Well, this is a nice surprise. After it was pushed from the tentative window of January, Banished’s one-man development studio Shining Rock Software, ruled by Luke Hodorowicz, decided – only yesterday – that the game was content complete and has set a release date of February 18th.
Previously, a strict date hadn’t been set, and writing the in-game help, polishing and testing took a wee while longer because of the holidays. It’s all ready to go now, though, and I’m giddy with anticipation. I’m never giddy about anything, normally, but medieval city-builders do strange things to me. A tingling sensation is involved.
“There might still be minor bugs, there might be crashes that haven’t been found. But today I’m calling the game content complete. Banished is done, and so without any further delay, Banished will be released on February 18, 2014,” Hodorowicz announced in a blog post after realising that he didn’t have anything left to do.
“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!” Considering the scope of the game, three years with just one chap working on it full time is still mighty impressive.
Banished is a medieval city builder where the main resource at your disposal is not gold or lumber, but the citizens of your town. They are born, grow old and die; they have careers, start families and must persevere through long, hard winters and work the land to survive. And damn is it green.