To describe The Thaumaturge using only regular genre terms is a complicated endeavor, since the title tends to mix and match so many different ideas that you wouldn’t really expect would go together particularly well. More than anything, however, The Thaumaturge is a narrative RPG, with a turn-based combat system thrown in for good measure. However, you don’t really fight that often in this game. Rather, most of your time will be spent in investigating your surroundings, trying to solve mysteries, figure out the political landscape of Warsaw, and along the way, maybe convince a few monsters to work with you rather than against you.

Before we get to all of that, however, it’s important to talk about just how seriously The Thaumaturge takes its presentation. When it comes to minute-to-minute gameplay, the game can look downright gorgeous at moments. While it goes without saying that the primary setting of Warsaw is wonderfully detailed, especially when you start paying attention to some of the finer aspects of architecture, like the gorgeous building facades and even the village that acts as the game’s tutorial has a similar level of detail crammed into just about every corner. However, the game doesn’t allow you to control the camera. The game will decide the best angle according to the situation, and, T=thankfully, the camera never gets in the way of gameplay.

"The Thaumaturge nails it on most counts on both the audio and visual front"

Along with the visual presentation, the game also features an excellent soundscape. The hustle and bustle of Warsaw’s train station is predictably dense, giving the sense that they are in constant use by commuters of all kinds. Going into the more industrial areas of the city also similarly fills the atmosphere with the clanging and banging of factory workers, and crowd noises of the revolutionaries trying to get the oppressed workers to rise up against inhumane working conditions. When it comes to presentation, The Thaumaturge nails it on most counts on both the audio and visual front, and this carries over into the voice acting as well.

Characters are expressive and their accents have been executed well enough that the game makes you believe that they grew up in the area where you meet them. The only real downside here is that the animations for characters while speaking is not very well implemented. While far from a deal breaker, characters talking to each other often feels incredibly janky, and the generally slow speed at which they tend to say every line makes the “Skip Dialog” button a gift for those of us that can read the subtitles faster than the characters can say their dialougues.

Aside from the overall presentation, the two main stars of The Thaumaturge are its story and its unique combat system. The story revolves around the eponymous thaumaturge Wiktor Szulski, who is empowered with the ability to control demonic entities, known in the setting as salutors. These salutors each have unique abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and awesome designs. After going through the game’s opening and learning of his own father’s death, Wiktor sets out on a journey of self-discovery and mystery-solving. A lot of the story in The Thaumaturge revolves around historical events of the time, with the emphasis on an oncoming revolt of the working class against their wealthy bosses.

As is the case with any brewing revolt, there are several factions at play, and this is where the role-playing aspect of The Thaumaturge comes into play. There are several points throughout the game where Wiktor has to make choices, be it minor ones like how you’re going to convince a particularly antagonistic guard to get out of your way, to bigger choices, like maybe turning in a woman that’s seemingly hiding ammunition to the local police or helping her out and uncovering something much larger at play. The factions aren’t really present as much of a mechanic as they are as branching paths in the game’s story. You’re not going to get to grind out reputation with certain factions, for instance. Rather, you’re going to make choices that define whether a faction’s goals happen to align with yours, thus opening and closing different branches of the story.

This implementation of factions is quite interesting, since it manages to avoid adding unnecessary complications to the core mechanics of the game. You’re instead encouraged to really put yourself in Wiktor’s shoes, and think about how he would tackle any given situation.

"There are several points throughout the game where Wiktor has to make choices"

The Thaumaturge has this incredibly interesting turn-based combat system, but there just isn’t enough fighting in the game. When you get into a fight, you are presented with a time-table of sorts, letting you know when your opponents are going to use abilities or attack. On your turn, you can execute a single action per unit, in the early game this means that Wiktor gets one attack, and his salutor gets one. While your attacks start out pretty simple, be it a quick jab or a high-damage long-winded punch, soon enough, you get to modify your abilities with passive bonuses. I fell in love with combining the jab with a 50 percent chance to interrupt an opponent’s planned attack, which started letting me drown that one opponent in a barrage of attacks before he could finally land one of his own.

Along with regular attacks, there are also statuses at play. While most of these largely boil down to fancier implementations of a damage-over-time effect, one notable status, achieved by reducing a target’s focus, lets Wiktor go all-out with a high-damage attack that might even have some interesting bonuses attached. The salutor can similarly use a fancy attack of their own, with different salutors having different effects with their attacks. For example, one of them can heal Wiktor for half the damage he deals to an enemy.

