Flotsam

Its a cool game.

Its tempting to build too much. Gaah...just another one of those.

Flotsam (Early Access Build 0.8.5f2) is a cute little city-builder with cartoony graphics, some interesting ideas, and an ambitious price tag. I've played so many similar games that this really struggled to hold my attention but, in the absence of a "neutral review" option, I tentatively recommend it.

What Works For Me

✅ The cartoony dystopian art with Borderlands-style lines is charming and unique for this genre. I especially like the ramshackle nature of every workstation and how the scrap-plastic paths genuinely appear to be crafted from flotsam.

✅ Multistep crafting requires some strategy, especially early on: salvaged goods must be refined into plastic scrap, which is refined into floaters, which is required to build new workstations. Wet wood needs to be dried to create dry wood and then chopped into firewood so you can distill fresh water.

✅ Villagers have randomized pre-flood and post-flood backgrounds that give morale and skill benefits to certain jobs. You start with three villagers, can recruit more, and can adjust their priorities to boost morale and production. The Steam page mentions that villagers have dislikes as well, but I rolled a bunch of characters and never saw a dislike or negative effect.

✅ Hilariously, your post-apocalypse villagers are as fussy about food as I am; an endless diet of seaweed and fish bits will tank morale, especially on a raft full of foodies. I found myself researching culinary upgrades over survival upgrades.

✅ The map function is pretty neat: You can see resources and ruins, but only within range of your ship or around a previously scoped-out tower. Moving your ship uses eel-ectricity and villagers can only gather resources within a certain range, so you need to be clever about where you park.

What Doesn't Work For Me

❎ For a 0.8 version, the tech trees feel short; in 90 minutes, I unlocked a chunk of them in the hopes that more would appear as I advanced, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

❎ The tutorial is long and a rather poor example of actual gameplay. I spent around 10 minutes with it, and learned far more by just playing the game.

❎ I didn't play very long before the gameplay loop of move - gather materials - craft started to feel tedious and shallow. Your villagers aren't particularly intelligent, so you need to turn off stations to keep them on task, but other than that, everything is so automated that I was playing on max speed and idly watching YouTube.

❎ You're stranded in an ocean, similar to Havendock or All Will Fall, but build your city around a moving boat. There was so much potential for clever mechanics or some additional crunch (e.g. balancing lift/tilt/thrust in Airborne Empire), but the actual implementation feels bland.

Final Thoughts + Recommendation

I had a hard time getting into the game early on and almost turned the game off when my three idle villagers merged into a single glitchy gyrating mass, but it started to pick up as I unlocked new crafting stations and delved further into the ocean. The art and character backgrounds are quirky and fun, but progression is largely hands-off; there's a lot more waiting than I generally prefer. I'm concerned that after six years of Early Access, the beginning feels more like proof of concept than a full game.

If you love resource gathering, exploring, and building shantytowns, then this is a great pick. I'd also suggest it to cozy gamers who enjoy multistep crafting, or who want a little more art in Havendock or fewer mechanics in the Airborne games.

This is not for you if you like hands-on management or conflict, or if you're looking for a unique spin on city building. You might find better options on this list of City Building/Management games.

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Mesmerizing.

Had this game for a very long time and just recently started playing again after several big updates have come out, I am pleasantly surprised by how well it plays now and all the new stuff that has been added, definitely worth a play through

Great game and it just keeps getting better

I cannot yet recommend. The development process is very slow. I look forward to more updates and more content

Классная игра, но нужна доработка.

A word of caution is also why I like Flotsam: It's in development, so it's changing. Things work, then change, and sometimes break before they work again. It's like playing a new game every few months. The play is casual, which I like. But interesting enough to keep me playing one more game day. They've added "architect" which allows fixing city layout. Floating things can be rearranged. So unlike other city games, when something doesn't work, you don't have to destroy, crash your population, and then rebuild. I like the discord community too.

I really love city builders, and this one is very unique and fun to play. I look forward to updates as the development progresses!

Awesome game and played the heck out of it, hope we get more campaign/storylines to do as you can finish the game's basic functions quite quickly.

It's okay. Like some of their other titles, there is no challenge. Resources are plentiful so you basically can get anything you want whenever you want. You end up just working your way through the research tree and building each new building. If you'd like a layed-back city builder with no challenge then it's pretty good. I do appreciate the detailed animations in all the buildings working and the art style.

