Settle
A downloadable game for Windows and Linux
As a release offer, the game will be free during limited time!
A ship has just arrived off an unknown coast, with a handful of colonists, some food and the hopes of a distant metropolis. What becomes of this new world is up to you.
Settle is a turn-based colony-building strategy game. It's about growing and running colonies, not about war: explore, settle, build and trade until your colonies can stand on their own.
Explore an unknown world
Every game is played on a new hand-coloured map, drawn like an old chart: continents, large islands or an archipelago, from the polar ice to the tropical savannas. Sail along the coast, send colonists inland, and pick the best spot for your first colony.
Grow your colonies
Put each colonist to work as a farmer, fisherman, woodcutter, miner or craftsman. They gain experience and slowly master their trades, and a master can lead others as a foreman. Raise houses, workshops, docks, schools and theaters, and turn raw materials into goods worth far more. Keep your people fed and happy: crowded, hungry or raided colonies make less.
Trade across the seas
Load your ships by hand and sell in the metropolis, then set up trade routes that run on their own. Prices rise and fall with what you trade, so once the metropolis has had its fill, find foreign cities that pay their own prices.
Survive the metropolis
After a few calm turns to settle in, the crown wants its share: pay its tributes, or face the troops it sends. Defend your colonies from bandits and pirates with stockades and forts.
Win your independence
Build a palace in three phases. The last one breaks with the metropolis for good.
Play your way
- Five difficulty levels, from Settler to Conquistador, plus a custom level.
- Four game lengths, from a short game to a marathon.
- Three kinds of map, in three sizes. Share a seed to play the same map as a friend.
- A tutorial that teaches the game as you play, step by step, and an expert mode for when you no longer need it.
- Made for mouse and keyboard: zoom with the wheel, Tab for the next unit, Enter to end the turn.
- Saves every turn: pick up exactly where you left off.
- In English and Spanish.
- Original music.
No ads, no in-app purchases, no account. Plays offline.
Installing
Linux: unzip, then run settle inside the Settle folder. It needs GTK 3 and GStreamer, which nearly every Linux desktop has. If it won't start or has no sound, on Ubuntu, Mint or Debian:
sudo apt install libgtk-3-0 gstreamer1.0-plugins-base gstreamer1.0-plugins-good
Windows: unzip, then run settle.exe inside the Settle folder, keeping it with the files next to it. Everything it needs comes with it, the Visual C++ runtime included: nothing else to install. If Windows says it protected your PC (SmartScreen), choose More info, then Run anyway: the game isn't signed by a known publisher yet.
Or install it with the itch.io app, which does all this for you.
Privacy
On your first game, Settle asks whether you'd like to send anonymous game statistics (how the game went, turn by turn, and how long you play) to help balance it. It's entirely optional: you can say no, or turn it off any time in Settings. Nothing that identifies you is ever sent, only a random number made up for your installation. When it opens, it also checks whether a newer version is out.
Full privacy policy: luiinge.github.io/settle-privacy
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
Comments
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The game feels interesting, but there are some flaws which need to be ironed out.
For instance, the notifications should not disappear by themselves (or, at least, there should be an option for that). Also, if you click one which opens a town, when you exit the town, all notifications are gone. Also, no (or not enough) notifications when people are inactive. I saw inactive people in cities a few turns after it happened, and I don't remember being notified about it.
Having to choose immediately where to put the docks, without being able to exit and look around the city, is not very nice (cannot count the distance to the nearest port - so, if you forgot to do so before founding, you're cooked)
Also, a documentation (Settlepedia) would be nice. In order to know in advance what is possible, or not. Like, knowing that housing only goes to lv3, with max 12 pop.
Being more explicit that many settlers can work the same hex (in sid meier's Colonization, it was one per tile, for instance). Or other useful info of the same kind.
Also, some upgrades feel... strange. I mean, upgrading towns to large seem wonderful, until you realize that people can work the same hexes, AND that you're limited to 12 people in a given town. So, why bother, in the end ? And what are the benefits of experience for the workers ? I saw no documentation about it. I saw you can use "foremen", but that requires an expert, and the game thus incentizes you to focus each person on ONE kind of work (because you want to maximize their efficiency), which discourages you to have them hop from one task to another.
All in all, I feel there are too many guys (and so, you have to found new colonies all the time, or move population away), because you cannot settle them in place, because of town size constraints. And you're stuck producing "basic" goods, too, because you lack resources to build the required buildings for transformation (unless you devote a lot of effort into creating several towns supplying those resources, I guess).
So... I've a mixed feeling. The game is interesting, and it might be challenging, too, but the interface is really quite clunky, with the gameplay feeling also a bit repetitive.
I hope this feedback helps you improve the game, as it clearly has potential.
Thank you very much for taking the time to write such detailed feedback! I genuinely appreciate it. You've raised several very good points that I hadn't fully considered, and I'll definitely keep them in mind for future updates. Some of your suggestions, particularly regarding notifications, city management and documentation, are worth looking into more closely.
Regarding the interface, it's worth mentioning that the game is originally a mobile app that has been ported to desktop. That said, I agree that it could be better adapted to a PC environment, and I'll try to improve that aspect in future versions.
Feedback like this is extremely valuable, especially for an indie project like this one. Thanks again for playing and for helping me make the game better!
I concur that it clearly felt like a mobile game to me - especially as some long clicks might have ended the turn early, I think (which was not documented either) ^^
I didn't pay for the game, so I figured I could at the very least give an honest review to help. And who knows ? If it improves, I might be tempted to give something - but, for now, I never felt engrossed enough to want to try and push forward to finish a game, I saved around turn 120 and didn't come back.
If you update it, I'll glady give it a try to see how it improved !
Thanks a lot for taking the time to play and, especially, for providing such honest and constructive feedback! I really appreciate it. I'm currently working on version 1.0.6, which will include several improvements based on feedback from players and testers. I'm still actively working on balancing and polishing the game, so feedback like yours is genuinely valuable.
I'm also planning to add a credits section to acknowledge the testers who have taken the time to play the game and share their thoughts. If you're happy to be included, I'd love to add your name to the credits! Just let me know what name or nickname you'd like me to use.
And of course, I'll let you know when 1.0.6 is ready. I'd be very happy if you gave it another try!
I also happened to "game the market", yesterday. Came with my 2000 starting gold and an empty caravel. Left with something like 4500 gold, just by buying then selling food and other things. Because you raise the price each time, but it doesn't drop as quickly, meaning you'll make a profit in the end.
I "raised" food selling price to 44, for instance :) And honestly, this exploit felt fun, at least for a time. So, I guess that's something more to patch.
As for the credits, you're welcome to include my nickname, "Kzwix", in your list. I'll feel honored ;)