Outside of the combat, the gameplay revolves around mostly just going around, talking with a bunch of people, and investigating weird things on the ground. Since The Thaumaturge is largely about solving mysteries, a core mechanic in the game is finding clues that connect with each other, ultimately leading you to the answer for whatever mystery you might be solving. For the sake of keeping things spoiler-free, let us take an example from the prologue. A salutor is haunting the village, feeding into the villagers’ negative emotions. By looking into the time frame around which this change in the villagers’ behavior started, and by observing certain pointers that pertain to a particularly scared and irritable lady, Wiktor ultimately finds himself in his first boss fight. Ultimately, this investigative aspect doesn’t really rely on the player connecting the dots themselves. Instead, it acts as a sort of breadcrumb method to tell smaller stories in the larger world, making it a much more interesting approach to investigative gameplay than throwing up a big board where you’re connecting different clues and what not.

"There just isn’t enough fighting in the game."

Generally speaking, The Thaumaturge is an incredibly interesting game. It looks and sounds fantastic (as long as you are okay with bad NPC animations when they speak), and its turn-based combat system is one of the most interesting ones out there that still manages to keep things surprisingly simple. The writing in The Thaumaturge is also quite intriguing, especially for those among us who might be interested in a historic setting, and wondering how supernatural elements can fit into a world on the brink of uprising and chaos.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Frostpunk is a pretty great game but also quite brutal, just like the previous game from developers 11bit Studios, This War of Mine. The game runs quite well on PC for the most part, but some users have reported experiencing some problems. If you’ve been experiencing any such issues with the game, then perhaps you will find a solution in this guide.

First, the specs:

Minimum Requirements: 

• CPU: 3.2 GHz Dual Core Processor
• CPU SPEED: Info
• RAM: 4 GB
• OS: Windows 7/8/10 64-bit
• VIDEO CARD: GeForce GTX 660, Radeon RX 460 or equivalent with 2 GB of video RAM
• SOUND CARD: DirectX compatible
• FREE DISK SPACE: 8 GB

Recommended Requirements

• CPU: 3.2 GHz Quad Core Processor
• CPU SPEED: Info
• RAM: 8 GB
• OS: Windows 7/8/10 64-bit
• VIDEO CARD: GeForce GTX 970, Radeon RX 580 or equivalent with 4GB of video RAM
• SOUND CARD: DirectX compatible
• FREE DISK SPACE: 8 GB

Please be advised that the following methods are to be used at the sole discretion of the system owner. GamingBolt or its staff members take no responsibility for problems that may arise or issues that may occur from trying the below. Always remember that official support is always the best support. 

GENERAL FIXES

Generally speaking, some basic troubleshooting tips should always help you resolve whatever issue you are facing with the PC version of any game. If you are running into problems, maybe first attempt the following steps, and if they don’t work out, look into some of the more specific fixes we have below.

• Make sure the drivers on your PC are updated
• If you have two GPUs, make sure you are using the discrete GPU instead of the integrated one
• Set Frostpunk’s priority to High in the Task Manager Turn off any background programs, including firewalls, chat clients, video recorders, and overlays
• Try lowering visual settings on the game to see if that improves game performance
• Make sure you have Windows updated before you attempt to play Frostpunk.

BLACK SCREEN ERROR

If you’re encountering a problem where the screen goes black when you start up the game, then the solution is pretty simple. Just press ALT+ENTER to bring it to windowed mode and then change the resolution to your monitor’s native resolution. This problem is caused because the game’s resolution is set higher than your monitor’s native resolution.

Alternatively, you can just go to C: users\”name”\appdata%\11bitstudios\frostpunk\config.bin and then just change the resolution there by opening the config file with notepad.

MSVCP140.DLL IS MISSING

If you encounter this error, then there’s an easy fix for it. Just download Visual C++ Redistributable and the problem will be resolved for you. Try running the game again after doing so and it will run without any problems.

D3DCOMPILER_47.DLL IS MISSING

You might encounter this error when trying to start the game up, but the solution for this is quite simple as well. Just download Microsoft .NET Framework and the issue will be resolved.

MSVCP120.DLL IS MISSING

This is another problem where you can fix the issue just by downloading the required package. For this error, just download isual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013 and the problem will be fixed.

