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screenshot: The Block<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\nIf 2022 is going to be the year of anything, it’s been the year of the city-builder, a strategy sub-genre that has exploded in popularity recently, especially on the PC. While most efforts are focused on sprawling urban landscapes and Viking outposts, and others make city-builders with even more systems<\/span>, The Block<\/em> is going in the opposite direction.<\/p>\nIf you have ever seen or played townscaper<\/em><\/span>or Dorfromantic<\/em><\/span>, The Block <\/em>has a similar idea: strip city-building back to its bare essentials, and let the player do nothing else but drop stuff on a map and be happy with whatever comes out of it. <\/p>\nThe Block <\/em>strips things even closer to the bone, though; while those two games simulated a village, or at least a village’s surrounding countryside, The Block<\/em> is interested in only a single…block. That’s all you get. There are no guidelines you need to follow, either, you just get a very small space and can built whatever you want on it.<\/p>\nAt the start of each game you’re randomly assigned a style (like European and Middle Eastern), can choose the size of your block and then given a map with a single tile pre-filled with something. From there you’re given tiles of your own and have to build out from the centre, laying down a new structure (or park, or street) only when it’s touching an existing one.<\/p>\n