The Village Sim is about a tribe forced to flee their island home due to a volcano eruption; now they’re attempting to make a new home on a mysterious island filled with ruins and secrets. You start the game with five villagers, all of them untrained and rather confused. They have to get to work quickly though if they’re going to survive, and there are several specialties to choose from. Skills are broken down into five areas: Farming/Fishing (food production), Research (learning new technology), Breeding (having and raising children), Healing (curing sick villagers), and Construction (building huts and other structures). This isn’t a complicated RPG; the villagers simply learn by doing. Drag a villager to a large tree filled with fruit, and they’ll eventually learn to forage for food. Drag another villager to the ruins of a hut, and he’ll figure out how to fix it. The more then do a particular task, the higher their skill grows, and the villagers will go from “untrained” to “trainee” to “adept” to “master” as they progress through the levels.
Technology is also a very important part of the game. There are six different kinds of technology, and you gain new levels in each by spending tech points earned by doing research. The first is Harvesting, which concerns your food supply. Level two offers basic farming/agriculture, and level three allows you villagers to learn how to fish. Next is building, with the different levels improving the speed of building project completion as well as opening up new building types. Medicine is all about reducing the incidence of disease, improving your chances of healing sick villagers, and increasing the average life span. Science affect the rate at which you accumulate tech points, while Fertility is about the quantity and quality of births as the island population expands. Finally, spirituality is something of a mystery, but it seems to open up some of the secrets on the island.
While the Village Sim isn’t very complicated, it does require some strategy: how many villagers should be devoted to research? what skills should they be trained in? You have to keep a careful eye on the food supply, because the villagers will starve if they run out of food. But beyond that rather basic consideration, you need to decide whether you want to devote several villagers to research in order to quickly gain tech points, or whether you want to split things up and have one person do research, another fix up the huts, another explore the island, etc. It’s also a good idea to “cross-train” your villagers, making sure that more than one becomes proficient at gathering food, healing, conducing research, etc. It gets a little trickier when your villagers start having children (accomplished by dragging a villager of one gender on top of another; if things go well they’ll head inside a hut for some privacy and the female just might have a child)– a nursing mother won’t do anything else for the first two years of the life of her child, so you have to make sure that the village can sustain itself without the benefit of her labor. Children won’t be able to do any work for the village until they’re 14, and can’t have children of their own until after they mature at 18.
The game’s graphics are cute and engaging– the people, huts, foliage, and rocks are all well done in a cartoony style. The sound effects are particularly good, with island birds calling in the distance, the sound of waves hitting the beach, rustling sounds when a villager is foraging for food, a hammer when a hut is being built. There’s background music as well, and it does a good job of setting the mood for the game. The interface is logical and very simple to understand; the villagers are controlled by dragging them to a certain area, such as near a field that you want them to plant. You can move about the village by dragging your stylus on the screen or by using the Map screen that gives you a full overview of the area at a glance. You can access the game menu by tapping on the on-screen button. There are several options, including continuing the game or starting a new one, the Preferences menu, information about the puzzles contained within the game, the ability to beam Village Sim to another device, and the About menu with development credits. The Preferences menu allows you to turn sound effects on or off, control the volume of the background music, choose from one of three game difficulty levels (the default is medium) and select the game speed. This is important because Village Sim runs even when your device is off, unless you have the game paused. You can choose slow, medium, or fast, depending on your patience level and how long you want the gameplay experience to last. Finally, the puzzle menu shows you which puzzles you’ve solved. After playing for a week, I’ve solved four of them, and I’m anxious to see what some of the other secrets might be, especially that large rock in the center of the village. . .
I’ve been playing the Village Sim for a week now and I must admit to being completely addicted. Simluation-type games have long been one of my favorite genres (along with puzzles) and I always look forward to a new release from LDW Software. That abbreviation actually stands for “Last Day of Work” and now I know why! Village Sim is fun and engaging without being difficult or stressful. I often leave it running while the Zodiac is plugged in on my desk, checking the villagers’ progress at regular intervals. Village Sim started fairly slow, since there were only five villagers to start, but now I’ve got fifteen villagers and I’m working on building a new hut and improving the technology level of my village so I can unlock some of the other secrets. I can’t wait to see what happens next!
