Virtual Villagers Origins 2
Reginald Hanfy
For millions of time management and simulation fans, the opening is unmistakable: a ragtag, desperate group of people fleeing the volcanic destruction of their home wash ashore on the mysterious island of Isola, a place of wonder and magic. With that prologue began one of the most popular and best-selling village sims of all time, Virtual Villagers. Now available for all iOS devices is that very first adventure, Virtual Villagers: Origins, lovingly designed by Last Day of Work. It's full of vintage nostalgic game design elements, and this beautiful retro style blends perfectly on custom pins.
Custom Pins are not just a fashion accessory, they are also a tool to convey a message and even family spirit. Custom pins with retro gaming styles can add a unique and personal touch.
Whether as a gaming souvenir or a way to express your personality and opinions, custom pins allow you to better connect with your favorite items.
Virtual Villagers: Origins is essentially Virtual Villagers: A New Home re-tooled for the touch screen mobile device. The premise is pretty much the same: your small group of people (guided by you) must learn how to provide food and shelter for themselves, all while researching scientific advancements that will allow them to expand their settlement, support a larger population, and solve the many mysteries scattered about the island. Simply dropping a villager onto a task, set their preferences to that task, and keep them on it until they work on their own. Before you know, you've got a lovely little settlement full of happy people. Assuming they don't die from disease or hunger!
Virtual Villagers: Origins consists of 16 different puzzles to achieve, ranging from the simple (finding a clean water source) to the complex (producing the magical "golden child" who will bring peace and fortune upon your villagers). The village, tasks, and puzzles are pretty much the same as the original PC release, with a few neat additions. You can use excess tech points gained by your little people researching at the lab table to buy fun new upgrades. Time Warp, for example, moves the game ahead three hours, while Grant Youth de-ages a villager by 35 years. You can even make villagers faster or masters at their trade, something that would take ages to accomplish without the little boost.
Virtual Villagers: Origins is completely free, though there is a small banner ad running across the top of the screen. If you want to move the game forward at a faster pace, some micro-transactions are available to purchase extra tech points and the like.
For those who already love the series Virtual Villagers: Origins is a nostalgic look back to the beginning. For those who have never played it is a fun, free, and above all portable introduction to the origins of the mysterious land of Isola and its magical inhabitants. Either way Virtual Villagers: Origins is an adventure not to be missed.
NOTE: This game was played and reviewed on an iPhone. Game was available in the North American market at the time of publication, but may not be available in other territories. Please see individual app market pages for purchasing info.
The Strategy Guide is a step by step guide of playing through the game from beginning to end. The guide is meant as a general guide, there are other ways or orders in which to do the puzzles if you so choose. This guide is based on NOT using the tutorial in the beginning.
Learn the controls! Under "Menu" and then "Options" are the controls to set the challenge level of the game (easy, normal, and hard) and the speed of the game (2x speed, normal speed, 1/2 speed, and pause). Also under "Menu" are the purchasable upgrades, the help feature, and the ability to start your village over from the beginning.
Know your villagers! Click on a villager and you can see a brief summary of them at the bottom of the screen, their name, their current skill (and level) and what they are doing. To the right of the information is the Detail button which allows you to set their tasks, see their status (age, gender, health, etc.) and the ability to upgrade them using extra tech points. Upgrades include the ability to make them younger, granting them instant master status, or giving them "running" in their likes.
Always check a villager's likes and dislikes before assigning a task! A villager who dislikes wood or stone will not accomplish anything on a building task as they will run away from what they don't like. A villager who doesn't like carrots will not farm vegetables, a villager who dislikes fish or swimming will not fish, and a villager who dislikes bushes will not gather berries. A villager who dislikes work or learning will make a poor laborer (they will often wander off) and will require closer monitoring. A villager who dislikes running will move like a slowpoke.
Don't forget to set work preferences for your villagers! For instance, if you want someone farming, make sure to check the farming preference. Villagers without preferences set will often wander around and do their own thing.
