A new update is available for Spacefolk City today, adding a few holiday touches and some Christmas decorations.
The update adds a new type of spacefolk citizen — the ‘Christmas Spacefolk’, pictured above — who ‘have a special ability to give other folks specific items that they want to fulfill one of their Happiness Hearts.’ There’s also a few new Christmas-themed items for decorating and some new snow.
Spacefolk City released in October this year and we gave it a ‘Good’ rating in our review. Here’s an excerpt:
With some lovely visuals and straightforward mechanics, Moon Mode’s made excellent use of spatial gameplay in a manner only VR could achieve. Creating new settlements is entertaining and while there’s not much here for genre veterans, it’s worth remembering who Spacefolk City’s targeting.
As we said in our full review, city builder games aren’t common in VR but Spacefolk City makes a good case for how the genre can work well in a new medium.
Casual city building simulator Spacefolk City is jumping from the Oculus Quest over to PC VR later this week.
The game from Moon Mode launches on SteamVR on November 10. That’s just a few weeks after it debuted on the Oculus Quest on October 21. Expect the full game to make the leap, tasking players with building a new floating city out in space after a supernova brings chaos to the galaxy.
The game’s a mix of city-building and god sim with a cutesy art style. Check out a trailer below.
Spacefolk City PC VR Release Date
We reviewed the Quest version of Spacefolk City last month and ended up quite liking it, saying “there remains plenty to love about Spacefolk City. With some lovely visuals and straightforward mechanics, Moon Mode’s made excellent use of spatial gameplay in a manner only VR could achieve. Creating new settlements is entertaining and while there’s not much here for genre veterans, it’s worth remembering who Spacefolk City’s targeting. If you’re after a city builder with smaller scope, you’d do well to check this out.”
We ended up giving it our ‘Good’ label.
Meanwhile the Oculus Quest version of the game just got an update. It includes more power clouds for the game’s sandbox level among other tweaks and fixes. Expect those changes to be in the PC version too.
Are you going to be picking up Spacefolk City on PC VR? Let us know in the comments below!
City builders aren’t especially common in VR, but Spacefolk City’s establishing some steady foundations. Read on for our Spacefolk City review!
It’s no secret that some genres better fit virtual reality, but Spacefolk City makes me believe city builders are underutilized in this space. Having assisted on Paper Valley and Down the Rabbit Hole, Spacefolk City marks Moon Mode’s debut solo effort, creating a colourful spacebound experience with first time VR players in mind. It’ll require patience but if you’re willing to commit that time, there’s an enjoyable experience within.
Spacefolk City’s premise sees multiple Spacefolk stranded after their worlds become uninhabitable, as their orbiting star enters supernova and starts letting off deadly flares. Not wanting to hang around for their early demise, these Spacefolk begin seeking out a new home, though unlike most city builders, you aren’t building them a permanent structure. Rather, you’ll be creating new settlements that can safely move themselves to new locations, should this happen again.
Split between eight campaign levels, you’ll need to factor in your city’s needs, though if you just want to build without objectives, there’s a sandbox mode available. Building upon existing rocks in a 3D space, Spacefolk City gives you the freedom to create buildings without gravitational constraint. Providing they’re in range of a power generator that is, so setting that up is your initial priority. Unfortunately, the generator’s range isn’t huge and electric clouds powering them can be sparse, which limits your wider constructions options.
Spacefolk City Review – The Facts
What is it?: An isometric city-building sim in which you build a new home for cutesy space critters. Platforms: Oculus Quest Release Date: Out Now Price: $39.99
Creating buildings requires scrap for your material, and that’s only available by grabbing asteroids. They’ll fly past your settlement with regular frequency, though it’ll take some time to grab enough. If an asteroid collides with a constructed building then fear not, they just bounce back upon impact, no damage done. Once grabbed, pulling them apart with both motion controllers drops a scrap item to give Spacefolk for construction. Once you’ve handed it over, just pick them up, take them to the required building and they’ll get to work.
However, Spacefolk aren’t mindless drones. They’ll gradually get fatigued and picking them up displays their status, showing how much energy they’ve got left. If they need sleep, take them back home, wait for about 30 seconds and they’ll soon be refreshed. They’ve also got specific interests that need catering to, no one wants a boring house after all. Getting them to join your settlement requires decorating each home with specific items, all following specific themes like cakes, gardening, bananas and more.
