Settlemoon

Really cute and cozy game that I enjoyed checking in on a few times a day. I got emotionally invested in the little scraps of story about [ENDING SPOILERS][spoiler]helping a sad moth who lost their partner, but after all that work and heavy implication that we're getting their partner back, all we're rewarded with is the town being deleted and a cutscene where someone logs off their computer and goes outside[/spoiler]. I guess the message is [spoiler]"it's all a game and none of it mattered, now go touch grass" but that feels like a really undeserved slap in the face as a "reward" for getting invested enough in the setting to keep playing. I touch grass already, I just wanted a little closure for the town and characters.[/spoiler] This message does nothing for me but recontextualize my enjoyment of the game into something I should feel bad about, which is enough for me to feel down on the experience overall.

I want to like this game. It's got great style and it's got moths. Both of which I'm pretty fond of. But the gameplay is just.... bad. This fits into the niche of games that obfuscate how their gameplay works behind cryptic visual instructions and displays. That's not necessarily a bad thing... but how this game does it is. There are mechanics throughout the game that I've played a majority of the game and still have no idea how they actually work or what they do, because the game doesn't explain them beyond vague pictures. Cryptic instructions only work for game concepts that are either simple enough or there is some form of learning curve where you understanding of how the mechanic works can improve over time. are shown a series of pictures. If you don't understand the concept... that's it. To be fair, you can probably continue playing as I did and simply ignore the concept and accidentally achieve the result, but that's just further bad gameplay design. You don't actually want gameplay mechanics to be ignorable most of the time. The second part about this being poorly designed is the idle aspect. The amount of time spent actually playing this game is minimal. Again, it's idle, so you do expect there to be long periods of not playing it, but the amount of time you spend not playing it is constant throughout. There's no actual time spent getting you interested in the game. You spend effectively the same ratio of idle time to gameplay time from start to finish. Including from the very beginning of the game which is usually a time in idle games where more in-game time is expected to get you actually interested in the game. You hop on for 5 minutes, collect your sales and completed quests, convert items to shop goods, place down a building or two if you're still building, and then hop off for around 6 hours. This is the EXACT gameplay loop from the very beginning of the game.It never changes, down to the period of time it takes to do everything you need in town to how long you spend idle. You DO get a building later on that can extend the amount of time idle (based on the length of the moon items you used), but it feels almost wholly unnecessary because you always have moon items available and there's only minimal benefits to different moon phases. I've put a decent chunk of time into this game because I really wanted there to be... something good about it. It really does have a lovely style... but that's about it. The gameplay just isn't there. There's no strategic choices with building. You can, in theory, carefully place buildings and decorations to maximize the maximum level of your town, but there's effectively no need to. There's no strategic choice of what you choose to sell, since you can effectively dump your items into whatever you want and still have enough to pay for new quests. This is effectively the worst-case scenario for an idle game, with the exception of a very pleasant graphical style. I tried to like it, I really did, but after sticking through a decent 2 weeks of owning the game, I just can't actually come up with a portion of the game that was worth playing.

