ISLANDERS on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
ISLANDERS is a minimalist strategy game about building cities on colorful islands.
ISLANDERS is a relaxing, city builder and strategy game
developed by Coatsink, GrizzlyGames and Stage Clear Studios
and published by Coatsink.
Released on April 04th 2019 is available on Windows and MacOS
in 12 languages: English, German, French, Spanish - Spain, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Latin America, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil and Turkish.
It has received 16,244 reviews of which 15,367 were positive and 877 were negative resulting in an impressive rating of 9.2 out of 10. 😍
The game is currently priced at 2.49€ on Steam with a 50% discount.
The Steam community has classified ISLANDERS into these genres:
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: Windows 7, 8 or 10
- Processor: Intel Core i3 2.00 GHz or AMD equivalent
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX950 or higher
- Storage: 200 MB available space
- Sound Card: We don't really think you need one. Just humming your favorite tune while playing is perfectly fine.
MacOS
- OS: MacOS X Yosemite (10.10)
- Processor: Intel Core i3 2.00 GHz or AMD equivalent
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX950 or higher
- Storage: 200 MB available space
- Sound Card: We don't really think you need one. Just humming your favorite tune while playing is perfectly fine.
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
This is a puzzle game, not a City Builder, Strategy, or Building game. It is more similar to Tetris than to anything called a "City Builder"— the "City", "Builder", and "Buildings" aspect of this puzzle game are esthetic and have no baring on gameplay. The "Buildings" are blocks that are inert once placed but which dictate what things you want to put around them; there is no "City" or town or village except in the way a Tetris game can look like stairs if you put the pieces in a particular way; and the strategy is abstract point-maximization—there is no population count, no happiness, no economy, no people. Once I started playing this game I enjoyed it for what it is. And the price point at $2.50 is absolutely reasonable. However, I would not have bought it if I understood what kind of game it is.
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The quintessential city-builder I keep coming back to. I think the newest update made it harder but that's just a fun new challenge. The designs are beautiful :)
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ISLANDERS is a serene and tranquil procedurally-generated, endless, score-based puzzle game which has a city-building theme to it. Although its tagline states that it is "A minimalist city builder," this is slightly misleading because the city-building aspect is moreso an aesthetic rather than a core identity of the gameplay since it doesn't involve resource or population management like the more traditional city-building games and is also less predictable due to the randomness of the maps and some of the building layouts. Overall, I recommend the game as it is very relaxing to play casually for an hour or two here and there, while simultaneously having just enough depth to satiate score-chasers, and the procedural generation of the maps constantly challenges you to adapt to the random terrain and natural features that you are provided. Although I don't care to compete for high scores, I found that attempting to optimize my cities was unexpectedly fun and especially gratifying after planning the general layout of my city and watching the points come flooding in as my plan came to fruition. Note: this review is current as of the unnumbered patch released on 23 November 2023 which is the latest update. S U M M A R Y - The gameplay is very accessible to a wide range of players as it is simple and intuitive enough for casual players, yet also has enough depth to challenge score-chasers, but the game is very minimalistic and offers little to no precision when it comes to building an efficient and aesthetically-pleasing city; - The replay value is decent and the game is fun when played occasionally in shorter sessions but the core gameplay loop will get repetitive very quickly; - The graphics are vibrant, almost cartoonish, and are reminiscent of the "Chibi" art style; - The soundtrack is composed of relaxing ambient music with rural-style sound effects to give the feeling of an authentic city; and - There is no story whatsoever but a casual puzzle game like this doesn't have a need for one. A C H I E V E M E N T S The game has 38 achievements, most of which will be acquired throughout casual gameplay while a few will require you to go out of your way to set them up but aren't difficult by any means and should take less than 10 hours to achieve; however, the Conqueror achievement will take at least 30 hours by itself and require you to become very familiar with the mechanics of the game while also planning the general layout of each map before placing any buildings. That being said, it isn't nearly as RNG-dependent as many complaints on the Steam Discussion forums would lead you to believe as you merely have to invest some time into the game to learn it beyond a casual level since the achievement is not a given whatsoever. R E V I E W Gameplay The gameplay is more akin to a puzzle game rather than a traditional city builder because of its focus on simplicity and minimalism: a map is procedurally-generated, you are given a choice between two random sets of buildings, and your inventory is populated with a number of buildings from the chosen set. Your goal is to place the buildings efficiently in order to receive point bonuses from other types of buildings and meet the point threshold which gives you another choice between two more random sets of buildings. This process repeats itself until you either fail to meet the point threshold, by having no more buildings to place, or meet the threshold which allows you to travel to the next map and restart the gameplay loop, ad infinitum. As far as casual play is concerned, the game is simple and intuitive enough to get into and occasionally have fun with in small spurts. