14 DAY TRIAL // It’s hard to run an efficient business when you have to mine your own ore and when the trader who delivers food needs quite a bit of time to get his order in. One of my employees goes hungry and I unwisely invest in a new room too early. But after I feed and allow both my smiths to get a full meal, I manage to open the shop with a solid reserve of ore and, after hours of forge and hammer work, I make quite a bit of gold, even after dealing with a noble who’s unwilling to pay for his swords.
Anvil Saga is developed by Pirozhok Studio, with publishing in the hands of HeroCraft PC. The title is in Early Access on Steam right now, with the target launch date set for October.
The concept is simple: become a blacksmith in medieval times, grow your business, deal with a looming war, and try to get the girl. All this is accomplished via a focused take on management mechanics.
To create an object, the player needs to mine ore (or buy it from a merchant) then forge it, then create the actual hoe or sword by hammering it into shape.
More employees mean more products delivered, which brings in more money. The gold is, in turn, used to pay out wages, get food, and expand the house the characters live in. A medieval world also means that there are plenty of people that expect to get taxes from a successful blacksmith or, even worse, free work.
The concept is intriguing and has space to develop. But the game needs to have a higher top speed, for those boring sections when everything works well, and better alerts for those moments when someone gets injured or needs to take a nap.
Anvil Saga opts for a pixel-driven look that works pretty well given the relatively simple gameplay, although a little more detail for furniture and other points of interest would be good. The choice of visual style does make it harder for the game to stand out in a crowded indie space. The soundtrack is suitably medieval but too repetitive and the rest of the sound design does not impress.
Conclusion
The developers at Pirozhok Studio are monitoring the official Discord and Steam for feedback and will tweak the experience based on it. Anvil Saga makes it fun to run a blacksmith, when it comes to mechanics, but does need more polishing when it comes to building and employee management.
Preview code provided by the publisher.
