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Dawnfolk is a minimalist city builder, and that got me thinking. ‘Minimalist city builder’ has some obvious moves. Strip it down to the basic resources, and keep acquiring them as efficiently as possible. But what would be the opposite of a ‘minimalist’ city builder? Could there be a game where, for instance, food doesn’t directly translate into work? You also have to provide motivation, competitive salaries and annual leave. If you want to build a house, you must have acquired the appropriate amount of red tape.
Actually, come to think on it, that sounds rather stressful. Let’s stick with minimalism for the moment. Good thing too, as Dawnfolk is rather pleasant. Stripping away the complexity that comes with city builders allows for a relaxed experience. It becomes about overseeing your adorable kingdom and making sure all the little numbers don’t go red. That said, minimalism has its limits and Dawnfolk threatens to strip away a bit too much at times.
Itty-Bitty Living Space
So, to start with, I should probably explain what a ‘minimalist city builder’ actually is. After all, you might be looking at the above screenshot – and its big collection of little tiles – and be a bit overwhelmed. It’s actually fairly simple and boils down to managing four central resources: light, workforce, food, and materials. Materials for building, food for supporting workforce, and workforce for doing things. We’ll get to light in a bit. These resources are all dependent on each other to a degree, so you need to expand to keep them in the black.
Dawnfolk‘s world is tile-based, so on each tile you can decide to plonk down a house, for workforce, or a farm, or so on. Buildings largely depend on tile type. It’s straightforward on the surface, but gains depth as you go, due to synchronicity. Taverns, for example, increase workforce from surrounding houses, so you need to plan your structures accordingly. It adds an absorbing layer of complexity over the city building, but isn’t so stressful (on normal at least) to detract from the chilled out vibe that Dawnfolk exudes.
Granted, the ‘darkness’ does damage that vibe a touch. This is where light comes in. When you start, most of the map is covered in darkness, so you need to pay in light to expand. Periodically, this darkness will get upset with you and throw darkness storms at you, which you need to pay to repel. It helps stop the drudgery from setting in and means you can’t rest on your laurels, as the light cost increases as attacks go on. The big, swirling darkness storms make a nice contrast to Dawnfolk‘s bright, adorable art.
Trimming The Fat
It’s possible that Dawnfolk trims off a bit too much from the city builder formula though. The joy of a city builder, for me, is building something that feels self-sufficient and, crucially, alive. Dawnfolk feels more like a game of numbers. In fact, it slides towards puzzle game more than city builder at times. You just build what you’re getting low on. Materials? Mine. Food? Farm. And so on. The Sandbox mode, which has no darkness storms, proves that it doesn’t stand up as a city builder alone. It’s a little bit too easy to solve resource issues, I think. I’m the world’s most relaxed city planner.
Then there are the minigames. When you need to perform a direct action, like fighting a golem or cutting down a forest, you have to play a little minigame. It’s usually something like moving a shield in front of projectiles, or shooting at wolves. They’re fine in isolation, but you’ll be doing these actions a lot. After a while, they start to grate on your nerves. The fact that there’s an upgrade to remove them kind of says it all. It may not sound like a big issue, but in a game that’s so minimalist, small issues stick out like a sore thumb.
Still, Dawnfolk seems to know what sort of gameplay it has on its hands, as there are plenty of modes to enjoy. There’s a reasonable story campaign, which sets unique challenges and has a pleasant narrative throughout. Then there are puzzles, which give you unlimited resources and tell you to get a set amount of production from a small area. Coupled with this are curious expeditions, which are levels with certain modifiers, like not being able to control which area gets revealed. I rather like these, as they take the basic mechanics and play around with them in interesting ways.
Dawnfolk – Cute But Compact
I think the Endless mode best reflects my feelings towards Dawnfolk. At the beginning, things are engaging. Trying to expand workforce causes food to tank, so you need to place buildings sensibly, while fending off darkness attacks. All too soon, though, your resource needs become trivial. Maybe you’ve got the upgraded farms, or houses that increase workforce but don’t require food. Then it just becomes a waiting game, as the storms increase in light required. Death is inevitable and it dissolves into a slog, as you don’t need to do much but wait for your resources to build.
Dawnfolk is best in the bitesize. That’s probably why the story and Curious Expedition missions shine. It’s a pocket-sized city builder. Once it breaks beyond those bonds, you realise that a lot of the city builder magic is lost. Still, when it keeps things compact, there’s a lot of relaxed fun to be found. Treat it as something of a puzzle game and you’ll be in the right frame of mind. It may shave off a bit too much in the pursuit of minimalism, but Dawnfolk is a chill, entertaining and cute microcosm of a city builder.