GAME NOT STARTING ON WINDOWS 7

Windows 7 users usually have a hard time with lots of games and they encounter some varied problems with this game. One possible problem may be that api-ms-win-core-libraryloader-l1-2-0.dll file is missing. To fix this issue, just download the file manually online and then paste it in C: Windows\SysWOW64. This should resolve the issue for you.

INPUT NOT SUPPORTED

To fix this issue, go to  C: users\”name”\appdata%\11bitstudios\frostpunk\config.bin and open the config file with Notepad and change the refresh rate to your monitor’s refresh rate. You can find your monitor’s refresh rate by just checking online.

Note: Given that the wide range of PC hardware out there, the fixes mentioned here may or may not work for you. But it’s worth giving them a shot since these have worked for players who own the PC version of Final Fantasy 15.

If you’re ready, then let’s get started!

GENERAL TIPS AND TRICKS

Keep Collecting Coal 

Coal is such an important resource for your civilization as your entire city is powered by the stuff! You can get Coal either through Coal Thumpers, Coal Mines, and Coal Kilns. they each have their own advantages and drawbacks but a good start for beginners would be Coal Thumpers. Also, if you choose one method, just focus on that and ignore the other two. Apart from assigning workers to Coal Thumpers, ensure that you build gathering hubs. Also, build Storage Depots so that you can store any excess Coal to use in the future.

Get More People To Work And For Longer

While your workers will normally only work for 8 hours a day, there are ways you can change this. You can extend this time with laws such as the Extended Shift and we recommend using this law. Also, it will be beneficial to put children to work as it will give you some much needed extra labor. Yeah, it’s a cruel world out there…

Heat Is The Most Important Resource

It’s a cold world out there and many of your buildings will benefit from having some heat sources nearby. So make sure you plan carefully when constructing new buildings. Also, make sure you understand which buildings provide heat as these can be really helpful for your city if used correctly.

Make Sure You Research Insulation 

Once you start building houses, make sure you research insulation as quickly as possible as this will allow your citizens to remain warm within their homes. It also helps you save power that you can make use of in other areas.

Make Use Of Automatons

Unlike people, Automatons are immune to the cold and this makes them great to work out in the cold. However, they require fuel to function properly so try and have them working near a Steam Hub as this will cut down the time taken for refueling.

Use Scouts Wisely

Research scout teams early on and increase their speed through workshops. Also, send as many as you can out as this is the only way to get more people and expand your colony, and this is crucial to ensuring that your city survives.

SCENARIOS GUIDE

As if the game wasn’t already difficult, it gets even tougher once you’re 20 days into the campaign and you can read below how to deal with these different scenarios. Micromanagement is crucial for both scenarios and make sure you don’t have any workers sitting by idly at any point in time.

Scenario No. 1: The Arks

With this scenario, you’re left only with a small group of workers so you’ll have to rely on mechanical spiders to keep structures known as The Arks warm. These buildings contain the last seeds of the world and which are necessary to protect so as to revitalize the earth once the harsh times are over.

Here are some important tips to keep in mind with this scenario.

• Focus On Alternative Ways To Gather Resources: Since you have no worker class citizens, you’ll have to rely on other methods such as Hot Houses to get resources. Cookhouses and Food Laws will help you use your limited food supplies effectively. Also, you can use your automatons to gather resources and build things.
• Research Steam Hubs And Heaters: Get the Heaters and Steam Grades upgrade so that you can ensure that The Arks’ temperatures don’t drop too low. You will need to keep the temperatures for these buildings at least at a level of “chilly”.
• Keep Your Scouts Out For Longer: You might feel like calling back your scouts as early as possible but resist the urge until you reach the Last Dreadnought node on the map. This will let you save a lot of time since they don’t have to travel back each time.

Scenario No. 2: The Refugees

In this scenario, a bunch of refugees come into your city and your citizens aren’t too happy with the situation. This can cause a surge in discontentment and can also lead to a shortage of resources.

