Terra Nil
Terra Nil is a puzzle game focused around terraforming and object placement. You start with a barren map, and are tasked with terraforming it into a beautiful animal-friendly environment through the use of buildings, natural objects and environmental tools. Everything you place will do something to the map in a specific shape, and can lay the groundwork for the next stage. For example, rivers allow water to grow, water lets you place flowers, which attract bees, which can pollinate trees. At the end of each map, you then need to pack everything up and fly away without leaving any non-natural things on the surface, which is really satisfying.
Pros
- Satisfying gameplay loop of placing objects to create the environment needed for the next set of tools
- Generally a fair amount of leeway in how you place thing which allows for mistakes
- Very beautiful landscape that grows organically as you terraform the map
- Animals wander the landscape as you start to complete it, and can also affect the map in their own way
- Wide variety of terraforming tools
- The tools you use sometimes change sublety in how they work between maps which keeps things interesting
Cons
- Considering how relatively simple the game's graphics are, it stutters terribly on each level from grass stage onwards
- When you create a new river that's touching an old one, it doesn't always fill with water and you still have to use a water pump
- Forests obscure the view of individual tiles
- It's nice that animals have needs, but once you're at that stage - there's very little you can feasibly do to change the terrain. I can't create new grass for deer, and I can't create new forest for beavers unless I burn half the map again.
- Not controller or Steam Deck friendly