风格非常奇异……，大体上可以认为是：城镇建造 + 模拟经营 + 少女换装(?)[spoiler]+ 人外狂喜(??) + 角色养成（指养成你的异形头好友）[/spoiler]的长线放置收菜游戏。 [list] [*]剧情背景虚构了一个MMORPG，在此地月亮消失了，主角这个“玩家”在没有月亮的游戏世界一边经营冒险者小镇点亮一片天空，发任务、开酒馆和建造越来越丰富的建筑吸引前赴后继的冒险者们，一边探寻世界的真相。 [*]画风虽然独特可爱，但是真的很晦涩难懂，游戏里的描述性语言很少，涉及世界观的一部分又是架空文字（类似TUNIC），刻意制作得较为隐晦，导致从剧情到玩法都很难懂……不过难懂也意味着很有意思！只要明白基础操作，其实是很简单轻松的游戏。而且游戏的BGM是由冒险者们——其它的玩家演奏的，这点我也非常喜欢，真的是很独特的游戏…… [*]需要提及的一点是，与传统模拟经营相比，此游戏节奏真的很慢——很慢，我认为是以“长线放置游戏”（大约6-12h的离线周期）来设计的，所以只喜欢经营不喜欢放置的or急性子玩家要谨慎购入。离线状态仍然可以享受完整的收益，所以请把它当作一个收菜游戏，或是一个电子生态缸。 [*]这是属于我个人的感受：尽管我仍然对这个可爱又忧伤的世界深深隐藏的秘密感到困惑，但我真的已经爱上它了，这个我亲手搭建的、像家一样舒适和温暖的小镇子，就在这里长久地等待着我的照顾和朋友们不期然的造访。请常回家看看吧。 [/list] [hr][/hr] 游戏本身没有中文，不过少量英文的教程文字也非常简单。我写了一份含有图文的关于基础操作的[url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3456101285]中文指南[/url]，希望对中文玩家上手有所帮助（虽然我自己也没有完全弄懂，之后随时回来更新！） 其实这个UI和操作模式很像移动端的，但竟然是发布在PC上的，键鼠操作起来可能很不适应，习惯就好了。总之是风格很特别的游戏，也不算很贵，我先（不负责任地）推荐大家来玩一下！ 此外，也不需要玩得太纠结，钱和材料该花就花吧，毕竟[spoiler]一周目结束会删档——不过二周目还是有新增内容的！[/spoiler] [hr][/hr] 编辑：2025.6.10 二周目及全成就达成。我好爱你们，和我一起眺望着日落的大家……再见了，但我们还会在下一次重逢的！要幸福啊……

I thought this game was fun, and I kept playing it in hopes that I would figure out the story or suddenly realize what other reviewers were talking about, but I never actually had that happen I beat all the bosses, I bought all the buildings, I looked through all the little books, and the complete lack of words or explanations of the story really hurt my enjoyment of the game. Its a fun little idle game where you run shops and send people on quests, but I had to stop and look up the actual story once I complete it, and I recognized some pieces that were described, but I couldn't pick up on any of that while playing It's not a bad game, but if you're looking at the reviews of people talking about the story and "just stick with it, you'll figure it out!" after playing for 10-15 minutes and have come to the community pages to try and figure out what you're missing, It's not gonna suddenly make sense or become more clear. It's a fun little idle game, but that's all

I love being able to play an idle game that is specifically built to be closed not long after it's opened. Makes every time I reopen the game to update my shops and check on my town and hear the visiting players play music feel all the more special. Incredibly sweet and comfortable game to play with zero stress in learning about it's plot and mechanics

I LOVE that this is the kind of idle game that encourages you to not just step away from it, but close it entirely! I typically dislike idle games for the constant running they require and hardware resources they demand, and I tend to find city sims boring in concept- but something about this just hit the Right Itch!!! The celestial timers are really cool- it means the game doesnt progress forever! For the starry sky, time only passes for 12 hours, for the moon time passes for 6 hours or so- meaning that it's MUCH more manageable if you completely forget about it!! Maybe I'm just the type of weirdo this game is built for, but I also found figuring out how to play and the tutorial rather easy! the moths are hints as to where to click next, and the point seems to be to click and mess around and experiment, its really fun! the fancy letters from bosses are optional to decode, and for now, I'm just happily making my town better before and after work shifts. Also plays great on steam deck!