Here are some important tips to keep in mind with this scenario:

• Try To Be More Efficient: People are going to get sick a lot and when your workers get sick, they won’t automatically be replaced. However, whenever some area is not working at maximum efficiency, you’ll see it marked with a less-than-full yellow bar. Look out for these and make sure you replace workers whenever necessary.
• Use Heat Zones Wisely: Keep Medical Posts and Houses as close to the Generator as possible to provide some much needed warmth. On the other hand, workplaces already start with higher heat levels so you can have them a little farther out. Basically, make sure you strategically build things so that some buildings get the heat they require.
• Sign A Purpose Law As Soon As You Can: With this scenario, the Purpose Law makes them available immediately. Since there are a lot of people to manage this time around, Purpose Laws help keep things from spiraling out of control.

FOOD GUIDE

Food is scarce in this game and that means you’ll have to plan carefully if you want your city to survive. You need to have a steady supply of food at all times or citizens will quickly grow discontent.

You can get food by building the structure known as Hunter’s Hut. This allows you to get a decent amount of food within a day. Another method to get food is to build Hot Houses but these get food only at a slower rate and also require Steam Cores. The advantage of Hot Houses however is that they can function during the day.

You’ll also have to process raw food into an edible form and for this you will have to build cookhouses. These can even be expanded with laws later on so as to make the process more efficient.

HOPE AND DISCONTENT

You will have to manage both a discontent bar and a hope bar and ensure that one doesn’t get too high and the other doesn’t get too low. Every decision you take will have an impact on these, so as always, be careful before doing anything in this game. There are a number of ways you can manage these two important attributes.

First off, you’ll have to ensure that there is a steady supply of food. Having enough food will increase citizens’ hope for the future. The same goes with citizens’ Medical needs, so you’ll have to construct Medical poles close to Heat sources and ensure that your people don’t get too sick.

The next thing you can do is to build structures that have the sole purpose of providing hope to people and these include Entertainment Houses and religious institutions like Churches. These will give your people Hope for the future.

There are various laws such as the Moonshine Law which can also contribute to your citizens’ hope, so make use of those. Finally, ensure that your Generator is safe and functional at all times as it is the core of your city. If it breaks down, then your city is doomed.

COLLECTING AND MANAGING RESOURCES

In this game, you will have to collect and manage resources efficiently to ensure survival. You will have to do everything you can to ensure your city survives and sometimes you can’t have everything, so you’ll have to make sacrifices.

Here are some details about all of the important resources in the game:

• Wood: In the beginning, you’ll have to acquire wood from wooden crates. This is an important resource because you’ll need it to build any kind of structure. However, you’ll soon run out of wood crates and so you’ll need to build sawmills nearby frozen trees or Wall Drills near crater walls. Make sure you choose a place with a lot of trees when building a sawmill. 
• Coal: This is the most important resource without which your Generator cannot run. You can collect this resource from Coal Piles but these have a limit of around 500 coal. Coal can also be found in coal deposits, so you can build a coal mine next to it to collect the coal from these deposits. These deposits have really large amounts of coal, of usually about 100,000.
• Food: As discussed earlier, food is a vital resource and you’ll have to build Hunter Huts to gather food. You can then process this food using cookhouses. You can also conduct research and build Hot Houses to generate more raw food in case you’re not able to get the required food from Hunter Huts.
• Steel: You can acquire steel from wreckage or by smelting iron and it is a very valuable resource used both for construction and research.
• Iron: There are Iron deposits you can find here and there and you should build a Steelworks nearby so as to smelt this iron into steel.
• Steam Core: Steam Cores are rare and also very precious because it is used to power buildings such as the Hothouse and Coal Mine. You can find Steam Cores by sending out scout parties.

BUILDINGS GUIDE

There are a bunch of buildings you can find in the game and you can find below details about each of them according to different categories.

Buildings For Food

• Hunter’s Hut: This provides decent food at a decent rate but it is raw food that has to later be processed so as to be edible. It provides 15 raw food per day and after an upgrade, it provides 20 food per day.
• Cookhouse: This will allow you to turn raw food into edible food. 1 raw food can be converted into 2 edible food, so it’s naturally more efficient to have your food distributed in this way.
• Hothouses: These can be built as an alternative to Hunter’s hut and they provide a steady supply of food although at a slower rate. These also require a Steam Core to work.

Buildings For Health

• Care House: People who are faced with more advanced illnesses and those who are terminally ill are placed in Care Houses.
• Medical Post: These are buildings that act as infirmaries and are used to treat those who fall sick, and sickness is a common occurrence in a city such as this one. Only five citizens can be treated at a time in this building, and they must be built next to a heat zone.