If you’d like to try it for yourself, you’ll need a Palm OS 5 device with 4MB of RAM. If you don’t have quite that much room, loading the background music files is an optional part of the installation. Village Sim is available now for $19.95 at the LDW web site.
PocketGoddess Rating for Village Sim: 
{ 70 comments… read them below or add one }
wow this sounds like a really cool game i want to play it so bad so far this is the best one i have read i would give it a 5 out of 5 right now and i didn’t even play it yet
Wow, this description of the game couldn’t be more dead on. I woke up the other evening in a panic because I didn’t put the game on pause mode before plugging up the Palm for the evening (It runs real time so that you come back and the game has progressed without you unless you pause it). I rushed to the kitchen to find 2 babies had been born and my farmer girls were simply sitting there with their little ones as the food supply depleted. I fixed the problem, and went to bed relieved. My wife thinks I am nuts!
The game is easy, fun, and extremely addictive.
I’ve been playing this for a while now and I’m on level two in Harvesting, Science and Spirituality. However I have not been able to figure out how to move rocks to gain access to the river or the cave. Any suggestions??
Um… i too am completely addicted to this game. The first time i played it i got impatient and put it on “fast” and then later forgot about it. I checked them the next morning on my way to work adn my entire village had died! I’ve got the lagoon and the beautiful garden now but CANNOT keep enough food for the little rascals. –we’re working up toward fishing…
I have level 3 on all things.
Food for 5000 light years, master farmers etc. But i cant move the boulder which is stuck by somthing.
Who knows how to move this stupid thing.
Did enybody finished this game?
Juan
I just got the game a couple days ago and am completely addicted, but stumped. I can’t keep them alive through level 2, what’s a good strategy here? I’ve tried with babies, without babies, one farmer, four farmers, and none of the crops will grow – they keep watering them but run out of food before the harvest.
Juan, according to the walkthrough I found, the boulder can only be moved by the Golden Child, who does it on his own, so don’t make him try – just make babies until level 3 in Fertility and he will be born.
Good Luck!
I have been playing now for about a week. I have planting the farm, cleared the beach, cleared the lagoon, restored the magical garden, built the hut, and had four children. I am glad to know that I not the only one who has not figured out how to move the boulder. I think the key may be getting multiple sims to push at once. If anyone gets it to work let me know.
All right, my food’s been wiped out by water. Some of my folk have died by particularly nasty, germ infested stranger. Still pluggin’ along here to the point where most everyone sits around bored, complaining, telling jokes, arguing, but doing nothing too much more exciting than laundry. Have gotten all but the final puzzle, which I’m assuming is just going to fortuitously drop outta the sky one of these times. Now what?
I’ve killed off a few villages trying to learn this. A few tips; while your palm is on, have the speed on fast. When you are sleeping, put the speed on slow. Keep difficulty at low; the other levels do not make it any more fun. Build your tech points as such: harvesting, building, science, medicine, fertility, spirituality. Try to keep all of them at the same levels. Break them into groups; have some planting & harvesting, some foraging, some building. At some point, you’ll want to breed all of the chicks as often as you can, then eventually train the little brats–that may take a while. Steer them towards food production, but if they are inclined, foster their science skills at the table or their medicinal knowledge at the “strange plant”.
I’ve reached all of the tech levels. I have solved all of the puzzle but for the last one. Any clues here? I’d be grateful for the help. It seems that this point the game is self-perpetuating. There is nothing more I need to do to make this last guys survive. I suspect that it is some type of enlightenment or doorway off the island…
I just bough it. What I need to do when they said something about “worried about housing”. They don´t want to start breeding due to this….
Sounds like you need to do some construction before you get “down to business”–direct them to the forest where they will start harvesting wood and building more huts. You have to have somewhere to put those new village residents!
