Technotopia

The core gameplay loop is a nice little puzzle of balancing resources. Each turn you choose a card which allows you to place a tile on the board (or do something else) to generate resources for each of the 4 resource groups, and there is a resource expense for each group at the end of the round, if any resource hits 0 then it's game over. I found that gameplay loop to be pretty good but I wasnt hooked on the story. The music fit the theme nicely. I also like how the story can be completed in chunks rather than in missions so if you do a little bit of the mission and then fail you keep your progress when you start again. The only thing I would have liked is if middle mouse moved the map (i didnt see that setting), and if the card you selected is lifted up until you place it because you might want to switch.

Je n'ai pas encore terminé le jeu mais je pense l'avoir suffisamment cerné, du moins la boucle de gameplay. Technotopia est un roguelite deckbuilider sur le thème de city builder. On incarne une IA chargée de batir la ville parfaite. Pour cela on dispose d'un deck de carte correspondant à des batiments à poser sur l'un des emplacements de la carte pour les construire ou entamer leur construction. Une fois la construction terminé, selon le type de batiment, on reçoit des ressources (de la monnaie) ou bonus qui nous aideront à poursuivre dans cette tâche. La première difficulté vient du fait que tous les tours les dépenses en ressource pour entretenir la ville évolue que ce soit de par nos actions directs ou indirects et tous les 10 tours, c'est le moment de régler ces dépenses. La deuxième difficulté vient du fait que le jeu est peuplé par au moins 4 factions, chacune de ces factions présentera des problèmes de façon aléatoire dont il faudra venir en aide ou pas. Cependant, aider une faction revient généralement à délaisser au moins une autre, et cela s'exprimera par l'augmentation des dépenses de la faction délaissée. Puisque le jeu se termine lorsque vous n'avez plus assez de ressources pour assumer les dépense d'au moins une des factions, il va falloir faire des choix. La dernière difficulté que j'ai noté est la présence de mission, à ce sujet je n'en dirais pas plus. Pour conclure Technotopia donne l'impression d'être un jeu simple voire trop simple mais est en réalité assez complexe sur le plan de la gestion. Combiner avec un style graphique que j'apprécie, simple tout en étant travaillé et moderne. D'autant plus qu'il n'est pas cher. Edit : je ne vous recommande pas de tenter le 100% sur ce jeu, en effet le tout dernier accomplissement est lié à une influence aléatoire. Comme je l'ai évoqué, j'ai beaucoup apprécié ce jeu cependant la tentative du 100% m'a grandement dégouté du jeu. J'arrête définitivement d'y jouer avec un sentiment amer. C'est dommage

Mouse and keyboard controls can't be remapped...

Хорошая игра, приходящаяся за пару вечеров. Очень не хватало режима песочницы, для медитативной застройки

If Erte was an architecht, this would be his dream. The gameplay is simple yet difficult, the music is decent - quiet piano. There won't be a lot of coming back for more to Techotopia, but it's worth what I paid for it.

Good one

Неплохой градостроительный симулятор. Сюжет как бы есть, но и внимания на нем не зацикливается. Музыка приятная, как и визуальный стиль. Если хотите скоротать время - эта игра для вас. К ознакомлению рекомендую - 10/10.

Technotopia is set in an alternate reality where economic models have been pushed to their extreme leading to the rise of four major factions controlling the city of Technotopia. With each faction competing with the rest for rival interests, the four heads decide to divest governance to a newly developed artificial intelligence, Iris. In a town rife with political unrest, Iris must try her best to please each faction, or risk being decommissioned. ​The meta-narrative around Technotopia focuses on Iris's attempts to retake control of the city from the four factions. After a few cycles of attempting to build up the city, it becomes clear that so long as the four factions can control Iris's code, they will intentionally sabotage her algorithms for their own personal gain. ​Iris's journey is not a solo-mission, as she's accompanied by her father, Architect, the genius inventor who developed Iris's code. Architect acts as an advisor, instructing Iris on how to navigate Technotopia's political climate. The story has four side narratives, each tied to a member of the faction. These side stories involve things like helping the upper class develop a new theatre, or aiding a high ranking politician to win an election. However, these "quests" are excuses for Iris to get close enough to each faction leader to install a virus into their systems, preventing them from being able to shut down her programming. ​While the writing did not leave me slack jawed in amazement, I found it to be a nice little narrative which leans into political intrigue and economic commentary. There are a few side characters who have little arcs which resolve themselves nicely, and the game is short enough that the story is not too spread out across an average playthrough. ​Technotopia is both a deckbuilder and city builder, which incentivizes the player balancing their resources. Iris starts the game with a simple deck of buildings in her deck of cards. Playing a card to construct a building consumes a turn, and there are ten turns in a round. At the end of each round, Iris needs to pay out the city upkeep expenses. Failing to pay out all the expenses at the end of the tenth round results in a game over, and initiates a new run. There are four resources, representing the influence among the four factions of Technotopia. Every building has a faction type, with yellow stores contributing to the business resource, while red factories contribute to the worker party. If buildings are placed in a certain configuration, Iris also gets a corresponding shape bonus. For example, a 2x2 square is a bonus for the worker party, so if Iris assembles a 2x2 square of factories she gets a big bonus of her red resource; however, she could also assemble a 2x2 square of yellow stores which would give her modest bonuses to both the business and worker resources. The ultimate goal of the game is to fully enclose four buildings spread out to the far diagonals of the map. Iris can also encounter random events, where she must chose how to resolve a conflict. Iris's choices have a wide range of effects like reducing the resource requirements at the end of the round, with repeated pandering to a specific party sometimes yielding large rewards later on. Technotopia's gameplay loop is compelling, with the constant dopamine hits from optimally filling out the grid being a compelling reason to play through till the credits roll. ​ I would recommend Technotopia as a roguelite. I appreciated that it was not a painful grind to reach the credits, and that the win conditions were clearly laid out. The game offers a lot of ways to mitigate bad RNG, and I liked that it had a story to accompany the gameplay. It's not quite a roguelite utopia, but the developers built a fun game on the foundation of a solid gameplay loop.

This has been one of the best indie games that I have played in the modern city. The art style is wonderful, the music is fantastic (albeit a little loud), and the gameplay is basic enough to learn, yet complicated enough to keep you coming back. The game adds more buildings and shapes over time, and the pacing feels appropriate. The only negative I will give this game is the story, but for $5 at full-price, I cannot complain. I absolutely recommend this game to anyone looking for something a little different to enjoy for a few hours. The story took me about 8 hours, but I kept grinding for the achievements, and had left the game running sometimes to listen to the music around the house. Bravo, Alawar!

Сюжет прошел за час, закрыл 100% достижений за 3,5 часа. Нууууууу такое.