Buildings For Resources

• Coal Mine: Build these next to coal deposits to gather coal. Also, be sure to build a gathering hub nearby to maximize efficiency.
• Gathering Post: This is a building where all kinds of resources are collected.
• Steelworks: These are used to get iron out of iron deposits and also to then smelt the iron into steel.
• Wall Drill: Once you research these at the workshop, they can be used to collect wood from frozen trees.
• Sawmill: These are constructed near frozen trees so as to collect wood. You’ll have to build these eventually once you run out of wooden crates to extract wood from.
• Coal Thumper: These assist coal mines in extracting coal and help turn coal from coal deposits into a usable form.
• Resource Depot: These are used to stockpile resource but each Depot can only collect one type of resource.

Buildings For Technology: 

• The Generator: This powers your city and also provides heat. It requires a steady supply of coal so as to be functional.
• Beacon: These allow you to send out scout parties into the wild on expeditions. Other people can also find your city through the Beacon since it emits a glowing light.
• Workshop: Allows you to conduct research so as to get any necessary upgrades. These are worth building early one so that you can build some useful structures and get the required upgrades as soon as possible.
• Steam Hub: These require coal to function and create heat zones in the city. Many buildings will have to be built near such heat zones if they are to function properly.

Buildings For People

• Bunkhouse: These provide shelter for up to to ten citizens. The main draw of these structures is that they are resistant to cold, but they still aren’t an ideal way to house your citizens.
• Fighting Arena: This can be unlocked once the Law called ‘Fighting Arena’ is passed. This is a structure that is used to keep people entertained and thereby to keep their dissatisfaction low.
• Public House: This is another entertainment building and they must be built in Heat Zones. It helps to keep discontent low.
• Child Shelter: This is a structure where parents can send their children while they go off to work. This building must first be unlocked by passing the necessary law of the same name. Each such shelter can house up to 15 children.
• Tent: This can be used to shelter people nut it is not resistant to the cold at all. Each tent can house up to ten people.
• Snow Pit/Cemetery: At one point, you’ll have to choose how to bury the dead and you can opt to go either for Snow Pits or Cemeteries.

SCOUTING AND EXPEDITIONS GUIDE

You can send out scouting parties on various expeditions. You can find below details about these expeditions along with the rewards for each of these.

• Lost Expedition: Finish this expedition to get 3 children, 10 engineers and 22 workers as survivors and you can also explore Gloomy Cave and Sturdy Shelter.
• Gloomy Cave: Explore this region to get 4 children, 18 engineers and 11 workers as survivors. However be careful as this is a dangerous area and you might lose your scouts if they fail.
• Sturdy Shelter: Explore this to get 102 food, 216 wood and 2 steam core. At the end you also unlock Steel Bridge.
• Steel Bridge: Explore this to get 85 automaton or steel cores or 2 steam cores. You also discover Weather Station and Large Convoy.
• Weather Station: Finish this expedition to unlock Winterhome and Coal Mine and get 91 coal and 1 steam core.
• Winterhome: Explore this region to unlock the ‘We’re On Our Own’ order/faith. Also discover Snow Cliff and American Camp here.
• Snow Cliff: Finish this expedition to get 98 rations, 61 wood and 1 steam core. Also unlock the regions Shrouded Cave and Freshwater Springs.
• Freshwater Springs: Finish this expedition to save 7 children and 22 workers. Also discover Frozen Grove.
• Shrouded Cave: Finish this expedition to save 34 children.
• Frozen Grove: Finish this expedition to salvage 258 wood.
• Large Convoy: Explore this area to get 18 engineers and 26 workers as survivors.
• Coal Mine: Finish this to get an outpost along with 263 coal on completion and then 800 afterward daily. If you lose the outpost, you get 202 coal 208 wood and 2 steam cores. You can choose what to do with the outpost.
• Crash Site: Finish this expedition to get 149 wood and 45 raw food. Also discover Observatory.
• American Camp: Finish this to get 65 steel and 1 steam core. You also discover Temporary Settlement at the end.
• Observatory: Complete this to get 4 children, 19 engineers and12 workers as survivors.
• Temporary Settlement: Explore this settlement to get 216 wood or 1 steam core. Also unlock Fishing Village and Walled Colony.
• Fishing Village: Finish this expedition and you get to keep it as an outpost and get 2 steam cores and food. Alternatively, you can pull it apart and take away 279 wood and 2 steam cores. Also discover Tesla City.
• Walled Colony: Finish this expedition to get 7 children, 18 engineers and 36 workers as survivors.
• Tesla City: Complete this expedition to make it an outpost and get 1 steam core daily. Your scouts are at risk on this mission however. Also unlock Dreadnought Landing at the end.
• Dreadnought Landing: Complete this expedition to get 128 steel, 116 wood and 1 steam core. Also discover Research Station and Ice Corridor.
• Ice Corridor: Discover Stepping Stone and Icebound Dreadnought.
• Research Station: Complete it to get 72 steel, 140 wood and 2 steam cores. Also discover Cave hideout.
• Cave Hideout: Finish this to get 35 workers as survivors. Also discover Frozen Pond and Wrecked Vehicle.
• Frozen Pond: Nil.
• Wrecked Vehicle: Nil.
• Icebound Dreadnought: Finish the expedition to get 128 steel, 213 wood and 2 steam cores. Also discover Abandoned Sawmill.
• Abandoned Sawmill: Explore this area to find Snow-Covered Supplies and 258 wood and unlock Stone Ship.
• Snow-Covered Supplies: Find 53 raw food and discover ruined warehouse.
• Stone Ship: Nil.
• Ruined Warehouse: Finish this expedition to get 173 wood and 53 food.
• Ice Crevasse: Finish this to save 12 workers and 7 children.
• Deep Hollow: Finish this to save 11 workers and 7 children.
• Snow Burrows: Finish this to save 12 workers and 7 children.
• Camp Vulcan: Finish this to rescue 19 at-risk engineers.
• Camp Compass: Finish this expedition to save 18 engineers.
• Camp Meteor: Nil.
• Jagged Rocks: Nil.
• Ice Caves: Nil.
• Fortified Hut: Nil.

