After relaxing on a boat, I wanted to create. And what better thing to create than a town. Go-Go Town! is another I’d already had my eye on before Tiny Teams. After all, I do like designing the likes of theme parks and ski resorts. A team of three from Australia, Prideful Sloth have built a fun city builder with Go-Go Town!. Thanks to Yogscast Games as part of the Tiny Teams Festival, I’ve been given a code so I can offer my thoughts on it.

To start, there’s a company called TownCo., who kind of act like a mafia. Why do they act like a mafia? Well, I arrived here in a duffel bag and the boss of this company wants to become mega rich. I’m sent here to help build the town as its mayor, and have no say in that. I guess the agents are helpful enough, as they are who provide the physical tutorial objectives such as foraging and constructing.

The tutorial had me building the first shop, the train station, and a house for a townie to live. It also introduced building and refining. Money is earnt from those shops, which I can assign my first townie to work at. That money is spent on building new things. To get new things to build, EGO Tech is where to go. This app on the phone is a tech tree, with bundles of unlocks relating to a theme, such as houses or shops.

Once the tutorial is complete, I’m free as a bird to construct this town however I want. Though there are four zones of this town dedicated to specific things, such as farming and mining. Only things which relate to that zone can be built in them, with the exception of dressing items such as fences or streetlights. Even so, there’s still a large amount of useable space to build how I want.

Since the first townie house was built by the train station, I wanted to keep that area as the first residential area. So once funds allowed, I marked out two more houses, providing the materials needed quickly to get them built. Townies will have demands to meet before they’ll accept the invite, most common being a payout of coin. Others will have demands such as selling a certain amount of an item or, weirdly, having had a certain number of happy accidents occur in the town.

Along with townies, tourists will also arrive via the train. These tourists will wander the town, taking interest in the things built within it. They will leave reviews of the town, which can be seen via the tourist tracker app. Good reviews feed into the town’s ranking, which is the main progression system in play. The town ranking has numerous tiers to it, with that being what unlocks the next set of EGO Tech bundles.

Once I was rising in the ranks enough to reach the top of a particular tier, the boss would call issuing a challenge. This challenge will hold certain objectives that need to be completed before the day is out. Since I didn’t know exactly what these challenges would be, I arranged it in the calendar to take place the day after. Though I need not have worried. I breezed through what it wanted me to do in a couple of in-game hours.

In progressing to the next town tier, I immediately noticed the limits on coin and EGO had increased. I could now hold more of both. In starting to buy the new EGO Tech bundles, I noticed that my options for earning money and EGO were increasing. Now I had a market to sell whatever I wanted. I now had more statues and other tourist attractions such as a ride-on to generate EGO. No longer was I reliant on just a single statue built during the tutorial to generate it.

Automation was now also coming into play, allowing me to give my townies jobs in the various zones. When set as workers, the townies can use the equipment set down in those areas, placing things in the storage trays around for me to pick up whenever I saw fit. Of course, I could still help out if needed. Though eventually I’ll not need to, as the automation options allow this town to become pretty independent as I rise the ranks.

Customisation of the town also occurs through terrain changes. Placing roads, paths, or grass to create distinct areas. This is free to do, except when it comes to placing exotic tiles, which look more detailed than the base paving options. Player customisation is also a thing, with the face and clothes worn able to be changed at any time via a point near the train station. I of course had to go for something close to my style with it.

There’s some great details to Go-Go Town!. There is an app in the phone that allows placement of all HUD elements wherever I wanted them along the edges of the screen. At any time, I could press a button and hold up my hand, with a townie or tourist then coming to me to perform a high five. The tourists that arrive are a fun mix of human, wolf, and ghost. One time the train even delivered to me a group in suits wearing builder’s hats. Couldn’t help but wonder what they’d been up to.

Go-Go Town! Is a great city builder. It has a nice progression to not completely overwhelm with options right from the off, with limits on the things it has given so someone simply cannot go mad with power and fill the town with nothing but bins. Its systems are easy to use, with everything labelled when actions can be taken. There’s a lot to love with it, and so it is an easy recommendation for me.

The Tiny Teams Festival is a celebration of games developed by small teams. This year running from 8-15/August, the festival once again is highlighting games both new and old, and even those yet to release. Check it out on Steam, and find yourself a great game from a tiny team.

Images Taken From:
Go-Go Town! | Steam