacing dropping hard after the second hour as keeping your settlers happy is incredibly easy while the time needed for research (and the wait time for getting lucky with scroll inventory with a trader) means you will be waiting around awhile with little to do. I will give the game credit for being incredibly well optimized during my time playing with it, even at max settings and 4x the game speed (which you will need). The implementation of the systems is also impressive as colonists will get angry if their needs aren't met, leading to them no longer listening to your commands or even getting jealous if another colonist has been housing arrangements. The combat is incredibly basic, just a zerg of your units with different gear versus the orcs with theirs. The end game involves killing them all and having the island to yourself, but their is no real incentive to do so. The lack of professions also means most actions are bundled into the six classes, one of which is critical for curing illnesses and the other for research. Crafting, mining, foresting, and farming all have an important role, but once the colony reaches a certain point, most in these jobs will likely get switched to scholar to speed up the last few research categories (assuming you get lucky with the scrolls).
Verdict: Hold-off - Mostly polished experience with some interesting systems held back by a lack of content and excessive wait times on progression due to research speeds and the use of a critical item only bought from traders (if they even offer them at the time).