I love a good twist on Tetris. There’s Tetris with sand. Tetris with hot wax. Tetris but it’s an interactive documentary spanning the game’s 40-year-history. And now, I was delighted to find out about a game that’s essentially ‘Tetris but city-building.’
River Towns is the name of the game where you jump between levels to “place differently shaped buildings and make them fit into a limited area.” Those buildings are basically shaped like Tetris blocks, so slotting them into just the right places is where all the fun’s at.
“As the town grows, more townspeople move in and bring life back into this old and broken world,” the game’s Steam blurb explains. “Throughout the game you encounter other objectives, such as gold to collect, trees to regrow and old monuments to rebuild. This turns the difficulty and possibility of collecting points completely upside down.”
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For such a creative idea, developer Frogsong Studios had a tough time getting to this point in development. On Kickstarter, studio co-founder and lead artist Anders Thelin explains that the studio had to lay off pretty much the entire team because, well, 2024 was a particularly brutal time for developers just trying to stay employed. That’s when Frogsong’s founders met indie publisher Stray Fawn, and decided to pursue crowdfunding to help the game cross the finish line.
Thankfully, River Towns has already reached its $10,300 funding goal and raised nearly $13,000. That means backers have reached a new stretch goal, and Frogsong will add “new challenge maps on a regular basis with unique mechanics.” And more importantly, you know, the game can actually be funded and come out.
River Towns is aiming to release sometime in 2025, but for now, you can check out its free demo on Steam.
For more, check out the other upcoming indie games of 2025 and beyond.
