It’s tough enough to manage a city in the best of circumstances, but when your city is teetering on a thin plateau on the side of a mountain while avalanches loom overhead, it can become a little bit of a trial. That’s the challenge at the heart of Laysara: Summit Kingdom, a new mountainous city builder set up in the rarefied air, and it has just launched into Steam Early Access.
Set over a series of mountains each with their own terrain, this ambitious city builder tasks you with creating a new home for your people who aim to take refuge among the clouds. The most instantly striking thing about Laysara: Summit Kingdom is undoubtedly its setting; cities nestle on the edge of precipices with rope bridges connecting settlements, Tibetan-style buildings nudge up against each other as they vie for space. It’s a stunningly beautiful world created by developer Quite OK Games, with a lot going on under the hood.
Space, as you might expect on a mountaintop, is at a premium. This leads Laysara: Summit Kingdom to contain a hint of a puzzle game as you’ll have to choose the right buildings carefully to slot them in the limited space available. Each mountain has its own challenges, from limited access to natural resources to vast canyons that interrupt your attempts to build a cohesive city.
Thankfully, yaks exist. Yaks, rope bridges, roads, and pulley-powered elevators all encourage the creation of transport networks to ensure that goods and resources get where you need them to go. Keeping this network optimized with everything moving allows you to expand, helping you to look after the needs of your mountaintop citizens.
While you may be battling the mountain for survival, each mountain is capable of fighting back. Avalanches in particular are a constant, deadly threat that can see your buildings smashed and your beloved yaks swept away by a tide of white. While you can prepare for these onslaughts, the message is that while you may be the master of your city, you cannot control the mountain itself.
There’s a fair few city builders popping up on Steam right now but Laysara: Summit Kingdom’s mix of beautiful high-altitude vibes, elemental danger, and challenging city building may prove to be a standout. If you feel you’re up to the challenge of conquering the elements and bringing human life to perilous heights, Laysara: Summit Kingdom is out now in Early Access.
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