The Wandering Village

I have now completed the latest iteration, all of the achievements.

This is a good game. Let's get that out of the way first. The graphics, animations and thought put into the systems is great.

I typically get frustrated by sims which throw too much of a random challenge at you. Catastrophic collapse might be realistic, but it's sure annoying. But I found doing the hard difficulty actually made it a challenge I felt encouraged to deal with. And you can tell the developers have thought about the recovery from body blows you'll sometimes get, where your city goes through forests of spoors and pests and your entire orchard is rotting in the field and you've run out of herbs. But people leave slowly, pests cause problems on timers to give you a chance to sort it out. You can replant berry trees and stock up on important medicines. So it doesn't feel unfair in ways RNG can be "clumpy" and give you several problems at once can often make a less thoughtful game really sting.

The one thing that I thing sticks out as a grump is using Orbu has a blood and bile source to get tier three foods. I think some more research options to convert mushrooms, or maybe berry seedlings into tier three foods would be fun. They don't have to be easy, just less parasitic maybe.

I think once you've completed the game, there's not a great deal of replayability. Hopefully this can be improved in later versions. A lot of developers put every feature and idea right into the players hands on every play through. But that's not needed, you can have a diminishing list of rare events, items, resources which might, but aren't guaranteed to happen on a play. But how to lay this out, I couldn't say. Only that I feel the devs care enough to make it better so hopefully I can replay it on the next update.

Fun, cozy, and a perfect balance of chill vs challenging :)

For some reason I didn't think I would like this game because of the simple graphics. I was WRONG. the mixture of 2D and 3D graphics actually adds charm, in my opinion. Onbu's design and animations are adorable! Why do I have the option to discipline her? :( She could never do any wrong.
The controls seem like a lot to take in at first but it became intuitive (with help from the tutorial).
The devs really care about this game. A group photo, a roadmap, a survey, etc. Very heart-warming. I can feel your creativity and hearts shine. I'm sorry for doubting your work. I was wrong.

taking care of onbu, which your village rests on, is such a cute mechanic and good metaphor for climate change. very fun city builder

Onbu is cute. Art is pretty. Villager AI have pretty solid pathing. No kind of biome map, you just sorta learn them as you go. A good city builder to kill a few hours (or days) in.

With so many games requiring constant quick reactions, high stake high tension, it's nice to have an atmospheric, methodical and original game that I can play before bed - while every choice matters, it's been a slow burn and does not feel like one miss move could undo your work; I can play it before bed and not sit there staring at the roof from the cortisol left in my brain. It's fun, it's relaxing, and there's lots to micro manage but at lower difficulties without such intensity that the balancing game feels unnatural

Stunning, but Not the Easiest to Settle Into

I really want to love The Wandering Village. It’s visually stunning and has such a unique, whimsical charm—like a city builder crossed with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. That vibe alone had me hooked right away.

But as someone with a learning disability, I have to be honest: the tutorial just hasn’t been very accessible or helpful. I’ve found myself struggling to figure out systems that could’ve been explained more clearly or intuitively. It’s disappointing, because there’s clearly a beautiful game underneath it all—and it checks a lot of boxes for me. I love city builders and anything with that Ghibli-esque feel.

I’m going to keep trying, because I really want to see more of what this game has to offer. But I do hope the developers consider improving the tutorial or adding more accessibility features in the future—for players like me who just need a bit more guidance to enjoy it fully.

Easy to lose track of time. Can be as chill or as challenging as you want it to be.

Best game ive played that though it changes time to time. It still keeps its charm an that being a challanging cozy game.

If you are playing this game because it was recommended to you by playing Frostpunk, the first thing I would say is don’t get this game. This game is not nearly as casual as the first Frostpunk. As a more traditional and involved city-builder, it’s great. The moving city mechanic is interesting, but if you were looking for something relatively simple and casual, this isn’t it.

I love this game, and have loved this game since I first laid eyes on it. It was before any of the big updates, it was a very small game at the time and I'm always here to support small devs. This game... Man, this game. It's so good. From the little people all marching around, holding things above their heads, the little wags of Onbu's tail and tongue when he's happy, the sounds of grumbles of his belly when he's upset, and the ideas that I've been given by my gf where kids of the villagers will just sometimes sit in big circles and start petting his back, hoping that the Onbu feels their love for him just makes my heart melt and my eyes weep. THIS game. THIS ONE RIGHT HERE. Big 'ol six legged, dinosaur puppy. I like to name him Onney, for Onney the Onbu. Onney is our friend and we take care of our friend. Thank you for this game, Stray fawn, we love you.