THE FINAL STORM GUIDE

At the end of the main campaign, there will a final hurdle to get over and it can be brutal if you’re not well prepared. In the endgame, there will be a big storm, so you’ll have to keep resources stockpiled. You’ll have to make a lot of uncomfortable decisions so as to keep the city under check.

First of all, have at least 3000 rations of food stockpiled since your food production buildings will stop producing food. Also, dismantle these buildings that you don’t need anymore so that you can get the resources from them. The only resource you will need to continue gathering at this point is Coal, so make sure you have Automatons collecting Coal. These coal mines may even break down but make sure you don’t allow coal mines or generators to break down no matter what.

In the endgame, it’s going to get really really cold, so make sure Generator Power 3 and Capacity Overcharge unlocked as these are absolutely essential for survival. These are necessary to keep the heat levels up in the city. You will also need to build medical buildings near these heat zones as a lot of people will start falling sick. Some work buildings are heated, so use heat efficiently by turning down generator output during the day and turning it up during the night.

Finally, things are going to get difficult for your citizens as their discontent grows. You will have to take some harsh measures such as propaganda, military control, and more. You should also increase your Law/Faith orders to maximum so as to completely get rid of the Hope meter. Desperate times call for desperate measures!

BOOK OF LAWS GUIDE

There are a number of laws you can use in the city so as to help you manage it better. While some laws will cause discontent among people, you can try and balance this with certain other laws. You can find below details about all of the different laws you can enact in the game.

• Public House: Allows you to construct the pub where people can go and drink and have their discontent at a low level.
• Hard Work Rigor: This will allow you to extend work hours to about 14 hours, but it will naturally cause discontent to rise.
• Organ Transplantation: This allows you to make use of the organs of the dead so as to help those who are in need of these organs.
• Care House: This buildings is used to house terminally ill patients, and it’s a great way to shift people out of Medical Posts. However, this causes discontent among people, so use it carefully.
• Emergency Shift: This will have to be toggled separately for the required building, and will extend the working hours to a full 24 hours a day. However, discontent will grow and workers can even die.
• Dueling Law: This will allow you to enact a law where people can fight to the death so as to settle scores. People will suddenly die due to this but there will be a decrease in discontentment.
• Fighting Arena: Allows you to build fighting arenas which people will view for entertainment, and it will help keep their discontent low.
• Organic Fertilizer: You can make use of the dead bodies to fertilize soil in Hothouses. This will decrease Hope by a bit.
• Soup: Allows you to make soup so as to save resources. This will decrease hope and increase discontentment. Additionally, you can add the Food Source Law which allows humans to be used for raw meat. Obviously, this will also lead to an increase in discontentment and a decrease in hope.
• Corpse Disposal: Dead bodies can be stored outside of heat zones so as to reduce risk of disease. It will reduce hope a little bit. You can also choose to bury teh dead in cemeteries.
• Child Labor; Safe Jobs: These allow you to employ children in safe jobs such as cooking. This will lead to hope being reduced.
• Radical Treatment: This will lead to any measures being taken so as to cure the ill, and can lead to an increase in hope initially, but it can also lead to crippling some who are ill.
• Medic/Engineering Helpers: This will teach children engineering and medicine and they will contribute to these fields. This will lead to an increase in efficiency.

