Isles & Tiles

Hi Everyone! I played through this game and had a great time. The core gameplay mechanics are fun I always like deckbuilding aspects in this sort of game. Good stuff: - fun core gameplay loop - good artistic design - intuitive gameplay and reasonable learning curve - fun deckbuilding aspect - well balanced 'campaign' with steadily increasing difficulty Bad Stuff: - bugs - some of the cards don't do what the card text says they do - Blacksmith - says on the card 'Blacksmiths generate +1 (Iron) for each adjacent mine...' - actually only generates +1 for every 2 adjacent mines - Mana - says on the card 'Instantly get +10 (Mana)' and doesn't list any cost to play it - only actually gives +5 Mana - the deck building filter doesn't seem to work consistently - I have cards filtered out (Runes specifically) that still appear in the game - scenarios - once you complete all the scenarios you can, in theory, go back and play them again just for fun (and victory points) but... - the difficulty selector doesn't seem to work - you can click on a difficulty but when you go into the game the goal is always the easiest one - UI - overall the UI seems to be designed for mobile (I played on PC) - that's fine I guess if that is the intent but... - there is no way to remap keys (that I could find) - there are very few keyboard shortcuts - the map shifts itself seemingly randomly when you release the mouse button when moving it with the mouse - if you have a lot of cards in your hand you can't see the costs for the ones on the left, they get covered by the resources UI element - FOIL cards - the ribbon used to denote the foil version on the card actually covers up relevant card info and text - on some card you can't see what tile types the card can be played on because the ribbon completley obscures the icons Summary: Overall I had a good time with the game. The core gameplay is fun and I like the visual design. I hope they put out additional content so I can get some more gameplay out of it.

Really fun little puzzle game. Played the first couple of scenarios and enjoyed playing differently in each one. Unlocking new cards and building my deck up seems really fun and looking forward to diving into the other scenarios and unlocking more cards.

We’ve been a fan of Birdworks since we met them a few years ago at a convention and played Governor of the West, so we were honoured when they asked us to check out Isles and Tiles. They are definitely developing their own unique art style and I&T looks lovely. It has this perfect blend of simplicity and vibrancy that relaxes you as soon as it starts up, and even though some of the later levels can be a wee bit stressful, the whole vibe of the game keeps you mellow and chilled out. The gameplay is simple to grasp but really starts to make you think when more cards and challenges are unlocked down the line. It’s the perfect game to pick up and play for half an hour here and there when you want to test your cognitive skills. Birdworks seem to specialise in turning board game/card game type concepts into video games and we love it!

Awesome game that draws you in to play more & more, i looked at the clock and nearly two hours had gone! Would Definitely recommend!

Each quest-driven run is quick & appealing. More quests and levels would be great to see along with added longevity. What's here is a lot of fun though and works so nicely on the steam deck thanks to the simple UI and large visual elements. Relaxing base & deck-building with nice atmosphere thanks to the music and visuals plus lots of cards to unlock. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipmrXiTTEMg

I love these little puzzler games from Birdworks, Governor of the West was great fun and easy to pick up and put down as and when I got a bit of time. Isles and Tiles is even better, it looks gorgeous and the music really helps to set a relaxing tone. It’s not easy either! Having played it for our Bucket List Gamers podcast I bought my own copy so I could play it whenever I wanted, and I immediately got my ass handed to me on my first go 😂 For around a tenner you’ll get a lot of game out of this, and you’ll be helping a great indie developer at the same time!

The game start is currently way too samey, with no reason to go deep into the tech tree. Of my 1.5 hours on record, maybe 15 minutes of that was spent on interesting choices. I'm not inspired enough to grind for more content. I'll be filing for a refund. There are 6 "modes" you can play, but again they are very samey. For example, one is to gain population, and another is to gain mana generation, and another is place tiles. Guess how you gain mana? By getting population. Which you need to place tiles to do. So all 3 of those modes feel the same, which you can do by playing the exact same starter deck. Here's how every run plays out currently: At the start stone is the bottleneck resource, and you're trying to get your stone+wood engine going to have at least a church and a house or two to make mana before the end of the 2nd year so you don't die. After that maybe you plop down some more houses and churches to ensure you have all the mana you need and will never lose, you just reroll your hand constantly until you draw the building/terrain you need to make the goal number go up, and then you win. Maybe if the game started with more card unlocks my opinion would be different. But as it stands, completing a run for a couple of new cards, that don't really change the gameplay that much, just isn't worth it.

