Sky Settlers

sky settlers is one of the many islanders-likes, this time of the card-based variety, set on floating islands and utilizing wonderful hexagons. there are windmills too, a lesser fascination of mine but for some reason always glad to see them pop up in games. also has people loafing around. and bunnies and other animals. one of them fell off the island, so much for dinner.
the separate tutorial teaches the basics. you should know the drill by now, place various structures and things strategically for maximum scorage. clicking placed stuff reveals their name, value and type. once an island is filled and if you have a token based on points, you can buy a new location, otherwise game over. no undo and can't revisit old haunts but new islands come with quest cards that grant higher tier structures and cards among other things.
quests involve creating certain tile configurations, not necessarily in the current location. the choice can be skipped by sacrificing some points. it's either not explained in the tutorial or I'm simply a fool but place quest card first to mark empty tiles, then fill them ideally with those kinds of things. I kept trying to place them on pre-arranged stuff according to the instructions and kept getting denied. disaster cards are another thing, gotta balance quest rewards somehow. when drawn, it has to be placed next and the pictured catastrophe will manifest somewhere. volcanoes are quite a nuisance.
besides the mouse, you'll be using hotkeys a lot. rebindable controls help with that, showing bound keys, not always the defaults, but the mouse can do some of it too. the camera can be moved around, rotated, there's angle manipulation and zoom. the wheel rotates stuff before placement, not really necessary outside quests. right click to cancel is fine but maybe it shouldn't be necessary for card selection. they pop out on mouseover (necessary because their bottom is off-screen, so they cover less of the screen), but left click to select, right to cancel before another can be left-clicked is a bit tedious. also, the mouse can't be used to completely handle camera duty, so it's not 100% mouseable. constant camera fuckery is why I don't particularly like 3d puzzlers, but in this case once it's set up, no real need to mess with it further.
even after an increase, card text is pretty small but there's a zoom hotkey, embiggens the one under the cursor to full screen, can read it from space. there's a card storage chest in the corner, basically like a free cell (or 5) in freecell, if you're familiar with solitaire. you can hold a bunch of cards in your hand but a new one will only be dealt if there are fewer than 4. alt is the default for card zoom, tab for storage, not ideal but that's what rebinds are for.
only endless mode was available on release. saving is automatic when you quit outside the tutorial, which can still be continued until you get bored, fail or quit. the game over screen shows the final score and an online leaderboard got patched in fast on top of the local high score. I'm not competitive but beating myself is not much fun. endless is more on the relaxing end of the spectrum, losing seems to be the real challenge (it's called endless but come on), so a shorter and harder quick mode got added lickety-split with its own leaderboard and separate saves.
I really like the presentation. not exactly cel-shaded (or maybe it is, what do I know) but has a nice hand-drawn feel to it and the 'hide ui' hotkey is good for clean screenshots. audio is functional, the unintrusive ambient type. good amount of settings available anytime. separate volumes, resolutions, windowed mode, languages, v-sync, fps limiter, gfx quality, level of detail slider.
it doesn't reinvent the wheel and offers pretty much the same experience as other games in the genre, so it's just as recommendable if you yearn for more of the same. I enjoyed it a lot, very moreish, just one more island. has some random events too, and while it was a bit rough on release, nothing major, and a couple of patches within a day or so smoothed most of it out already. if you're looking for something to unwind with, this is a good choice. unfortunately, the demo got removed after release, but it's not too pricey like some other contenders.

Move through islands with relaxing gameplay and no time restriction.
This is another title in which you can relax and construct a landscape complete with cities and other landmarks. The mechanics are comparable to those in other games that use the same design. You begin with an empty field of hexagonal tiles on which to put cards that appear randomly in your hand.
Cards can feature a variety of landmarks, including forests, water, mountains, and many others. Depending on where you position the card, you will gain points. For example, water prefers to be near other water tiles and woods. However, points can also be negative. So, while windmills prefer to be near wheat fields, they really don't like being near mountains. One significant difference from other similar games is that a card can be placed anywhere with no restrictions.
The goal of the game is to collect enough points to progress to the next island. Because the amount of tiles per island is limited, you must position cards strategically. Quests that you choose when you start a new island will help you earn a good amount of points.
Quests are simple templates that you set on the grid and then fill up with the necessary cards. Because a card can meet many rules, you are not limited. Completing objectives unlocks new cards, which may appear in your hand. While you can jump to the next island as soon as you hit the threshold, it's far better to fill the remaining tiles and earn some additional points. You will receive additional cards as long as there are free tiles on the island.
However, certain objectives may result in a disaster card. This is an event that appears on a random tile on the current island and makes some of the tiles unusable. Another type of tile is anomaly. When you engage with it, there is a chance you will receive a momentary boost. There is no true goal; you simply place tiles and move to the next island for as long as you can.
One tiny issue is that you don’t get any information when you can’t play any cards and lose the game. Although you can save and continue next time, there’s not much point in doing that. All you can do start a new run.

peaceful and relaxing. doesn't reinvent the wheel but that doesn't matter! would be great if there was a popup / some information for when a run ends / cards can't be played. finicky but i hope this is fixed in a patch.
edit 26/2: a new update has fixed this!

A nice, relaxing game but it has some issues that may ruin it for me. When I check the steam overlay, the camera zips away from the island and I can rarely find it again. I wish I could place mission outlines over existing terrain. I wish the music was better.
It's a fun game for a few dollars, but leaves some to be desired.

Sure.

It is a small game in the style of tile placers, like Dorfromantik. It works. It has little somethings to make it unique. It is cheap. It got me to spend 20 hours on it.

An interesting game, similar to the other games in the genre. Can recommend, if you are interested in games like this.

City building + serene + mechanics = Use cards to place resources on tiles and score points. Complete quests to earn extra points. Watch out for disasters and decrease the chances by completing quests.
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