Community Inc
As a new Manager, build a happy community and trade with other races… for profit. Yes, that's right, we need their happiness so we can power up our portals. The Lings, your workers, will obey you and help you with your village. But beware, they can cause a lot of problems too. If this is not enough, there are other creatures that will try to do the same, they can trade, fight or help you. Oh, don't forget about the weather and some unexpected events. Village building Build your own village with many types of buildings, you need to decide what kind of objects, items or workbench you want inside. There are more than 150 items to craft. Every item and object has a reason. For example, craft a Wood Cabinet and put it inside the houses to increase your storage space. Roads can make them walk faster… and more. Your workers The Lings works for you. You need to provide basic salary, food, clothes and a "healthy" environment. It's up to you to decide how they work and where.
Game Discussion
Steam User 11
Don’t let the soft piano music fool you. Community Inc by developer T4 Interactive and publisher tinyBuild GAMES is no simple, stress-free game. There’s so much to do – wood to gather, libraries to build, fights to break up, diplomacies to keep track of, fires to put out – that it takes some real time commitment, skill, and juggling to end up with a successful village.
The premise of Community Inc is that you’re a property manager, and all of these funny-named fellows running around on your property are your Lings. These Lings collect resources, build, fight, complain, and – if you don’t feed them well enough – occasionally start squabbling and setting things on fire. They’re your employees, helping you create the best possible village within thirty days. Why thirty days? Community Inc puts a slight spin on the SIMS-style gaming, giving you thirty days before you sell the property. Your goal, therefore, is to get the best value for your property by selling time.
Easier said than done. The three-level tutorial somehow manages to be both overwhelming and underhelpful; there’s a lot to learn, not only in the technicalities of controlling Lings, building, making deals, and assigning new jobs, but also in adjusting to the controls, which are a little bit awkward at first. The tutorial gives you a chance to click around a bit and provides a basic understanding of the game mechanics, but it falls short when it comes to teaching you things like how to feed your Lings, craft on the workbench, protect your Lings from the cold, and follow through with contracts.
The amount of trial and error to actually get into the game was frustrating, and unfortunately, (don’t tell them I said this) so were my Lings. Cute they may be, but when it comes to working independently, or, well, not setting things on fire, they fall a little short. Once you build up enough of them, it becomes increasingly difficult to remember who is where, and the auto controls for the Lings aren’t good enough to let them work on their own. And one Ling doesn’t necessarily equal another. You have to assign specific Lings specific jobs, leveling them up as they go, so that they can complete certain tasks that other Lings can’t. It’s an interesting idea, and it’s certainly a realistic look at an individual’s function within a society, but practically speaking, it makes it harder to find the Ling you need at the moment you need them.
You also have the option to forge relationships with other races. These neighboring villages have a strange cast of characters – giant tree people, wolves, dragons, ogres. If you treat them well, you can open up new trading options. If you treat them badly, they might pay you an unwanted visit. The idea is creative, but I would have liked to see more done with it. You don’t actually get to learn much about the races themselves, or why they all seem to be randomly angry at each other, and all of your existing contracts and relationships become twenty more things to keep track of.
Community Inc is a very specific type of game, catering to people who like to multitask and micromanage even the most tedious decisions (and they do get tedious). That isn’t to say it can’t be enjoyable for anyone else, but it certainly requires a great deal of patience. I wish the controls had been a little simpler, the premise a little more eye grabbing, and my Lings a little less petty (sorry, Lings), which is why I’ll give this game a 6 out of 10.
Steam User 6
Its a great game im having alot of fun but i have a major issue with a couple of things i always do just fine until they all kill themselves even if they get sick and one dies the others get sad and kill themselves this becomes a butterfly effect and they all start dying and i have to quickly sell out and start over??? Maybe if i found out how to fix all the sick villagers! i cant seem to get the hang of it but i do get better and my town gets better every go around! Ill chalk it up to a learning curb but i still believe there should be balancing! On top of that there needs to be numerous ways to produce happiness and mood i only found 2 ways to increase mood and 1 way to increase happiness this is important to me for obvous reasons im tired of them killing themselves!!! I mean in real life people are survivors we inhabit the most unimaginable places and when the going gets tough we stick with and and power on only those with physcoligical disorders kill themselfs! Cant there be another drawback of no happiness??? I mean susicide is a last resort not the first when we are sad...
