FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles
FINAL FANTASY TACTICS - The Ivalice Chronicles
Game
Game2024
Dawnmaker
Developer Arpentor Studio
Dawnmaker is a turn-based city building and deckbuilding game, made by 2 strategy fans. It feels like playing a solo board game. Build luminous cities, optimize your deck and create powerful combinations between buildings and cards to bring life back to a dead world. Play the demo now! From the Steam store page
108 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Sep 27, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
89
LovedLoved
89 positive · 11 negative
95% range 81–94%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 89 | 11 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
8 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
151 of 166 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 108 · most liked firstThis is a great game, and I really wish I could recommend it, but it lacks any sort of nuance and depth. It's a ton of fun for the first few hours, but the gameplay gets stale pretty quickly. There isn't enough variance -- between levels, between characters, between runs. In this game, I can pick the strategy I'm going to use for the rest of the run before I play my first card, and from there it's just execution with barely any significant decisions. The really good deckbuilders (e.g. Slay…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really like the game, but it still needs a lot of polish 1. Losing is punished to the point that you can't progress at all This one is the worst thing there is. If you lose in any of the maps, you get locked out of them, get absolutely no rewards and then you need to most likely play in a more difficult map without any preparations whatsoever. Add in the fact that you can simply get unlucky with your card draws, and this one gets a bit excruciating. 2. The reroll system in the airship is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is fun at first but there are gameplay flaws that are very frustrating I played the campaign twice and failed both times at the same mission areas. Obviously I'm not a very good strategy game player, but at least on the side of the devs, they can improve on these things: 1. give me the option to choose a difficulty level 2. If a difficulty option is too much to ask for then at least let me repeat the mission so I can experiment and try a few more times to understand which part of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Woot! Took a couple of tries, but finally won 🥳 If you haven't played Dawnmaker yet, I strongly recommend it. It's a solarpunk turn-based strategy game where you fight the darkness that is slowly overtaking the land. Has several clever mechanics. #IndieGames #TurnBasedStrategy
unlabelledView post →Whether you're an #IndieDev or just curious about the industry, the following is a must-read IMO: adrian.gaudebert.fr/blog/post/3-... Adrian, the creator of Dawnmaker, writes about all he learned creating the game. Lots of relevant lessons. (BTW, go play Dawnmaker, it's excellent!) #GameDev
unlabelledView post →A great solo board game game. Reminds me of Terraforming Mars, in it's replay ability as a solo player. It is a deck drafting game with various levels of complexity. You build a city, racing to complete objectives against an escalating resource drain. Easy to start, but with a good level of challenge going forward. Trying new strategies takes up plenty of time. For the price point, you get a game you will be able to enjoy and come back to when you are in the solo board game mood. This isn't…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Rougelite Suburbia. Placing tiles and making combos is super satisfying. Only wish there was more variation in the tiles
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you expect good card game it's not it - cards in itself are boring (gain x resources for y energy), buildings are where fun of this game lies. If you like to place buildings on the map then it may be for you. Very fun concept, but gets old quickly when you figure out some synergies needed to win the game. Overall game is ok for like 2-5 hours (time to figure out winning strategy and finishing campaign). Not much replayability after that as this game lacks variety and/or balancing. I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →https://youtu.be/zc4dTVO4UZg Dawnmaker is a fun strategic card based city builder, in which your goal is to fight the fog so it doesn’t overtake your city. You can do this in several ways, you can build farms which will help you create oil (Luminoil) to keep you city in business, but you could also create building synergies which when trigger will give you oil, or you can ramp up your cash production and use that to produce oil. So there is not one playstyle and every game will be slightly…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A deck building and city building game set in a smog filled world. Tony reviews the digital board game Dawnmaker: www.boardgamequest.com/dawnmaker-di... #boardgames #ios #android
unlabelledView post →Yes, but needs difficulty settings for casual players. https://youtu.be/_SZ-NMUd-qg
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I normally dont like deck builders. Or strategy games. But this one just works - cant believe I already spent 1.5 hours on it. I find it very challenging, but not too much. It is nicely balanced, and winning feels rewarding. The tutorial explained all of the mechanics I needed, clearly. I like it !
