Aven Colony

A pretty simple and basic colony sim but overall quite enjoyable and chill time. Just don't expect anything innovative. It could however do with some more building variety and a campaign that is less repetitive.
Works without any issues on Linux with Proton (9.0-4). Seems like some people have issues running it on Windows and have crashes but I encountered exactly 0 problems.

I found the game to be very enjoyable.
There are a great many reviews stating that the game crashes all the time - which it does on newer chips.
This can easily be overcome by adding the following variable to the game properties in Steam
Right click on Aven Colony in Steam and paste the following into launch options.
cmd /c "set OPENSSL_ia32cap=:~0x20000000 && %command%"

I’m genuinely surprised I hadn’t heard of Aven Colony sooner — it’s a beautifully crafted sci-fi city builder that deserves more attention than it seems to have received.

The graphics are gorgeous, with vibrant alien environments and excellent design work on buildings and UI elements. The interface took a little time to fully grasp, but once it clicks, it’s smooth and satisfying to use. What really impressed me is how fast the game loads — I can go from the main menu to playing my colony in just a couple of seconds. It’s refreshing in an era where loading screens seem to last forever.

The campaign on normal difficulty strikes a great balance: interesting and atmospheric without being overly punishing. It feels more about building something cool than constant survival stress, which I appreciate. Harder difficulties are there when you want a bit more of a challenge.

If you’re into strategy, city-builders, or just love the idea of managing a colony on a distant world, Aven Colony is absolutely worth a shot. A quiet classic — and one I’m glad I finally discovered.

The most polished alpha abandonware you'll ever play.
Beautiful models and textures set on an intriguing environment but seem limited, there's a few buildings and a hint at a military aspect with plasma turrets and a gunship but they do little more than handle environmental effects that are already handled by specific buildings. Maps are also riddled with blockers and there was no system implemented to handle them.

Well thought out systems with lots of promise but a lot of them seem unfinished.
There's a whole overworld system that only provide commendations (which don't do anything) and colonies (which don't do much).
There's a whole industry system that you can only really use to get a few extra percents of happiness... But even that doesn't seem relevant outside of winning referendums.
There's a whole research system that gets completed in the first 5 minutes of gameplay to unlock a few more options in the unfinished industry system.
There's a whole alien artifact system with minimal effects (a useless shield and again a few extra percents of happiness).
There's even a single player campaign!
It's odd to see so many systems in place that work SO well just to not do anything with them. It feels like all the hard work on this game had already been done and the finishing of adding additional building chains, population requirements and milestones (like Anno) was never finished.

I kinda really enjoy this? im not well versed in the genre but this game surprised me. overall it feels less crunchy than id expect a colony sim to be, which struck a better balance for me idk. (just finished vanaar)

pros:
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- the system is weirdly easy to pick up. things only require up to two resources usually, so it isnt hard to figure out how different sub-systems fit together.
- extremely performant, even on higher graphics.
- great sound direction. voice acting (and art ngl) are a specific, tropey, almost too-old and over-rendered; i hated it at first but it grew on me.

cons:
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- no gamepad support
- a lot of not-so-optional QoL is off by default, like subtitles (especially since theres a narrative dump on the main menu that you *need* to listen to). other things like auto-drone repair dont ever really get taught.
- tiles blocked by terrain are shaped unintuitively, which is frustrating for city planning.
- things that should be urgent aren't obviously signified to be (60% repair feels like it should be fine, but its not). crises like plagues always notify you very obtrusively, even if you are well-prepared for it.
- most importantly, i just want to see more. given i can see locked expedition buildings while on vanaar, i assume i can see all buildings in the game that will be available. in that case, i kinda wish there were more? more (and bigger) decorations, more refineable items, more public spaces to make the colony feel personal.

Reading other Steam reviews, I don't know what's going on in Windows land but over here in Linux the game is crash-free, solid as a rock! Maybe you should join us? WINK.

Unlike other city-builders that got bitten by the punish-the-player bug, Aven Colony is light-hearted, relaxing and fun. The simple, attractive graphics and easy build systems combine to weave a hypnotic little spell as you lovingly craft your little sci-fi colony from tender lander-acorn all the way to mighty, orbit-scraping oak.

It's a little repetitive but then what city-builder isn't? And this one's very charming and well worth your time spent with it. Four Optimus Thumbs Up!

Fun casual game. Missing some visual QOL stuff almost all city builders have which ramps up the difficulty a little as you search for buildings and decide on placement.
Prone to the "death spiral of unhappiness".
People mad - no food
Build farms - more than enough
People so mad they are protesting and won't go to work
Crops stop growing because no one is tending them
More people protest because there is no food
People spend all their time protesting the absence of food while refusing to work at the farms that would grow the food
I wonder why games include this "death spiral of unhappiness" and why wouldn't fulfilling building the farms calm them down and why would they rather protest to death than grow food?
This is pretty kindergarten level AI programming stuff, but I see the same problem in most city builders.
It just seems lazy.
Overall though, I would say if you like casual city builders, you will enjoy it. I'm not sure for $30.