I was happy to get this as part of their bundle deal. Really not worth the full price though.

The art style really drew me in! Its fun, campy and makes the end of days seem pretty chill! It can be a frustrating game when you don't know what you're doing so I suggest using the guide. You'd think that would be obvious but I felt confident. DON'T FEEL CONFIDENT. Losing your crew to starvation and/or dehydration hurts T.T Take your time and chill out. There's no hurry. After all, its a global flood xD

fun game so far

Ever since I played Airborne Kingdom I've been into these more specific niche kind of colony builders! As soon as I saw that it was like Airborne Kingdom but on water, I've been in love! I've made four saves back to back! Every time, I get further and further past my "End game"! There is a bug I encountered with water generation in my fourth save. Farm refill threshold never stays where you set it, and every time my farm refills, it drains ALL of my water. All the way from 90 to 0. Other than this, I absolutely adore this game!

First actual review I am posting, I wouldnt recommend just yet., Its actually pretty fun, got an hour and a half in progressed nicely, got a few new "drifters" but then started crashing. First time I let slide as its expected.. and i didnt lose too much gameplay, 2nd time however it reverted back to first crash load up which was about 30 to 45 min worth of time and upgrading.. went ahead and redid everything.. 3rd and 4th time, loading yet again at first crash start up area, even after saving later... I just cant.. I am playing and gathering things for no reason at this point.

So yes its fun, but maybe wait a little longer to have them iron out the crashes.

Best game to play on steam deck by far, so intuitive, it makes me wonder why other companies done copy. It feels excellent to play 10/10

Flotsam is a promising early access citybuilder. If you're a fan of Rimworld's pawn system and Raft's resource management you'll enjoy this. While some systems aren't quite finished or have been temporarily disabled for development there is still plenty to enjoy at the moment.

Raft meets FTL. Simple, fun, addicting.

It's missing some polish and could use a stronger endgame. Making the raft self-sufficient is a bit too simple.

The game is great but it keeps on crashing.. Why is the game keep on crashing i dont understand...

very charming and promising EA Game, already worked really fine in my test time

The game is really fun. However, the logic of the game sucks which is a fatal problem in such game focused on city building, and the problem can not be solved but scaling during game play through.
I think tutorial has some issue, however the game is simply enough to play even without tutorial. I will give this game 6/10 due to the problematic logic and tutorial I have talked above. But it is really a fun game so i will recommend it.

It's fun, and great for killing a few hours, though I do think that the food system is far too complicated.

The game is very chill, beautiful, and entertaining. No need to worry too much about tactics. Building is also very simple with clear instructions. Overall, the game is worth experiencing. I recommend everyone to buy it. Love this game.

If you select any electricity building such as poles while in Architect Mode, you can't get rid of it. You have to reset all the changes you've done and start over. Imagine my disappointment after working on my boat in Architect mode for hours, only to accidentally select a power pole and have to reset everything I've done. Such a simple game killer bug for a 5 years old game.

8/10
While the game is fun & relaxing to play, some things are not balanced like the morale & ship weight. Pretty much no matter what I did i was always in bad or negative morale with the crew, I do however love how you are not badly punished by having bad or negative morale only punished by only having less exp gain as the only punishment, the ships weight of building things either does not seem to allow freedom to build your own town in the way or style you want it to be unless you like being really slow, or you have to kinda know what to build & what they are going to be in both function & size, but also due to a lack of Goal's & Achievement's to do or get the only goal is a "How long can you survive for?" depending if your either lucky or smart or you just know what to do that just makes the game be a "play until you don't want to play again" game loop. Another big let down is you can't move buildings or pathways & sometimes you can't remove them at all even if you should be able to. other then all that it's a fun game to play & relax with but not very rewarding or worth the $25 price I'd say personally it's worth at most $15 for what the game's worth.

Fun game, could use some more content. It's pretty shallow but good enough for a positive review.