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →no mucha re-playabilidad, todo igual
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Loved it! Lots of hard choices to make that felt meaningful, but still enough randomness to keep you on your toes. One thing I would love to see is an ability to respec your deck improvements between games so that you can try out different builds more easily. Once I started focusing towards an "activation" focused deck, I felt like I had to follow the same strategy every mission to get the most out of my previous choices. Would also love an "undo" button!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played the demo and thought this was a really fun game. Bought it when it came out, and then beat it in 2 hours. Fun game, but seems to lack any sort of replayability.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A Card Game KING review In recent years there have been more and more city-builder and deckbuilding hybrids and I can't say I'm hating it. Dawmaker is a very solid addition to the trend. Essentially, you are playing with 2 decks; a resource and buildings deck and simultaneously deckbuilding both is simply extra fun. Gameplay wise, it's rather the usual city-building stuff where building placement is absolutely key and the game allows for very strong combos and rewards smart building…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you love citybuilding with deckbuilding : YOU NEED THIS GAME
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dawnmaker is a new and fresh take on the citybuilder deckbbuilder genre. It's a genre I've never been very fond of as I don't think there's a really strong synergy between deckbuilding and citybuilding. This is probably the best take so far and it's pretty compelling, but there's not a lot of variety or content and it's not very difficult. A run will take you 5-15 hours depending on you explore every node, and I don't see much replay value after the one run. It was fun for the one run I did,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A small but effective city builder with a board game feel :) The campaign is split into successive maps that can be played in maybe ~20mn runs, which makes it perfect for quick sessions that scratch that city building itch. Each run is a new opportunity to explore synergies between the buildings, their positions, cards and resources... Which may seem a bit daunting at first, but once you win your first map after a couple attempts, things start to click and the early campaign is actually quite…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dawnmaker is an intriguing strategy title that merges city-building principles with deckbuilding mechanics in a way that feels both familiar and refreshingly distinct. Developed by Arpentor Studio and published by Acram Digital, the game places players in the role of a caretaker tasked with restoring civilization across the mist-covered lands of Heksiga. The world has been consumed by a dangerous Smog, leaving only ancient lighthouses as bastions of hope. From its opening moments, Dawnmaker…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Taking a break from logistic work to play a supply chain game. 😅 (DawnMaker is a great indy resource management game with a single-player board game feel)
unlabelledView post →An interesting take on the episodic city-builder. Challenging but not impossible. Occasionally frustrating. Definitely worth the money.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nice puzzle, relaxing and beautiful, but needs more story with ecology emphasis
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →a very challenging, unique city builder. if you like steampunk and are looking for a city builder that takes patience to master, i recommend this.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While I agree with other reviewers that there is currently little replay value past first campaign victory (which did take me almost 20 hours, but I'm just bad I guess :) I'm sure this can be fixed, not necessarily with more cards and buildings, but perhaps with achievements and daily/weekly challenges and such. I must commend that there seems to be basically no permanent progression between campaigns. Yes, this means you can't just grind in place and have to actually get better, but this also…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really cool idea and good gameplay, but having beaten it once i have no desire to play it through a second time. It would be more interesting with about 5x the cards and a progression where you unlock them to potentially change the theme of your runs. For me $10 for 6 hours isn't enough. I almost didn't play the final two maps because it came down to repetitive clicking on building activations until i had 200 energy and 300 food.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun little SP board game that seems to work well enough. I am enjoying it so far and it is decent mix of difficult and beatable. First mission passed easily, second mission I tried a different idea and it didn't work. Tutorial is simple and quick and gets the point across.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An interesting and quite frankly addictive mix of deckbuilding, board game, and roguelite elements. I'll update my review later after finishing a few more games :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really enjoyed this demo, plays well with a few control adjustments on the Steam Deck too. #Dawnmaker #SteamDeck https://store.steampowered.com/app/2749100/Dawnmaker/
