Circle of Kerzoven started as a solo project by developer Marco Burri; eventually, more people joined Marco to help, and Team Kerzoven was born.
Settlement-building and Strategy

Circle of Kerzoven is a settlement-building strategy game with a rich simulation experience. I’ve spent some time playing the demo available to download from Steam, and so far, I like what I have played.
As is usual in these types of games, you play the role of a leader delegated to build a new settlement. You’ll look after your citizens’ needs and ensure they are housed, well-fed and watered. You’ll provide woodcutters and stonemasons to supply resources to construct buildings. Additionally, you’ll build a fishery, farms and gathering hut for food.
Seasons Change

As the seasons change, you have new challenges to face in winter. For instance, will you have enough food to feed everyone and wood for fires to keep them warm? You will need to plan ahead to overcome these challenges.
Additionally, you will have to manage the individual needs of your citizens. All the citizens are “alive”; each has a specific home, workplace, and their own needs and goals to be satisfied.
However, in Circle of Kerzoven, you’ll also have to consider how your settlement affects the environment around it. There’s a heavy emphasis on the interconnected nature of each citizen and the animals and plants they co-exist with.
Rich Ecosystem

My time with the demo was not enough to allow me to see much of the complexities that the full game will offer. However, it’s an exciting concept, especially with the rich ecosystem and how it changes due to your actions.
Furthermore, the influence of your small settlement at the beginning of the game doesn’t affect the surrounding environment much. However, as you progress and your settlement grows, more resources and food are needed, and they all impact one another and the environment and the animals.
The animals that roam free also look for food and get thirsty, and if you kill too many animals for food and deplete their numbers, you risk that animal becoming extinct.

The game is presented in a low poly art style and is vibrant, bright and colourful. When I first loaded the game up, the sun was setting, and seeing the sky glowing red was beautiful.
The music is lovely and quite chilled out to listen to. I didn’t particularly like the pop-up info boxes; the writing is too small and hard to read, especially on a large computer screen. I had to squint to be able to read any information about the citizens, which wasn’t comfortable.
Final Release

When Circle of Kerzoven is released, you can expand your settlement and explore new territories. As you explore new territories, you will find ores, animals and other valuable goods that are unavailable in your settlement region. You can also settle in these new climatic zones and have several settlements to manage them simultaneously.
There is a Kickstarter page for Circle of Kerzoven where 528 backers have pledged € 18,736. You can find the Circle of Kerzoven Steam page here; why not try the demo yourself? This is definitely one to watch to see how it develops.