Seeing as I'm looking to posting, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I thought I'd mix it up a bit. Rather than 5 more blog posts about how the hell I fell into crypto (cause really no one cares :)), let's just head straight into the blockchain-game that actually made me want to delve into crypto land, and that is Town Star.

Town Star is a blockchain game released by Gala Games, and falls into the Farming Sim category. And yes - you can earn crypto just by playing the game (with caveats! which I'll spell out in another post - ain't gonna hide shit here). And it is brilliant.

Just like every brilliant game, each basic mechanic that makes the game run, is simple and elegant. Mechanics like:

1. Different biomes (i.e. where you decide to build your farm) have different resources available and in different amounts.

2. Zones. Some buildings/structures/landscape features will provide a benefit (and possibly a penalty) in an area AROUND it. E.g. a pond will provide 2 points of water to any building/crop built right next to it (including diagonally). BUT it will also provide 1 point of water to any building/crop built 1 SQUARE away (excluding diagonals). Don't worry I'll graphic this up at some point.

3. Your buildings will require a combination of materials (all of which your farm must produce on its own - you cannot purchase any goods you need! I'm looking at you gasoline!) to produce their goods.

4. Your automated workers will prioritise the distribution of resources in a very predictable manner.

5. You have to manage your money.

Now each of these things by itself is fairly easy to understand.

a) A desert has different resources than a forest? Makes sense.

b) My power plant causes pollution so if I plant a field of wheat next to it, that field of wheat will take longer to grow? Understood.

c) My fabric plant needs wool (from sheep pasture) some lumber (made from wood from forests, which is then taken to a Lumber mill), and Energy (produced by Wind Farm or Power Plants), to make Wool Yarn. Still with ya.

d) My farmer is going to provide water to any field that needs it FIRST, before harvesting anything. Duh-doy.

e) It will cost to build things, and there will be on-going costs. Gotcha.

But add them altogether and you get a magnificently complex and organic world, that begs for any one that likes to problem solve to have a crack at it.

I mean sure it makes sense to have your silo where you store your harvested wheat right next to your wheat farms, so then you workers will have less time to travel back and forth right?

But your silo is a TALL structure, so creates a "shade-zone" around it.

Shade-zones aren't great for crops, so your wheat won't grow as fast.

Which means that everything that depends on your wheat - feed for your livestock - will also be delayed.

So you won't be able to sell your goods as fast, and your income will slow.

You won't be able to pay for your workers.

And your farm will be essentially dead at this point.

So, how about you build your silo away from your wheat fields? Maybe put your chicken coops, feed makers and troughs, in the space in-between your wheat fields and silo's? Like so...

Yes, this is my newest town (which is why everything is still messed up, and nowhere near optimised). I've started next to a Mountain to see if I can get an iron/steel build going. Mountain is far to the right of the Silo.  Now, the set-up above I just stumbled into, but it is ridiculously self sufficient. Once I had this set up, I was able to concentrate on the one other thing you desperately need to set up so your little farm doesn't die, gasoline production (why you need it so desperately, I'll address in another post).

I will say there is no in-game tutorial for this (yet?), and the game throws you in the deep end (you are however free to start over at any time). And I crashed and burned the first few towns I made, before I grasped some of the core concepts of the game.

However the Town Star community has already come together and there are already a few pages out their with the information you need. I'm still trying to collate these, and weed out the less than useful sites, but I'll also pop up a list some time.

Oh yeah - not a partner with Gala at all - and all that guff - the game is just fun (if you like that sorta thing ;)).

Later kids!