Info about Ruinarch: Official game description: Squeaky Wheel's Next Release ============================ About the Game ============== **Emergent Storytelling** ------------------------- **Ruinarch** is a simulation sandbox game where you use all the infernal tools at your disposal to manifest conflicts and toy with people's lives in procedurally generated fantasy worlds. Flipping the table on story generator games like Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress, you are now the one weaving tales full of drama and dark comedy! **Multiple Playstyles** ----------------------- There are many ways to be evil. Choose from three overlord Archetypes - each one provides you with a different playstyle. Do you want to focus on sheer destruction or are you into a more subtle puppetmaster approach? **Mix your own Cocktail of Evil Spells** ---------------------------------------- What happens when you hurl a meteor at a poisonous puddle? Poisonous meteor explosions, that's what! And that's just one of the many nefarious ways that you can combine elemental interactions to create your personalized cocktail of destruction! **Turn villagers against each other** ------------------------------------- Simply destroying the world with ice and fire is for amateurs. The real fun begins when you meddle with villagers to create a custom made demonic soap opera! Afflict the local hero with Lycanthropy and watch as his childhood friends turn on him when the full moon rises. Afflict a previously loving husband with Unfaithfulness and then watch the fireworks once you tell his wife of his infidelity. **Spawn monsters to kidnap and harass villagers** ------------------------------------------------- Snatch or seize a roaming monster and then breed it to have very specific functions in your Kennel.Then unleash monster parties to snatch Villagers or raid Villages! **Spread some Gossip** ---------------------- Your Beholder Structure allows you to spawn Eyes all over the world to gather information. You've seen a Knight steal a Shaman's Potion? Store it as an Intel and then tell the Shaman about it! **Create a customized Plague** ------------------------------ Build a Biolab to afflict Villagers with Plague and summon Plagued Rats. Upgrade your plague to instill it with various nasty symptoms and improve its virulence. You can even make Plagued victims explode when they die! **Infiltrate the Village secret Cultists** ------------------------------------------ Captured villagers can be taken to your prison and brainwashed into cultists! Cultists will secretly worship you and aid your return into the world. **Start a Zombie Apocalypse** ----------------------------- Make the Plagued dead rise as zombies. Other villagers that they attack may also contract the virus. Soon, the entire village will be filled with nothing but shambling zombies. **Unleash the Creatures of the Night** -------------------------------------- Afflict a Villager with Vampirism or Lycanthropy to turn them into denizens of the night. Watch as they terrorize their neighbors and spread the curse! You may eventually see the Village fight back and start Vampire and Lycan Hunts. Release date: 24 Apr, 2023 Categories: Simulation, Sandbox Creation, Emergent Storytelling, Cult Management, Strategic Planning, Character Management, Monster Management, Affliction System - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: No data - Playtime Metrics: No data - Time-to-fun: No data - Player Archetypes: No data Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Strong Concept & Initial Fun (weight 0.56): Players consistently praise the game's unique concept and initial promise, finding it fun and engaging for several hours. The game is noted for its strong foundation, creative systems, and ongoing development with regular updates and UI improvements, leading to a generally positive early experience. - Engaging Evil God Gameplay (weight 0.48): A core appeal of the game is the ability to play as an evil, manipulative entity, offering diverse and creative ways to torment villagers and destroy communities. Players enjoy the sandbox nature, the emergent storytelling, and the unique satisfaction of orchestrating chaos through various indirect and direct methods, from spreading plagues to inciting affairs. - Creative Plague & Affliction Systems (weight 0.06): The plague and affliction systems are highlighted as particularly enjoyable and well-designed mechanics. Players appreciate the creativity and customization options available within these systems, finding them to be among the most entertaining aspects of the game. - Good Language Localization (weight 0.03): The game's localization into multiple languages, specifically Japanese and Spanish, is noted and appreciated by players. This indicates a positive effort in making the game accessible to a wider audience. - Difficulty May Be Too Easy (weight 0.02): Feedback indicates that the game's difficulty has been adjusted, with some players finding it a bit too easy now. This suggests a potential need for rebalancing to provide a more challenging experience. Common complaints: - Unfinished, shallow, and abandoned (weight 0.99): Players consistently report that the game feels unfinished, lacks content, and offers shallow, repetitive gameplay. Many believe it was released prematurely and subsequently abandoned by developers, leading to a poor value proposition for its price. - Villager AI is simplistic (weight 0.28): The AI of villagers is criticized for being robotic, lacking meaningful interaction, and often leading to self-destructive behavior. This diminishes the strategic depth and the feeling of being an impactful villain. - Unbalanced and repetitive abilities (weight 0.16): The game's spell and ability system is unbalanced, with a few overpowered options making other abilities redundant. This leads to repetitive gameplay loops and a lack of strategic variety. - Poor and confusing UI (weight 0.1): The user interface is frequently described as unclear, cumbersome, and visually unpolished, making