Times of Progress is a strategy and simulation city builder set during the Industrial Revolution on PC. Players manage the growth of a settlement that expands rapidly through new technologies and increased productivity, focusing on resource extraction, production chains, and population satisfaction in a single-player experience.
Gameplay
The core loop centers on constructing industries to harvest natural resources from the surrounding land. These facilities require connections via transport networks and proximity to available workers. As the settlement develops, attention shifts to creating secondary goods and services that meet rising demands while addressing challenges like urban expansion and resource constraints.
Transportation evolves alongside the city. Initial cart-based movement handles goods automatically but proves inefficient at scale. Players build roads and railways to streamline routes, extend reach to distant resources, and incorporate harbours or tunnels where terrain demands it. Terrain modification supports access to new areas, allowing flexible adaptation of the map layout.
Population needs change over time. Early citizens require food and jobs, but growing urban centers demand consumer goods and additional services. Balancing these requirements against limited local resources makes trade with nearby AI-controlled cities a key element for long-term stability and growth.
Game Modes
The game operates entirely in a single-player format centered on building and managing one city at a time. Procedural map generation creates varied starting landscapes, while randomized conditions introduce different initial setups, upgrades, and rewards for each attempt. This structure encourages repeated playthroughs, where outcomes from one city inform adjustments in the next.
Failure in a run serves as a learning step rather than an endpoint. Players can apply insights from previous efforts to new maps and conditions, refining approaches to infrastructure, production balance, and trade decisions. The emphasis remains on iterative improvement through these varied scenarios rather than competitive or cooperative elements.
Key Mechanics and Features
Automatic ordering and dispatch of products reduces manual oversight once transport links are established. Road and railway placement tools prioritize speed and intuition, enabling quick adjustments as the city layout shifts. Modifiable terrain further supports exploration of the map without rigid boundaries.
Trading mechanics integrate directly with AI cities to supplement scarce local supplies. This system ties into the broader progression from basic resource gathering to complex service provision, ensuring sustainability as population and demands increase. The combination of procedural elements and choice-based randomization keeps each session distinct while maintaining focus on industrial-era city management.
Is It Worth Playing?
Times of Progress suits players who enjoy deliberate city-building with an emphasis on transport networks, production chains, and adaptive planning in a historical industrial setting. Its procedural maps and randomized elements provide strong replay value for those who appreciate learning from successive attempts on new layouts.
The game remains in a pre-release state with no user reviews available yet. Its systems align closely with classic strategy simulation titles that reward careful balancing of resources, infrastructure, and citizen needs. Those drawn to focused single-player experiences without multiplayer components will find the described mechanics a natural fit once it launches.
