SAELIG

SAELIG feels like a game that nobody else is making anymore. The easiest comparison is probably an accessible, approachable version of Dwarf Fortress crossed with The Guild and The Sims, but even that doesn't fully capture it. It's part life simulator, part business tycoon, part dynasty game, and part medieval sandbox. One moment you're baking bread to keep your shop running. The next you're hiring employees, buying property, arranging marriages, managing supply chains, and planning how your children will inherit your growing business empire. What makes SAELIG special is that the world exists independently of the player. NPCs have homes, jobs, relationships, schedules, needs, and ambitions. Shops open and close. Goods become scarce. People get married, have children, gain wealth, and climb the social ladder. The town doesn't exist simply to serve you — you're just another person trying to build a life in medieval Wales. The emergent stories are where the game truly shines: * running out of flour and scrambling to secure a supply before your bakery stalls, * surviving raids and recovering economically, * expanding from a single trade into a network of businesses, * watching your family grow across generations, * seeing employees, neighbors, and rivals become part of your own story. It scratches an itch somewhere between Dwarf Fortress, The Guild, RimWorld, and a medieval life simulator, while remaining far more approachable than most games in that space. There really is nothing quite like it. That said, SAELIG can still be rough around the edges: * inventory management can become cumbersome, * the UI takes time to learn, * some systems are poorly explained, * and the early game can feel slower and more survival-focused than some players may expect. A few settings tweaks made a huge difference for me: * longer days, * disabling player needs (otherwise a surprising amount of time is spent eating and sleeping), * and adjusting world settings to focus more heavily on business, dynasty, and town simulation. Once the game clicked, I found myself thinking less about maximizing profits and more about the people living in my town and how they fit into the larger story unfolding around me. In an era where most management games focus on factories, production lines, and optimization spreadsheets, SAELIG feels refreshingly human. Ambitious, unique, imperfect, and strangely addictive. Most importantly, it feels like a genre that the industry largely abandoned years ago — and one that I didn't realize I missed until I played it.

This is one of those niche hidden gems filling the void that people who enjoy games like Europa 1400 or The Guild 2 and desperately looking for a spiritual successor might feel, especially after the scam that was The Guild 3. In this game, you get to control a character.. and the rest is kinda on you. Except unlike The Guild games you can even start as a local nobody looking for a job so he can afford his first own workshop. Rags to riches runs are real here. You also get to fight raiders. It's very obviously a labor of love of a single guy who has been working on this game for long years and is actively updating it. Last year he literally even apologized for not updating it fast enough (had a surgery and his pet cat has passed). Take note AAA publishers. It is well worth the price tag and then some.

"Saelig" was the answer to "Are there any games like Kenshi out there?" in a lot of places I checked. I understood that it was a medieval settlement game, no necessarily a city builder, although you can make it into one within certain parameters probably, but... Combat isn't the main focus of the game at all, but it is there. Viking raids in varying levels of difficulty (including not being there at all) do come periodically, and add a good element of needing to defend your developing community. But again, this isn't the main focus. The main focus is that there isn't a main focus. But in terms of gameplay, the basics are pretty basic. You'll start with different scenarios, say a wandering former champion, now with a few silver and some good gear. You can rob dudes, waylay carts, break into homes...or you could go out hunting, collect some materials, trade them in for more silver. Or you can look for a job in town with an established business. If you're into music, you can be an entertainer (most) or even a beggar (drummer). All that, however, is just the start. Or it could be the end too, just do that to your heart's content until you make some money to buy some new pants. Or a hut. A pants hut. The mid-game to end is a fairly complex logistics game of establishing businesses and supply routes to those businesses. The trailer is a good portrayal - you can be all of those things, successfully, with a little patience. It's not an instant gratification, it's a slower grind with steps that give the little dopamine hits fairly regularly. I'm old, like 51, and with 24+ hours or some crap in the game, I'm just getting into a groove. I wouldn't think my ancient a$s would be able to stick with a game any more, kind of lost interest. This game sparked me back into enjoying games. So I've got some Monolord in the background and settling a new land (new realm Wealas Mearc dropped!) in the foreground. TL;DR - Game's fun, deep, fairly complex but simple enough to enjoy. Totally recommend. p.s. The developer, Atorcoppe, is fantastic. Actively updates, responds in Discord; and again, I'm old, man. I don't like using stuff like Discord. I like it now though.

