Cardboard Town is a fun twist on the city-builder genre!

The demo is currently available on Steam with the release scheduled for next month.

The objective is to build a city turn by turn, placing cards randomly drawn from a deck, all while balancing resources and income. I've enjoyed the demo a lot, and it gives an amazing idea of what the full game will be. I've always had a soft spot for city builders, so I'm really looking forward to full release.

Loading up the demo, you'll find yourself looking at a randomly generated 20x20 tile game board on a virtual tabletop. There's always a building I'm calling the "Headquarters" in the center of the board surrounded by road tiles, with forests and a few wind turbines scattered around.

You'll also see a few numbers and meters on the screen that you won't know anything about yet,
and 5 random cards being drawn into your "hand"...

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——— Cards/Buildings ———

There are lots of different cards that can be drawn throughout the game, and with every new turn, you'll draw a random card from your deck. Some cards allow you to lay new roads to build on, some allow you to alter the cards in your hand or deck, and others allow you to place new buildings. Almost all of the buildings have to be attached to a road tile, so the first layer of strategy is making sure you don't block off all of your roads.

^{I love the folding cardboard building animations! Image Source: Steam}

The second bit of strategy comes from the fact that all cards have a price attached (though sometimes it's free) and you have a limited amount of money to use each turn.

You can play as many cards during a turn as you can afford, but you'll only start with $2. You'll be able to increase the amount of money you get each turn by placing buildings that bring people to your city.

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——— Growing Your City ———

As you reach increasingly-higher population thresholds, you'll be able to spend more money each turn, which lets you place buildings that increase population faster or affect your town's resources.

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I'm not sure the resources have much use other than being another layer of strategy and balance, but it will be cool to see how they get used in the full game. I haven't had to worry too much about going into the negative on more than 1 or 2 resources at a time during the demo, but I'm sure if the games were longer this would become more challenging.

Each time you reach a new population threshold, your city will also level up, and you'll be able to choose an upgrade.

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——— The World Just Isn't Fair ———

As is life, no matter how well you plan ahead, shit happens, and trouble is waiting around every corner. Every few turns, something bad happens that is simply out of your control. Sometimes it's as simple as losing a few resources, but sometimes you'll have to play under a restrictive rule that lasts for a while.

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——— I Can't Wait for the Full Game! ———

The demo currently ends on the 30th day, so it gives you just long enough to really get into it and then teases you with info about what you'll be able to do after the game is released:

I love the idea of including roguelite elements with meta-progression and unlockables between runs. Cardboard Town definitely has a lot of potential to be a great game and I'm really looking forward to playing the full release next month.

You can check out the demo for Cardboard Town HERE.
Thanks for reading!