Such a large team for such a shallow game. I have to stare at their goofy picture starting game, almost like those dancing nurses memes in the empty hospitals. Like I'm just supposed to 'get it' and think they're wonderful. Weird. Wonderful is as wonderful does and solo/small team devs have made dozens of games that blow this out of the water.
Trying it for 4 hours or so just put me past refund point and by the end just had me wanting to play rimworld or even Age of Empires or something where I could actually do something or feel any real sense of depth and control over things.

This game was 100% worth getting! It strangely reminded me of Witch Hand (another of my favorite games) though I can't quite figure out why. Probably something to do with the resource management. Regardless, this game does a great job balancing a whimsical setting with a well thought out system of management for both the village and the Onbu it sits atop. Plus, the team making the game seem great!

"With the latest major update, the gameplay has improved significantly. The newly added third clay resource adds a bit more variety, while the new research tree is quite well-structured and expanded. You can feel that the game's foundation is now more solid as you play. I hope it reaches full release soon, but at this stage, buying and playing it is definitely not a bad choice.

Fun, but felt too easy even on the hardest difficulty. Sometimes you're at the mercy of RnG but with a little planning you'll smash through the game.

don't give them your money, theyre going to abandon this like theyve done to their two other games before this

The Wandering Village is one of those games that grabs your attention with its concept and keeps you hooked with its atmosphere and depth. The idea alone is brilliant: building a village on the back of a giant creature roaming through a post-apocalyptic world. But the execution? Even better.
As of now, the game feels polished, responsive, and full of heart. The developers are clearly listening to the community and consistently delivering meaningful updates. Each biome Onbu (the giant creature) walks through brings new challenges and opportunities, and the balance between caring for your people and respecting Onbu’s well-being adds a unique emotional layer to the gameplay.
The art style is gorgeous. Hand-drawn visuals, smooth animations, and a beautifully composed soundtrack give the game a calm but immersive atmosphere. It’s not overly fast-paced, but that works in its favor. You get time to think, adapt, and appreciate what you are building.
What stands out the most is how alive everything feels. Onbu is not just a backdrop, it is a living creature with its own moods and reactions. You feel responsible not only for your villagers but also for the massive being carrying them forward. That relationship is subtle, but it becomes surprisingly meaningful the longer you play.
There is a lot of room to grow, and that's exciting. The roadmap is promising, and even in its current state, the game offers many hours of thoughtful, rewarding gameplay.
If you enjoy city builders, survival games, or just want something with a fresh, creative soul, The Wandering Village is absolutely worth your time.

this is a great game and the developers put a lot of time onto making it good

In The Wandering Village (EA Build 0.10.6), you adapt to changing biomes while building a settlement on the back of a giant walking rock monster. It's a little Ghibli-esque, generally relaxing, and simple enough to learn; I'm having enough fun with it so far to recommend it.

What Works For Me

✅ The anime-style character and building art is reminiscent of old-school Ghibli. Also, Onbu is adorable.

✅ You can form a mutualistic symbiotic relationship with Onbu by studying it, directing it, catapulting mushrooms into its mouth (which is adorable), and healing it; or, if you're a sociopath, you can chop off its horns and whip it. Your actions affect Onbu's trust in you, which affects its behavior: if it trusts you, it wags its tail and roams around with head held high like a good rock-dog; but if it doesn't, you deserve what you get.

✅ You can zoom all the way in to spy on your villagers or all the way out to the board-game-like map using only your mouse scroll wheel.

✅ When you come to a fork in the road, Onbu gives you a moment to choose (by zooming out to the map and clicking the path you want) before forging ahead; different paths have different "road events" that can yield supplies or new nomads. You can also dispatch scavengers to collect rare items from nearby map locations.

✅ Onbu wanders into different biomes with varying air toxicity, temperature, and humidity. Poisonous air makes your villagers and Onbu sick; temperature affects which crops can grow; and humidity impacts how much water you can harvest. This is a really cool mechanic.

✅ Long research trees!

