Let Them Trade

This game is a good entry point for anyone new to economy simulators. The presentation is solid, with pleasant graphics and clean audio that make it easy to get into. The gameplay is simple to learn, succeeding as an accessible and enjoyable introduction to the genre.
However, for experienced players, the appeal might be short-lived. The main campaign is quite brief, and the game unfortunately lacks meaningful endgame content or compelling mechanics to encourage multiple playthroughs. Once the campaign is over, there isn't much long-term challenge, which will likely leave genre veterans wanting more depth.
It's worth noting this opinion is based on the final playtest, as the 1.0 release, i bought, didn't introduce significant changes to these core areas.

bought all of the potatoes from my peasants for cheap. kept buying until price skyrocketed. sold them back to the peasants for huge profit as my peasants started to starve. 10/10 would manipulate the market again

Its a great game - if you know what you can expect or will get.
What you will get: A very relaxed, laid-back, and somewhat easy game. You have a board-game type map. Found your citys, create production chains and buildings, connect them via trade routes. Thats basically it. Just, relax and observe how everything unfolds, how the merchants do their job, how the trade flourish.
What you will NOT get: A challenge, a deep and complex simulation, a fascination story, difficult enemies, or whatever.
Sounds boring for you? Than its not your game. For me, after a long and exhausting day of work - just building some cities, watching how your little wood-empire prosper, without challenges, without action or "save the world"-scenarios is just exactly what is sometimes needed.
However, it took me about 6 hours for the full campaign, so decide yourself if 18$/€ is reasonable for you.

A Promising City Builder with Unique Trade Idea
I played the demo and full game for about 6 hours—almost completed it. The trade-focused economy is a fresh idea and makes earning money more strategic than in many other games. The detailed art and unique level designs are also a highlight.
However, the pricing system needs serious work. For example, tools sell for less than the materials needed to make them, making production unprofitable. Auto-trade struggles to balance prices. Maps are fixed (not procedural), only 4 cities can be built at the beginning, the tech tree is very basic, and traders are too slow—especially across long distances. Faster transport like trains or planes would be great in the future.
In short: a great concept, but the core trade and economy systems need a major redesign.

Ignore the negative reviews. This is literally described as a cozy economy builder - and that's exactly what it is. Little campaign to get you up to speed with the game, and then some inbuilt maps to refine your techniques. Plenty of opportunity for further updates, and a growing amount of custom maps on the Workshop.
This is a cheap game, and you'll definitely get your money out of it!

Already played the demo and I must say this game rocks!
I've always enjoyed these types of games, especially when they don't get too complicated in the endgame. This game is very chill and scratches my itch for building stuff and watching the world unfold.
Props to the devs, great work!

Okay, okay, get this: They trade, and you let them.
In short, it's a casual strategy game with all of the pieces present. Since the best way to combat low potato prices is to cause a brief tiny little famine, it's even got the Geneva Checklist aspect of any good strategy game covered!
Why I'd pick this up:
The game succeeds at its goal of turning the traditional production model on its head. Underproduction is bad, but low tax revenue is worse!
It's calm and slow-paced with no real way to lose, but includes speedup to combat waiting times.
The art style is cute and consistently executed.
Why I may wait for a sale:
Game's not awfully long, though I think any longer would overstay its welcome. You'll have your 12-20 hours of fun.
The campaign makes you redo most of the tech tree in each mission. I like redoing the setup because each map is different and you'll have a better forward plan with experience, but having to build a grain farm, wait for enough grain to research a mill, build it, then wait for enough flour to research a bakery, and finally build that gets a little grating when most intermediate products have little to no use outside of their production chain.
There are some rough edges. The city AI feels a bit dumb or outright broken sometimes, refusing to tend to basic needs when we vastly overproduce fish, for instance. Multiple times, bandits popped into existence IN FRONT OF MY CASTLE. You'd think we would've seen them! Certain modifications (Lumberjack Guild, potato farm shared fields) are not correctly reflected in the production graphs.