Foundation on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
Quick menu
Foundation is a grid-less, laidback medieval city-building game with a focus on organic development, monument construction and resource management.
Foundation is a city builder, simulation and medieval game
developed and published by Polymorph Games.
Released on January 31st 2025 is available only on Windows
in 17 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Russian, Portuguese - Brazil, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Czech, Thai and Ukrainian.
It has received 20,132 reviews of which 17,195 were positive and 2,937 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.4 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 33.99€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Foundation into these genres:
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5-4460
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: GTX 960 / R9 290 - 3 GB Video Memory
- Additional Notes: OpenGL 4.3
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Ok, so. The game is good, but it COULD be great. I'm hesitating to recommend or not-recommend the game, but while I enjoyed my time on it, I'll likely not play before the next update(s), because of the frustration it induces... and still recommend it. The obvious pros: the game is cute, it's a city builder, with organic behavior of the citizens. Sound design is excellent. Modular buildings are a GREAT mechanism. Unlock tree is ok even if the system feels a bit artificial (I end up placing like a hundred bushes near the right type of building to unlock things). After a while unlocking new stuff, seeing my pops and buildings have more requirements, I started to feel something like the fun I felt when I played Caesar III, decades ago... but at a smaller scale, as the game does not seem well optimized, and struggles to run a few hundred citizens. Aaaand now, here is the issue. Just like in old games and any good city builder, the mechanisms require you to optimize some stuff, so that your peasant can satisfy their needs, but here it gives you almost no tool to do it properly. The logistics issues are hard to understand and impossible to debug because you can't really control where people will store stuff, where people will sell stuff, you can't prioritize jobs, you can't really steer people to given neighbourhoods when areas lack workers when others don't and people will do 15 km to fetch food, which prevents them to go to work... People are unhappy because they don't have access to basic stuff that are on sale 15m from them, and FINDING what's wrong is inexplicably hard. My houses are degrading, why? no way to know. Wheat does not go from storage to mill, why? no way to know. My bailiff always quits the city even when happy, why ? no way to know. Can I prioritize stone for road paving over house rerererererebuilding ? Not that I can see... There are also quite a lot of bugs which are not all game breaking but still give an impression of an unfinished or unpolished game, but really my main remark would be this : *if you want me to build a nice city with hundreds of citizens and knights and monks with needs, give me tools to do it properly. I cannot click on individuals and buildings in the whole map, so at some scale of city I'll need to have an map overview of who does not have water, service, or whatever, of which buildings lacks what and why (is it production ? logistics ? can I fix it with more storage ? hiring more people ? where ?) Where are people going to get their food ? their clothes ? How much time does it take them that they don't use to work, and why can't I compensate that by hiring more people in that underutilized building ? People tell me they can't find a home, but all the homes around have lots of empty room, what exactly are you looking for and where ? and so on and so forth* Basically, QoL for big cities is not there (yet ?). Ah, and the other bad UX thing for me which gets me to eye roll is the "click on something happening at some precise point on the map before a timer" aspects, which really reminds me of bad mobile games and, imo, has nothing to do on a PC city builder. I'm *designing a city*, so I don't want to move all over the map to welcome three new citizens, just find yourself a home already, yes I need you or I would have specified it in an immigration policy. Emissary of abbess/king/whatever ? Just show me the event or show up on the side of the screen, I was *busy* trying to sort out wood logistics 30 seconds of map scrolling to the west, please. Also, having to micro my three main people who do the missions to get progress and new people, why ? just get on a loop of $mission and give me mental time to plan quarries; and having to micro the lvlup of citizens to optimize jobs, please nooo ... I have money, just auto-upgrade whoever works as a tax collector or whatever, auto-upgrade a random monk when I have 5 books, auto-upgrade soldiers, etc. For me, the ultimate goal of a cute city-builder is to get to the point of being able to just visit the map and look around, and the city Works. See logistics flows, money gets in, people get around, go in, take free jobs and live their lives. All microgestion prevents that, and knowing the game will never let me just "enjoy what I built without having anything to click on to get it to run" is a frustration. Overall, yes, it's a good cute city builder. You can build small villages. But for now, the lack of QoL and the forced microgestion of pops means it cannot reach the "zen" point of truly great citybuilders where you can just stop, look at your megalopolis, and enjoy looking at details of your creation or do building micro-adjustments for hours.
Expand the review
Don't know what to write for a review. But I just can not stop playing this game. Been a gamer since i was 7 which started with a Commodore 16. Went on to play The Settlers, Civilization and Sim City on my Commodore Amiga 500. I like the tinkering, building, tweaking, buying and selling. Except for Sim City I never liked the military part of these games and that is why i cannot STOP PLAYING FOUNDATION. I do not think this review helps anyone.