This silly touch is a big part of Spacefolk City’s charm, offering a vibrant visual presentation that brings some much-needed color to space. You’ll gradually unlock more cosmetics upon progressing, and if you see a rare glowing asteroid, that drops new cosmetic items instead of scrap, so keep an eye out. That’s backed by an electronic-themed soundtrack, which compliments your construction work nicely.
If you wish to boost your workers’ productivity, players can construct three different building types which boost their Speed, Stamina and Skills. Those are available with three separate tiers, allowing you to decorate them with different themes to attract a wider spread of residents. That comes at a cost though, as building one-tier requires significantly less scrap than three, meaning you’ll have to decide what to prioritize. It’s not terribly in-depth but for the intended purpose, this works well.
Spacefolk City Review – Comfort
Spacefolk City doesn’t have an options menu beyond choosing which building to build, though it’s not an experience that needs many comfort options. You can easily play standing up or sitting down, providing you recalibrate your position after. Movement is handled by the Oculus Controllers, using triggers to rotate your settlement for a 360 view.
Unfortunately, those solar flares aren’t just for backstory and sometimes drop into levels, but there are some advanced options to fall back on, like a Defence Beacon to shield yourselves. Refineries obtain more scrap from asteroids, warehouses act as convenient scrap storage and it’s a good set of advanced options. Finally, the Rocket Booster sends away your settlement to complete that stage, but you can’t return back to this world once activated. Inevitably, that makes it tougher to feel invested.
Spacefolk City Review – Final Impressions
Despite these flaws, there remains plenty to love about Spacefolk City. With some lovely visuals and straightforward mechanics, Moon Mode’s made excellent use of spatial gameplay in a manner only VR could achieve. Creating new settlements is entertaining and while there’s not much here for genre veterans, it’s worth remembering who Spacefolk City’s targeting. If you’re after a city builder with smaller scope, you’d do well to check this out.
For more on how we arrived at this rating, read our review guidelines. What did you make of our Spacefolk City review? Let us know in the comments below!
One of the best things about the virtual reality (VR) industry is its ability to surprise and delight, especially when it comes to new indie games popping up left and right. Moon Mode began teasing its colourful building title Spacefolk City a couple of months ago, showcasing an amusing twist on the popular genre. And it is certainly a little bit different, challenging you to think how to expand a floating space city whilst trying to catch asteroids whizzing by.
One of the best things about the virtual reality (VR) industry is its ability to surprise and delight, especially when it comes to new indie games popping up left and right. Moon Mode began teasing its colourful building title Spacefolk City a couple of months ago, showcasing an amusing twist on the popular genre. And it is certainly a little bit different, challenging you to think how to expand a floating space city whilst trying to catch asteroids whizzing by.
The happy spacefolk are in trouble, big trouble. The star their world orbits is firing off increasingly deadly flares as it prepares to go supernova. So the spacefolk don’t want to hang around and wait for that to happen! Unlike most city builders Spacefolk City isn’t about making a permanent home for a growing population of residents, rather building up a city that can blast its way to safety.
You’ve got eight campaign levels to complete, with the first few serving more like training levels with various challenges to solve. Plus there’s a Sandbox Mode giving you free rein to build a city however you wish, no tasks to get around here.
Because you’re building in the void of space you’ve got complete freedom to drop buildings wherever you feel like, within the 3D area, the only restrictions are that every building needs to connect to another and they’re within the power field. This is the first thing you set up, placing a generator next to those ever so common electric clouds that float around space. This will create an area highlighted by a green box which you have to work within, the only exceptions being basic environmental objects like platforms, stairs and the zip-line to help all the little spacefolk get around. Whilst this power mechanic provides one of the core strategic elements to work around, it can sometimes be infuriating as you can’t create more clouds. Each level has a set amount and the Sandbox mode only ever offered up one cloud to build around, meaning really wide expansion is impossible.
