Craft the World vs Meeple Station
Craft the World
Craft the World is the game to play if you enjoy the survival, mining, and crafting aspects of Minecraft. The game's quite similar to Minecraft in many ways. You can plant and harvest crops. You can and will actually need to dig to find rare minerals as well. You can also craft a variety of tools, furniture, and, in general, items that will help your dwarves survive the periodic invasions of goblins, the undead, and other otherworldly monsters or will at least make your dwarves content.That said, there are a few very important differences between Craft the World and Minecraft that made the former so unique. Instead of playing a character, you get to become the omnipotent "god" of small dwarves who you can order to do your bidding or you could even control them individually if needed.
The crafting system is quite different too. Don't get me wrong - you still need to combine raw materials to create the stuff you need like in Minecraft, but similar to the crafting system in a standard MMORPG, there's a progression system in place that will allow you to unlock new "technologies" simply by crafting lower-tech items repeatedly...even if you don't really need that many of them. What can you do with the surplus of items then? Well, you can just sell them. There's a shop that sells resources that you may need in exchange for game cash. You can randomly earn game cash by battling creatures and monsters and you could also sell off your extra items for cash.
Craft the World may not be everyone's cup of tea due to the rather repetitive and slightly clumsy crafting system, but the game is still pretty fun and it does offer a challenge for fans of the survival genre.
Meeple Station
Meeple Station is a space-themed, sandbox simulation game that focuses a lot on exploration, trading and team management. In this game, you’ll need to build your starter space station and then venture out into the galaxy to find a place to set up shop, so to speak. Mine nearby resources and refine them into valuable bars and other alloys, and trade the resources you have with passing spaceships for resources that you don’t. Don’t forget to assign your meeples with tasks that suit their respective personalities, and give them everything they need to be content despite being cooped up in a tightly-packed space station.The game doesn't have a multiplayer mode (yet), but I can see the potential of having the game mode added in the future where players will be able to trade with each other and even raid other player’s stations to plunder resources. It’ll probably be somewhat similar to Minecraft’s multiplayer mode.
Overall, Meeple Station is definitely an early access game with plenty of potential. Despite the bugs and game issues, it is a rather fun sandbox game to play where you can build your own space station, explore the galaxy, mine and trade for resources, and manage your team of adorable meeples. If you’re interested, Meeple Station is currently available for purchase on Steam. Check it out!