Laysara: Summit Kingdom

About

"Laysara: Summit Kingdom" is a challenging city builder that takes place on various mountains, each with unique traits and resources. Build and manage multiple towns, establishing a trading network between them to meet your people's needs. Adapt to each mountain's distinct climate and terrain, and strategically plan resource extraction and farming to ensure your kingdom's survival. * Challenging city builder on unique mountains * Establish and manage multiple interconnected towns * Adapt to various climates and resource availability

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

85%

Audience ScoreBased on 834 reviews

gameplay82 positive mentions

grinding12 negative mentions

Beautiful graphics and art direction that create an immersive atmosphere.
Engaging gameplay that combines city building with puzzle-like mechanics, requiring strategic planning and resource management.
Unique setting in the Himalayas, offering a fresh take on the city builder genre.

Limited building rotation and range mechanics can lead to frustrating gameplay and restrict creative freedom.
The game feels more like a puzzle than a traditional city builder, which may not appeal to all players.
Avalanche mechanics can be punishing and may disrupt gameplay flow, leading to sudden game overs.

gameplay
262 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
63%
5%
The gameplay of this city-building game is characterized by a blend of traditional mechanics and innovative features, such as managing resources in a mountainous environment and dealing with avalanches. While many players appreciate the charming graphics and strategic depth, some find the gameplay loop repetitive and the mechanics occasionally unclear, leading to a mixed reception regarding its complexity and engagement. Overall, the game offers a unique puzzle-like experience with potential for further development as it progresses through early access.
- “The gameplay is a delicate blend of established mechanics of the genre and original ideas.”
- “The visuals are fantastic, the soundtrack is excellent, and the gameplay itself is the perfect mix of relaxation and strategic planning.”
- “Absolutely love the art style and the whole mechanic of mountain top city building and preparing for avalanches is a lot of fun.”
- “Writing this review, I played for 15 hours and started getting overwhelmed by the gameplay loop becoming too visible to me, the lack of variation in the gameplay despite the huge amount of different buildings available.”
- “The gameplay key mechanics fell quite flat for me.”
- “While it is a beautiful game to look at with a highly attractive setting, the gameplay just didn't keep me engaged enough to want to continue playing in its current state.”
graphics
186 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
66%
33%
2%
The graphics of the game have received widespread acclaim for their beauty and charm, featuring a unique Himalayan aesthetic that enhances the overall experience. Players appreciate the vibrant art style, detailed environments, and relaxing visuals, which contribute to an engaging gameplay loop. While the game runs well on lower-end hardware, some users noted that integrated graphics may struggle, but the stunning visuals remain a highlight for most.
- “The graphics are stunning, and the theme is original and fun.”
- “The visuals and music are absolutely stunning, the game really sucked me in through both its gameplay and presentation.”
- “Beautiful graphics, fun and unique theming, but most importantly some of the slickest resource allocation and distribution mechanics I've seen in a city builder!”
- “Lastly, the game runs a bit slow on integrated graphics.”
- “Solid grey icons don't really match the spiritual/natural aesthetic of the game very well.”
- “Apparently, there are orientation challenges unique to the slopped building visuals that would require them to spend a bunch of time to basically redo every single building in the game.”
music
116 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
57%
41%
3%
The music in the game is generally praised for its relaxing and atmospheric qualities, enhancing the overall experience with catchy and immersive tracks. While some players find certain pieces to be synthetic or not fitting the setting perfectly, many appreciate the soundtrack's ability to maintain engagement without becoming repetitive. Overall, the combination of beautiful visuals and a well-crafted soundtrack contributes significantly to the game's charm and appeal.
- “The music is amazing, relaxing and not annoying or too repetitive - it really sells the vibe.”
- “The visuals and music are absolutely stunning, the game really sucked me in through both its gameplay and presentation.”
- “The music was a high point for me, relaxing but catchy tunes while you build.”
- “The music alternates between bad and good.”
- “Could use a few more music tracks, just more of the same to add some variety.”
- “Only the in-game music is a bit too 'synthetic', but that's just me, turning the music off anyway in most games to relax with environmental sounds, which are very well done in Laysara.”
story
50 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
24%
70%
6%
The game's story is described as cute and engaging, with a fresh concept centered around building on a mountain, complemented by enjoyable art and music. While players appreciate the minimal yet charming narrative, many express a desire for a more substantial campaign and overarching goals, as current gameplay often feels repetitive without significant story-driven challenges. Overall, the game shows promise, with hopes for a richer narrative experience in future updates.
- “The concept of building on a mountain is fantastic, and the story along with it is just enough to make you smile; the animations are a callback to older city builders.”
- “The story is cute, and the art style, music, and general ambiance are very enjoyable.”
- “This is a really high standard for an early access game - things have a polish to them that you don't often see, the story is cute without being cringe, and the city-building gimmick has a lot of thought put into it.”
- “The story does not take itself seriously and is minimal.”
- “The only thing you miss is the final conclusion of the story.”
