Organic city-builder Foundation now has minerals to mine and complex craftsmanship

(Image credit: Polymorph Games)

Foundation is a medieval city-builder that touts its lack of a grid as a major feature. It's a game where your peoples' feet determine where roads go as much as you do. They'll take the short route between two points and over time that'll become a road. You just tell them where to do stuff, not exactly what to do.

Its been a bit since we checked in with the game, and it looks like the developers have been pretty busy. A new update adds precious minerals and an expanded crafting system to the game. The nodes require your bailiff to go prospecting, hoping to find gold (but probably just finding iron), before being converted into scaffolded open mines. 

Crafting changes to the game now have builders working out of Workshops rather than just construction sites, as they put together parts like stained glass windows or carved sculptures away from the site and then haul them for installation. This change is accompanied by new Masterpieces, buildings like fountains and statues that visitors might come to visit from far away. The visitors are new, too: Pilgrims might come to a shrine, or travelers to an inn.

This update follows a major one last December which revamped how large buildings are built piecemeal and how villagers choose their homes.You can find Foundation on Steam.

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.