It may be six years old, but indie city builder "Kingdoms and Castles" has been getting regular updates since its release in 2017, and this year is apparently no exception. Just today, the "Infrastructure & Industry" update was released, adding all the buildings the community has requested and streamlining the construction and provisioning of kingdoms.

Buildings suggested by the community include large storage buildings for gold and produce, large reservoirs for aqueducts and other water distribution. There is also a larger charcoal pit, an iron mine, and a stone quarry. For the farmers, the larger towns have large taverns and the smaller towns have small chapels. Overall, all of this is suitable for late in the game, when there is a surplus of population or a small satellite island that is being developed.

Kingdoms and Castles is a survival city-building game where you build increasingly larger fortresses and cities to defend against invading Viking raiders, dragons, and rival kingdoms. It's a very laid-back game, but with great strategic depth and the ability to build elaborate defenses for equally elaborately decorated and adorable cities.

Developed by Lion Shield, Kingdoms and Castles is the company's debut title. It was the first game to be funded and released on the now-defunct crowdfunding platform Fig, bringing in twice as much money to backer investors there after its 2017 release. Since then, the game has expanded shockingly, transforming from a solo urban survival game to a pseudo-RTS and adding AI opponents in a massive free expansion last year. There is also one modest cosmetic DLC, which I have to commend: Lion Shield could have made a lot more money if they had released all the additions as paid expansions. Instead, they offered it for free and charged players only for a few bonus parks and gardens.

Lion Shield just last week released a new game, Nova Roma, a colorful city builder based on the Roman Pax Romana period. Instead of the dragons and Viking attacks of Kingdom & Castles, the focus will be on disaster; whereas Kingdoms & Castles was crowdfunded, Nova Roma will be published by Hooded Horse.