Landlord’s Super is a sim about work, poverty, and booze, and it's coming to early access this month
Gizza job
There’s only one class to choose in Landlord’s Super: working class. Set in a Midlands town in the ‘80s (a famously prosperous time in the UK when no contentious things happened), it’s a game about the ordinary feats of strength people do to get by. Trading in scrap for cash, finding odd jobs in the construction business, that sort of thing. The kind of work often referred to as "graft". It’s from MinskWorks, the developer of Jalopy, which absolutely makes sense. Life is as fiddly as their car mechanic sim. It's arriving on April 30 in early access.
It's a game where you're a jack of all trades, with each small job being a mini-simulation. You'll balance bricks on a wheelbarrow, mix concrete, and lay foundations. Every nail needs stuck, every tile placed. You'll even need to order (or steal) the supplies. Take a look at the video below, in which the player has to fix some brickwork. Every step is accounted for. When he needs a trowel to flatten down the cement, he has to take the bus into town to buy it.
There seems to be a sense of hope at least, even in a town dominated by the grim effects of Thatcher. It’s not about living a grey life with no prospects, but doing whatever you can. Brick-laying is hard labour, but by the end of the day, you’ll have built a wall. Build enough of those together and you’ve made a house for someone, or a community centre. Even if the bricks were taken from the back of the local pub, it's a step in the right direction.
Your odd jobs don’t take up all your time. There’s a small living world to explore as you go about your day, with a town of dodgy characters to talk to. Weather and external (if currently unknown) events will change your plans, meaning it might be more conducive to your health to skip a day’s work and indulge in a pint or three at the local pub: The Anchor. You might even pick up another job while you're there.
It’s scheduled to release on Steam on early access on April 30.