Watch your levels closely! On the left side of the screen is the information on your village's population, food supply, and tech points. Below that are the buttons for the puzzles (to see what has been accomplished and what is left), the map (for an overview of the settlement), the tech screen (where you purchase new technologies), and the menu button.
Keep your villagers fed! When the food drops below levels of 300 the villagers will start to worry about food. This means they will wander away from their tasks and will refuse to have children. Be especially careful about the food when leaving the game for a while, it is possible to come back to a village that has starved to death.
Learn to Navigate! You can move around the area in a couple of different ways. (1) Simply touch the ground and drag, (2) pick up a villager and move them to the edge of the screen, the scenery will scroll, and (3) use the map function (control is on the lower left) to get an overview and simply click on a location to zoom in.
Don't pick up a villager that is busy unless it is absolutely necessary! If you pick up a villager that is in the process of a task or is carrying something, they will drop the item and it will be lost. They will also "forget" what it is they were doing.
Children under the age of 14 will not work, except for picking up mushrooms. Once they reach age 14 you can put them to work, but they won't be fully "adult" until age 18. That means if a story time for the children is going on, the 14-17 year olds will drop work and attend. Villagers cannot have children until fully "adult", i.e. the age of 18.
Don't forget to take off the parenting preference if you are going to leave the game! If you forget and leave a male villager on parenting, you may wake up to a tribe that has doubled or more in size, or one that has starved from too many people and not enough food.
The game continues even when it is turned off! Virtual Villagers: Origins plays in "real time", which means things will still happen even when the game is closed. Remember this if you're going to be away for a while.
Choose your time settings wisely! Playing in "2 x time" live is fun, but if you're going to be gone for a while consider switching to "Normal", "1/2 time", or even "Pause". If something goes wrong, you can come back to a dead village and have to start over again.
Use children as temporary healers! If a villager becomes sick before you have a permanent doctor, find the nearest child, set their preference to healing, and drop them on the ill individual. Keep doing this until they heal the villager.
Fly around the island! Pick up a child and hover him/her over various interesting areas and watch the text that shows up in the control screen. Do this with adults as well, to identify certain items and hotspots that are important to the game.
Watch out for island events! These events happen randomly, and often feature a choice. Opening a mysterious crate that washed up on the beach can result in extra food or biting spiders (or rats) that make your villagers ill. Eating something unknown can add to knowledge, but it can also kill a villager.
You will begin with a group of 6 villagers, 5 adults and one child. Click on each villager and look at the status screens at the bottom of the screen to find the trainee builder (you will always start with 4 untrained adults and 1 trainee builder).
The village will be a small collection of huts (including one larger hut), a low table in front of the larger hut, and the beach and the ocean below the huts (along with a dark patch of ground and a pile of white stones). Above the village you will find a large berry bush full of berries, a covered well, two mysterious dried out patches of ground in the upper left and upper right, and some strange plants around the perimeter.
Grab 2 adults, one at a time. Set their preferences to "Farming" in the detail screen, then drop them on the berry bush. Wait until they start harvesting berries and taking them to the food bin in the village. If they refuse, drop them on the bush again and again until they pick up the skill. Once they reach trainee status you can leave them to the task.
Find your trainee builder, make sure their preference is check on "building" and drop them on the unfinished hut in the middle of the village (it looks like a long board leaning against a sawhorse and is located between the large hut above the research table and the smaller hut to the right).
Once the farmers are bringing in food and the builder is working on the hut, find the last 2 adults and set their preferences to "research", then drop them on the long table in the middle of the village. Keep dropping them on the table until they become trainee scientists, then let them research.
This opening strategy is based on NOT using the tutorial at the beginning of the game. If you have used the tutorial, you will be reduced to 4 working adults as one of the women will be pregnant (the tutorial takes you through producing a child). If you did use the tutorial, then make sure you have 2 people bringing in food, one building the hut, and one on the science table.
c80f0f1006