11bit Studios’ emotionally devastating This War of Mine is currently free to play on Steam. If you’ve never had your heart broken or just want a healthy dose of misery, we recommend it checking it out. The Anniversary Edition will be free until April 8th to celebrate the forthcoming release of the studio’s survival city builder Frostpunk.

If you enjoy the game and want to purchase it, then there’s currently a 70 percent discount on the Anniversary Edition. For good measure, you can pick up The Little Ones DLC for 50 percent off as well. These deals will only last until April 9th and the Stories DLC and Season Pass doesn’t have any discounts.

Despite the heavy subjective matter of civilians struggling to survive in a city under siege, This War of Mine has sold 2.5 million copies on Steam and won numerous awards. 11bit’s Frostpunk will be releasing on April 24th for PC.

11bit Studios is looking to continue its signature style of survival and citizen management with Frostpunk, which should be releasing before March end. Unlike This War of Mine, the studio’s previous big release, Frostpunk takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting where resources are limited. Making tough decisions to ensure your people survive while expanding your infrastructure is still pretty important though.

To highlight some of the tougher decisions players will have to make in the end-game, 11bit Studios has released a new developer diary outlining the same. Politics actually plays a pretty big part and players can eventually decide to cater to their people’s every need or act as a dictator.

In terms of pricing, Frostpunk will retail for $29.99 on digital stores for PC. Regional pricing has yet to be revealed and we don’t know if the physical release will retail for as much. With March beginning soon, there should be an actual concrete release date soon so stay tuned.

This War of Mine cemented 11bit Studios as one of the premiere developers to watch when it comes to survival games. The studio’s next effort Frostpunk looks to be even bigger in scope and fortunately, we won’t have to wait much longer to experience it. Senior marketing manager Karol Zajączkowski told Eurogamer that the game was on track to release by the end of Q1 2018. That means by March 31st at the latest.

“The game is scheduled to be released by the end of Q1 and we are right on track to make this happen, Starting from February we are bringing out the big guns, so in upcoming weeks you can expect a lot of news about the game, which should shed some light on the premiere date,” said Zajączkowski.

A new video was also released that introduces the automatons, steampunk robots that can help with various tasks around your city. It requires fuel to use effectively though and your citizens may not appreciate it so much. How this factors into the overall moral decisions that must be made for survival should be interesting.

In Frostpunk, however, survival is everything. As the last settlement on Earth, you need to keep your generator going and all kinds of laws – like pushing child labour for increased productivity – can be passed. The mix between Despair and Hope and how you balance the two is the essence of the game. What are your thoughts on it? Let us know in the comments.

We haven’t heard much about Digital Sun Games’ Moonlighter since it was delayed to early 2018 to allow for more polish. Thankfully, development is progressing on the dungeon crawler/item management title. The developer recently announced that Moonlighter would be releasing on the Nintendo Switch as well as PS4, PC and Xbox One. A new trailer was released to showcase the game.

According to the developer, fans had requested Moonlighter to be ported over to the Nintendo Switch. Independent studios have been experiencing major success with the platform since its launch and demand like this for games like Moonlighter certainly helps.

Moonlighter has a very Zelda-esque tone with its combat but it also combines rogue-lite mechanics with the ability to loot dungeons and sell the items in a shop. From there you purchase better equipment and weapons, becoming stronger and stronger until you can progress further into the dungeons and repeat the process. It’s fairly addicting to say the least.

What are your thoughts on Moonlighter coming to the Nintendo Switch? Let us know in the comments below.