Virtual Villagers

Gameplay

The games are based on puzzles and strategy and have an underlying motive throughout with a fusion of ethnic and cultural backgrounds surrounding a mythical island called Isola. There are four portions to the island, in which the game is set, being the cardinal points of the compass.

In the first game, A New Home, islanders have lived in peace for many years on their island; but, one day, a volcano erupted and destroyed their home. The survivors fled and discovered another island called Isola, where they make their new home.^[3] There, they must uncover the secrets and puzzles of Isola and create a village. This game is based around organizing and growing a village to develop villagers with more skill sets, culminating in giving birth to a child with all five skill sets.

Virtual Villagers: A New Home

After their previous island is destroyed by a catastrophe, a group of villagers find Isola as their new home.

Virtual Villagers is a downloadable real-time simulation game developed by Last Day of Work, the creators of Fish Tycoon and a number of other casual sim games. Take charge of a village of crash survivors and help them carve out a living on a jungle island. Teach them to farm, help them research scientific advancements and expand their population. It's a remarkably addictive game that's easy to play but impossible to stay away from!

You begin with a small handful of untrained villagers. Teach them to perform various tasks such as farming, building, researching, breeding and healing. An extremely helpful tutorial guides you through the game's basics, but everything operates on a simple drag-and-drop mechanic. Want to train a scientist? Drop a villager on the research table. Need to pick berries for food? Drag someone over the berry bush. Villagers may not take to a task immediately, so sometimes you'll have to be persistent.

Once you get everything started, it's time to leave your people alone. Virtual Villagers plays out in real-time so even when the game isn't running the villagers are working hard. Each time you play you'll see the fruits of their labor and can give them new directions or just check up on their progress. You can also adjust the speed to anticipate any gaps in your playing time or to get things moving a little more quickly. Virtual Villagers is just as much about waiting as it is playing.

The strategy in Virtual Villagers comes from how many villagers you assign to each task and how you choose to upgrade your abilities. You accumulate Tech points by getting people to do scientific research. Use these points to upgrade your population's building skills, farming abilities, etc. With each new level opens more possibilities of exploration and survival. The trick is managing which abilities get upgraded first and how you use those new skills to better your village.