- “Game has big potential, but... there is a catch... with no fighting and no random events (or some missions) it's almost all the time the same... build everything you can, if you do not produce something just import it and continue.”
optimization
32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
59%
9%
The game is praised for its strong optimization, running smoothly even on older systems, and offering a well-balanced experience that blends city-building with puzzle elements. While the grid system can be unforgiving due to the inability to rotate buildings, players appreciate the flexibility in logistics and workforce management, which enhances the overall gameplay. Overall, it strikes a good balance between optimization and creativity, making it enjoyable for those focused on efficiency.
- “Buildings can be moved for free, so it's a bit of a hybrid between puzzle-game and city-builder, where you constantly move things around to get a reasonably optimized setup going.”
- “This game gets the balance between optimization and creativity just right in my opinion, and I'm having a blast with it.”
- “For the game's initial early access release, it already feels very optimized - it plays like a dream.”
- “One big limitation on building is that nothing can be rotated, so the grid is extremely unforgiving, but it is possible to get everything you need in place to complete the scenario even if it's not optimized.”
- “This is more a supply chain optimization game than a city builder, but you can make aesthetically pleasing cities too.”
- “Workforce optimization is key and your distribution network has a massive impact on your workforce.”
atmosphere
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
83%
17%
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its charm, immersive visuals, and pleasant music, creating a unique and engaging experience for players. Reviewers highlight the game's ability to evoke beautiful atmospheric changes and a chill yet challenging environment, particularly in its thematic city-building mechanics. Overall, it is considered an underrated indie gem that excels in creating a captivating ambiance.
- “The devs have done such a great job even in early access to make an incredibly polished and atmospheric game.”
- “The atmosphere is immersive, the yaks are adorable, and the whole idea of building around a mountain is original and unique.”
- “I also really enjoy the unique atmosphere, art style, and music of this game.”
humor
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is praised for its lighthearted and quirky humor, featuring funny characters and witty writing that evoke nostalgia for classic city-building games. Players appreciate the humorous interactions among the characters representing different social groups, as well as the cartoonish charm of elements like the merchant. Overall, the humor adds a delightful layer to the unique settlement-building experience.
- “I love this game, quirky and funny.”
- “The writing is quite funny.”
- “And I didn't expect a game like this to have genuinely funny interactions between the three characters that represent the different social groups present in the game, yet here we are.”
replayability
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
56%
19%
Overall, the game is praised for its replayability due to varying economies and needs across different maps, as well as multiple starting points. However, some players feel that the lack of building rotation and the game's puzzle-like nature may limit replayability. The potential for custom maps and random generators is highlighted as essential for enhancing replay value.
- “Laysara is a gorgeous, fun, replayable city builder with great bones that's still missing some features in early access.”
- “Each game/map has different economy/needs which really ups the replayability, as does having multiple 'start points' on each map.”
- “Quite a lot of replay value based around resource availability, space limitations for each mountain slope, and services required to upgrade residences (changes based on map).”
- “The only arguments against the game I can imagine are no building rotation, the fact that 90% of the game is played paused, and low replayability.”
- “It's more 'puzzle' than sandbox, which might limit replayability.”
- “I think a custom map editor and/or random map generators are critical in the replayability of these games as well.”
grinding
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
14%
86%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be somewhat tedious, particularly when it comes to manually adjusting city layouts and rebuilding districts. However, the elimination of resource accumulation waiting times and the clarity in farming mechanics help mitigate some of the frustration, making it less confusing than similar games. Overall, while grinding can be repetitive, it is not considered game-breaking.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “Having to manually scoot my entire city down one building at a time when I need a bit more room is incredibly tedious.”
- “City builders are all about building nicely set up districts and zones, and having to completely rebuild that from scratch every couple of hours because the avalanche defenses you put in all of a sudden no longer work is tedious.”
stability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
67%
Overall, players find the game to be surprisingly stable for an early access title, with minimal bugs or glitches reported. However, some users note that there are still missing tools and occasional glitches that need addressing, particularly for a building game.
- “While playing, it's been remarkably bug-free for an early access game.”
- “But it's not quite there; for a 'building' game, there are so many missing tools and glitches.”
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization strategy is generally viewed as acceptable, though there are suggestions for improving the clarity of advertising and descriptions to enhance user understanding.
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players appreciate the game's emotional depth, highlighting its fun and wholesome writing that enhances the overall experience. The inclusion of diverse population types adds to the charm, making the game resonate on an emotional level.