it difficult for players to navigate and understand important game mechanics. - Numerous and persistent bugs (weight 0.05): Players report a significant number of bugs, which can accumulate over longer play sessions, negatively impacting the overall game experience. - Lacks evil mastermind feel (weight 0.05): The game fails to deliver on the promise of being an 'evil mastermind' simulator, instead feeling more like a simple 'torture sandbox' without the strategic depth or grand scale expected. - Cramped and confusing map (weight 0.04): The map size is often too cramped, especially with player-generated buildings, making it difficult to manage and track macro-level events and factions. - Inconsistent AI-generated art (weight 0.04): The use of AI-generated character images is criticized for lacking artistic cohesion and replacing original artwork, detracting from the game's visual style. Gameplay feedback: - Deep Villager Manipulation (weight 0.28): Players highly value the deep and sophisticated villager interaction system. The ability to manipulate individual personalities, relationships, and secrets to sow discord and chaos is a core appeal, allowing for creative and indirect methods of destruction. - Cults & Affliction Mechanics (weight 0.25): A significant aspect of the game involves establishing and growing cults, as well as spreading various afflictions like vampirism, lycanthropy, and zombification. This allows players to convert villagers into minions or transform them into monstrous entities. - Villager Extermination Focus (weight 0.12): The primary objective often revolves around destroying or subverting all villagers, using a variety of destructive tools and powers. This includes direct attacks, plagues, and environmental hazards to achieve the goal of total annihilation. - Threat Level & Retaliation (weight 0.09): The game features a 'threat level' system that increases with player actions, leading to retaliation from villagers or external forces. This mechanic adds a strategic layer, requiring players to manage their visibility and impact to avoid overwhelming opposition. - Monster & Demon Deployment (weight 0.08): Players can deploy and manage various monsters and demons to carry out their will, including stealing villagers, attacking settlements, and causing general mayhem. Recent updates have improved the ability to field larger groups of these minions. - Emergent Character Stories (weight 0.07): The game allows for emergent narratives and unique character arcs, as demonstrated by the example of Uther. Players can influence individual villagers' fates, leading to interesting and often chaotic outcomes. - Limited Building Options (weight 0.07): The game features a limited number of building types and restricts construction to a hexagonal grid. Some players find the available building combinations restrictive, impacting strategic choices. - Short Game Length (weight 0.05): The game's objectives can typically be completed within a few hours of gameplay, suggesting a relatively short campaign length. While some players appreciate this, others might find the content limited after a few playthroughs. - Portal Progression System (weight 0.04): A core progression mechanic involves upgrading a 'Portal' to unlock new powers and buildings. Losing the portal results in a game over, making it a central strategic element. - Overlord Archetype Variety (weight 0.04): The game offers different 'overlord' archetypes with unique skillsets. However, some feedback suggests that these archetypes might not be well-conceptualized or thematic, potentially limiting strategic diversity. Performance notes: - Stable performance, few bugs (weight 0.04): Players report minimal technical issues, with very few crashes or significant bugs encountered during gameplay. This suggests a generally stable game experience. - Charming graphics (weight 0.02): The game's visual style is frequently praised for being aesthetically pleasing and comfortable to look at for extended periods. - Low system requirements (weight 0.02): The game is noted for its low system requirements, allowing it to run smoothly even on older or less powerful computers. Recommendations: - Wait for sale/updates (weight 0.28): Many players do not recommend buying the game at full price in its current state, suggesting it's better to wait for a sale (around $5-$15) or for further development. Expectations should be managed as the game is not yet complete. - Appeals to villainous playstyle (weight 0.1): The game is highly recommended for players who enjoy being a villain, creating misfortune, or fulfilling sadistic fantasies. It appeals to those who like the concept of an 'evil godsim' or 'anti-colony' game. - Limited content/playtime (weight 0.08): The game offers limited content, providing about 10-20 hours of gameplay. While some find it fun for a short period, others hope for more long-term content and a longer format in the future. - Casual/experimental gameplay (weight 0.07): The game is recommended for casual players looking to kill time, experiment, or set their own objectives. Players should be comfortable with a less-than-optimal experience. - Unique and enjoyable experience (weight 0.06): Despite some criticisms, a segment of players found the game to be fantastic, unique, and highly enjoyable, with some even calling it their favorite. - Support Early Access development (weight 0.05): Some players recommend buying the game now to support indie developers, especially as an Early Access title before a potential price increase. There's hope for its future if the developers stick to their vision. - Consider alternative games (weight 0.02): Some reviewers suggest looking into or playing other games like 'Dungeon Keeper' or 'Rimworld' as alternatives, implying they might offer a more complete or preferred experience. - Modding confirmed post-1.0 (weight 0.01): Modding has been confirmed to be available after the 1.0 release, which could significantly extend the game's lifespan and appeal for some players. Other player notes: - Premature