Banished will be cast out into the wild on February 18th

Freeform city-building game Banished now has a release date, and if you didn't read it in the headline up there, fans of placing and maintaining buildings will be pleased to hear that it's coming next month. The 18th of next month, to be precise, after two-and-a-bit years of development by its sole developer Luke Hodorowicz. You'll be able to buy the sorta-medieval, non-restrictive city-builder from the game's website or from Steam , and it'll set you back "around $20".

Hodorowicz - AKA Shining Rock Software - announced the release date in a recent blog post . "I know I can be quoted as saying that I wanted the game released in January, but over the holidays I ended up taking some time off from development, and apparently writing full in-game help takes far longer than you might expect.

"Testing progress has been slow over the holiday season, so the current build will be tested until release, checking everything I've touched in the last month and a half – the final tutorials, help system, and minor code and balancing tweaks. Just to be sure things are in working order.

"Ah, I remember when I quit my job and thought I could make a game in one year. It took three times as long, but it was definitely worth it, and the process was really satisfying!"

We interviewed Hodorowicz back in September. You can find a video of the game in action below.

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.