Heian — a peaceful beginning
Thatched minka, a rice paddy and a little shrine. Feed your neighbours and make them feel at home.
- Peasants
- Thatched minka
- Rice · fish · wood · stone
A cozy village builder · Heian to Meiji
ko·mo·re·bi — sunlight filtering through leaves
Grow a riverside hamlet into a lantern-lit town, across a thousand years of Japan.
Chapter one · The ages
Keep your neighbours fed and happy and their homes grow with the times. Scroll, and watch the same street rebuild itself.
Thatched minka, a rice paddy and a little shrine. Feed your neighbours and make them feel at home.
Artisans arrive. Saw planks, fire roof tiles, forge tools — and give the houses cedar-shingle roofs.
Tea, washi screens and quiet gardens. Merchants open shopfronts in two-storey machiya, and a pagoda rises behind the street.
Silk, sake and kabuki drums. Lanterns go up along the street and the village becomes a lively town.
Brick, glass and a railway whistle. Welcome a new age — and keep the soul of the village alive.
Chapter two · The seasons
Every season changes the land, the light and the harvest. Plan ahead — very little grows in the snow.
Sakura along the paths and fresh tea on the hills. Rice is only just planted — a good time to build.
Fish run in the river, the paddies grow tall and fireflies drift over them at dusk.
Maples turn red and the rice harvest peaks. Fill the storehouse while you can.
Lanterns glow in every window. Almost nothing grows — the village lives on what it saved.
Chapter three · People & work
Villagers move in, take jobs and walk to work. Each class wants different things — and gives back in taxes and craft.
Farmers, fishers and foragers. The village rests on their work.
Live in thatched minka · need food, a well and a shrineCarpenters, potters and smiths who turn raw things into fine ones.
Live in shingled houses · need tools and a marketTownsfolk with refined tastes. They pay handsomely for a good life.
Live in machiya · need tea, washi and a tea houseTeachers, engineers and writers of a new age.
Live in Meiji townhouses · need glass, cloth and a schoolSixteen goods flow between fields and workshops. Storage is limited, so keep things balanced — and sell what you can't use at the market.
Chapter four · Make it yours
Soft hex tiles, a wandering river, mountains on the rim. Where you build matters — and the game shows you why before you place.
Paddies need farmland. Fertile soil and the riverbank make them richer — tiles light up gold where a building will do best.
Fisher's huts and clay pits belong on the bank. Buildings turn to face the river on their own, docks reaching out over the water.
Beside the water a sawmill gets a water wheel. Woodcutters like the woods, quarries lean on the rocks.
Chapter five · Festivals
Decorate well and the whole valley is happier for days.
Picnics under the cherry blossoms, lanterns strung along the street.
Wishes written on paper strips and tied to bamboo, under a sky full of stars.
Moon viewing with rice dumplings and pampas grass.
Temple bells ring out the old year; warm mochi welcomes the new one.
What's in the valley
Meet a home's needs and upgrade it — its family moves up a class. Upgrade everyone, though, and who will plant the rice?
From wells and fisher's huts to kilns, kabuki theaters and a railway station — most with several tiers.
Production chains, storage limits and a market whose prices sag if you flood it.
Wells, shrines, tea houses and bathhouses must be close to homes. Happy homes pay more and work harder.
Harvests rise and fall with the seasons; every one ends in a festival.
No game over, no timers nagging. Pause whenever you like.
Your village saves itself in the browser. Close the tab; it will be there tomorrow.
How it plays
Play for ten minutes or for a whole evening.
Place homes, fields and workshops on hex tiles.
Villagers move in, take jobs and need things nearby.
Happy homes upgrade; new eras open new land.
Each season closes with a festival.
Plant the first paddy tonight. Your village will still be here when you come back.
Play in your browser — freeRuns in any modern browser with WebGL · no account needed