Here’s an interesting twist to the colony builder/colony sim genre. What if you run an outpost where adventurers stop by before they hit the dungeon or off to their next adventurer?
Wind Arthouse, a solo indie development outfit by Nik Mirza based in Malaysia, is making one called Wanderers’ Outpost. It’s a colony sim (think Rimworld, or the city builder adjacents like Farthest Fronter) where you run a settlement where their source of economy is through the many adventurers that pass by to stop, rest, gear up and heal up.
Wanderers’ Outpost will have you build amenities including inns, kitchens, blacksmiths, workshops, warehouses, farms, and research stations. You gain profit from the crafted gear and produced supplies you sell, rooms you rent, and even taxes.
The adventurers themselves are simulated, in that they choose what expeditions to take on and spend their hard-earned currency at your outpost. You can follow and watch the expedition unfolds. Over time, the dungeons grow more dangerous as your outpost grow in size, with stronger adventures (in need of better support) stopping by.
Wanderers’ Outpost is a colony simulation in that you don’t control any of the settlers directly, only via indirect instructions. The good people can be assigned to jobs.
While there’s a good number of games out there where you are in the shoes of a merchant or some tradesperson who helps support adventurers in their quest, rare has it been to see this at a colony sim scale. Most colony sims are focused on self-reliance and survival against harsh conditions, with a few like Frostpunk and Ixion make an attempt at a story-driven campaign. So Wanderers Outpost here has a good hook to it, where the settlement is always meant to be a layover stop.
If you can get past the Flash game styled art style, which has its charms, Wanderers’ Outpost might be worth checking out. Hey, if Dwarf Fortress is playable with just ASCII graphics for the longest time, surely fans of this style of games can worry not about how a game looks.
Wanderers’ Outpost is currently available on PC (Steam) as a Steam Early Access title. A demo is available.