✅ While relatively slow-paced and chill on regular speed, 3X speed is pretty good for management junkies. I was bored even at 3X speed in Flotsam, but it feels like there's always more to do here.

What Doesn’t Work For Me

❎ If there's a way to play the campaign without the tutorial, I haven't figured it out yet. The tutorial is seemingly endless and always sitting on the side of your screen, telling you what to do next, and just - shut up, game, I do what I want.

❎The UI is… not great. Villager happiness metrics look more complicated than they are, and the constant red indicators when your air wells stop working or your villagers go on temporary hunger-strikes are more disruptive than helpful.

❎I hate the storage system. The different workstations have internal storage, and overflow materials can be stored in chests; but instead of a general capacity, chests holds (75) of each resource. This means that if you have (400) wood logs, the chest next to your chopping area holds (75) logs and (75) clay and (75) whatever, and the rest of your wood piles will be scattered across Onbu's back until someone eventually relocates them to another chest.

❎Villager AI is not smart. My nomads were tired of eating raw berries and beets, so I installed a kitchen and churned out enough berry museli to feed an army. Happiness increased but villagers started to starve; instead of going to the kitchen or the pantries for some museli, they insist on walking by these buildings to eat berries off the bush.

❎ Dirt roads can only be placed orthogonally, and the 2D buildings can't be rotated; the end result looks a little awkward on Onbu's more 3D back.

Final Thoughts

So far, Wandering Village feels like a chill cozy game with just enough depth to be interesting over time. I particularly like that certain crops only grow in certain climates, and that you can relocate resources like berry bushes to designated areas. I also cannot state enough how much I love Onbu.

That said, I'm growing increasingly irritated with the UI, villagers refusing to eat prepared food, the storage system, and how the town looks. It has more content than Flotsam by far, but I love planning logistics and supply chains, and that's just not possible here.

Recommendation

I would recommend this to Ghibli fans, cozy gamers, and anyone else who read Discworld so long ago that you only remember the elephants and turtle. If you want to bond with a big old rock dog while building and evolving a settlement in a poisonous world, you're going to have fun.

If you were more interested in the mechanics of building a civilization on a moving platform than you are in loving the best boi ever, then Airbone Empire might be the perfect fit for you. Alternatively, if you just want to build something pretty in a mostly-relaxed environment (with some supply chain management), I personally love Fabledeom.

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Love the game. Even in normal difficulties there's still alot to do. A very nice,zen gaming playstyle to enjoy a movie at the same time

it's a very fun game...but for a while now as I've progressed in the game, the achievements haven't been unlocked, such as (pet ombu, building a monument)

Very relaxing city builder so far

Nice, relaxing city-builder. Controls make sense and I find the art-style very pretty

Super Fun City Builder!

A few minor problems:

1. Trees and other buildings can "hide" the ability to click on things such as "spores" that outbreak on "Onbu" behind them. With no ability to "rotate" view or "hide tall objects", this can lead to problems with clearing out obstacles.

2. For those that like to "edge scroll"... there is no option to "lock mouse cursor to window". If you have multiple screens, then using the mouse cursor to "edge scroll" will be impossible.

Fun side-note, this is the first game where I can use the "scroll wheel" on the mouse to zoom "all the way in and all the way out (close up city view to world view). SUPER COOL! Well done by the Developers!!

One of my fav chill rts and survival games. played hours on game pass and now i own on steam : ) THEY ALSO KEEP UPDATING AND IMPROVING !!! whole new biome released recently also !!

Really fun resource management. Love the premise and the game really delivers on it. Walking through the different biomes, weather, and hazards on the map and having to adapt and plan ahead is really novel. The world felt really colorful and the music set the tone well. Love Onbu so much. You can pet the dino.

AMAZING ART STYLE, I NEARLY KILLED EVERYONE OVER 12 TIMES ON HARD MODE, BUT WE LOVE HARD GAMES!!

new update, everything cost food and it's not easy to get and all it does is slow the game down

Очень приятный городострой. Лучше я и не знаю

Great game with lots of potential!

I enjoy this game. I honestly don't know what else to say. There's something about just managing the village and where we're going and the little strategy I use depending on what I need to farm.

