This week, we look at a fun little game that’s rather addictive
It’s not often we feature an individual game on App of the Week, so when we do it needs to be one that has managed to weed its way into our brains and take up a considerable amount of our time. Technocracy is one such game.
Although graphically Android games have come on in leaps and bounds over the last couple of years, almost equalling higher-end titles for PC, Technocracy instead relies on its strategy and micro-management to raise it above the competition.
It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but there’s a lot of fun to be had in planning out what move to consider next, where best to place your limited resources and how to beat the game and come out on top. In our mind, that’s the essence of a good game.
Techno Evolution
Technocracy has you starting life managing a handful of caveman-like villagers. Their technology is virtually nil and their growth rate is minimal. However, with your guidance, the people in your civilisation can be put to work to further their evolution and ultimately break out of the Stone Age and into a more modern society.
There are three main screens to Technocracy. The first, main screen is a view of your village and population. You’ll see trees, land, houses, fields and a cave in the distance. The population mill around and do several jobs, such as cutting down a tree. Above this is a list of resources per second, what you have in storage and details regarding your population growth and unemployed workforce.
The second screen is where the larger share of the action takes place. Here you’ll begin with an explorer and farmer. As your population grows automatically, you can assign an unemployed worker by tapping the relative icon. An explorer will go out look for new land and a farmer will use up some of that land to grow food.
The more land and food you have, the faster the population grows. When you have a set amount, you can opt to evolve your population and move on to the next level, where you can gain new workers.
From there you can then assign lumberjacks, miners, builders, traders, medicine men, scientists, entertainers and soldiers. Each work unit requires an unemployed villager and each will use a resource that another work unit produces.
The lumberjacks, for example, use up land to produce resources. Builders and traders then use up different amount of resources to make houses and money respectively. The medicine men use up resources too, to increase your rate of monetary income and the scientists, entertainers and soldiers use up your money.
Each has a particular role in growing your population and its technology and economical standing. Too many work units on one will affect the others. Likewise, not enough farmers, and you’ll have no new population to put to work, due to lack of food.
Addictive Qualities
The game looks very simple, with basic graphics and animations, and there are times when the number of resources don’t quite add up according to what’s written on the work unit. But getting your population into the tens of thousands and trying to achieve the goals to evolve can be extremely addictive.
Like we said, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but we think it’s worth having a little play to see if it can infect you with its addictiveness.
It’s available from the Play store and iTunes.
Features At A Glance
• Free.
• Despite limited graphics, it’s very enjoyable.
• A fine balance of resources and workers is needed to evolve.
• Uses limited resources to run Android 2.3 and up.