Laysara: Summit Kingdom

Who would have thought that building a village on top of a mountain would be so satisfying? It makes sense considering it's quite an ambitious task. Laysara: Summit Kingdom puts the player through a series of tasks, from providing food for its inhabitants, satisfying their desires such as access to specialized resources, baths, to spreading faith, building monasteries with monks, all to construct the highest temple on the mountain peak. And ultimately achieve enlightenment(?). And let's not forget about avalanches; after all, we're on top of a Himalayan mountain.
In the game, we have three castes of inhabitants: lowlanders, who handle simple tasks, artisans producing advanced resources, and monks dealing with prayers and learning. It's through learning that we discover additional buildings, resources, and techniques. Oh, and remember, without bridges, this village would collapse into ruins.
The complex construction of the Himalayan terrain means that we can only build our village on parts of the slope. We have to connect these parts with bridges or lifts if they're too high to climb. Additionally, the slopes are divided into three sections in terms of height. Height affects some resources; for example, grain production is better in lower areas, and monks are more enlightened at the mountain peak. These divisions require more precise planning of our village's construction.
Like in a classic city builder, we need to acquire various resources to produce others, but how these resources are transported differs from most games. In Laysara, we have to manually set routes for goods between buildings. When I first learned about this, I thought it would be a pain in the ass, but it turned out to be quite simple, and moreover, Laysara provides us with a few tools to better control the distribution of resources. After a few hours in the game, I definitely appreciate the freedom to decide where my resources go and who has priority over them. It allows for cutting a few corners 😉
Another new mechanic is those cursed avalanches. Avalanches cause significant financial damage, and we have to provide relief to buried households, which I think doesn't work. The game gives us a few options to stop avalanches, such as trees that reduce their intensity.
The division into castes and how we unlock new buildings gives the game a nice pace and progression. After a while, we notice that new buildings use semi-finished products that we already produce, and we can streamline our production naturally.
After five hours with the game, I'm pleasantly surprised. The game is beautiful, with a great art style, beautiful models, and gleaming temple roofs. Mechanics that I haven't seen in any previous titles fit perfectly into the story and the game world. As an experienced player of strategy games and city builders, I had a great time discovering these new mechanics, but I also felt at home thanks to references to proven solutions in this type of game. Despite my experience, the game was quite demanding in some places, and I think even the most seasoned players will have to put in some effort to achieve nirvana. Whether you're a veteran city builder or a complete novice, I would recommend Laysara's breath of fresh air on the Himalayan peak to everyone.

I think it's great. It's beautiful, charming, and the music is FIRE. Oh, and it's fun.
It took about 20-30 hours and a few failed runs on Veteran (on the same map) to realize that what negative reviews are saying - that you're locked into an "ideal city configuration" based on the map - is a skill issue. The mountain tier system and villager type/needs on each given map definitely pull city design in certain directions, but there are no hard and fast rules (aside from placing mines at predetermined resource deposits). Considering the needs of the different citizen types and how to arrange (or even mix) districts, while considering the labor cost in Artisans versus Yaks for moving goods to and from those districts is captivating, and offers a TON of room for iteration and improvement. Two hours of play is not enough to explore and consider the possibilities that this system offers, so I'd encourage interested parties to ignore any reviewer who refunded the game.
There one important exception - and this is my least favorite aspect of the game right now - the Avalanche system isn't compelling. This is a real shame, because that was a cool part of the trailer which doesn't have meaningful impact on the game. Meaningful is a deliberate choice of wording. either A: You put down the double row of trees and avalanche wall at each avalanche spot (as close to where the avalanche starts as possible) and you're safe for the rest of the game or B: You forget/neglect to do this, and now you will likely lose the game at some point because a single critical supply line is disrupted. Is this *impactful*? Sure, it can make you lose. But as the player, you don't have much agency in how it's dealt with aside from putting your avalanche blockers at sub-optimal locations, which is not conducive to success in this game. Sure, Laysara does include mystic HIMALAYAN AVALANCHE HORN technology as an alternate method, but it's implemented in largely the same way as the tree-blockers - put the horns in only the correct, unchanging spots each time (they are made worse by the fact that by the time you've unlocked the horn in the mid/late game, you'd need to move a bunch of stuff around to accommodate them). In short, avalanches are just a box to check off during a run :(
Personally, I think avalanches should be unstoppable, like they are in nature - but this would be a really significant departure from how the game is balanced right now. Because you have to deconstruct and move things around often to optimize a setup, you frequently find yourself pausing the game (as, the moment a supply line is broken, the government suddenly has to pay thousands of dollars in home relief to every affected citizen until the line is restored, go figure). This "supply line" aspect of the game makes it such that a big environmental event - like an avalanche messing up a whole cliff face - must be counter-able. In that sense, I think that the develops may have unintentionally neutered their own disaster mechanic as a natural side affect of how keeping your citizens happy was implemented. That is something they should consider. But even without avalanches being interesting, the game is fire. Definitely worth the money and time!

