Island Kings
Strategy · 1-4 players · by DJ Sures
Four islands sit in one sea, each ruled by a king. You have a few years to make yours the best place to live.
Linked program
Island Kinds
Four islands sit in one sea, each ruled by a king. You have a few years to make yours the best place to live.
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Live sessions
Nobody is playing right now. Host a session from your NABU and it will appear here.
Four islands sit in one sea, each ruled by a king. You have a few years to make yours the best place to live. Build farms, houses, mills, clinics, schools and watchtowers, and sail your own fishing and patrol boats around the sea. Keep your people fed, housed and happy and your island grows. Neglect them and they riot.
The rain, the fish, the storms and the raiders are the same for everyone. After the last year, the island with the most points wins.
Ways to play
- Online (up to 4 kings): Join a sea that's already playing, or open your own. You take over an island right away, and the NABU rules any island nobody is playing. When a game ends, a new one starts with everyone still there. Leave whenever you like and the NABU takes over your island.
- Solo: You against three islands ruled by the NABU. Turn the NABU kings off on the title screen for a peaceful sea to practise on.
- 2 players, 1 NABU: Two kings on one NABU, with joystick 1 and joystick 2.
On the title screen, Y sets how many years a game lasts (5–30), S sets how long each year is (30–90 seconds), and N turns the NABU kings on or off.
Controls
| Action | Joystick | Keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Move your pointer | Stick | Arrow keys |
| Click | Fire | Space |
| Pick from the menu | — | 1–8 |
| Jump to your next boat | — | B |
| Leave the game | — | ESC |
- To build: click a picture on the menu at the bottom of the screen, then click an empty square of your own island. The picture stays picked, so you can keep building. Click it again to put it down.
- To buy a boat: click the fishing boat or patrol boat on the menu. It sails out of your harbour straight away. You can own up to 4 boats.
- To sail a boat: click one of your boats (a ring shows around it), then click the sea where it should go.
What you can buy
| Item | Price | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Farm | $4 | Feeds 10 people, and earns gold while rain falls on it |
| House | $6 | Room for 20 more people, and they like it |
| Mill | $10 | Gold every year (more with schools), but people dislike the smoke |
| Clinic | $12 | More babies, fewer funerals, happier people |
| School | $12 | Happier people, and every mill earns more |
| Watchtower | $8 | Stops riots in the squares around it, and people feel safer |
| Fishing boat | $15 | Feeds 8 people, and earns gold while it sits on a school of fish |
| Patrol boat | $20 | Sinks raider ships it touches ($5 bounty), and rival fishing boats too |
The sea
- Rain clouds drift with the wind, and the wind changes every year. Farms under the rain earn gold.
- Schools of fish wander the open sea. Park a fishing boat on one to earn gold.
- Storms cross the sea now and then. They sink boats and can flatten buildings, but not watchtowers.
- Raider ships come hunting fishing boats. Run your boats home, or send a patrol boat after the raider for the bounty. A raider sails away after it sinks a boat.
- Patrol boats sink rival kings' fishing boats too. Guard yours!
The end of each year
- Every island collects taxes (more people pay more) and gold from its mills.
- People grow if there's food and room, and go hungry if there isn't.
- Happiness goes up with houses, schools, clinics, watchtowers, enough food and room to spare. It goes down with mills, hunger and crowding.
- If happiness is too low, people riot and burn a building, unless a watchtower stands next to it.
- Each island scores people × happiness for the year. The results box shows everyone's gold, people, happiness and total points. A ! means that island had a riot.
The top of the screen
Your island's colour, gold ($), people (P) and happiness (%), then the year, the seconds left in it, and your points.
Tips
- Food and houses come first. People won't grow without them.
- Mills make money but make people unhappy. Balance them with schools, clinics and houses.
- Put watchtowers where they cover the most buildings.
- A fishing boat sitting on fish all year pays for itself many times over. Keep an eye out for raiders.
- Build farms where the wind will blow the rain clouds.
Screenshots