Игра, которая выглядит гораздо лучше, чем играется. У тебя есть куча книг с загадочными рисунками, куча построек, которые что-то делают, какие-то люди, которые бродят туда-сюда, костюмы, квесты, "друзья"... Не очень понятно, как этим пользоваться, но, наверное, что-то интересное! Когда же дым рассеивается, выясняется, что это примитивная до крайности Idle-игра, с простейшим геймлупом: "поставь квесты для героев, чтобы они принесли ресурсы, построй на ресурсы магазины, продай в магазинах вещи героям, на полученные деньги оплати квесты, чтобы получить больше ресурсов". Ну, ок, "основной сюжет" заключается в том, что ты имеешь возможность поставить квесты на всё более мощных боссов, пока они, наконец, не кончатся. И ещё там есть "погода", которая даёт доступ к специфическим ресурсам, недоступным в другие виды погоды. И чтобы эту погоду вызвать, нужно выращивать определённые виды бабочек. Только это так же автоматически, как и боссы. И есть огромное количество "тематических" строений, которые во-первых, негде строить (после четвёртого босса места едва хватает, чтобы разместить значимые постройки), а во-вторых, всё, что они дают - это ускоренный прогресс героев и повышение уровня посёлка. Всё, больше ничего нет (или я больше ничего не увидел). Так что ты включаешься раз в день, оплачиваешь квесты за счёт денег из магазинов, засовываешь в магазины ресурсы, полученные из этих квестов, и выключаешься до следующего дня. Периодически герои дорастают до следующего босса, ты получаешь несколько новых загадочных писем и новые ресурсы, чтобы построить парочку новых зданий, а также квест на следующего босса. Больше ничего не происходит. Грустно. :(

Hands down, the most fun I've ever had with an idle game. Absolutely charming and engaging from beginning to end. There are so much love and care put into this game, so many great moments, so many tiny details that are just delightful. The art is endearing, the background music lovely, and I'm in love with its approach to storytelling/world-building. Everything is just so [i]expressive[/i]. A major part of the game is that it is deliberately somewhat obtuse at first. Nothing feels bizarrely or unfairly obtuse: there's just elements of the UI and basic mechanics that become clearer as you progress and experiment. If you want a game about strict optimization, this won't scratch that itch. But if slowly delving into a game's mysterious elements -- its lore, its mechanics, its UI -- is up your alley, you'll love this. One thing this doesn't have which fans of idle games might expect is the kind of super explosive growth that you get from games like Cookie Click, Universal Paperclips, etc. Your growth is linear and reasonably bounded. There is satisfying progress to be had, but if the joy you get from idle games is going from making 1 cookie a second to a quindecillion cookies per second, you won't find that here. (Play it anyway, though.) As my final endorsement, this game got me to make two documents and a spreadsheet out of appreciation for it, as well as physical notes on the game's conlang (which is not in any way necessary to decipher to play, but adds some additional texture to the visual backstory you get). I have a document for recording every instance of the conlang in an attempt to better understand it, another that puts the backstory in chronological order, and a spreadsheet that I used to track things I was working towards and basic economic things I noted. (This turned out to be unnecessary: the game's economy is chill, and going on vibes is totally fine.) 10/10 game.

This game's tutorial is virtually non-existent because it tries to be one of those stylish visual-only explanation games, which is, in my opinion, an absolutely horrendous design choice for a game in a genre where 99% of the gameplay is menus. I tried streaming this for my partner alongside some other idle games I picked up on sale and after twenty minutes he wanted me to stream something else because the game is utterly incomprehensible, and I felt about the same. (Mind you, this is someone who I've streamed ~6+ hours of the Gnorp Analogue for.) Were this game a few dollars, I could forgive that issue, but when you pay 7.50$ (let alone the full 15$) for an idle game, you expect a premium experience, not a game that doesn't even have a legible tutorial. THAT SAID, I will note that the game has a very cute art style, and the music is charming. In addition, based on the update notes over the last few months, the developer has been trying to make the game more accessible, which I think should be commended. Combined with the overall positive reviews, I'm sure there is a charming enough game buried here if you're willing to try and decipher its workings, but it's up to you whether that's worth 15$ or not.

I can't tell if anything I am doing does anything. This might be the worst game I have played on steam excluding ones that just literally don't function. As someone who loves idle games and city builders I am almost left wondering if the positive reviews are bots. After laying down to try this before bed it was so bad that I actively got up out of bed to go refund this game.