Hearthlands Is A Real Time Strategy Game That Resembles Majesty & Settlers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtShz558H20
Hearthlands is my latest little discovery and even though it's in the early stages it looks really promising. Hearthlands plays out much like the Majesty & Settlers strategy games that puts the focus on buildings, resources, heroes and other things a King needs to watch over, so you don't control your units directly. This comes from a two-man team forming ArtefactGames that previously focused on mobile games, and now they are moving into the PC space. When I say PC I mean Linux, Mac & Windows.

I've tested it out after been gifted a testing key from the developer and it's a fantastic start to what looks like a seriously promising game. It really does remind me of games like Majesty and the original Settlers in the style of it and that's great as we have bugger all games like it on Linux. It's built with Java, so as you might imagine the performance is fine and the Linux support is great.

I have to say that I am a little bit in love with this even at this early stage of development. It's a little rough of course with no tutorial, but everything is pretty simple to work out.

The next release is going to add quite a bit of new content too, so I will keep everyone updated on this one. The only issue I have had so far is it still captures most of my input on alt+tab, but I have reported this to the developers.

Official About
Hearthlands is a real-time strategy game in which you take a role of a king in your own medieval/fantasy realm. You can not control your subjects directly. Instead you focus on city-building, resource management, diplomacy, heroes, magic and other things a typical king deals with on a daily basis. The world of the game, maps, characters and opponents are procedurally generated.

The game is very flexible: you can create a powerful empire and rule your vassals with an iron grip, or establish a humble fishermen's village. Or build an impressive temple complex. Or found a small, bur well-defended outpost. Or be a host of a wizard's manor.

All characters, from a hauler to a hero have their own minds and behaviour patterns. If you like games like The Settlers or Pharaoh you know how pleasant and interesting it is to watch people scurry about.

Features
It's a little low on features right now being a fresh release, so this is the official list right now:
- Build a medieval city
- Keep your people happy by providing them with necessary resources
- Gather resources and build industries
- See reports and tune up your economy

Luckily it has a lot more planned like diplomacy, bridge building, trading, army building, exploration, quests, magic and more! Looking at their most recent updates full army combat isn't too far away.

You can actually get an early copy on Desura, or directly using the Humble Store widget right now to support the developers and test it out.

Finally, you can also vote for it on Steam Greenlight. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.