Relaxing Games

This game is super fun! Very Oxygen Not Included-esk and I LOVE the artsyle its literally so cute. Its pretty slow at first but as soon as you get 4 or 5 people everything picks up. materials are generally aviable except for scrap metal which a lot of buildings need :( it has some minor glitches (the whale will swim through islands and the ground, and the seagulls sometimes vanish when flying) but it has tons of room for improvement! Im super excited to see how the game develops and expands, since Ive unlocked all upgrades after 24 hours :)

Nice chill game, not so easy to manage the drifters food to keep them happy tho. A single meal can drop their happiness even if the rest if fine. This part should get some tweaking

Cute game, maybe a little expensive ... for what it currently is but still worth the collection. I recommend it but only when its on special. ♥

Amazing. A pretty sight to look at too. I look forward to seeing how this develops.

Far too peaceful for me. Although this isn't my cup of tea, it's an allright city-builder scavenging game. No annoying minigames, just plotting a course to the garbage you want to pick up and clicking what to do with it next. Controls are mostly intuitive. I don't know if you can fail in this game other than deliberately not crafting enough food/water.

I'd recommend if you want a more casual city-builder or are new to resource management games.

fun game to pass the time, been playing since it first came out
like it when the seagull is imortal but they change it, made me sad

its still in its early game but still playable

usig this game to play and trvel
no internet to pay this game

performance abit chongky but still playable[i us office laptop] sop not the game fault i think
gamiong laptop would be better siuted

easy game

Ultra cool game that has a unique quality and lovely art style.

Extremely addictive game, love the atmosphere, reached full sustainability around 110 days or smth
a really fun city builder

OVR: 8/10

great game!

Addictive, I wish there will be techs that enable full self-circulation (without salvage operation).

There are reports going back to 2020 of people being unable to save their game. I just ran into this same issue. That's kind of a dealbreaker for me, so I don't recommend Flotsam in its current state.

Good Game. Highly recommend it. However there seems to be a bug with the seagulls. My workers stop feeding them even thought there is plenty of food and then the seagulls die. I did find a work around where if I turn off export on the seagull home then the workers will feed them.

Took me a couple restarts to get the hang of things, but the whole process has been addictive.
The tutorial information is helpful, but not as complete as it could be; explaining the production manager would be nice, as it is rather opaque.
The art is cute, the gameplay loop is simple enough to follow, and there's plenty to do.
Looking forward to the continued development!

Totally fun game.

PROS:
- easy to understand gameplay mechanics
- cute art style
- vast map for exploration
- and lots more to mention

CONS:
- stale/ routine grind gameplay after unlocking most of the stuffs in there, nothing much to find aside from new drifters or supplies. NO RARE stuffs to find like treasures or a super drifter with lots of skills or something.
- no dynamic weather, it's just DAY and NIGHT :-/
- lots of minor bugs like incorrect supply amount
- no option to evict drifters
- no multiplayer :(
- no shortcut to easily assign a task to a certain drifter
- the drifters are particularly choosy when it comes to food that it's annoying. it's always icky
- architect mode should be unlocked right away
- can't place a single floater floor to connect spaces


7/10

Decent game, fascinating to play, especially for those who not only like city builders, but also Raft

Similar to other floating out at sea salvage build craft keep everyone happy games. But there's a big difference, and why I heartily recommend this one over the others - there's no mini game for picking up resources, your "drifters" can swim and get them!

i love city builders but the water world style is so far my favorite. the animation style and graphics are awesome.

damm

Thanks for playing. I enjoyed playing it twice, opened all kinds of buildings and built a big floating city) It's a pleasure to pass time with it, and it's quite easy and fast. For a couple of weekends you can easily try all the features of the game. Also the game has nice graphics and gameplay. Thank you for continuing to refine it.

It would be cool to add some dangers to the game. The game description states that there are predatory sea creatures in the game, but I didn't encounter any. There is a whale swimming around, but it's safe. For example, you could add different predators on land, in the air and in the water and the ability to create and pump different tools and weapons to counter them. Also, I would love to play through the story campaign in this game if there was one.

I'm waiting for the full version to come out already. Thanks for an enjoyable game!)

我觉得这游戏挺不错的额，但是失去了食物污染这个特性，导致医生没有什么作用了。游戏如果能有天灾的话，可能会更刺激的。

I really wanna love this game but the bugs are way to frustrating. If the game isn't refusing to save workers are just standing around not doing anything. Won't feed the birds, won't haul the product etc etc. No updates since July 4th. Don't bother.

Great Game!