Steam User 5
TLDR Game is good if you are into micromanaging and have patience to learn how it works.
Before pros/cons I want to say that I was on verge to give negative review, but after numerous restarts I figured out game and it is not that hard as most reviews seem to say so.
Game is hard to get to know, but not actual gameplay.
Pros:
- Nice graphics
- AI works nicely
- gameplay - one cool feature (I think it is unique for city builder) is that you can build house and build interior with functional objects (there are also some decorative objects if you are into that)
Cons:
- UI - some pointers would be very helpful (for example I recently discovered that you can add ability points to people that have leveled up)
- lacks automation - after some time you would get tired of making food constantly
- storage can be problem - you can build only one storage building, and when your storage becomes full problems arise quickly (eg. you cannot make coats because there is no room to store them -> people start freezing, you can't make cures to heal them -> people die) If you want to clear storage, it becomes real click fest (you cannot do eg. shift+click to clear stack of 10 units).
- building placement - for some reason buildings cannot be placed wherever you want on clear plain terrain (probably bug)
Steam User 1
Only 4hours of playtime: I actually really like the game and that you can sell your world to start a new one, took me way to long to figure that out but once i learned that it helped me continue forward since one early mistake can make a world unuseable but selling it you can start another possibly with more start up cash which can help you get farther which is nice since you can always learn from your mistakes
Edit after 8hours: After an extra 4 hours and actually learning how to play in a way where i get passed the first month. The contracts you get in the first few days can make it where the world is worth playing out the world or not when your starting cash is 1000 after that when you have 2000 or more for starting cash it doesn't actually matter what you get as you have the money to get throught it. Only thing i wish would be added to the game any item that increases storage can be used to get items that or make it possible to make more carts or extra warehouses even if it was something you research that cost alot so you could make larger communities but that doesn't seem to be how this game is meant to be played.
Edit After completing all objectives: Because rng can play a major role in this game and your starting cash can be the difference between a quick restart or a longer game/round since you are able to restart with difference conditions and make the game mucher harder if you wish too keeping that in mind i wish the game had more to do as you do get to a point when just spending more time in the world is better then actually doing anything as you get to a point where more people is only good for collecting things since only one ling can work on one crafting project at a time which can be the only thing keeping you from doing anything in the first place. So in all fairness this is a great game if you get it on a decent sale but even at full price it is still worth it even if it is alittle buggy at times.
Steam User 7
I think that the games makers should try to make this less buggy, otherwise it is a great game.
Steam User 9
It's unfinished yes.
It's buggy yes.
BUT..
As long as the devs contunie to update this game and go with it then it can grow up. I personally think that the games pace should move a little faster a the start so you can get sttled a bit faster and more "end game" content could be added. Beyond that it's a fine game that needs to be polished here and there.
Steam User 3
This a sort of a build open sandbox type of game.
Here you spawn and control people called Lings and they are your workers.
You got to manage them to successfully build up and start propering.
There are 3 setting options at the start of a game that you may want to pick regarding the level confrontations you want to have with other civilizations. Basically from moderately easy to normal.
It would be nice if you could completely mute the game.
It would be nice if we could make new savefiles in the game, instead of having it overwrite.
Also when a contract proposal comes up, it would be nice if i could check my inventories before accepting/denying it.
This is no Cities: Skylines or Grand Ages: Medieval.
Nor it tends to be either of them, as the game follows a slightly different path.
But it does remind me a bit of them.
Sort of remind me a bit of Age of Empires too where you got to foraging for wood/metals and build and stuff.
I guess the game is alright, maybe a bit time consuming, but that a feature of these type of strategy/open concept games.