Let’s GO! It’s Wednesday, which means I show you some games in Alpha, Beta, Unreleased, or Early Access that look promising enough to add to your wishlists on steam or where ever. I try to keep these to games I have experience with so I am going by hands-on experience and not hype.
You can check out the other Wishlist Wednesdays by clicking [here] and you can check out our [Twitter] where we joined in on [#indiewishlistwednesday], and [#wishlistwednesday] and eventually expanded to this.
Of course, you can follow our steam curator, I highly suggest doing so. It massively helps the project and gives you good recommendations right in your steam client. By going here: [The Strategy Informer Steam Curator]
IF you wish to discuss any of these further, join our [Strategy Informer Steam Community]
And now…
Kainga: Seeds Of Civilization
Roguelite!!?? Village builder that I think has some throwback to the god games of the past like Populus.
The roguelite elements are certainly the catch here, unlock new tribes and technologies as you play. The technology system is quite interesting where you are given a choice in what to research in a specific node. You get to pick one of them that you find the most important at the time and run with that.
The thinker is the head of your tribe and when I say you unlock new tribes; I mean you unlock thinkers. The guide and research the technology. They must be protected at all times, as they are weak and can not fight.
I really dig what I got to play of this and will certainly look at it as new builds become available.
Kainga completed its Kickstarter in a very short amount of time and the hype here is real. The Kickstarter is still going on as of writing so check it out [Kainga Kickstarter Page]
The Amazing American Circus
Resource management card game with somewhat of a deck builder gameplay. You are trying to win a big prize by having the best circus, so you travel the United States during the wild west time period performing your shows, hiring performers, upgrading performers, finding freaks, and impressing the audience in a card battler style game.
This would not be the first time I talked about The Amazing American Circus as a recommendation, not too long ago there was a huge update to the playable version adding a good number of features that were not present in the demo. I am really enjoying what I see here so far.
Dominion
2008 the deckbuilder crazy was pretty much started with Dominion. It is now 2021 and we are finally getting an official solid digital version on Steam, iOS, and Android. BUT it’s going to be free for the base game and paid for the expansions and also feature an A.I. derived from the [Keldon Jones trained neural net A.I.] that was used in Race for the Galaxy, Roll for The Galaxy, and Shards Of Infinity [Our Review]. I used to be good at Dominion but it’s been a while but I have yet to win against this AI.
I’ve played 4 of the expansions and they are exactly as I remember them. The bugs I’ve logged have been minor and I am absolutely excited to try out multiplayer which is not yet in the beta. I believe testing is still open so go on over to [Temple Gates] to apply.
STAR FLEET II – Krellan Commander Version 2.0
Originally released in 1989 back when we ran games on 640K of RAM and used 5.25′ and 3.5′ floppy drives it was able to create amazing detailed games that captured the imagination and provided detailed strategic experiences. Staf Fleet 2 was a broken masterpiece at launch. In 1991 1.5b was released which stabilized the game. Frankly, my 19-year-old self did not see the original launch as a mess and loved the game. But NOW…
The developer has a working 486 and has been working on the game polishing it to a fine gem. Additions and improvements galore and most of the install size is taken up by DOSbox proving you don’t need gigabytes to have an excellent game. If you have any desire to go through the ranks as a Klingon err I mean Krellan officer, this is the way to go. Explore the Galaxy, Fight, Invade planets, board enemy ships, take out starbases. command your escorts. This is so good. This is a MUST wishlist. If any of this sounds cool to you and you can deal with ASCII and Text interface (there is no mouse control).
Staff Only
An interesting roguelite deckbuilder with a puzzle-style battle system. I like where this is going for its uniqueness. You know the drill by now, move along the nodes, and encounter enemies, shops, specials, elites, and bosses. But the combat here is the unique part. You play your cards on a 3×3 grid and each card can only play if there is a viable connection. You stack effects that resolve at the end of the turn and if there is a special in the spot playing onto it, it either prevents or causes an effect. The developer is updating at a good pace, reviews have been good so far and there is a demo for you to check out.
Semi-retired game designer and developer trying to use my experience to enhance the strategy and strategy adjacent gaming sector. Strategy game player for over 35 years. Game development experience in AAA, Indie, and Board.
