For fans of richly simulated settlement-builders, the newly released Of Life and Land (previously called Circle of Kerzoven) is a game you’ll want to keep your eye on. This ambitious indie title from solo developer Marco Burri has just hit Early Access with full Native Linux support out of the gate.
Having spent some time exploring the game’s intricately simulated world, I can attest that Of Life and Land quickly establishes itself as a wonderfully distinctive and charming experience. The low-poly visuals give it a warm, storybook aesthetic that pairs perfectly with the naturalistic premise. But don’t let the unassuming looks fool you - beneath the surface lies a incredibly deep simulation with countless interlocking systems.
The core gameplay loop revolves around establishing a thriving settlement by gathering resources, constructing buildings, managing production chains, and keeping your villagers healthy and productive. That last part is where Of Life and Land’s true depth reveals itself. Each individual villager has their own persistent needs for food, water, rest, warmth and more that must be carefully balanced alongside their work responsibilities.
It’s a delicate juggling act to keep the entire population functioning optimally. You’ll need to ensure there’s enough housing, rations, warm shelters and so on to meet everyone’s basic needs. Meanwhile, you’re also assigning jobs, prioritizing production of different resources, and expanding infrastructures like road networks and storage facilities.
The simulation extends far beyond just the human inhabitants too. Animals also have their own survival needs, forming social hierarchies and vying for the limited food sources scattered across the countryside. Wolves might raid your farms, deer could trample crops, and you’ll need sustainable hunting policies to maintain wildlife populations. It’s an intricate, ever-evolving eco-system that seamlessly blends with your colony management efforts.
That’s just scratching the surface too. Seasons change the entire landscape, prompting shifts in available resources and living conditions. Trading with other factions allows circulating goods produced under the same labor simulations as your own colony. You can even create custom maps and share them via Steam Workshop.
It’s an enormously ambitious simulation for one person to undertake. Of Life and Land does show some jankiness and lack of polish in its current Early Access state, which is to be expected. But the core vision and depth of gameplay systems on display is genuinely exciting for strategy gaming enthusiasts.
With a few years of continued development ahead, Burri has plenty of time to incrementally optimize stability, introduce new gameplay layers, and expand content across different climates and production chains. That roadmap, combined with the standout premise and gameplay on offer already, makes Of Life and Land one to keep tabs on for deep-strategy aficionados, especially with the Linux support.
So for those who revel in the intricate colony sims like Dwarf Fortress, Rimworld or the upcoming Manor Lords, clear some hard drive space. Of Life and Land is shaping up to be your next richly-layered obsession, with the unique twist of an all-encompassing natural ecosystem simulation at its core.