Why Timber and Stone?

I realize that most people who might read this blog are those that have already purchased the game, so they probably don't need to be convinced about whether to try it out.

Timber and Stone has elements of both old-school Real Time Strategy (RTS) games like Warcraft (no not World of Warcraft, but rather the original), Starcraft, Command & Conquer, or Age of Empires, and sandbox building games like Minecraft, but really is not either. The player can:

• Controls several individuals (eight to start), but his control is imperfect. Sometimes the little buggers have a mind of their own.
• Assign each individual to a profession, which can be changed as desired. (Supposedly changing their profession will have an effect of some sort in the future. For now it largely just causes a delay before they start new tasks.)
• Designate tasks to be performed by each profession. Some tasks can be performed by more than one profession, but usually not.
• Designate that the individual carry some sort of special equipment that they would not normally carry.
• Adjust some factors that alter their behavior, such as: how tired they get before they go to sleep; how refreshed they must be before they awake; or how much they will carry before they are too overloaded with weight and much drop something. One area that cannot be easily controlled is when, how often, or how much an individual eats.
• Build any structure of most any dimension or configuration they can imagine, given some limitations such as the game being voxel-based (i.e. blocky), the map having a minimum and maximum height, and there are a finite number of resources on the map. This is the Minecraft-like aspect of the game. The player indicates where blocks or items should go and the individuals perform the actual task of placing or building them there.
• Craft items, such as weapons, armor, tools, storage, furniture, lighting sources, and so on. The crafting recipes are indicated within the game's interface, so no need to look at a Wiki or add a mod that shows you the recipes in game.
• 4X or eXplore, eXploit, eXpand, and eXterminate.
• Okay, so maybe exploring is limited due to the map size, but you will find that you are constantly patrolling the map as you rid yourself of invaders and look for critical resources. (Patrolling is probably more appropriate, but it does not have an "X" in it.)
• Exploiting the resources of the map to survive and thrive is key. In fact, managing your resources is critical and many are non-renewable.
• You will find yourself always expanding your settlement as you add more storage, beds, houses, walls, and towers to accommodate the new migrants to the settlement and claim more of the map to keep it free from invaders.
• Survival is an important aspect of the game as you must not only build your settlement to the point of self-sufficiency but you must also do this all while fending off goblins, wolves, skeletons, necromancers, and spiders.

Because you take basic resources – timber and stone, essentially – and build a settlement in a hostile countryside, there are numerous basic strategies open to the player. That is what I hope to explore in future blog posts.