unlabelledView post →1 I GOT THIS ON SALE FOR UNDER 10 DOLLARS (UNSURE IF IT WAS WORTH 15 BUT DEFINITELY 10) 2 THIS GAME IS SET UP MORE LIKE A BOARD GAME AND IS THEREFORE FAIRLY SIMPLIFIED IN TERMS OF GAMEPLAY (SOLITAIRE STYLE) 3. DO NOT EXPECT A LOT OF RNG OR INFINITE WORLD BUILDING (SEE 2) THIS GAME WAS FUN THIS GAME IS NOT ROGUELITE SUPPORT THE PROGRAM CREATORS AS YOU CAN TELL THEY HAVE A VERY POLISHED, SIMPLE GAME!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun but currently too repetitive. some really broken combos you try to go for every game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very engaging puzzler. I wouldn't call this a city builder- you do not manage population, jobs, housing, etc. You place buildings via an rng progressive card system into tiles with strategic positioning to increase value. The challenge is good, and the variety of cards, buildings, maps imply large amount of replayability. This is one that has caught in the 'one more turn' mentality. Turns are very quick.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Solid strategy game. Easy to pick up, but there is a learning curve to it. I'm only a few hours in but I foresee myself sinking a lot of time into this
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Haven't played it long just yet, but I can already tell this is a hidden gem. Elegant design paired with a pleasant aesthetic, and plenty of depth to be found here. Treated as a solo board game, it takes advantage of its digital format to make for a dynamic, satisfying experience. Highly recommended!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am giving this game the thumbs up even though I will now stop playing, having only played it for around 6 hours (if I add my time with the demo). Still, the entertainment it provided was well worth the price of a meal - well done, devs! Dawnmaker has smart mechanics that make you think and plan which cards/buildings you take and how to position the tiles. Unfortunately I found that I was repeating the same play patterns which were nice and satisfying at first but became uninteresting later.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dawnmaker is a crunchy roguelite board game. The game is quick to learn and has some real depth. It's no pushover either; it gets challenging fast. There's a meta loop here so you always feel like you're progressing. If you liked Terraformers, you'll love this. store.steampowered.com/app/2749100/...
unlabelledView post →Dawnmaker is a well put together mixture of tile construction and deckbuilding. Its latest update introduced difficulty levels, which were important in highlighting the game's best mechanichs and forced players to deviate from the easiest winning strategies. Understanding the mechanics and winning on the hardest difficult is a satisfying experience, even though it's on the easier side compared to the hardest deckbuilders. Even though it lacks long term replayability (after the initial…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A fun concept. Bit of city builder mixed with a (tiny) bit of Civ. The mechanics are good and it's a nice balance of easy to learn and difficult to beat. Honestly my biggest complaint is that there isn't more of it. The game is somewhat short; I completed a run in about 6 hours, including time spent to learn the rules. The deck building aspects are interesting, but ultimately I didn't find them to be all that engaging. A play-through of the game simply isn't long enough for changes to your…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like it. The decision making while trying to balance which building you are going to get and how the different resources interact are good. The biggest downside is that there not a lot of variety, it feels like a really good base game and for the cost I feel like I've got my money's worth. I would love to see it expanded on such as more building, leader's that give different advantages/drawbacks, maps having modifiers or unique buildings. Just different things to mix it up a little more.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have three hours at time of writing this but at least that long in the demo. This is a clever and beautifully themed city-building puzzler. It's not a relaxing cakewalk like many of the recent cozy tile-laying games; Dawnmaker is a real brain-burner that requires concentration and planning. If you like Terraformers or Slipways, this is for you. Wonderful game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Enjoyable and well crafted solo card based engine game - quite a lot of fun and just difficult enough to keep you on your toes.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Super fun. Good combination of deck building and city management. Very easy to jump in and start playing.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wasn't sure if this game is for me but I think I played the dmeo? and that's how I decided to buy it. I really enjoyed this game. Finished it entirely on all three difficiulty runs. PROS: -Fun -Very well balanced for the mostpart -Challenging without being unfair -Campaign can be played three times with different decks, eahc more challenging than the one before it and with it's own mechanics -Nice soudn design, cute graphics -Basically no bugs that I can remember encountering…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very fun deck-builder. Works really nicely and definitely scratched the strategy itch.