I love cozy indie games and colony-building games, so this game looked right up my alley. While reading about the game I saw comments comparing it to Stardew Valley and Banished (two other games that I love), so I ran off to check out this little shipwreck survivor colony strategy game. I discovered the free demo (that lets you do a LOT), so I downloaded that and dove right in.

Checking Out The Demo

In Havendock, you take on the role of a shipwrecked survivor who must build a new life for themselves on a remote island. Your character starts from scratch on a tiny speck of land in the middle of a large body of water with a few planks of wood from the shipwreck nearby. You build out platforms and structures and encounter a variety of NPCs (vendors and settlers) that join your efforts to build a sustainable colony.

You will need to gather resources, build structures, and manage your population in order to survive. The game features a variety of different challenges and has a tech tree that allows you to unlock equipment, supplies, decor, and items to increase settlers’ happiness. (My favorite is the disco floor!) As you work your way through the technology tree, the NPC vendors bring the opportunity for supplies beyond what floats past you in the water. You build friendships with the vendors by overpaying for goods. (That’s the way to every vendor’s heart.. right?)

The demo let me play for several hours and get probably halfway through the tech tree. It was a nice extended demo that didn’t feel limited in any way until I hit the tech tree demo limit. I found that I had enjoyed the gameplay so much I had no idea how much time had passed. That can be a good thing or a bad thing, but in general, it meant I was really enjoying the game. I decided to go ahead and pick up the full version.

Havendock is sweet, cozy, and relaxing. The complexity of balancing the needs of the colony and advancing the tech tree keeps you on your toes. The very chill soundtrack keeps you relaxed even when your character’s hunger and thirst are running low. There could be some improvement in terms of the default pace and AI resource management, but the developer is very involved with the player base and I think we’ll see an even better game down the road. I definitely recommend it to any fans of the colony-builder genre or folks that like cozy games with cute graphics. The game has a unique setting, solid colony-building mechanics, and a technology tree which adds a wider variety of challenges compared to other games in the genre. It's exciting to be playing the game in Early Access and experiencing the development of the game as it continues to blossom and grow.

(This is an abridged version of my Havendock review. The full review is available at https://ravvyplaysgames.com/havendock-review/)