So I picked up RPC a couple of days ago, having kept an eye on it several years back on TIGSource, and I have to say that this game is one of the best I've played in a long long time. Combining my two favourite genres, TD and RTS with a pinch of Roller Coaster Tycoon, I have so far had an absolute blast.

The game starts you on an island world map with the choice of your settling point - You can even go in and look at the maps first before setting up. Once you do that, you've got to balance the livelihoods of your population whilst being besieged by armies of monsters. You begin by gathering the basics - Food and Wood, but over time becoming accustomed with a diverse collection of structures and materials. Production lines form, your civilisation grows, squeezing in between valleys and digging into the safety of bedrock, rather than risking expanding outwards. In turn, beyond your bastions, holes open in the ground in increasing number as more enemies spill onto the map, slowly colouring the minimap red.

The gameplay remains perfectly in flow with a fluctuating day/night cycle and on top of which 4 seasons that constantly mix up gameplay with various weather and effects on your settlement. You really have to stock up for winter (And the first year I massively over prepared, but better safe than sorry!) HINT - MAKE AS MANY FARMS AS YOU CAN - 28 farmers was a sustainable number for me (Whilst enriching wild food collections at the same time!).

Most tower defences suffer from the same issue over time that they become tedious as you perfect your strategy. The twist that has hooked me for RPC is you have the option to send units to "limbo", essentially a menu screen where you can dish out your settlers to a variety of different lands on the map. I spent an hour just surveying the various maps and looking for potential choke points, weighing up the different collections of resources in each area, hesitant to send my villagers to certain doom after such a firm foothold on my first settlement.

To add to this, I found myself grappling with the dilemmas of logging regulation (Do I flatten the forest to supplement my bow towers with arrows, but deal with the long grow back time and pathways destroying the treeline opened up) and I found myself picking single people to inhabit my future settlement to avoid breaking up my many many married couples (170 villagers so far!)

Another fantastic mechanic is the line of sight for defences - Punishing players who box themselves in by preventing them from expanding beyond their walls. There were many times where I'd tear down a couple of the inner walls to frantically assemble some lines of trenches further forwards whilst fighting off hordes of monsters then patch my defences back up before nightfall. It puts a lot more risk in expansion and forces you to avoid greediness.

The game has such depth that I've sunk over half a day into the Retro Pixel Castles over the weekend.

It's just such a good game! I can't put it any simpler than that, haven't felt so transfixed about a strategy game since I discovered Age of Empires 2.

Admittedly, the lack of a built in tutorial is something that could do with addressing, but obviously with Early Access I'm sure it's something that'll come about in time. The video that was linked in the game did provide me with enough information to get started with, so thank you for providing that. Having said this, discovering the functions of the game over time has been quite satisfying in itself - I'm still unlocking the mysteries of essence!

It's a bit of a far fetched request (Especially with the number of units and stuff going on at once, but I would adore a co-op mode for this.

Either way, amazing work, and I look forward to any approaching updates for the project.

So I picked up RPC a couple of days ago, having kept an eye on it several years back on TIGSource, and I have to say that this game is one of the best I've played in a long long time. Combining my two favourite genres, TD and RTS with a pinch of Roller Coaster Tycoon, I have so far had an absolute blast. The game starts you on an island world map with the choice of your settling point - You can even go in and look at the maps first before setting up. Once you do that, you've got to balance the livelihoods of your population whilst being besieged by armies of monsters. You begin by gathering the basics - Food and Wood, but over time becoming accustomed with a diverse collection of structures and materials. Production lines form, your civilisation grows, squeezing in between valleys and digging into the safety of bedrock, rather than risking expanding outwards. In turn, beyond your bastions, holes open in the ground in increasing number as more enemies spill onto the map, slowly colouring the minimap red. The gameplay remains perfectly in flow with a fluctuating day/night cycle and on top of which 4 seasons that constantly mix up gameplay with various weather and effects on your settlement. You really have to stock up for winter (And the first year I massively over prepared, but better safe than sorry!) HINT - MAKE AS MANY FARMS AS YOU CAN - 28 farmers was a sustainable number for me (Whilst enriching wild food collections at the same time!). Most tower defences suffer from the same issue over time that they become tedious as you perfect your strategy. The twist that has hooked me for RPC is you have the option to send units to "limbo", essentially a menu screen where you can dish out your settlers to a variety of different lands on the map. I spent an hour just surveying the various maps and looking for potential choke points, weighing up the different collections of resources in each area, hesitant to send my villagers to certain doom after such a firm foothold on my first settlement. To add to this, I found myself grappling with the dilemmas of logging regulation (Do I flatten the forest to supplement my bow towers with arrows, but deal with the long grow back time and pathways destroying the treeline opened up) and I found myself picking single people to inhabit my future settlement to avoid breaking up my many many married couples (170 villagers so far!) Another fantastic mechanic is the line of sight for defences - Punishing players who box themselves in by preventing them from expanding beyond their walls. There were many times where I'd tear down a couple of the inner walls to frantically assemble some lines of trenches further forwards whilst fighting off hordes of monsters then patch my defences back up before nightfall. It puts a lot more risk in expansion and forces you to avoid greediness. The game has such depth that I've sunk over half a day into the Retro Pixel Castles over the weekend. It's just such a good game! I can't put it any simpler than that, haven't felt so transfixed about a strategy game since I discovered Age of Empires 2. Admittedly, the lack of a built in tutorial is something that could do with addressing, but obviously with Early Access I'm sure it's something that'll come about in time. The video that was linked in the game did provide me with enough information to get started with, so thank you for providing that. Having said this, discovering the functions of the game over time has been quite satisfying in itself - I'm still unlocking the mysteries of essence! It's a bit of a far fetched request (Especially with the number of units and stuff going on at once, but I would adore a co-op mode for this. Either way, amazing work, and I look forward to any approaching updates for the project.