That being said there’s plenty of gameplay options to get stuck into and it’s hard to stay annoyed at Spacefolk City for long, as there are so many imaginative elements in play. Before you build anything resources are required and the only way to gain “scrap” is to grab asteroids flying by and rip them apart. Yup, that’s right, those lumps of rock can come in from any direction – you’re in space after all – and easily shoot past if you’re not paying attention. Once torn apart they drop a scrap item that can be given to those tiny peeps to work on whatever building you like. Just pick them up and place them.
Each spacefolk requires their own home that has to be tailored to their specific style. Hotdogs, Cakes, Artists, Magicians, Bananas, Gardeners, they all embody one of these and their homes need to match. It’s what makes Spacefolk City so bright and colourful, there are tons of customisation options to make each city as weird and wacky as you like. And the only way to unlock more cosmetics, spot one of the rare yellow-glowing asteroids and pull it apart for a surprise.
Then there are all the important city buildings that help improve your workers and upgrade your city. Speed, Stamina and Skill buildings make the spacefolk walk faster, stay awake longer and activate their special abilities. Three tiers for each are available, and these again have to be decorated to suit particular residents. So the cheapest tier will only be for one type, whilst the costly third-tier accepts three types. As such, build one of each basic type for your banana folks and should a hotdog resident appear they won’t use your banana buildings. It’s a simple mechanic which works very well when either space or time is short – some levels like to drop a solar flare or two on you.
That’s where more advanced buildings like the refinery (get more from each asteroid), warehouse (storage for your scrap), Defense Beacon (energy shield) and the Rocket Booster come into play. Once the latter is unlocked that’s pretty much it – even in the Sandbox mode – fire it up and off blasts your city into the black void.
In a way, it’s almost a shame to do that. Once you’ve built this vibrant space hub full of people zipping around doing little jobs the last thing anyone wants to do is lose the entire thing. A fully built-up city can be an amazing thing to peer into, like looking into a highly detailed Lego creation, it can be a feast for the eyes.
What Spacefolk City truly excels at is the use of spatial gameplay. Played either seated or standing, the ability to inspect your city from any angle, the asteroids that fly in and the giant looming sun that hovers directly overhead; Moon Mode has created a wonderfully inviting experience that could only be appreciated in VR. There are still glitches such as the menu system becoming illegible due to showing multiple pages on top of each other or items getting caught on invisible walls (mostly the scrap) but that wasn’t enough to hamper the overall experience. What it desperately needs is a random multiple cloud generator option in the Sandbox. Other than that, Spacefolk City is certainly worth a look if you like god-like city creation in VR.
Indie developer Moon Mode in conjunction with publisher Beyond Frames revealed colourful city builder Spacefolk City back in August for Oculus Quest and PC VR headsets. This week, It has been confirmed that Spacefolk City will see an initial for Oculus Quest this Thursday, with the Steam release to follow at a later date.
The single-player title is set to offer a quirky take on the traditional city building experience. Taking place entirely in space, you’ll have the freedom to construct your floating city however you wish, creating some unusual urban layouts in the process. As you’re not limited to a flat surface, you can build up or down as you see fit, just making sure everything’s connected so that inhabitants can navigate your undulating cityscape.
Like any city builder, you’ll need to encourage new residents whilst ensuring their interests and requirements are met. From building them houses to useful establishments to frequent, as you can see from the screenshot there’s a definite food theme to some of the aesthetics. This is key to making inhabitants happy, as their body type indicates their interests. A happy community means they’ll be productive and efficient, helping you further build out the growing metropolis.
Alongside all the core buildings, you’ll also be able to decorate your space city to give it that homely feel. Drop in some lighting, foliage and more, making the whole place vibrant and alive. To help keep that motivation pumping, Spacefolk City will feature a funky soundtrack of more than 20 songs influenced by late-70s electro-disco and early-80s electro-pop.
Spacefolk City even has its own backstory with Moon Mode’s synopsis explaining: “The Spacefolk are in trouble! Their sun is going supernova, and they need your help to build up their city and find a way to escape the impending solar disaster!”
Moon Mode has confirmed that Spacefolk City’s Oculus Quest launch will take place on 21st October, retailing for $24.99 USD. A Steam page currently lists the PC VR release for November. For continued updates, keep reading VRFocus.
