Natural Balance: Of Life & Land

People and nature meet in this simulated settlement builder.

‣ Of Life & Land
From: Kerzoven, Metaroot
Platforms: PC
Release: 2 April, 2024
Steam Page • Demo Video • Developer Site

Note: Of Life and Land launched on 2 April. This feature was written prior to launch and features pre-release gameplay.

Taking the role of the leader in building games allows you to create your perfect city. Towering skyscrapers made of glass, creating monuments to show off your urban planning skills, and ensuring citizens get bus routes to work—these are staples of economically driven city-builders. However, what if striking an ecological balance is crucial for humans and beasts to survive? What if they all each had their own needs? Can society and nature be harmonious and technologically successful? Of Life and Land poses this compelling question. 

Of Life and Land is a strategic settlement builder paired with rich nature simulation. As mentioned, all animals and humans have individual needs. Grooming, finding a partner, work fulfilment… how you approach those needs is the game's hook. You can choose to be a small farming commune or hunting tribe; each choice has its challenges with balance and prosperity. 

Humans and animals share the same space and resources with nature. How you choose to engage with the environment has an impact. Animals may multiply or become extinct. Deforestation has a direct effect on the happiness of people and animals. When wild animals don't have a place to live, they fall asleep on your farmstead and eat your produce. Humans become angry because there is no shade between their home and work. 

The simulated world connects the dots between your settlement and its relationship with the world it inhabits. The settlement gameplay is also simulated. Each inhabitant is an individual character. Foraged items and farmed produce will eventually expire. Clothes, tools, certain products, and even some upgrades have timers. 

This persistent-style world encourages novel solutions to problems. Need extra berries or mushrooms to complete a building? You could cull the raccoons eating your stock or adopt them as pets and control their diet. Quite a lot is under your control, such as assigning jobs and housing to your people. Of Life and Land can become challenging as you try to balance your growing settlement and its different demands. But the micromanagement is kept in control, providing you time to enjoy the world.

• 📽 Demo Moment: Looking at the stars while the little Hamlet is asleep

The low-polygon art style complements the game. Its vibrant colour palette creates a distinctively calm air for the game, especially when the seasons change. Even when you speed up the game, the visuals and soundtrack maintain this calming feeling. I often caught myself staring at the stars and watching the sunrise as my little village slept. The land and inhabitants are bright and attractive, encouraging you to take your time and enjoy nature in an idyllic countryside. Follow a herd of cows chewing the cud, maybe even find a mushroom circle or an ancient tree where wolves compare the best hunting spots. 

The symbiotic relationship between environment and settlement building is refreshing, and love, dedication, and effort that went into this game are apparent. Of Life and Land can be a more demanding settlement builder, but it all comes together very well and leaves you feeling philosophical about our relationship with nature.

Of life and Land launched on 2 April.

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Explore The Game with Youtube Chapters:

• 📽 00:29 Exposition

• 📽 03:11 Welcome to the Valley!

• 📽 04:29 Who is Sanny?

• 📽 07:31 Let’s hire and upgrade our shack.

• 📽 08:24 Building a home.

• 📽 09:48 We need wheatfields.

• 📽 12:21 Making planks and firewood.

• 📽 13:20 Campfire and Tailor (Clothes and heat)

• 📽 25:06 Here fishy fishy

• 📽 32:06 Watching the sunrise

• 📽 34:06 Baking bread and milling grain

• 📽 39:06 Some bushes for our furry friends

• 📽 45:06 Watching the night sky

• 📽 50:06 Hunting lodge for meat!

• 📽 52:06 Building a community centre

• 📽 58:21 Accepting a new family

• 📽 01:02:36 Change the work schedule.

• 📽 01:03:36 Winter has come

• 📽 01:05:36 Discovered the Tablelands

• 📽 01:13:06 Reaching level III

• 📽 01:19:47 Whoops! Animals got stuck.

• 📽 01:22:08 Found a Quarry!

• 📽 01:34:44 Harsh winter took some casualties.

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