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for those who like to chase high scores because the game demands absolute precision when placing buildings and planning out your city but offers you very few tools to facilitate this need and the tools that do exist are quite shoddy. For example, there is somewhat of an integrated "snap-to" ability but it is finnicky and rarely lines up buildings perfectly with one another which can lead to inefficiencies and cause you to lose points -- and sometimes those few points could be the difference between losing a run altogether or proceeding to the next map. Sometime between 2019 and 2022, the game was handed over to an entirely new development team and they added the more difficult achievements which require a certain level of precision that the game simply can't offer and this makes the minimalist approach of the game feel almost incongruous with, and somewhat inadequate for, these new achievements (one of which is the infamous Conqueror achievement). If they had made the existing snapping more accurate, added an option to turn on a grid, or gave you a laser level tool, then the game would be feel much more precise but you can definitely tell the difference between the two development teams' philosophy on achievements. Another minor gripe that I have with the overly-minimalist approach is that the House, Mansion, and Park buildings also have a variety of different layouts (similar to Tetris blocks) but the next one is randomly chosen for you and can't be changed which is irritating from an efficiency perspective and true city-building aspect but I can't complain too much about it because it fits the minimalist design approach that they were going for. Nevertheless, I still found it quite fun to learn the more intricate nuances to the game's mechanics and optimize my cities; however, once I figured out the most efficient setup then the most fun part became the planning of the city and playing the actual game for long periods of time became a bit of a chore which is why I think that it's a good game to occasionally have fun with in smaller doses because it gets repetitive very quickly. The game also has a Sandbox Mode where you can unleash your creative side with an unlimited supply of all buildings and a Photo Mode where you can take fancy images of said creations using a variety of built-in filters and tools. Graphics The graphics are vibrant and almost cartoonish in nature which gives it a very charming look. The buildings are also blocky but in a cute and bubbly sort of way -- if anything, I'd say that its art style actually resembles the popular "Chibi" art style because of how cute, minimalistic, and caricature-like the art design is. The second development team also added a number of optional seasonal and holiday themes that you can apply to your game to spruce things up at your whim which is a nice touch. Sound The soundtrack is made up of relaxing ambient music with scenic noises such as dogs barking, birds chirping, and other rural sound effects. The music is so modest that I'm not even sure if the audio tracks would count as "songs". Much like the graphics, there are a number of optional seasonal and holiday-themed songs that you can enable or disable but I frankly couldn't even tell the difference between any of the songs. All-in-all, it's just a very relaxing soundtrack which I would say resembles white noise to some degree. The sound effects are few and far between but the main one you will hear is placing a building which makes a very satisfying plopping sound. Conclusion Overall, I recommend the game because you can easily relax to it for an hour and forget about the stressors of life as you get immersed in its soothing audio, charming visuals, and straightforward and leisurely nature. If you're more of a score-chaser then it's surprisingly fun and engaging to plan out your city, optimize the placement of your buildings, and get that feeling of elation as your plan flourishes and you watch your points soar.
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Islanders is a relaxing puzzle game in which you build a up city. Each building has some kind of range and you get a score with the placement, which is calculated by checking what kind of other buildings are in that range. By achieving the next score milestone you will have access to more buildings and you will always get a new score milestone goal. This might sound easy, but it is also easy to get lost, especially at the first few times while you have not built up your own strategy on how to build up your city ideally. When you collect enough scores you can progress to a new island and everything starting from the beginning, well, with one difference, you will keep your score. That's it, quite a simple game idea but in this game the execution was impressive and the developers created a chilling atmosphere and a game which was enjoyable in short sessions too. One more plus is the affordable price tag of the game, while it is also not rare that Islanders get a decent discount during various sales. I liked this game, but as an achievement hunter I really disliked the pointless reach of the 21st island achievement. Cosy, relaxing games shouldn’t have hardcore grind achievements. Hey, I am an achievement hunter! How to perfect?: Well, you need to get to the 21st island without starting a new game. It is not easy. Game is very evil when generating new islands, most of the islands impossible to beat so yes, you need manually backup your save file before moving to the next island and restore if you do not like the new island, which will happen a lot! After Island 15 I needed to restore the save file and generate a new island like 30-50 times each time I moved to the next island. I like challenges, but the game likes to generate islands at that point where you literally don’t have any space to place buildings. Perfection Difficulty: 7/10. It is difficult to perfect because of reaching island 10 and reaching island 21 achievements, very tedious to finish that and very boring just to keep restoring the save file and hope for a better island creation. 100% time: ~25h+ [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/30168383] If you like to get suggestion about enjoyable and fun games, in which 100% achievements possible, then please consider following our Average Achievement Hunter curator or just check out our curated games if you looking for some gaming tips:-) Thanks
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Islanders is the very definition of an easy to learn, hard to master game. It is definitely a serene and relaxing city builder, as advertized; the Sandbox mode alone gives you plenty of room to let you express your creativity in full! But for those of you who like to sweat on their mouse and keyboard, High Score mode is the place to learn truly optimal placement. If you're hunting for achievements, most of them are fun and easy to unlock, though a couple will require literal hours of grinding. Fortunately, the Steam Community has come up with some pretty handy guides on building placement and planning strategies. Overall, it's a very pretty game with a chill soundtrack that didn't get too repetitive for me, even after 15 hours of gameplay. 👌
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Last Updates| Steam data | 05 April 2025 20:02 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 10 April 2025 16:05 |
| Steam price | 13 April 2025 20:27 |
| Steam reviews | 13 April 2025 07:45 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about ISLANDERS, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about ISLANDERS
- SteamCharts - Analysis of ISLANDERS concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck ISLANDERS compatibility
Online players
43
Developer
Coatsink,
GrizzlyGames,
Stage Clear Studios
Publisher
Coatsink
Release
04 Apr 2019
Platforms