Flotsam

In this game your goal is to kill all the little hoomans on your cute clean ship. You have several death mechanisms at your disposal (in rough chronological order).
1) build housing (tents) to suffocate them in their sleep
- did not go well, they now live in brick houses and still waiting for the tsunami
2) let them go fishing for shark attacks
- sharks on vacation (0.9.0), need alligators perhaps
3) let them swim for drowning, e.g. to island
- they started gathering raw material and food instead
4) drive the ship away while they are on island
- they just come swimming after my ship
5) give them free weed, so they get high and fall overboard
- well, they just ate it
6) increase population to incite social discord and uproar
- they make new friends instead and are happy
7) feed them poisonous fish, e.g. sushi
- could not find Fugu/pufferfish. Also 14 days old fish does not do the trick
8) death by overworking
- started to place a lot of working areas. No effect so far
9) recruited Steven Seagal to attack them
- well, it's a bird. And the bird does not know karate
10) death by heart attack, caused from overweight
- there is a small heart symbol in the food list, this must be the sign for causing a heart attack. Feeding them their heart food did not kill them so far
11) feed them fatty foods, e.g. fish and chips
- they are happier instead (must be british)
12) direct poisoning with polluted mushrooms, disguised as medicine pills
- not applicable so far, they are not eating it
13) built a park with barbed wire to trip them
- some orange hair man would say: barbed wire does not stop them, we need a wall and tariffs (not in game)

I hope the devs will add tax demands as ultima weapon soon. By now, I'm still struggling with the 14 hoomans, occupying my cute little ship.

It's very reminiscent to Oxygen not included and raft combined. I think it's good if you like managing games. And bugs get fixed quit fast.

Fun relaxing game

Tentatively positive - I did have a lot of fun with this. Although I have finished the game now so if 13 hours is too short for a city-builder that's charming but has limited re-playability, then don't buy this game!

I badly want to like the game, but man, the game badly needs significant QOL updates, even for the basic stuffs. I just finished tutorial and tried to start a new game and ran into so many frustrating stuffs:

- You can't cancel when you accidentally pressed new game. Game just takes you to the settler selection menu and no way to go back out. Alt+F4.
- When I try to name the settlement and press B (the shortcut to build), the build menu actually pops up while I'm naming the city. Not game breaking but icky nonetheless.
- If you already have a settlement with the same name on other save, literally NOTHING happened when you start the game. It frustrated the hell out of me until I finally realized that the save folder is named by the settlement name. Alt+F4
- So I deleted the save folders while in the main menu and then tried to create a new game with the same name. STILL WON'T WORK! ALT+F4.

I assume I have to restart the game again to fix it maybe, but at this point I've given up and decided to uninstall and refunded the game. I generally play indie games these days so I tend to understand and doesn't really get too hang up on minor bugs, but all of this happened before I started a new game. So yeah, needs tons of fixes to turn this into an enjoyable experience.

I like the game but where did the large maps go?
Right now the way it's is the maps are to small hardly worth playing.

Was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better before update. Mini map no longer works properly, drifters get stuck, Map is way smaller now and not as populated. I loved it before the update... Now im struggling a little. I have faith when it is finished it will be great.

The positive is its an awesome game.

Aswesome game! It's one of those games you start playing and then suddenly it's the middle of the night 😸
You can play is very relaxed and cozy. The graphics are very cute and I like that you can decorate your ship-island.
It's early access but I feel like they are constantly updating and improving the game. I feel like the devs listen to the players as well.
If you like cute, relaxed, cozy base-builld/management games then this is definitely for you.

The recent update made the game unplayable - the map size is too small to actually unlock all the features! It didn't used to be - I'd played it before and the world map was huge, larger than I could uncover before unlocking everything and getting bored. I used to enjoy it quite a lot but now would not recommend.

Having a blast with this game. Good goofy toon graphics, good tutorial for first time start up. Light, casual game you can get lost in for hours.

Game is nice but my drifters keep getting stuck in hauling animation. Sometimes i was able to solve this by changing prioritys or deconstructing the affected building. Now i only have 1 drifter left to work and thats no fun.

I can see the potential of the game. If the game get better in the future, I will be back to change my opinion.

I enjoyed the first few hour. Learning new things to do, getting new items, etc. Soon there is nothing much but wait.
Although I haven't finished playing, I feel the game probably too short that the developer try to make players idle a lot. For example, the ship can't move too far, so wait till the bar full. Then the workers might be out of food/water. Then use up saved supplies for other buildings/goals, so wait. Repeating the cycle. Very boring. Research speed and gaining research points are real slow too, so wait. Metal scraps are hard to come by, so wait. Many tasks need wood, so wait. Automated is good and also bad. Because players now have nothing to do but wait. Haven't unlock the material and can't fully salvage the island. Can't imaging the hassle to drive back. Not much to do in game while waiting. This is not an idle game...

Worker AI is not smart enough to eat/drink first that I have to stop the building automation for them.

Limited upgrade/research. For example, distilled water can be made by using the heat of sun.

Decoration not really look decorating, especially the supply is so limited.

Islands are cute and can be more rewarding.

Not a cheap game but feel like being cheated. Since it's still early access, it might still get potential.

I do like the concept of game. It's different than the game "raft", which I like a lot. This game is peaceful and no predators. I am not alone and can recruit drifters to be team members. Automated team members take the tedious repeating job off player's hand. Similar to Havendock. Graphically looks like a post-apocalyptic but not depressing. It gives a happy and cute vibe. i wish the game play can agree with the vibe of the graphic.

It's really buggy. If you have several saves for whatever reason, the game might confuse them with each other.
For example I can't possibly have the summary of Day 12 while I'm on Day 5.
Anyway, it was enjoyable.

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!