Spacefolk City is a city building simulator that aims to get you plonking down a dense city landscape in free-floating space. It launches today on the Oculus Store for Quest and Rift, with a release on SteamVR headsets slated for sometime next month.
Update (October 21st, 2021): Spacefolk City is now live on the Oculus Store for Quest but has yet to be seen on Rift. The studio has released a new launch trailer to give us an extended look at the some of the game’s loveably weird atmosphere and gameplay. The original article announcing the game follows below:
Original Article (August 31st, 2021): Indie studio Moon Mode is hoping to bring the single-player Spacefolk City sometime this fall, priced at $30 on the Oculus Store (Quest, Rift) and Steam for PC VR headsets.
Moon Mode says you’ll be able to hand-place buildings at any orientation to create urban layouts that appeal to the interests and abilities of your city’s inhabitants. You’ll also get the chance to decorate your city with a range of “different absurd objects and items,” the studio says. Check out the trailer below:
As you’d imagine, the bright and funky city sim isn’t being targeted solely at hardcore fans of the genre, as its focus is mainly on accessibility to the 13+ crowd.
“There are very few casual, accessible city simulators in VR at the moment,” Moon Mode says. “Of the titles that do exist, few are approachable for people who might have never played games of this genre before.”
Anyway, here’s a quick rundown of the story:
Spacefolk are stranded after the collapse of their home and you have to help them build a new city. There’s still the danger of a dying sun to contend with though, so eventually you’ll have to find a way to leave the solar system for someplace safer. Each Spacefolk has body type-specific interests, so you have to build homes and facilities to reflect those to make them happy. Some inhabitants have special abilities like walking fast, building fast, or carrying heavier loads, so you’ll need to balance who is doing what.
There’s no specific release date yet for Spacefolk City, although we’re sure to hear more as we head into fall before it launches on Quest and SteamVR headsets.
Most genres of videogame have managed to make their way to virtual reality (VR) headsets in some form. Some are far more prevalent than others, with the classic city-building simulator not getting much of a looking. That’s going to change this year when Moon Mode launches Spacefolk City for Oculus Quest and PC VR headsets.
Spacefolk City will be Moon Mode’s first original IP, with the team having previously helped create Down the Rabbit Hole with Cortopia Studios and Paper Valley. It isn’t going to be a hardcore city sim, offering a bright playful aesthetic and an easy control scheme which will be great for VR newcomers. VR veterans won’t miss out either, with plenty of customisation options to keep them going for hours.
Set amongst the stars, players are able to build a floating city however they wish, snapping buildings together to create a vibrant town. Once the basic layout is sorted cities can then be further adorned with a range of normal and more unusual items. At the heart of any city are the residents, each having their own interests which can influence how cities are built and expanded upon.
Moon Mode has also seen fit to give Spacefolk City some additional charm and life by adding a backstory. Players aren’t simply there to build a random floating city, this new metropolis is required because the Spacefolk’s solar system contains a star about to go supernova. Deadly solar activity has already destroyed settlements so it’s up to players to eventually re-home everyone.
A single-player experience, from the looks of the trailer Spacefolk City is going to be one of those lively, family-friendly titles with hours of entertainment.
Spacefolk City is being built to support Oculus Quest and Rift as well as SteamVR headsets. Beyond Frames, the parent company of Cortopia will be publishing the title this Autumn for $29.95 USD. Take a look at the first trailer below, and for further information keep reading VRFocus.
Spacefolk City is a new city-building VR game coming to Oculus Quest and PC this year, but it’s not exactly Sim City VR.
Take a look at the game’s first trailer below. Rather than a realistic building sim, Spacefolk has players building out a floating metropolis in the middle of space that’s when occupied by odd little critters. Solar activity has destroyed these creature’s past homes, so it’s up to you to build a new, sustainable environment for them to thrive in.
Each of the city’s inhabitants has its own interests and abilities that can aid the player. You’ll build out vertical cities with new facilities and decorate them how you see fit. The game’s designed to be a casual experience that newer VR players can jump into.
It’s the first full game from Moon Mode, a developer that has otherwise helped out on titles like Down The Rabbit Hole and Paper Valley.
Spacefolk City will hit Oculus Quest and PC VR headsets this fall for $29.95. Are you interested in the game? Let us know in the comments below!