This game is addicting. Its the only app i have legally bought for the Palm. I’ve always enjoyed games like the Settlers and the like for PC so this was a natural “oooooo ahhhhhh” so i bought it. I’ve had some issues with my Palm mysteriously restarting on me for no reason im hoping it was battery related or soemthing. I’ve finally got started and have 1 kid but that is about all at this point. 1 researcher, 1 farmer, lady with a baby and 2 builders. Hopefully i get the hang of this before too long i wish there was a definitive save feature because the two times it crashed and reset i lost it all and had to start over
I have everyone on research right now…I’m really trying to get enough tech points to increase my harvesting. I’m quickly running out of food and have already killed off 2 villiages (didn’t discover the pause button till this round). Is there any other way to get them to gain tech points faster?
Village Sim is great and addictive. I have solved all but the last puzzle and cant grow my village beyond 65 people because of housing. Does anyone know how to get more housing and what the last puzzle is. Its driving me crazy. A tip for new players, dont build your village numbers up too quickly otherwise there are kids everywhere and it is hard to get everyone skilled up.
Wow, after the 3-4 attempts I finally reached some good levels. The best thing in the game that it made me so addict!!! Because most of the time I sleep too much but with this game about 6-7 hours of sleep I just wake up scared and check out my little guys. (ok, still have some food, new baby grown up, this guy is sick, noone died, huuu… relief
)
BTW: With the field that I should watering or something and after that it will bloom, I cant make it (maybe because of that naughty kids, because when nature calls they go to that field). Any suggestion???
I have completed all puzzles except for the last one. Anyone know what the last puzzle is??? And how do I solve it? My Golden Child is walking around the village doing the jingly thing (she already moved the bolder). Is there anything I can do or do I just have to wait?
BTW: Trib-just give it time and the flower garden will grow. You have to clear out the lagoon first, which you can’t do until you get enough tech points for building. The water in the lagoon is the water that will make the garden grow.
I have completed all the puzzles except the last one. Does anyone know what the last puzzle is and what I need to do? My tribe went from 20 something down to 8. All the do is farm, and I’m back to having to check them all the time because they aren’t breeding unless I make them. Any suggestions?
Trib-you have to clean the lagoon first before the field will grow. Before you clean up the lagoon you have to have more construction tech points.
yes, what is the last puzzle?
There is a small treasure buried in front of the food bin, try having your master builder digit up for the last puzzle.
How do I get more housing please? Someone said drag a builder to the forest and they’ll get wood and build huts, but where’s the forest?? I’ve tried dragging them to the place on the far left, but they don’t do anything?? Please help! I have 92 people and they’re worried about housing!!
how do you know who the golden child is, what if he/she was born and they don’t do it on their own, are you supposed to help. One of my villagers did have a dream about the caves but although i have tried i can’t get her to move the boulder.
were can i play village sim?
i can’t get enought points to upgrade can someone plez help me
To get a golden child i read somewhere you have to be a certain level of fertility and then take a women taking care of a child and put her in the little stream thing and then take them to the flower garden and then to the plant that no fruit grows on and then it should be able to move the boulder, or something along those lines.
heres a link with all the right answers to the puzzles — spoilers (so don’t look unless you really want to know)…
http://www.ldwsoftware.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=25104&an=0&page=0#Post25104
Help – The version I am playing has 16 puzzles to unlock and I can’t bet past 7 of 16 complete.
I have the Graveyard, the huts, the Beach, the Lagoon, the Well, The School and Herb Mastery. My farmers are fishing, harvesting and foraging, my builders are working on hut 3.
I have farming tech bought out and all others at lvl 2. I am going to hit construction for lvl 3 next to get the temple and then the idol to get my golden child, but no matter what I do they won’t take water from the lagoon to water the dead field.
Any ideas on how to get past 7 of 16, all the sites I found with hints show 12 puzzles only, must be the Palm version. I am on the desktop version from bigfish.com.
