LogFAQs > #962604310

Townscaper (Oskar Stlberg)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqq25n6cQqo

Townscaper is simple: You click on a square on the grid to make a building. You click on a square next to or on top of that building to make a bigger building, or you place a block of a different colour and make two buildings next to each other. Your only actions are to place a block or erase a block, and everything stems from that. The closest thing to an objective is figuring out how to get certain architectural features to show up, because you dont plop down a garden or church door as you please, but instead place and delete blocks a certain way for them to show up. As you become more familiar with its algorithm, you can maybe better aim for what you want, like knowing how to get a balcony vs a roof. As you build, small details like flocks of seagulls, bunting, and coin-operated binoculars would pop up, and maybe someone whos played a lot of this knows how to build for max seagulls, too. Or you can just click around on a whim and at random, because itll make something cool regardless. The limitations are what makes it work for me. Townscaper cant move at a faster pace than one block at a time, so theres very little in the way of planning. Instead youre shaping it as you play, and theres an element of surprise and discovery as you lay a block down, see how you like it, delete a block, see how you like it, and so on. Its art style is intuitively suitable for making a quaint seaside hamlet or Mont-Saint-Michel, but you can also build super high and delete the lower blocks to get a ton of metal stilts for something sort of industrial-looking, then mess around with the lighting to get your town at different times of day. You can even make it night time, and the windows will light up! Its all very charming.

Theres a browser version of it with a reduced grid:

https://oskarstalberg.com/Townscaper/

Also some cool art out there from people who paint over their Townscaper screenshots.