It’s Village

It’s Village is a fantasy-themed city-building simulation game where players construct and manage a village from a diagonal-down perspective with a free camera. Developed by Limed and released in 2017 for Windows, the game emphasizes strategic planning and resource management as players expand their settlement, build structures, and navigate the challenges of a whimsical fantasy world.

It’s Village: A Cautionary Tale of Asset Flips and Broken Dreams

Introduction: The Village That Shouldn’t Exist

It’s Village (2017) is a game that exists in the shadowy liminal space between “game” and “digital artifact”—a title so bafflingly incomplete, so nakedly cynical in its construction, that it has become a cautionary tale in the annals of indie game development. Released by the obscure studio Limed on July 31, 2017, It’s Village is a fantasy-themed city-building simulation that promises players the chance to “take control of a rural village and develop it in any direction you want.” What it delivers, however, is a hollow shell of a game, a Unity asset flip so egregious that it has been immortalized in Steam’s most infamous hall of shame.

This review is not just an analysis of It’s Village as a game, but as a cultural artifact—a symptom of the early access gold rush, the commodification of game development, and the dark underbelly of Steam’s open marketplace. It is a game that, in its very existence, forces us to ask: What even is a game?

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Development History & Context: The Asset Flip Epidemic

The Studio: Limed’s Shadowy Legacy

Little is known about Limed, the developer and publisher behind It’s Village. The studio’s digital footprint is minimal, with no official website (beyond a defunct link on RAWG) and no notable presence in the gaming industry outside of this title. What is known, however, is that It’s Village is not an original creation—it is a blatant asset flip, a practice where developers purchase pre-made assets from stores like the Unity Asset Store and stitch them together with minimal effort to create a “game.”

The most damning evidence comes from a Steam Community post by user Mutant1988, who linked to the original Unity asset pack used in It’s Village: “Forgotten Keep” by Nanorav Studios. The free version of the asset pack, available here, contains nearly identical models, textures, and even UI elements to those found in It’s Village. The game is, in essence, a reskinned tech demo sold as a commercial product.

The Gaming Landscape: Early Access and the Race to the Bottom

It’s Village was released during the height of Steam’s Early Access boom, a period (roughly 2013–2018) where the platform was flooded with unfinished, often unplayable titles capitalizing on the promise of “player-driven development.” Many of these games were abandoned, while others—like It’s Village—were barely games at all.

The title’s Steam page initially listed it as an Early Access release, though it was later removed from the store entirely (a fate shared by many asset flips). The game’s 12,322 achievements—a Steam record at the time—were not a testament to depth, but a mockery of the system. Players earned one achievement per second of gameplay, a transparent attempt to exploit Steam’s achievement-hunting community.

Technological Constraints? None. Just Laziness.

It’s Village runs on Unity, one of the most accessible game engines in the world. The technical constraints here were not engine limitations, but developer apathy. The game’s “features” include:
– A scenario mode (barely functional).
– A free play mode (randomly generated but devoid of meaning).
– Difficulty settings (from “harmless” to “hardcore,” though the difference is negligible).
– A save system (the one redeeming feature, though why you’d want to save is unclear).

The game’s minimum system requirements (Windows 7, Celeron G3500, 1GB RAM) reflect its lack of ambition. This was not a game pushed to its technical limits—it was a cynical cash grab dressed in fantasy trappings.

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Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive: The Story That Isn’t There

Plot? What Plot?

It’s Village does not have a narrative in any traditional sense. The Steam description vaguely mentions “terrible skeletons that will destroy your city,” but these enemies are not part of a cohesive story—they are randomly spawned nuisances that exist solely to disrupt the player’s already fragile settlement.

There are no characters, no dialogue, no lore. The closest thing to “story” is the scenario mode, which generates a random map and tasks the player with surviving waves of skeletal attackers. There is no context for why these skeletons exist, why they hate your village, or what their ultimate goal is. They are gameplay obstacles, not narrative devices.

Themes: The Hollow Promise of Creativity

If It’s Village has any thematic throughline, it is the illusion of player agency. The game’s marketing emphasizes “develop in any direction you want,” but the reality is a shallow, repetitive loop of placing buildings and watching them get destroyed.

The skeletons, in this sense, are a metaphor for the game’s own failures. No matter how hard you try to build something meaningful, the game’s broken systems will inevitably tear it down. The villagers are mindless drones, the buildings serve no purpose beyond existing, and the player’s role is reduced to a glorified janitor cleaning up the mess.

Dialogue & Writing: Nonexistent

There is no dialogue in It’s Village. The only text in the game comes from menu descriptions and achievement notifications (of which there are thousands, all meaningless). The absence of writing is not a stylistic choice—it is another symptom of the game’s incompleteness.

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Gameplay Mechanics & Systems: A Masterclass in Dysfunction

Core Gameplay Loop: Build, Wait, Despair

It’s Village is, at its core, a city-building simulation, but it fails at even the most basic level of the genre. The gameplay loop consists of:
1. Placing buildings (a small, uninspired selection).
2. Waiting for resources (which accumulate at a glacial pace).
3. Watching skeletons attack (which they do constantly, with no rhyme or reason).
4. Rebuilding (because your defenses are useless).

