Build a fairytale kingdom in this laid-back, wholesome city builder

Fairytale fantasy city-builder Fabledom launched this week, picking up pretty positive responses from early players. In Fabledom, from developer Grenaa games, you build up a little city-state in a fantasy world and expand it to meet your neighbors and the general challenges of a world where bridges naturally attract trolls and castles naturally attract dragons.

It's not all violence, of course. Some giants and witches are very friendly people, but the trio of evil witch sisters is not in fact at all friendly. Fabledom's real power is that it's one of those "start small, build big" games where you have a humble village at the start and a sprawling stone city with attendant castle at the end.

Seeing as living happily ever after is very important fairytale stuff, Fabledom also lets you meet and woo the leaders of other nearby kingdoms. Those princes and princesses are people on the map that you befriend, do diplomacy with, and yeah, go on dates too.

The little fabling people that make up your city aren't tough, but they are at least brave. That'll come in handy when you hvae to defend your riches from attackers, which is mostly done by building nice strong walls to shoot them from on top of—but brave knights help too. Combat isn't the focus of Fabledom, but it is a nice little bonus on top of the city-building and diplomacy.

Fabledom captured the imagination of PC Gamer's city building enthusiasts last year: It appeared on both Chris' list of most exciting upcoming city builders and Lauren's list of top cozy games.

You can find Fabledom on Steam.