Fabledom takes the city-builder genre to all new levels with this relaxing fairytale-inspired simulator.
Dear Villagers, a French publishing company, has partnered up with a 2-man studio called Grenaa based in Sweden. The publishers are known for publishing games like Nocturnal and Fort Solis. Grenaa has developed Fabledom, a medieval city-building simulator with an intriguing storyline.
Before you start building your kingdom in Fabledom you are greeted by the Narrator who tells your kingdom’s story. You get to choose the world your kingdom exists in by generating a map. The map takes on different shapes with different starting kingdoms to choose from depending on the seed you use.
The seed can either be randomized or you can write something random to create the seed. Once the map has been generated you can pick between the different kingdoms. Each has its own pros and cons. While some may have denser forests and fewer hills they can have a larger amount of territory to build up. The kingdom sizes you have are large and medium.
After deciding on your kingdom you now go on to deciding what your fablings and fellow rulers call you. Fabledom lends itself to a certain amount of openness as you can choose between Prince, Princess and Highness as a title. In Fabledom whether you conquer the neighbouring lands by war or with diplomatic relationships is entirely up to you.
Underneath your title, you will find an option that says “I am looking for a” The answers to this are Prince, Princess or Any. This already gives the feeling that Fabledom is more about conquering hearts than it is about war-driven states even if it is a weird option to have in a city-builder
After choosing everything you wanted and deciding on your map and kingdom, it’s time to begin the story. In the beginning, you are greeted by four fablings and a wagon which means that they are the first settlers of your little kingdom. The placement of the wagon and the fablings are randomly generated. Your first task is to build a laborer’s hut, this is important as the laborers are the ones who build every other building in your kingdom.
You will start with building important structures such as a woodcutter’s hut and placing the building near a forested area in your kingdom to get wood. You will need to build more housing to have more fablings come to your kingdom and let it grow. Along with housing, you will need to place wells which cover a certain area on the map so one well is good for getting water to about 5-6 houses depending on how you structure your kingdom.
While Fabledom doesn’t have a day-night cycle, it still has a year system so you will experience all of the seasons. Spring and Summer are great times for your crops and also time for you to build up coal supplies. The Fall season doesn’t have a huge impact besides changing the tree leaves to fall colours. Winter time is the most important time to plan for as you are unable to grow crops and all the houses you built for your fablings require coal so they can keep warm.
If you aren’t sure where to start, just follow the objectives but there isn’t any rush to complete them. While playing through the campaign, the narrator will chime in with a witty response about how you have received a letter from a secret admirer. This is the start of the more romantic option of dealing with other Kingdoms and their Rulers.
To fully interact with them, you need to build the messengers guild and set fablings to work there as messengers. With the guild built, it unlocks the map from where you can send delegates to start a relationship with foreign rulers. Whether it will just be a great friendship or a budding romance will be up to you.
As you build up your kingdom in Fabledom there will be points where you don’t produce enough resources at certain times, that is if the management of your resources isn’t the best. There will be world events that pop up now and then, one of them is called Secret Santa. This is where the game can give you a small number of resources in case you are running low.
This isn’t the only world event that appears. You have a world event where other fablings seek asylum in your kingdom or your party planner wishes to throw a party to uplift the mood of your kingdom. Each world event affects your people, some making them happier, others bringing more fablings in or affecting the kingdom itself.
In Fabledom, as you grow and expand, you’ll unlock new buildings and decorations. Once your kingdom gets big enough, you can build a building that summons a hero. Your hero can interact with various items all over the map. Some will give you buffs that will aid your continued growth, while others will allow you to build certain decorations. Decorations are used to keep your fablings happy.
Buffs aren’t the only thing you gain in Fabledom, occasionally you’ll be hit with a debuff so preparing a stockpile of resources in advance is a must. For example, one of the first debuffs you encounter makes your fablings work faster but they will eat twice as much food. This can lead to a food shortage, especially if winter is close.
While most objectives aren’t timed, you will occasionally get one or two that is. They usually have really good rewards. Most of the rewards for the timed objective aren’t gold with which you start building. It’s a currency called nobility. Nobility is needed for interactions with other Rulers but can also be used to build special items. It is earned during world events and you can lose a portion of what you have earned previously if you are unable to meet the objectives of the world event.
Most of your buildings come with attachments, such as yards for some of the housing. These attachments have their price attached but luckily you can plan ahead by placing the buildings and not yet buying them. This mechanic allows for better planning as you can see how much it would cost to start building everything. For example, a tulip farm with maxed plots requires 300 gold to start building. How much gold you earn after seven days is dependent on your upkeep costs for buildings and how many fablings you have paying tax. You can end up in the negative so be careful.
Fabledom has an art style that throws you straight into fairytales from a storybook. From the designs of the fablings to even the environment, everything gives you a mystical and cheerful vibe. When it is spring everything will be in bloom so don’t be surprised if you see flowers growing in front of your fablings’ homes. While in the wintertime, everything is like a winter wonderland. The transitions between seasons are also done well with winter melting into spring and spring darkening into fall.
The music and sound engineering were extremely well done, as the music isn’t repetitive and changes according to what is going on. When getting hit by a debuff, the music turns ominous and dark, but if you are interacting with a neighbouring ruler the sound is lighter. The sound effects as you move around your kingdom can be amazing as you listen to the everyday life of the fablings as they go on with their business. From the woodcutters cutting down trees to the sound of the baker baking bread, it’s never a dull moment.
Even though Fabledom has all these amazing features, the game isn’t really meant to be played by players who don’t do well with management games. It can be easy to feel as if you are in over your head as your kingdom runs towards ruin because you can’t produce enough food. Fabledom is missing a few features such as a class of citizens not yet available for recruiting, But as the early access goes on it will hopefully add all the features they have not yet released for players to add to their ever-growing kingdoms.
Overall, Fabledom is a solid PC game where you can manage your dream kingdom. Build it up from scratch and maybe romance a neighbouring Prince or Princess. From encountering interesting things on the map to expanding your territories further. Keep your fablings alive throughout winter and face an array of interesting characters both good and bad. See how far your creativity can go as you build your story.
