Kainga: Seeds of Civilization is an unusual game, that's for sure, but it's not just the strange creatures, technology and lands that make it so. Kainga is a city-builder that takes advantage of roguelite mechanics.
How can the city-builder and roguelite genres even mix?
The more you think about it, the more at odds the two genres are. City-builders require you to plan ahead and make decisions that will influence your game later on while roguelites typically require you think on your feet and adapt with what you find along the way.
So how does it work?
I designed Kainga so that your technology tree is out in the world for you to find. You send your "Thinker", the leader of your village, to sources of inspiration where they will come up with a few technologies for you to choose from.
Here's the catch, each source of inspiration has a specific category and will have a selection of those technologies within. This ensures that you can still plan ahead, choose what type of technology you need to get next, then adapt to the options available.
How is Kainga a roguelite?
In addition to procedurally generated maps, events and weather, a single game of Kainga will have you play with around 6-12 technologies from currently over 240+ possibilities! It's up to you to decide what best suits your playstyle, environment and current build.
But not all technologies are available at the start. Completing challenges or doing other actions like taming beasts and banishing other Thinkers will earn you Karma which carries over between runs and allows you to expand the possibilities of technologies available. Technologies will become more and more complex and unusual to continue to add spice into the game.
Is Kainga a survival game too?
Many consider Kainga to be a sort of survival game as the wildlife, weather events and neighbors can often destroy a fledgling town. It is your responsibility as the player to take care of your people's needs to ensure survival, however there is intentionally no hunger or happiness to manage and instead an Ante will slowly increase as you grow and claim land increasing the intensity of events pushing you to complete your challenge while you can.
Kainga is based around "challenges" which are specific festivals which must be held to complete a run. Challenges have 3 categories:
- Population based "Arena" challenges which require you to grow a large town
- Construction based "Landmarks" challenges which force you to expand far and wide
- Combat based "Rescue" challenges where a trapped Thinker needs to be freed from a cage and sent off on an escape vehicle
Competing challenges of course earns you Karma while completing multiple challenges in a row can unlock more Thinkers, extra memory for them and new maps!
What do YOU think?
With procedural generation, meta-progression and adaptation while planning to build a thriving town, do you think Kainga lives up to the name "roguelite village-builder?" Let me know!
-Kainga Dev