Desktopia on Steam: City building at the bottom of the screen

That’s exactly what Desktopia, the desktop village sim, wants to offer when the title is expected to be released on August 5th. The game should just run along at the bottom of the screen.

That’s what Desktopia is all about

At its core, Desktopia is “a city-builder game that simulates an evolving medieval-style village at the bottom of your desktop so you can work, watch, or watch while you play.” You make important decisions and can also take control of your own “sword-wielding” character. You can be as active or inactive in Desktopia as you see fit: participating in battles, harvesting resources, putting out fires or interacting with the villagers are all on the program.

It is important to the developers of Desktopia that it is not a studio behind the game, but three friends who want “everyone who plays Desktopia to love it too”. You don’t want to compete with the thousands of hours of gameplay in Anno, nor with the “beautifully” rendered graphics of Cities Skylines.

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The peculiarity of Desktopia is that the game was developed with a focus on functionality to use multiple applications on a single monitor. These include a slick user interface with resizable pop-out windows that can be placed anywhere on the screen, and a spy mode where you can point the camera at any villager and their activities at any time. Your own character grows with the village and you can take control at any time.

Gameplay is about building a series of villages along a dangerous and treacherous road. To do this, you build buildings such as inns, libraries, post offices, temples and forges and observe how the villagers move in independently of each other. Soldiers are needed to defend the village against undead, bandits, fairies and demons. You can choose between building simple villages with little need or high-tech villages with needy villagers.

The villagers should have their own needs and personalities and be influenced by the weather, events in the village and personal moods. There are also criminal villagers who are driven by bad temper and steal or commit arson. Dangerous fires can also kill villagers and destroy buildings. Finally, animals and monsters can also be hunted and there are bosses that stand in the way of the player.