Has potential, but at this point it's incredibly repetitive and there's really only one strat to win. There is no logical progression through the card unlocks, in fact it's better to not unlock any new ones because they'll just clutter up your hand for the intended goals. One scenario remains locked and there is no hint on how to unlock it (rune one). There is also no sandbox mode, which I would've expected from a cosy game. Positives: Great OST but would love some variety in it, friendly UI, goals and mechanics are clear for those who read the cards. Art style is also lovely. However the positives were not enough for me to keep playing and I've refunded the game. Hopefully I'll come back to it after improvements in the future, because it really does have potential.

I bought this because first of all I just love hex tiles games and I have rarely been disappointed so far and secondly because the graphics are just my cup of tea. For now, there are 6 scenarios which have their own focus (population, gold, island size...) and 5 difficulty levels. By finishing games, you earn points to unlock a lot of new cards and upgrades. You can manage your deck by filtering cards in your library. I only have played a handful of games so far but I already know this one is definitely a keeper! Settings are basic but sufficient. I prefer playing on the Steam Deck upon PC. The UI has its issues but they already made changes (incl. UI size slider) according to player feedback. For me, this, responsive devs, is already a star earned. Oh, apparently there is a workshop scenario but I won't check that out until I unlocked most of the cards by normal play so I can't give feedback on that. EDIT: After the update, I went back to PC. Even it played very well on the deck, it's so much nicer to see the world in big :) The workshop scenario provides a sandbox mode. I have unlocked all achievements now. It definitely gets much easier once you unlock most useful cards. It's just the very beginning that still can be a bit tricky. Except to get some artifact achievements, I finished all remaining ones with the same deck, having a bunch of cards disabled. But even when not using a lot of others anymore (they were useful at some point, like desert camps for the population achievement) it was each time still fun to go for the goal. For the rest... I noticed running in the house a bit after playing still having the music in my head or even humming it out loud but I guess it's only because I like the game so much :) When they ever bring out more scenario's, I'll be there!

Je ne sais pas trop si je dois recommander ce jeu. D'un côté, le principe est génial. Utiliser des cartes pour construire est ludique, le fait de créer notre archipel (avec en plus des cartes pour élever ou abaisser le terrain) est original, les synergie entres les terrains et les batiments sont bien fait, tout comme le système de mana... Les défis aux différents niveaux de difficulté sont bien. Toutefois je trouve le jeu mal équilibré, parfois cela n'est pas gênant mais pour le coup ça réduit le plaisir de jeu. La pierre est plus difficile à produire est en plus elle est très utiliser. Quand on débloque des cartes après nos victoires dans les parties, c'est en partie aléatoire. En regardant les signes au dos des cartes on peut voir quel type de carte on va débloquer mais on ne sait pas exactement ce que c'est donc c'est très furstrant si on en débloque une qui ne va pas nous être utile... Il faut beaucoup de chance pour tomber sur les cartes qu'on veut, même plus que dans beaucoup de jeux de carte, là encore cela devient frustrant. Je ne sais pas si ça s'améliore après avoir obtenu beaucoup de carte (donc beaucoup de partie, surtout qu'il n'y a pas énormement d'objectifs différent même s'ils sont bien) mais je fais un peut trop souvent les mêmes cartes, c'est lassant. D'autant qu'on débloque assez rapidement des batiments qui permettent de produire des ressources pour des batiments avancés... mais qu'on a pas ceux-ci... Un jeu donc très bien dans son concept mais à jouer à petite dose pour ne pas se lasser (et bien faire attention autant que possible aux cartes qu'on débloque...) Je recommande malgré tout pour encouragement car le concept est très bien.