Now that I come to think of it, the beavers do have some trouble traversing water. Water traversal isn’t a problem for the beavers, but it sure interferes with your production. The best laid plans of beavers often go awry.

Water always takes the easiest route, so a small change can reroute it upstream and flood your entire colony. There are nine maps with varied terrain and rivers, and plenty of opportunities for water management.

In Timberborn, you need to hold on to water through the droughts by building dams, and expand your colony by irrigating wasteland. Most games in the genre are split into a summer/growing season for stocking up on resources, and a hash and snowy winter season to put your colony to the test. Timberborn’s gimmick is that seasons represent changes to the water flow of its life-giving rivers and droughts. Their little breaks can disrupt your production chains, but it’s a nice break from the typical mindless automatons that populate most colony/survival games. The beavers take breaks from their tasks to eat and drink, and they wander off to stand on balconies and stare out over the bustling city life.

The art direction and the beaver simulation bring the game to life. It’s delightful to watch the beavers as they bustle about collecting resources and go about their daily tasks. My latest obsession is Timberborn - a vertical city builder inhabited by intelligent beavers that have inherited the Earth after humans are long gone. I love colony simulation games like RimWorld, Patron, and Surviving Mars and I’ve sunk way too many hours into these games.

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