I played this game for way too long. Before starting I saw the high score list, so I knew it was at least possible to do well. Unfortunately, my villagers ended up dying every round I played. On one of my higher rounds, I had a child, but then my partner died after childbirth, and the child kept getting sick and died. I thought that another person would give me more labor resources, but it was also another mouth to feed and came with expensive medical costs. I wanted to reach the point where I could add infrastructure to the village because it should’ve made things easier, but it was extremely difficult to get that much money. I thought I had figured out the right limits for fish and wood collection, but it made me more reliant on the harvest. All it took was a couple bad harvests and sickness and I lost a lot of money. When you have almost nothing, it makes it nearly impossible to progress. I guess that’s the point of the game, which sounds weird saying considering that some people face things like this every day.

It was frustrating that sometimes the government in the game would offer to subsidize things that the village still didn’t even come close to being able to afford. It would’ve been much better to inject that discount as cash into the community. When there is no time or resources to develop a small business, you can’t create more wealth for yourself or the community. That left only wood and fish as constants to sell, but without limits, people would take too many and everyone would be left with nothing. I’ve seen some others mention it in their posts, but this whole simulation is great at showcasing poverty traps. Lack of education, poor healthcare, zero infrastructure, and severely limited labor choices are just some of the things working together to prevent progress. It makes me wonder how humans have been able to get as far as we have but leave so many people behind.