Islanders

Lore & Background

Islanders was developed over seven months by three members of Grizzly Games—Paul Schnepf, Friedemann Allmenröder, and Jonas Tyroller—who met while completing degrees in video game design at HTW Berlin. The team was inspired by a mutual love of city-building games like Anno, The Settlers, and SimCity, which they found complicated. They chose to embrace simplicity due to the limitations of working with a small team, adopting a design philosophy where every feature was questioned: 'Can we make it simpler? Can the game still be fun if we cut this feature?' The game's procedural generation of islands was rooted in their earlier work on Superflight, where a script that quickly assembled new levels from pre-generated blocks kept the experience entertaining without extending development time.

In Islanders, players earn points by strategically placing buildings from their inventory onto a procedurally generated island. Earning points restocks the building inventory, eventually unlocking new types of buildings and the ability to move to a new island. The session ends when no more points can be gained. The overall goal is to obtain the highest score possible in a single session. The game intentionally omits features common to city-builders such as resource accumulation, traffic management, and technology research. There are no sidequests or optional objectives, though there is a short list of achievements. The sole multiplayer element is the global high score board.

Critical reception was generally positive, with most reviews highlighting elements of the game's minimalist design: low poly visuals, relaxing sound design, and simple yet engaging gameplay mechanics. These same attributes also attracted criticism from reviewers who felt there was room for more complexity. Several video game journalists placed it on lists of favorites for 2019. Islanders was one of the top twenty best-selling releases on Steam in April 2019.

Reader's Guide

Islanders is significant as a successful example of minimalist game design within the city-building genre, demonstrating that a small team can create an engaging experience by focusing on core mechanics and procedural generation. The game's development, completed in seven months by three students, shows how constraints can drive creative solutions. Its proximity-based scoring system, where buildings gain or lose points based on nearby structures, provides strategic depth without complex systems. The game's critical and commercial success—ranking among the top twenty best-selling Steam releases in April 2019—validated the approach of stripping away traditional city-building features like resource management and traffic simulation. The game's legacy includes a console edition published by Coatsink, which later acquired the franchise, and a sequel, Islanders: New Shores, released in July 2025. The game's influence can be seen in its embrace of procedural generation to provide variety without extending development time, a technique the team had previously used in Superflight. The game's design philosophy, as described by the developers, was to create something simple enough to be played in short sessions but engaging enough to be returned to, with one developer comparing the process of building a city to 'growing a garden.'

Did You Know?

• Islanders was developed over seven months while the three team members were completing degrees in video game design at HTW Berlin.
• The game's procedural generation was inspired by a script the developers created for their earlier game Superflight, which quickly assembled new levels from pre-generated blocks.
• An early prototype of Islanders included a day-night cycle, which was cut to simplify the game.
• The final major update added a sandbox mode that removes the scoring mechanic and provides unlimited buildings.

The Art of Strategic Placement

In Islanders, the entire experience revolves around a deceptively simple act: deciding where to place a building on a small, procedurally generated island. Each session opens with the player choosing from two themed building packs—forestry, farming, or fishing—each holding a limited set of structures. Picking up a building reveals a translucent scoring sphere showing the radius within which it earns or loses points based on nearby structures and natural features. A circus thrives beside houses but suffers near mansions, so compatibility demands careful thought. Buildings can be rotated to fit awkward terrain, yet once committed they are permanent; they cannot be removed or built over. This constraint transforms every placement into a spatial puzzle. As points accumulate, the inventory restocks and new themes unlock, gradually introducing complex structures like gold mines and resorts that carry higher scoring potential but stricter placement rules. Sessions stretch across multiple islands, with the point threshold for advancing rising each time, and end the moment the player exhausts buildings or space. There is no resource management, no traffic simulation, no technology tree—just the pure challenge of maximizing a cumulative score through thoughtful arrangement.

Three Students and a Seven-Month Dream

Grizzly Games is a small studio built around three friends—Paul Schnepf, Friedemann Allmenröder, and Jonas Tyroller—who first crossed paths in the Bachelor of Arts in Game Design program at HTW Berlin. Schnepf and Allmenröder had already collaborated on a short experimental project called ROM during their second year, and later teamed up with Shahriar Shahrabi to create Superflight, a minimalist wingsuit flight simulator that led to the studio's founding. After Shahrabi departed, Tyroller joined the team in their third year, and development on Islanders began. The initial phase lasted three weeks of research, prototyping, and concept refinement. The trio drew inspiration from childhood favorites like Anno, The Settlers, and SimCity, which they loved but found overwhelming in complexity. Their goal was to strip city-building down to its purest form. With only three people, each had to wear multiple hats across the entire production. Instead of viewing the constraints of a tiny team as a limitation, they embraced simplicity as a core design philosophy, one they had already explored in Superflight. The full development cycle spanned seven months: four months of major production followed by three months of polishing and preparation before the April 2019 launch.

Critical Acclaim and the Minimalist Praise

Islanders landed on Steam's best-seller charts in April 2019, cracking the top twenty for the month, and the critical response that followed was broadly favorable. Reviewers consistently singled out the game's minimalist aesthetic as its greatest strength: the low-poly visual style, the calming and understated sound design, and the straightforward yet genuinely engaging placement mechanics all received praise. The game felt like a deliberate antidote to the bloated complexity of mainstream city-builders, offering a meditative loop that rewarded spatial thinking without demanding hours of resource micromanagement. That said, the very qualities that won over many critics also drew pushback from others who felt the game left room for deeper systems and more complexity. Despite this, several video game journalists included Islanders on their personal lists of favorite titles for 2019, cementing its reputation as a standout indie release. The game's global high score board became the sole multiplayer feature, fostering a quiet competitive undercurrent among players chasing the highest cumulative session score. The combination of accessibility and a hidden depth of strategic planning gave Islanders a broad appeal that carried it well beyond its small-studio origins.

From Berlin to the World: A Franchise Grows

What began as a student project in Berlin quickly expanded far beyond its original Steam release on Windows in April 2019. Within two months, macOS and Linux support arrived, broadening the game's reach across desktop platforms. The console push came nearly two years later, with a Nintendo Switch edition launching on August 11, 2021, followed by PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions on August 26, 2021. These console releases were handled by Coatsink, which took on the publishing role and subsequently acquired the Islanders franchise outright from Grizzly Games in May 2022, signaling the title's evolution from a small indie curiosity into a recognized property. The franchise continued to push into new territory with a Meta Quest virtual reality release on September 28, 2023, bringing the island-building experience into immersive headsets. Most recently, the sequel Islanders: New Shores arrived in July 2025, extending the core loop of strategic placement and procedural island generation into a new chapter. The journey from a seven-month student project to a multi-platform franchise with a sequel speaks to the lasting resonance of a design that proved simplicity, when executed with care, can carry a game across every major platform and into new dimensions of play.

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