This review breaks my heart to write, because I love this game, on the surface it's everything I could want in a rogue lite deck & resource management game. I played the demo years ago and wanted to wait until these issues were fixed, I regularly checked in on discussions surrounding feedback and only bought it on steep discount since it seemed devs were largely abandoning basic fixes and just throwing in new features in hopes of more balance. I can never understand why new items are being added when extremely basic fixes to make the game more functional and understandable haven't been implemented despite having seen them suggested by many people over the past couple years. In my short playthrough it appears that there are -very few clear instructions on how the mechanics work, -no ability to reference the rules or clarifications from within the application, have to use an external wiki only -no ability to look at your hand or board while making new card choices -no explanation...

While most simulation games offer early-game struggle followed by late-game relaxation, Cardboard Town delivers only endless pressure. Even in the endgame, it slaps three restrictive resource conditions on you, making every moment a grueling battle against the perpetual fear of save file deletion.

good

I haven't played much yet, but first impressions are not great. Very little feedback on drawing / using cards, controller support is very poor despite boasting full support, and Steam Deck Playable is technically true but very frustrating considering it has only one point in it's favour. Basic features like zooming in and out are only available on Keyboard, so you need to create a custom input profile just to be able to see anything in our town when playing on Deck. The tutorial popups are annoying and I felt don't actually inform me about what it is I should be doing despite having played several city builders for many years. I will try it again on PC (Keyboard and Mouse) and update my review if my impression changes. I also feel bad putting a negative review with 20 minutes of playtime but I really was very disappointed considering I was very excited to try this game and put it off for so long.

Fun Puzzle City building game,

Very easy mechanics to pick up, but RNG keeps events very random and engaging. As a city building and deck building fan, this scratches both those itches nicely. Also being able to go into first-person mode with the cute lil' guys is great.

good game

Cardboard Town is a charming little city builder with a unique cardboard style. It’s simple, relaxing, and scratches that “just one more turn” itch. Looking forward to future updates and seeing this game grow even more or may be a new game who knows