Gnomoria Preview

Gnomoria is a complex civilization building game, based around you ruling over a bunch of gnomes. If you've ever played Dwarf Fortress, think of something similar to that, but not as complex, and with a streamlined and easy-to-use GUI. It's got some interesting mechanics to it, and definitely a lot of fun.

When you get a game like Gnomoria, what do you do? Well, whatever you like is what you do! The world is a free place for you and your gnomes to do as you please. In the words of the devs, Gnomoria is a "sandbox village management game", and it's quite accurate. You get a few gnomes and you have to manage their needs, while re-creating the world in your vision.

Each gnome is a unique being, they have names, skills, professions (which you can change for them) and needs. And for every gnome, you can assign personal rooms for them, making you feel more intimate with them, just giving you a more personal feeling for each one. You can see all their statistics and information in a menu, easily found on the UI.

Talking about the UI, I just have to say it felt really slick and clean, easy to use, in comparison to other sandbox management games right now like Towns and Dwarf Fortress to name a couple. The game just feels nice already, and it's a fact that it's still a work-in-progress! If only more improvements are to come, then I can tell it's going to be a wonderful game. It's also a simpler game than Dwarf Fortress, making it easier to get into for those who are new to these kinds of games.

There are a lot of things you can build in Gnomoria, ranging from simple walls and fences to complex jewelry and blacksmithing workshops. With the game providing you the ability to create so many things, the ideas that come to mind are vast. I could create a bustling market town, or maybe develop a crazy powerful military, the most mighty in all the land. I'm not a very creative guy, but it's hard not to get creative with so many tools available for you to play with.

With this many tools, Gnomoria further adds playtime with it's randomly generated worlds. Every new playthrough feels different, whether it's the play style you choose for that run, or the change in the scenery you get. Build up high into the sky, or dig down into the depths of the earth, it's really up to you.

So far, I have to say Gnomoria is a lot of fun to play, and it looks like it is well on it's way to becoming a great fully-fledged game. I've yet to notice any kind of significant bugs that interfere with gameplay, although clumps of dirt lying around everywhere since I dug out a kingdom in a mountain was rather displeasing to my eye. If you've always been interested in these kinds of management games, but couldn't get into them because they were too complex, Gnomoria is the way to go.

This preview was done using a PC Download copy of Gnomoria provided by Robotronic Games.