Nakornsampan

nakornsampan is a merge-3 game, similar to triple town, except it's not a lazy and ridiculously overpriced and unbalanced mobile port, but a charming pixely game for $2.
each level represents a city with a lot of empty real estate and you have to place various things all over the land to make everything and everybody flourish. they're presented as tetris-like shapes you can rotate with the mouse wheel or right click (rmb also acts as cancel). ideally, you'll place 3 of the same thing next to each other to convert them into one higher-tier version taking up less space (single house to family house, chicken coop to pig pen, etc.).
it's not just a simple match-3, there are city management elements. the 'various things' are based on cards you're dealt, with new ones to choose from after every week. you have to make sure people have enough food, crops are near water, livestock has people nearby, and just like in real life, schools and hospitals have their benefits as well. you can even put down train tracks. the adjacency bonus is based on what's around, can be positive or negative. all this might be familiar if you've played islanders or sky tale, or any non-puzzly city management game.
resources are population, food, faith and workforce, they can be converted into something else with the appropriate buildings. there are also special cards that can remove a card or the current tile, or do something beneficial if you're willing to sacrifice some resources. once the board is inevitably filled, the game ends, you get a rundown of your accomplishments and can move on to the next city. there are about a dozen levels (including the tutorial), most unlocked from the start, level select shows available cards and potential modifiers. a level editor with workshop support is also available if you're feeling creative.
nice pixel graphics, audio is good enough too. there are tooltips for everything, windowed mode toggle, separate volume settings got patched in, different background colors and patterns to choose from, a toggle for the animations in the background, and since by default everything's tiny, much-needed game area and ui scaling sliders also got added. achievements are represented in-game.
it's a fun little thing, not overly complex, just about right for some relaxing faux city building. worth at least trying the demo to see if it's something you'd like to play more of. mid-level saving would be excellent, as they can take a while to finish and going back to the menu instantly fails the run.

Nakornsampan is a cute little city build x merge 3 game. If you like mini strategy and puzzle merge games then this would be a good game for you. You build a little civilization by placing the randomly generated tiles in different places and by placing three or more of the same tile together, they merge to create something better. The game ends when you have no more room left on the given map. It is super fun and definitely continuously playable. Although the graphics are kind of small, they are still cute and the music is super relaxing. You can change the background and screen visuals which is a cool and fun addition and this also allows you to increase the map size. Definitely worth the price and it's a fun little mini game to pass the time.

This can be an amazing game if some kind of an "endless" mode is added, and it certainly needs improvements to balance and UI. Right now it's just okay, but for this price I can't not recommend it.

OK, very cool, I really like the game!

A unique take on city building and the match 3 card game. Playing through it several times it looks simple enough, but to continue to match stuff take time and thought. There has been a few times I have cut myself off from the city of water and I lose my farms or recourse buildings. Overall its a cute little fun puzzle game.
I have included some gameplay above to see if it something you might be interested in!

This game makes me happy.