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fine game. Quite pretty. Would be awesome with more variety and different decks, maps, regions, etc. More stuff, essentially. Not that there isn't enough here for what it is. It's just, for me, the replayability isn't quite there. Even during the first run, things were beginning to feel a little same-y. Everything gets harder, but the strategy remains the same.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game really gets the "just one more turn" vibe right. It's not really a city builder, it's much more of a puzzle-solving style of gameplay. I beat the first 2 campaigns, and I can see what tactics the third one needs but it takes a level of game-knowledge and risk-taking that I don't really want to develop. It's hardest at the start, when you lack cards/resources, but as you get to harder maps then you should have built up a deck tailored to your strategy and the final level should be…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Takes a little bit of getting used to, like most strategy games, but in the end it's very fun, rewarding and relaxing at the same time. A little bit of city builder, resource management, deck building thrown in a blender. I like.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is the perfect little, I'll just play a little bit game and suddenly you've lost two hours. Perfect for steamdeck, turn based so if the kids require attention you can put it down. Real combos happen and the last QoL updates are a bliss. Go play the demo, if you like the first fifteen minutes, you'll love it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A bit hard toi get5 a grasp of it, but after a few failures - becomes quite cool and catchy.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While this is technically a rougelite deck-building city builder, it plays very differently from other such games. The difficulty goes up every time you shuffle your deck, which then resets every time you expand your city's borders Basic mechanics like drawing more cards become double-edged swords. Expect to lose spectacularly a bunch of times until you figure things out. The tutorial is fine, but the difficulty curve is a bit steep. The game doesn't offer 100h+ worth of replayability, but…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dawnmaker stoped working today on steam deck. Uninstalled and installed again; nothing. It says missing game executable
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cool game, a very unique combination of a deck builder and a city builder. I played through and beaten the campaign once with each of the 3 characters, in the process I got to see most of the collection of buildings and cards. The game has a very nice feeling and aesthetic, and gives a very relaxing vibe. I enjoyed the graphics, the sound design, the effects, and the gameplay loop. Given the price tag, a worthwhile buy, and a hidden gem in my opinion. The only nitpicks I've got is a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →just played the Dawnmaker demo and while this game is HARD at the beginning it becomes a lot of fun once you learn the intricacies and synergies. Dawnfolk, on the other hand, while sounding similar, gets really boring pretty fast.
unlabelledView post →great little city builder, probably the best card based city builder I've ever played. It doesn't feel like a puzzle it feels like a city builder, engine building, deck builder. Quite good.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very cool blend of roguelite deckbuilding and boardgame city building. It reminded me of games like Dune Imperium and Slay the Spire, but with a unique gameplay twist that works very well. The tutorial is well made and the game is quick to learn. I hope the devs will add more content over time (cards, maps...).
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great small game, definitely worth it's price. No controller support, but I still love it on the Steam Deck: the mouse steam deck emulation is all you need. Good job Arpentor Studio! I hope a bigger second opus will be created.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Definitely a fun little game. If you're a board games person: This game plays sooooooooo much like Suburbia. I'm not sure how much game there is, I haven't gotten very far yet, but for 10 dollars it's at least a reasonable deal.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →fun city building deck builder with lots of variety. the rounds are fairly quick and is easy to jump in and out of a session.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I enjoyed it. It's a bit hard at the start, but after you have enough extra resources and cards, you can max out. The difficulty curve could be tweaked a bit, but overall a good setting. I would love to see it expand more.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Decent game idea. Poor execution. The cards are overly complex early on. The tutorial only really teaches the basics. All to which, you FAIL the tutorial as the winning scenario of the tutorial, which doesn't make sense (running out of fuel for the furnace). I could imagine changing the card system and making something more, fun. So do I recommend? no.... sorry. Keep my money, i wont refund. Take some advice, make the game more fun.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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