Lanternbrook

Developer: nemix
Release date: TBA
Platforms: Windows (Steam). A free demo on itch.io.
Price: TBA
Languages: English
Website: https://lanternbrook-game.pages.dev

Description

Lanternbrook is a town builder in which you can follow a loaf of bread back to the field it came from. Wheat is cut and carried to the windmill. The miller grinds it into flour, and the baker fires the oven with logs somebody else chopped that morning. Then a villager carries the bread to the storehouse on one shoulder, and it gets eaten at supper.

The villagers have names and homes to go to. They get up at six, go to work, stop for lunch if the food is close, and spend the evening round the campfire or, once there is one, in the tavern. Build too few houses and the newcomers sleep in bedrolls by the fire. They will mention it.

Nobody fights, and you cannot lose. A hungry villager is slow and a bit sulky, and that is as bad as it gets. The camp grows into a hamlet, a village and then a town, and the roofs change as it grows, from canvas to thatch to red tile to slate.

Finish the town charter and everyone comes out after dark for the Lantern Festival. After that the charter turns into the Town Almanac, and the game goes on for as long as you like, with a festival every season and the odd villager hoping for a bench by the lake.

Features

- The Town Charter. Goals for each stage of the town, from pitching three tents to building the clock tower. Each one gets the charter’s ink stamp when it is done.
- The Lantern Festival. When the charter is finished, the whole town gathers at night and sends sky lanterns up over the valley.
- The Town Almanac. Twenty-six things to work towards once the town is built. Some open new buildings, and some let the town take a title, such as Lanternbrook the Merry.
- Festivals of the seasons. Planting Day, the Summer Fair, the Harvest Festival and the Lantern Festival in midwinter. Put by what the feast would like and the town is happier for days.
- Building sites. A new building starts as stakes and string. The haulers bring timber and stone, and the frame, walls and roof go up as the piles arrive.
- Villagers. Everyone in town has a name and somewhere to live. Hover over anyone to see what they are doing. Hazel is hauling planks again.
- Ropeways. String a cable between two stations and crates ride over the rooftops. So far only one has landed in a garden.
- The music. A recorded folk soundtrack that changes with the seasons. Each festival has tunes of its own.
