There is always a certain level of accomplishment that you get from creating something inside of a game, be it the feeling of leaving a virtual mark of doing something important and memorable inside a non-tangible world, or just the total sense of escapism that it allows. The problem is that since a handful of other titles have blown up in this genre, it has become slightly flooded with chunks of clones that are looking for a quick buck, barring anything original; this is anything but not original. Aside from being terribly named with the now generic “craft” suffix, TownCraft does manage to distance itself from the other creation/environment games by making the player focus more on livability, and not style.
Check out our live stream of this game below:
The game focuses, as the title suggests, on building a town rather than trying its best to emulate a set of Legos. There are only so many types of buildings that the player can make total, although their size, shape, and use can vary greatly. Sadly the title of the game does end up being the core concept behind the game, unlike so many others in the genre, and grows repetitive in time.
Originally designed for the iPad, the graphics can clearly only be pushed so far, and as such the cute art in the game comes off more “meh” than “adorable”. The controls also haven’t been changed around enough to fully feel like a PC game either. The keyboard shortcuts are helpful but isn’t hard to see this game was ported from a touch interface.
TownCraft is a game that was designed, top to bottom, for people who already enjoy crafting sims. If you are not into crafting games, this title will obviously not appeal to you. This is where the charm of the game itself resides, as it seems to know exactly what it is and what it wants to do—despite its failings.