Fundamentally it is similar to Banished - I’d say they’re in the same sub-genre of more intimate town-builder. I’ve wanted to make a town-builder like this since I got into the game industry as I played a lot of early ones growing up. When Banished came out, I felt like someone beat me to it, because, on the surface, it looked a lot like what I wanted to make and I was a bit disappointed by that but also excited to play it. While very impressive for a single developer, I was a bit relieved that Banished didn’t quite do it all. I had a similar impression as you and felt like it still gave me an opportunity, with the resources of a larger team, to create something with more complexity and multi-tiered economy / building progression.
I honestly am a bit worried I may have strayed a bit too far from the “easy-to-learn” end of the spectrum but I think it shouldn’t be too hard for people experienced in the genre to figure out the basics - some of the systems though are maybe a bit over-designed and we’re working to try to make them more clear with tool-tips and such. What I can say though, this was kind of a self-indulgent project. We did well enough with GD that I don’t have to worry about trying to maximize sales with Frontier. I think it will still do fine though.
Its funny though - no big ARPGs had come out for years when I started GD, then suddenly Torchlight, D3, PoE and others emerged. We released into probably the most competitive ARPG market ever.
Then for years I wanted to do this smaller scale, cave out a town from the wilderness style town-builder and there hadn’t been many for a long time, but Banished released and did well, now suddenly it seems like everyone is making one.
Now we’re working on an RTS, where the major competitors are 10 and 20 year old games, and suddenly AoE 4 is in the works and two groups of ex-blizzard employees have announced they’re making RTS… wtf?