First, i want to point out that anyone who claims/describe this game as a "puzzle" game is either insane or never played a city builder in their lives.
Ressources/consumption based city builders are common: Caesar 3-4, Pharaoh, Anno, Cliff empire and nuanced version like Little Workshop, Theme Hospital
Then you have zoning/service city builders like: Sim City, City Skylines
and many more.
This game is what happened when Anno and Cliff Empire had a kid. furthermore: they're planning of adding Caesar mechanics in it (trade) and campaign.
Does it make it unique? Yes it does. Not only the himalayan theme, but the "altitude" system is a mix of fertility system and needs.
For instance: You can produce more grain at low altitude, but far less byproducts that create items which is the opposite in high altitude - Monks are easier to please in low altitude BUT high altitude is a need. That said: the building chains, various type of ressources including dual ressources/byproducts buildings is an improvement on Anno.
Workers is the bulk of your labor - loves food types, low revenue, average needs variety, highest pop per housing thus higher flat need amount
Artisan are like your middle class labor - loves entertainment, highest revenue, lowest needs variety, lowest pop per housing thus lowest flat need amount. (but hard to get a lot of)
Monks are your tech workers/spiritual workers - loves spirituality, low revenue, highest needs variety, mid pop per housing thus mid flat need amount
and there is a fourth thats pretty unique: Yak/Bison/Animal. It plays both the role of a ressource and worker.
It gives no tax (duh). Has no needs (tho, you can feed em with byproducts to "produce more"), but works in specific buildings. Some buildings are logistical buildings, some are needs buildings and i think you can trade em ( inter city Ceasar style trade)
Like Cliff Empire: You are confronted with a "land" issue. Its incredibly misty and you can no longer live on the ground. You will face different type of avalanche strenght, storms that will change your needs/fertility and morale of your town. Just like Cliff: You have various limited areas to work with in order to access different other areas.
Its a great foundation and i can only see this as the best of its predecessors its inspired from, to become a great Ceasar/Anno type game alternative.
Highly recommend

Good game. I like the puzzle game play of fitting everything together. Just a note to people who may not realize: this game is closer to Anno than it is to something like farthest frontier. Compared to Anno, it does have transportation and avalanche management instead of multiple maps and naval combat. Not an indictment against the game at all, just giving an estimate of gameplay.
Expanding on that:
The game has a similar game-play loop to Anno: Build houses of different social groups, upgrade them with resources and services, and then supplies these through increasingly elaborate supply chains. Buildings have limited range, so you have to plan out your settlement ahead of time to fit the most services, and the most houses, in the smallest possible space. Over time, you get access to additional production chains, and in same cases, like for yaks, production chains/buildings that are more space efficient. You can upgrade roads to extend the reach of your buildings, at the cost of those roads having upkeep. I'll break up the rest of this into relevant bits:
-City building game-play: as mentioned earlier, you try and fit the greatest amount of services in the smallest area, around the largest possible amount of houses. You match a slew of buildings with different dimensions and ranges into good layouts. The game gives you a wide variety of these, so this aspect is decent. However, this is less about interacting with your pops, rather it's about filling up a meter until you can grab the next tier of housing. Notably, pops do not have to be transported to their job sites.
FEEDBACK 1: I know this is vague, but I wish there was a way to interact with pops more. I'm sorry, that's a hard ask.
-Resource chain game-play: similar to anno, you produce chains of resources for your pops, to export, and to increase house size. Easy enough. However, unlike anno, you don't have warehouses that will balance and distribute goods for you. You have to balance and transfer resources to distribution buildings (which are not just cosmetic!) yourself. If you spread out your production too much, you are going to spend too many pops on transport buildings, and wont be able to continue expanding. It becomes quite challenging.
-Height-based game-play: completely unlike any other city builder, Laysara has 3 different heights, each changing how resource buildings work. For example, at the lowest level, a barley field produces 6 grain and 2 straw, while at the highest altitude, this ration flips: 2 grain, and 6 straw. You have to contend with how you want to spend your space: where do you place things to be efficient? Do I use my limited rich farmland for barley, or yaks? It's a good system. Notably, this also has effects on some pops, like monks and yaks.
-Gold: gold is generated based on a taxation-like building, and trade. I do wish there was more economic management here, like some sort of efficiency buffs, or "administration" type structures. Also a critique I have of anno.
-UI: Worth mentioning, the UI is VERY GOOD. Unlike anno 1800, where moving between 5 maps and setting up trade routes becomes an absolute chore, Laysara allows you to spin around your mountain seamlessly and quickly. This is excellent.
TL:DR, if you like anno gameplay with more of a focus on layout rather than the raw complexity of 90 production chains and 12 different pops (this game still has 4, and they are all very unique), this is the game for you. There are still a decent amount of production chains here, and the height game play definitely makes it unique.

