Slipways came out today on Steam – there was a demo for it about a month ago that I got quite a bit of entertainment out of, and I somehow played another 3 hours of it today already.
I would describe it as a mix of a board game, puzzle game, and a 4x. The object of the game is to maximize your points over the span of 25 years. Over that time, you explore a section of the galaxy, colonize planets, build structures, research technology, and connect everything with trade routes (the titular “slipways”). Your score, then, is a combination of the success of your colonies (how efficiently they trade with each other), your legacy (how many objectives you completed), and your empire size, all multiplied by the happiness of your people.
The core loop of the game is a very satisfying optimization puzzle. Each planet type has a list of industries it supports – which will convert a resource to another resource – but you’re only ever allowed to put ONE of these industries on the planet. You then connect your planets together with “slipways”, which are permanent trade lanes that cannot be overlapped. As planets import and export more resources, they become more prosperous and happy. If a planet can’t import the resource it wants or if too many people are sitting around unemployed then they’ll become unhappy.
I find there are very few “no-brainer” plays in this game. The resource loops you build are rarely trivial, and you’re always looking for the next-best place to spend your limited time and money. And since most of the decisions you make are permanent, you’re encouraged to play in a way that keeps your options open until you get better technology later in the game. The physical layout of the planets often changes your strategy quite a bit, and I find myself building quite different technology on any given game.
Very cool puzzle 4x; definitely recommend it if a randomized optimization puzzle sounds fun to you. Store page says it takes about an hour per game, which I’m close to now, but I was hitting 2ish hours per game while I was learning.
I would recommend randomizing your factions for your first few games. There’s a lot of different possible technologies and perks and it’s definitely information overload if you try to fiddle with that from the beginning, especially when you don’t know how the game plays yet. You’ll know if/when you want to engage with that system later.
EDIT: oh, and there’s a free Pico-8 version of the game that’s now called “Slipways Classic” which came out first. It plays very similarly but with an annoyingly small screen, less tooltips, less space, and less technology. If you like the Pico-8 game, you’ll almost certainly like the full game. It would be a pretty good “demo” of the game if you can stomach the tiny interface.
on every level in Alien Death Mob. No special reward or achievement or even a notification in game. I’m honestly fine with that. It was a fun 4 hours.