release, Early Access feel (weight 0.14): Many players feel the game was released prematurely and is still in an Early Access state, lacking content and polish expected from a full release. This perception is strong despite the game's official release. - Potential for future development (weight 0.09): Despite current shortcomings, players acknowledge the developers' dedication and the game's potential. There's hope for future improvements, with some noting positive changes since initial reviews and an ambitious roadmap. - Unique 'Inverse Rimworld' concept (weight 0.07): The game is frequently compared to 'Rimworld' and 'Dwarf Fortress', often described as an 'inverse Rimworld' where the player acts as the antagonist or random event generator. This comparison highlights its unique premise but also sets high expectations. - Mixed localization status (weight 0.05): Localization efforts are mixed; Japanese localization is mostly complete, but Chinese localization is planned for later. There were initial issues with Japanese support that have since been resolved. - Inspiration from other games (weight 0.02): Some players express a desire for other developers to revisit the game's core idea or suggest drawing inspiration from similar titles like Norland and Songs of Syx to improve the experience. - Marketed as 'story generator' (weight 0.02): The game markets itself as a 'story generator' or 'Daniel simulator', indicating its narrative focus, though narrative implementation is noted as incomplete. - Unique appeal for autistic players (weight 0.01): One player found the game to be a 'pleasingly stimmy' experience, particularly as an autistic person, suggesting a unique appeal for certain players. - Graphics meet expectations (weight 0.01): The graphics are considered to be on par with what one might expect from a 'School Simulator' type of game. Emotions: - Disappointment (weight 0.32): Players expressed disappointment primarily due to the game's unfulfilled potential, often citing a lack of significant updates, unfinished content, and shallow gameplay mechanics. High price points for the perceived quality and content volume also contributed to this emotion, alongside unfulfilled promises from developers and advertising. - Frustration (weight 0.25): Frustration stemmed from the game's unfinished and buggy state, coupled with poor UI/UX design and AI issues. Players also felt frustrated by a lack of control over game elements, restrictive gameplay, and the perception that the game was overpriced for its current, unpolished state. - Excitement (weight 0.11): Excitement was generated by the game's unique concept as an 'evil god game' and the emergent storytelling possibilities it offered. Players enjoyed the freedom to cause chaos and destruction, finding the dark humor and creative systems highly engaging. - Satisfaction (weight 0.1): Satisfaction arose from the enjoyable gameplay loop, particularly the unique experience of playing as an evil figure and watching chaos unfold. Players appreciated the emergent stories, the ability to manipulate villagers, and the developers' dedication to the game's vision and bug resolution. - Hope (weight 0.06): Hope was tied to the game's future potential, with players desiring additional content, features like multi-story buildings, and overall improvements from the developers. There was a strong wish for the indirect manipulation mechanics to be further developed and expanded upon. - Boredom (weight 0.04): Boredom was a result of repetitive and unengaging gameplay, a lack of depth, and the game quickly becoming monotonous. Players found the combat and mid-game progression tedious, leading to a loss of interest. - Amusement (weight 0.04): Amusement came from the game's chaotic and unexpected emergent gameplay scenarios, particularly the ability to torment good people and create humorous, monstrous situations. The unique and dark humor of the game contributed to this feeling. - Joy (weight 0.02): Joy was experienced through the game's sandbox nature, customization options, and the variety of evil actions available. Players enjoyed the freedom to create chaotic scenarios and successfully become a 'Demon Lord'. - Sadness (weight 0.02): Sadness was primarily caused by the game's abandonment by developers and its unfinished state. Players felt a sense of loss over the unfulfilled potential and the game's current condition. - Enjoyment (weight 0.01): Enjoyment was a general positive feeling derived from the personal experience with the game and its unique gimmick, particularly during initial play sessions. - Neutrality (weight 0.01): Neutrality reflected mixed feelings about the game's current state and its gameplay, indicating an ambivalent or undecided stance. - Anger (weight 0.01): Anger was expressed due to unacceptable base building mechanics and the desire for features that had been removed from the game. - Resignation (weight 0): Resignation stemmed from the realization that the developers had moved on from the game, leading to a sense of acceptance regarding its current state. - Embarrassment (weight 0): Embarrassment was felt due to the game's juvenile tone and perceived 'cringe' content. - Mild frustration (weight 0): Mild frustration was caused by the game's low difficulty, which did not provide a sufficient challenge for some players. - Distrust (weight 0): Distrust arose from the developers' handling of early access and the premature 1.0 release, leading to skepticism about their future actions. - Anticipation (weight 0): Anticipation was specifically generated by the prospect of Chinese localization being added to the game. - Approval (weight 0): Approval was given for the game's core concept, indicating a positive reception of its foundational idea. - Skepticism (weight 0): Skepticism was present regarding the game's current state, with some players viewing it more as a tech demo than a fully realized game. - Regret (weight 0): Regret was felt because the game's promising premise was not fully realized, leading to a sense of missed opportunity.}