Expand the review
At the time of writing this review, I have 500 hours+ in early access, I have played the full release demo and I a few hours in the full release game. I absolutely recommend this game! It is a fantastic medieval city builder, with very intuitive building, decoration, expanding, resource gathering, trading, upgrading tree, progression with both buildings and higher tiers of citizens, quests and challenging achievements. The way you can basically generate entirely your own maps and change the ruleset for your games for it to suit you, gives you the abilitiy to play the game almost exactly like you want. I also like the military system of the game, where your military is necessary as passive bonuses for your cities, such as patrols. You can also send them on missions “off-screen”, where they can return with amazing loot if successful. The only thing this game is lacking when you compare it to other games, is fighting. There is no fighting on-screen in this game - which I like! (think Manor Lords on “peaceful”). The art style is cozy but less realistic, the design of the buildings and the freedom to create whatever city you want is amazing. The game is also easily mod-able if you want to add even more options! I would say this game beats out any other city builder in this format, including Manor Lords, Ostriv, Banished, Farthest Frontiers or Dawn of Man, just to mention a few. NB! READ THIS! The only thing I dislike about this game is its poor optimization. The game will simply eat your hardware in its current state. Currently, the game will take my GPU to literally 100% utility, like it’s running a benchmark. The game will do the same with your CPU, if that’s your bottleneck for more frames. My CPU at one point actually got hotter running this game than running a Cinebench benchmark. The game luckily has implemented a FPS/Framerate limit. Use this, and set it to 10-20 below what you can run, and it will save your hardware. There isn't a brightness slider in the video options either, and since the game doesn't support HDR, I have to manually increase brightness in the HDR settings when playing this game, then back when playing something else. I hope the devs this year spend most of their time tuning the performance and adding additional options in the graphics menu, as the game itself is a fantastic and complete game (finally)!
Expand the review
GRIDLESS BUILDING Not many gridless village builders. This one is one of the best especially with the new customization options and sandbox settings. Generate your own maps as well. TRY IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT Oh and there is a demo. Devs who include demos for their games deserve extra kudos IMO. 8 thumbs up.
Expand the review
This is the kind of game where I'll go and sit down and think I might game for an hour but somehow now it's been 3! To me, it's great. I've been playing for several years and enjoying the new learning curve each time there is a big update. I love the anti-grid style of building and letting the villagers make their own paths. I'm having fun with the demo now, can't wait for the full release!
Expand the review
Similar games
View all
Project AURA
Project Aura is a micro management game where you lead a Colony of Climate Disaster Survivors. You have been assigned the mission to build an habitat capable of survival in this new unknown world.
Tavern Master
Tavern Master is all about managing your medieval tavern. You start with a very small room, couple of benches and tables and build your way up to a huge successful tavern with a kitchen, rooms for guests, group of loyal staff and much more!
Settlements Rising
Settlements Rising is a medieval city building and colony management game. It offers a lively colony experience with simulated villagers, dozens of professions and resources, natural disasters, and raids, while providing full control over the colony through trade, production chains and datas.
Kingdoms and Castles
Kingdoms and Castles is a city-building simulation game about growing a kingdom from a tiny hamlet to a sprawling city and imposing castle. Make trade agreements, alliance, and war with neighboring AI controlled kingdoms. Each villager and resource is individually simulated.
Manor Lords
Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game featuring in-depth city building, large-scale tactical battles, and complex economic and social simulations. Rule your lands as a medieval lord – the seasons pass, the weather changes, and cities rise and fall.
Urbek City Builder
Urbek is a city building game where you can build your own neighbourhoods: from nightlife district to industrial district. Don't exhaust your natural resources before you have an educated population to build more efficient structures.
Banished
In this city-building strategy game, you control a group of exiled travelers who decide to restart their lives in a new land. They have only the clothes on their backs and a cart filled with supplies from their homeland. The townspeople of Banished are your primary resource.
Rise of Industry
Put your entrepreneurial skills to the test in the first title in the ROI series as you create & optimise intricate production lines. As an early 20th-Century industrialist, grow your empire & adapt to an ever-changing business landscape with unexpected events that could lead to boom…or bust.
Sumerians
Sumerians is a city building game set in ancient Mesopotamia. Attract new citizens and grow by expanding your irrigation system, building walls, palaces, temples and ziggurats. Research new technologies, manage your production, hire workers, and trade.
Tropico 5
Return to the remote island nation of Tropico and expand your Dynasty’s reign from the early colonial period to beyond the 21st Century, facing new challenges including advanced trading mechanics, technology and scientific research, as well as cooperative and competitive MULTIPLAYER.
Cities: Skylines
Cities: Skylines is a modern take on the classic city simulation. The game introduces new game play elements to realize the thrill and hardships of creating and maintaining a real city whilst expanding on some well-established tropes of the city building experience.
Children of the Nile: Enhanced Edition
Children of the Nile™ is a unique gem of a city-building game, unparalleled in both grandeur and attention to detail.As Pharaoh you will guide your people through thousands of years of history: from simple hunter-gatherers to the creation of an immortal civilization.
Frequently Asked Questions
Foundation is currently priced at 33.99€ on Steam.
Foundation is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 33.99€ on Steam.
Foundation received 17,195 positive votes out of a total of 20,132 achieving a rating of 8.36.
😎
Foundation was developed and published by Polymorph Games.
Foundation is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Foundation is not playable on MacOS.
Foundation is not playable on Linux.
Foundation is a single-player game.
There is a DLC available for Foundation. Explore additional content available for Foundation on Steam.
Foundation does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Foundation does not support Steam Remote Play.
Foundation is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Foundation.
Data sources
The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.
Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 07 June 2025 15:03 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 10 June 2025 21:16 |
| Steam price | 15 June 2025 04:39 |
| Steam reviews | 12 June 2025 15:57 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Foundation, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Foundation
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Foundation concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Foundation compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
970
Developer
Polymorph Games
Publisher
Polymorph Games
Release
31 Jan 2025
Platforms