Kingdoms And Castles is a cute town management game
Build towns, fight dragons
I like city building games and I like real-time strategy games that let me turtle up. Kingdoms And Castles looks like a bit of both: a game about building a village, making sure it has the food and resources it needs, and then protecting it by building a castle and forming an army to fight off the viking invaders, dragons and other foes that will arrive on your doorstep. The game has already reached its funding target on FIG and there's a trailer below.
I love the way this looks, too. If I'm going to spend hours upon hours noodling with a little village, then I want it to be pretty. K&Cs blue oceans and green fields and greener trees satisfies. I also really dig the animation as you plop down castle pieces and buildings.
The obvious point of comparison is The Settlers, which has been mixing town management and defense/offense warfare with mixed results for a couple of decades. Though simpler in appearance, Kingdoms and Castles seems to have a few ideas I've not seen in any of the Settlers games I've played, such as seasons which change between summer and winter so you need to plan for the cold and the potential for plagues to ravage your towns. That maybe moves it more into Banished territory, which another cited inspiration.
If you'd like to back the game, $10 gets you the game when it's done (est. Q2 2017), $20 gets you in to the beta (though with the same estimated delivery time). There are stretch goals too, which you can see on its FIG page.