There is no economy, no resource chain, no population management, and no meaningful progression. Buildings do not upgrade, villagers do not have needs, and the only “strategy” is placing walls in the hope that skeletons pathfind poorly (they don’t).

Combat: A Joke

The game’s “defense” mechanics are laughably broken. Players can recruit soldiers, but the process is undocumented and buggy (as evidenced by Steam forum posts like “hOW TO BUILD SOLDIER????????????”). Even when soldiers are spawned, they are ineffective, often standing idle while skeletons tear through the village.

The skeletons themselves are brainless, attacking in waves with no tactics. They do not target specific buildings, they do not flank, they do not retreat—they shamble forward until they die or your village is in ruins.

UI & Controls: A UX Nightmare

The point-and-click interface is clunky and unintuitive. Menus are poorly labeled, buttons do not respond consistently, and the camera controls are janky, making navigation a chore. The lack of tooltips or tutorials means players are left to figure out mechanics through trial, error, and sheer frustration.

Innovation? None. Just Exploitation.

It’s Village does not innovate—it exploits. The 12,322 achievements are not a feature; they are a bug, a glitch in Steam’s system that the developers weaponized to trick players into “engaging” with a broken product. The randomly generated maps are not a testament to procedural generation—they are a way to mask the game’s lack of content.

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World-Building, Art & Sound: A Unity Asset Store Showcase

Setting: Generic Fantasy Purgatory

It’s Village takes place in a vague medieval fantasy world, but there is no world-building. The environments are randomly generated blobs of terrain with no distinguishing features. There are no biomes, no landmarks, no history—just a blank slate for your inevitable failure.

Visuals: Stolen Beauty

The game’s art direction is not original—it is stolen. The models, textures, and animations are directly lifted from the “Forgotten Keep” Unity asset pack, with no modifications. The isometric, diagonal-down perspective is functional but uninspired, and the free camera is more of a hindrance than a feature, often getting stuck in geometry.

The buildings are low-poly, repetitive, and devoid of charm. The villagers are featureless mannequins that shuffle around aimlessly. The skeletons are generic mobs with no personality. Even the UI is a default Unity template with minimal customization.

Sound Design: The Silence of the Void

It’s Village has almost no sound design. There is no music, no ambient noise, no voice acting, and no meaningful sound effects. The only audio cues are generic “click” sounds when placing buildings and the occasional skeleton groan (which quickly becomes maddening due to repetition).

The absence of sound is not atmospheric—it is another layer of emptiness, reinforcing the game’s soullessness.

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Reception & Legacy: The Game That Broke Steam

Critical Reception: Nonexistent (Because It’s Not a Real Game)

It’s Village has no Metacritic score, no professional reviews, and no meaningful critical analysis—because it is not a game worth reviewing. MobyGames lists it as “n/a” for a reason: it does not meet the basic criteria of a functional video game.

On Steam, the game holds a “Mixed” rating (58/100) based on 267 user reviews, most of which are either mocking or outraged. Common themes in player feedback include:
– “This is not a game, it’s a scam.”
– “I got all 12,322 achievements in 3 hours by leaving it running.”
– “The skeletons are more intelligent than the developers.”
– “I would rather pull pigs out of a stable than play this again.” (A direct quote from a Steam review.)

Commercial Performance: A Failure by Design

It’s Village was pulled from Steam at some point after release, likely due to violating Valve’s guidelines on asset flips and fake engagement. The game’s achievements were also removed, erasing the only “feature” that gave it notoriety.

Financially, it is unclear how much It’s Village made, but given its $0.49 sale price (as mentioned in Steam reviews), it was likely not a major success. The game’s true legacy is not in sales, but in infamy.

Influence & Industry Impact: The Asset Flip Backlash

It’s Village is not influential in the traditional sense—no one looks to it for inspiration. Instead, it serves as a warning, a case study in what not to do. Its existence contributed to:
– Steam’s crackdown on asset flips (Valve has since implemented stricter guidelines).
– Player skepticism toward Early Access titles (especially those with suspiciously high achievement counts).
– The rise of “asset flip” as a pejorative term in game development circles.

Games like It’s Village are why platforms like itch.io and Epic Games Store have curated sections—to prevent the flood of garbage that once clogged Steam’s storefront.

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Conclusion: The Village That Should Burn

It’s Village is not a game. It is a digital parasite, a monument to laziness, and a stain on the indie development scene. It does not deserve to be preserved in gaming history—it deserves to be forgotten, a footnote in the dark age of Steam’s Early Access wild west.

And yet, in its utter failure, it teaches us something important: games are not just products—they are experiences. It’s Village is the antithesis of that ideal, a hollow shell that takes more than it gives.

Final Verdict: 0/10 – A Crime Against Gaming

It’s Village is not worth your time, your money, or even your irony. It is a glitch in the matrix of game design, a reminder that not everything released on Steam deserves to be called a game.

If you must experience it, do so as a historical curiosity—a relic of a time when anyone could slap together Unity assets and call it a day. But do not mistake it for art. Do not mistake it for entertainment. Do not mistake it for anything but what it is: a scam.

Burn the village. Salt the earth. Move on.