Constant updates, very inventive story line, post-apoc style survival and cartoony-anime-esque art style. Gameplay so far hasn't been ruined by poor game-play additions and/or toxic-political elements seen in other games these days to those games' detriment. Story/theme would also make a great cartoon or off-shoot games could be made with the world-theme in mind, and would be good as long as the developers are just as careful to keep the features fan-aligned and just as entertaining as this game. I especially like the optional skin for Onbu! Would be good to occasionally see another of their buddies still alive in this desparate world they live in. Last time I played people were a bit too easy to come by - hope they make that more survival aligned and show WHY they suddenly show up village attraction parameters - baby birth??

Do not give them any more money. This is like a phone game, it doesn't deserve any more than $5.00 USD.

The update they just did is a step back or to the side, not a step forward. This game has the depth of a phone game. They don't listen to any feedback. The game has basically been stagnant for a year. The big update doesn't actually add much, it adds clay and screws with the technology system among other bad changes. Like removing worker organization in favor of unemploying them all. An individual game still plays almost identically but takes twice the time.

Boring, lack of any depth, not replayable in the slightest.

They had an exceptional idea but seem to have given up, nobody is at the helm this is a directionless ship.
This game is a study in wasted potential.

Fun game.

This is a fun, low-pressure city builder with charming animation and straightforward gameplay. Nurturing your Onbu through the various climates and hazards feels like a bit like Studio Ghibli-inspired Zoo Tycoon, where the payoff is a happy beastie and villagers. I never play more than a couple of rounds in a row, but I find myself coming back to build another village every month or two. Good replayability, cute without trying too hard, and just what I've needed lately.

i love this game its tedious but thats why i love it so much very fun yay

Nice and cozy citybuilder with tamagotchi vibes.
Some more variety like different seasons (perhaps dropping or raising temperatures for a longer time) or continents with different climate would be nice. The core concept is pretty motivating and I like it but the end game is still lacking some long term motivation. I got 50 h and the game starts to get boring. But 50 h for 25 Euro is a must buy, so if you like those kind of games go for it! :)

I like that the tutorial is easy to follow. The controls are easy to understand.

This game is so awesome. So cute, and fun! I had it on my wish list for ages and I'm so glad I finally got it. This is my first civilisation sim so not much experience but I am addicted. Good art and music too.

Great game that balances cosy and strategy well. Can get a little repetitive but I personally find it soothing.The progress through the research tree and the changing biomes makes it addictive instead of dull.
Tutorial is helpful, not spoon feeding but not so vague that you have no idea as to what is going on. I was newish to gaming when I first downloaded Wandering Village and only had to make two new saves before getting the hang of it.
I am able to play this on my laptop well but would recommend using a mouse over the touchpad.
Very chill, would recommend to casual gamers.

Cute, cozy, and relaxing. Beautiful visuals and sounds. Fun play and you can tell it is made with love.

good, very good!!!

Amazing relaxing game

its good

A pretty interesting game with a ton of potential. Updates late last year did ALOT of necessary core changes to make the game more robust and compelling as a builder.

However, having owned this and many other colony sims that are in EA, for years now, this one simply has the SLOWEST development progress.

There’s a lot of potential here, and it’s very unique, but they’ve been developing it so slow that I am starting to see competitors catching up with titles exploring the exact same concept of a colony on the back of a giant living creature.

It makes it a challenge to recommend when so many other titles out there, some with even smaller* teams, are able to keep the EA progress moving at a more consistent pace. Particularly when those other titles have seemed to provide me with so many more hours of play to date.

I keep rooting for this game to really take off, but the development is just so perplexing sluggish. That last overhaul was nearly half a year ago, and even the last balance pass patch was 3 months ago.

Great, Relaxing indie game

This game is phenomenal and the dynamic of having to take care of the beast as you take care of your civ. is unique and makes you feel "one with the land" that you build upon. Its the perfect blend of a chill vibe with a touch of stress to ensure all is well with the civ & beats. 10/10 would recommend keep up the good work!

For such a game im surprised its barely know. Its concept is quite unique being a city builder that takes place on the back of what is essentially Sauroposeidon (tallest Dinosaur recorded). Good mechanics, only critque I have of it is a personal one of its artstyle and 2D choice for villagers but hey its still fun!

there is always something you need to do. you will never get bored

This is a great, fun little game. It's fairly chill but gives you enough challenge to keep you on your toes.