For those who were wondering:
As for the golden child after you have enough spirituality you take a nursing mom and place her in the lagoon, her baby will be the Golden Child and take care of that boulder.
close the game, move your PC clock forward, it will affect the game as well, to avoid dissapointment go forward only 2-3 hours at a time , hmmmm 91 people all good except that golden child, i can’t seem to get him i even starved half of the people to refresh the population but nothing …….no golden child to finish my puzzels
i’ve completed all 16 puzzles what do i do next
What do you do after you solve all puzzles does it go to another island or is that it?
wow what a great game this is i found it about a week ago and have been playing and checking it none stop now i have just over 220,000 food and just over 150,000 tech points with all three levels of everything bought and im working on getting the last puzzle open as i type here…….i wish i would have found this site before but i was doing good with everything up until the last puzzle ill keep a eye on this site for a bit to see if anyone knows what we do after everything is unlocked and to help out if and where i can
I have completed all 16 puzzeles what do i do next from there? any help?
I’ve solved all but the buried treasure. Any hints?
I just placed a woman with a baby in the lagoon, then the child turned golden. That is all I did!
help. i’ve solved all but puzzle 11 – the boulder. my golden child has been running around for the past 3 days (my time) doing anything but moving the boulder. i’ve fully researched all the tech areas. why won’t he move the boulder so i can finish the game??
i have just got the game and i have bought the first farming but now i have some off my villagers clering the blockage but i have no food i have 8 people and i cannot get the feild growing because it wants better water, what do i do about food i have one at the table and one farming but they dont seam to be doing much the clearing isnot clearing HELP they are going to all die,
Okay; I’m really new to this. What do you do if you’ve killed off all but 1 of your villagers????
Done almost all the puzzles? Waiting on the golden child? Population maxed? Take a pregnant woman into the lagoon….Bam! GOlden child born.
i canot solve 2 puzzles: fish with stars and chest =) can anybody help what to do please?
Yesterday, I had golden Child, he was born. It’s very lucky. And I also din’t know when he was born. But my paml was interrupt, it wasn’t backup. Now I have to play this again. Now how can I do to him was born again. “Bored”
hey been playing the game for almost a week, i love it and it’s addicting. failed several times, but the clue to playing with it really fast is by adjusting your desktop time b4 you open the game. try it. have fun
one missing thing from this game is save game
because the game keep running while the handheld off,
and suddenly when you opened the game, most of the villager already dead
it will be nice, to capable to load game before that disaster
Does anyone else only have 12 puzzles?
JUST EXPLORE THE PALM INTERNAL FILES BY FILE PROG OR ANY OTHER PROGRAME LIKE ZLAUNCHER.THERE IS A FILE NAMED VILLAGE SIM SAVE GAME.MAKE A BACKUP ON UR SD CARD ONCE A WHILE SO IF U LOST UR GAME OR DATA COPY THIS FILE BACK TO PALM INTERNAL MEMORY AND ……………U HAVE UR SAVED GAME.
I FINALLY FINNISHED THIS GAME!!!!! WOOO HOOOO! time to do it again
i’m pretty sure to move the cave it has something to do with that cactus……….the kids’s always right!!!
i have done 3 free trials on this so far and I really wanna get the full version. I am working on the lagoon but it’s taking a while. I only have the first puzzle done and it’s boring to just have 60 minutes of play. a hint: don’t let the guy investigate the strange creature. it will kill him.
:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)
i finished the game in just 2 days
i played with my clock tho
be careful only put ur clock forward 1 or 2 hrs max at a time,otherwise u loose all ut villagers
i think 1 hr = just under a year for them,so everytime ur do it ur oldest villagers will die,but thats life,i gave my villagers last names and tracked their babies so now my graveyard is full of generations of familys….kewl huh
to move the boulder you have to have level 3 on fretility and spirituality. after that, drop a girl who has a baby into the lagoon and it should make the golden child. he moves the boulder, puts friut on the fruitless plant, and completes the butterfly puzzle
hi im only 12 and i play for a little wile and then it terns off on me (unfair) so can you install it for free …… please …… but noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo (tottaly unfair come onnnnnnnnnnnnnn ?????? ) so can you do that for me and all the outher pepole please please