I'll be honest, I didn't really care for this one at first. It's not your typical city builder for two reasons:
1) Land is the scarcest commodity. You just can't keep expanding in a stable fashion like other city builders.
2) Directly related to the first, you constantly have to tear down, move stuff, and rebuild to optimize that space.
But once I accepts this it grew on me. I am an experience city-game player and I finished one map on Pro (3rd hardest of 4 difficulty). Hats off to people playing on Veteran. I will be back for more once they add hot keys and inter-city trading.
Yeah. That's my major gripe: Lack of hot keys. You do a LOT of clicking to tear-down, move, and rebuild. That being said I do NOT recommend this game if it's your first city-builder. And I do NOT recommend it to other player's who aren't prepared to rethink and reconfigure the entire map as they play.
For those up for the challenge, a couple tips:
1) Always build while the game is paused. If you play un-paused while re-configuring, you will run out of money. Game over.
2) Related, this game plays out in surges. Set a goal, build or re-configure towards that goal, and don't un-pause until you have a positive cash flow. Once you do, un-pause, build back up to maximum cash, wash, rinse and repeat.
3) Pay attention to road types. Most buildings have a delivery range for goods that are modified by roads.
4) Save often and guard against avalanches.
They are some rough edges (early access) but the game is beautiful and I am astounded at how well balanced it is at this stage. My biggest grip (besides lack of hot keys) is always playing on pause. In fact I won on pause (very nice end-game concept as well). But it felt a little off in this aspect, and gave it a puzzle-like feel that others describe. But I already got my money's worth.

This is a very pretty game. I love city building games and there are few that involve building vertically and around (Cliff Empire is the only other one I can think of - which is an amazing game). City building games usually have a balance between efficiency (logistics), expediency (what you need to do NOW), and emergency (dealing with the unexpected).
This one is almost 95% efficiency centered, with logistics being your primary focus. Because it is essentially "free" to move every building in pause mode, your main concern becomes maximizing the efficiency of movement of goods from one production chain to another. The game treats goods transportation and building construction as instant - there is no build or true travel time. Which is why those reviews about it being closer to a puzzle game are relatively true. Normally, city building sims have some time penalty for constructing and deconstructing buildings and model logistics via actual time delays when transporting goods from one place to another. In this game, everything occurs instantly even in pause mode.
There is some space management, etc... but the absolute primary focus is getting the cost of moving goods from one place to another under control either by building it closer (typically losing efficiency), or by using transport options available (which can rapidly spiral costs). Attempting to expand production chains or push up the mountain levels without considering how you are going to either create or move goods around is how you get an irrevocable economic death spiral particularly at higher difficulties.
Many people who build city sims attempt to expand their cities as fast and as far as possible keeping to the razor's edge to expand the advantage in mid to late game due to some time constraint imposed - in this game, over expanding appears to be the fastest way to lose. To that end, the tutorial is quite poor. It should be teaching the main tools you'll need to beat this game: the ability to instantly and freely move buildings around in pause mode and the different ways you can move goods around in the game to maximize production chains and logistics.
It should at least mention that you can "chain" the starter transportation buildings to one another to expand their range, and that higher research levels allows for more efficient movement of goods. It should also mention that using the oxcart incures a massive penalty for distance (mitigated by how paved your roads are) and amount of goods in the cost of artisans and yaks.
Overall, I liked the game once I figured out how it works. You are tight on income in the early game and the midgame sort of becomes seeing how fast you can push to research level 3. Once you get to research level 3, the game becomes significantly easier since the the endgame transport option is obscenely efficient. This means if you wish, you can move entire production chains to the most efficient places for them and rebuild your cities for maximum shrine/tax effects while shipping in commodities and food from literally anywhere on the mountain. At that point, the game becomes an exercise in building the correct production chains to complete all the objectives and build the summit.
However, the tools to move around buildings are extremely clunky. I found myself more than once dreading moving multiple buildings from one side of the mountain to another since you are forced to do so individually - so moving production chains becomes a time heavy chore despite it being almost necessary at higher difficulties.
TLDR:
Pros: Pretty game, vertical expansion and expanding around the mountain is nifty. Yaks are cool.
Cons: Pretty clunky tools for moving buildings despite it appearing to be almost essential. I would love to have the ability to lasso and move multiple buildings (please!!!) and also reset the send/receive transport state of buildings (please!).
It would also be nice to have a goods limit on transporting stuff, particularly the artisan carriers as the penalties for moving goods across large distances are enormous and providing some goods is better than outright denying transport to entire food centers because I can't shoulder the manpower costs.

I love how building different buildings or lots are dependent on the elevation on the mountain. I adore this game, and it's worth a ton of play, but just keep in mind that you should pause while you build and keep an eye on your treasury to ensure you don't end up ending the game too quick with a bad build decision.