I love the game, but I have a few critiques. For starters, the NPC habitants aren't ambitious enough. As a player, I don't have many threats to contend with. I like that every NPC is capable of being a threat, but they take little action with their resources. When a rich NPC moves to town they don't buy up land and start a business. They demonstrate little agency. Continuing with NPC behavior, The NPCs have little character. They don't make alliances. I don't see relationships develop. As a personal preference, I enjoy a little roleplaying. I'm certain giving them personality would take resources that an indie developer doesn't have, so I'm fine with that not happening. On the topic of banks or lords, I'm comfortable with there being no bank from which to borrow money from, but having debts with interest rates to contend with be an interesting feature. They could seize your property. Another thing, caravans are far too profitable. They should be manned and have fees or taxes to contend with a business venture. There is no risk of theft or goods not selling. If there is the risk of theft, then there could be armed escorts. Currently, It is basically magic that makes you rich. I want to manage risk. This is kind of nitpicky, but horse carts don't have an upkeep cost. It is a fact that horses aren't cheap, and they age. It is convenient that they drive themselves, but why and how? However, it makes total sense that they can pull more cargo. I've really enjoyed the game thus far, and I will continue to enjoy it. Thank you for continuing to support it.

I am in love with this game honestly. I just sort of become aware of The Guild 2 recently but it was too politically focused for me specifically, and wished that is would have just a TINY bit more RPG elements to it. This game scratches that itch PERFECTLY. It's a bit of a mix between The Guild 2 and Medieval Dynasty while still being exactly its own thing. And I LOVE that it has a wiki made by the developer so you KNOW it's up to date and it's so clean and easy to follow. The game also runs great for my laptop at least! I would love to see some features added too as the development goes on! The Mans Best Friend start is really cool, an immortal dog that follows you around and you can pet him! But I think it'd be really cool if he could be either replaced with the wolf so he can help you in combat, or be able to hunt small game for you, just so you can really feel that bond of actually DOING stuff with him :) Maybe even an option that allows you to just pick between them? This is going to sound terrible... but I would also love if there was a way to break up a marriage between two NPCs and to convince a temp NPC from the military or merchant camps to leave and stay with you. Just to add a bit of drama! I think the game could also stand to have more weapons and armor, armor especially as there are only three kinds in the game. Even if its just variety of appearance because a lot of people start looking samey once they start buying armor. Also, in that vein, maybe as an advanced option add armor durability so that people will come back to buy armor again one day? I kind of wish you could also mix some of the starts. I would love to be a drunk with a dog so I can have the thirst meter for extra challenge but still have whatever other bonus I like. Maybe even just moving the drunk to be more a advanced option or maybe even in the character creation you can choose to have a vice or be clean?

Um jogo espetacular! Lembra Kenshi, The Guild, você tem liberdade pra ser o que quiser: um padeiro, açougueiro, caçador, ter uma cabana de ervas, uma taverna, um lenhador, um ladrão, pode combater, ser padre, ter uma brigada de fogo, se casar e ter filhos pra continuar o legado, gerenciar funcionários, ter galinhas, gado, uma doca, infinitas possibilidades. Mas fica o aviso - tem pouca qualidade de vida, você se perde com as câmeras e demora um pouco pra pegar o jeito.

This is 100% a simulation game just so it's clear what you're getting into. If that's not your thing then you won't enjoy this. Essentially a better, modern, version of The Guild. Very fun, very chill. Good music. Solid gameplay loop.

In a few words Saelig is a cozy viking-age city/business manager. You start the game by doing the tutorial, which feels overwhelming at first, because there seems to be quite a fair bit more going on than just moving a character from here to there. But once you start to get a handle on things the game opens up to be a very cozy manager type of game where you buy land and create activities for the towns people, you can set up rent for houses you build and salaries for workers at your shops and all kinds of things as time goes on. [b]I highly recommend turning off aging[/b] for your character and learn all of the mechanics first, otherwise it might die from old age in the middle of some serious managing. There is a marriage system so you can have heirs, you can hunt, mine, chop wood, do archery and some single unit rts style combat to fend off invaders, you can start with a complete blank of a map to make a town from scratch to build a city of your own design, although, where you can build is pre-planned by the devs probably due to some restrictions, but that is all fine, it works. And lots more. My enjoyment score for this game is: 86% Again, cozy. Still early access, but that hopefully means they add more things in the future.

This is one of the most under rated city builder/ economy sim I have ever played

Fun game