A wonderfully detailed simulation game about building up a town, Township is a charming game that’s full of stuff to do. Set up your town the way you like, make busy farms, and fill the museum with cool relics!

First released in 2012, Township is a game that’s all about farming and building a city from scratch. Township is designed to be fun and accessible for everyone. It’s got cartoony graphics, and colorful menus, helping you feel at home. The basic gameplay is simple, but as you progress, you’ll find that the game has a complex web of dependencies and relationships that you can utilize to get the things you need and grow your town faster.

At first, Township looks like a game about farming. You get to harvest crops like carrots, corn, wheat, and potatoes. You can use these crops in factories to produce goods or keep them as-is. You can also farm animals like chickens, sheep, and cows to produce things like eggs, wool, and milk.

Once you’ve accumulated some stuff, it’s time to sell it. Township has numerous order types, allowing you to sell your goods via helicopter, plane, ship, or train. Fulfilling these orders will require you to maintain a lot of different types of goods, but it’ll reward you with lots of in-game currency and plenty of experience to level up your account.

Township is a freemium game that will require some patience to play. The cycles in Township aren’t quite real-time, but you’ll still need to step away from the game frequently to let things complete. As your town gets larger and more complex, you’ll have more and more things to do each time you step back into the game. Expect to log in once or twice a day and spend a few minutes playing. Don’t expect to be able to play the game for hours at a time on a regular basis without throwing some real money around to speed up the in-game timers. That said, you can very easily build up a thriving town and get to an astoundingly high level while spending $0 to $20 per month.

Over the course of your Township adventure, you’ll get to design and build your town however you like. Unlike many other games, Township uses very simplified mechanics when it comes to what goes where. This means that you really can put things wherever you like and still have a thriving metropolis. It’s a nice feature for anyone who’s not keen to look up a guide each time they want to place a new building.

Township has had over 10 years of constant updates. Each update brings new events and features and refines some of the game’s rougher edges.  As a result of this long lifespan, Township has a LOT of stuff to do. You can mine, cook, play match-3, and more. These minigames have interesting rewards that you can then reinvest into your town and make your city even cooler.

Township isn’t a realistic game, but it is very kid friendly and features a lot of economic concepts. It’s used by parents all around the world to expose kids to the basics of production, economics, and trade. It’s fun, too, meaning that both kids and parents can enjoy playing the game and having a shared activity to talk about.

Township has a lot of progress bars that advance slowly over time. This is pretty standard for games that follow the freemium model, but if you’re new to mobile gaming it’s worth mentioning that you should expect to play Township for short sessions a couple of times a day. Sticking with this and doing easy activities every day will allow you to make fantastic progress, even if you’re not spending money at all.

When it comes to spending money, be sure to carefully examine the current event before you start to splurge. You can often get some pretty ridiculous perks that heavily favor certain styles of play. There’s a perk that massively buffs helicopter orders, for example, which can be used to turn your town into an industrial behemoth when combined with the right support. A few dollars on these limited buffs and some further investment into proper support will be much more impactful than haphazard spending to reduce wait times.

Are you a Township master? What level are you? What were your favorite events? Do you have any tips for new players? Let us know in the comments below!