Artist Colony -- Based on 1 hour demo

In this game you are re-building a defunct artist's compound where people can train in painting, music, sculpting, dance, photography, etc. The goal of the game is to restore all of the studios, clear all the debris, rebuild anything that needs it and above all, create masterpieces for guests to purchase.

Before you can train, you have to clear debris, then rebuild the studio(s). When people get tired, they need to rest on a bench or sleep. When they get hungry, they'll eat at the kitchen. The problem is that when they get uninspired, they get depressed, and when they're depressed, they won't do anything at all.

This game would be a lot more fun if it wasn't so hard to inspire our little artists, but alas, it's very difficult. Sources of inspiration will show up now and then, such as beautiful flowers, or you can (barely) manage to raise the level by having them view something pretty like a pond or flower garden. Sometimes they will think about someone of the opposite sex, and if you put the people together, sometimes they will fall in love. And sometimes not. The person with the original thoughts tends to get depressed at this point, but putting them near the person they're thinking about might help.

Your artists move pretty slowly, which helps to keep track of them all, but it's rather annoyingly slow when you only have two people to manage.

My impression: Too slow, too hard to keep people inspired, and hence, not as fun as it could have been.

DISCLAIMER:  I think I had been spoiled by Gemini Lost when I tried this game.  I'm going to try Artist Colony again and see how I feel

(Message edited by Genkicoll On 09/26/2010 14:31)