When Aussie devs Prideful Sloth announced their cosy-sim city-builder Go-Go Town! last year, I knew I had to go-go play it as soon as possible. Now, a year later, it’s finally launched into early access!
I initially planned to play Go-Go Town! on both PC and my Steam Deck, but once I started it handheld I just couldn’t stop. It lends itself to portability so well that I can’t bear to play it on anything else — I love it and I’m taking it everywhere with me!
I even had a random guy on the train peeking over my shoulder on my morning commute to enquire what game I was playing… The whimsical art style of Go-Go Town! is clearly eye-catching!
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Welcome to Go-Go Town
You arrive unceremoniously in Go-Go Town, inside a duffle bag that’s been thrown from a black van. After bursting out, you begin speaking with a local TownCo. Agent, who guides you through a tutorial to teach you the basics.
My first task is to gather rocks to repair a broken old statue. Done. After dropping off the stone, a construction site is quickly erected, the statue is repaired and I find myself cutting a ribbon to reveal it to the town. This becomes a fun repetition throughout the game – it really made me feel like I was actually the mayor!
The TownCo. Agent made fun of me for foraging rocks from the ground because it’s beneath him. Whatever pays the bills man #CozzieLivs.
Next on the to-do list is getting some planks to build a shop and housing so that I can have subjects residents. Now, I know that planks come from wood, which I collect, but I’m at a bit of a loss on how to convert said wood into planks. After tracking down another TownCo. Agent, I learn that I need to build a chainsaw first. Cool… How exactly? I could just be slow, but I feel like the game could do a better job of tutoring you in the tutorial.
Once I have my first Townie in, my training is complete! But I have a lot more to learn about the town, building, crafting and foraging.
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Open for business
Players have a phone with SlothOS (nice one) which has a variety of apps installed, including a Townpedia app for info, EGO Tech to help you build and expand your town, and even SlothTunes so you can listen to lo-fi chill beats while playing, which is a super cute touch. The Widgets app also allows you to customise your interface, which is handy for keeping track of quests, money, and the map.
The aim of the game is to expand your town by accumulating EGO, which you can use to purchase construction packs through the EGO Tech app on your phone. Players acquire EGO from how much tourists like your town, so be sure to keep it neat and tidy, and try not to hit them too much while driving… Although it is pretty fun, and possibly a mission to lure some of the Townies in. You also have to participate in challenges that the “Boss” assigns you to level up Go-Go Town.
Tourists arrive via the train station you repair as one of the first few missions. Townies also arrive with the Tourists, and are integral to expanding Go-Go Town. You must win over each Townie through a bespoke objective they give you, and invite them to stay once it’s complete. When you’ve got Townies, you’ll have to build accommodation for them before you can hire them to work in your various businesses.
If you’re getting overwhelmed with visitors, you can close the train station until you’re more on-top of things. It’s a handy feature if you’re trying to deliver goods to businesses, forage for materials, and craft at the same time… It can all get a bit much!
My biggest tip would be to invest in hiring help to reduce your workload, assigning helpers to mining, forestry, fishing, and farming areas to forage. That way you’re free to work on crafting and building. I also invested in a courier to assist with deliveries, a handy service you can get as you progress through the game.
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It’s a vibe
The game employs a lovely style that makes the overall experience very calming and relaxing. Harvesting rocks with the drill for example is charming, with a cute little animation of a whirring drill head popping up, and the accompanying ASMR sound to go with it!
Despite the chill atmosphere, I still managed to stress about delivering goods to vendors, and was really worried about chopping down a tree for the first time. But you’ll be glad to know it grew back. Materials respawn when you’re done harvesting them, so don’t be worried about foraging too much.
While happily exploring, I stumbled across a Change-o-tron with which I could edit my appearance. Interesting choice to not to have it at the start of the game, but at least it’s close to where I spawned (SPOILER: it’s near the train station). The customisable elements are varied enough to put your own stamp on your character, and tie into the cosy look and feel of the game. I particularly like the creativity of the backpacks you can collect – I love my bumblebee one. I couldn’t rotate my avatar to properly see how everything looked though, but it was good enough!
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Go-Go Town provides various modes of transportation to get around including a bike, adorable little trucks, and skateboards. The bike gave me serious Pokemon nostalgia, and also happens to be the best way to zip around quickly. You do have to jump off your mode of transport to perform actions though, which can be a little annoying at times. The trucks hold more supplies than the bike, but sadly you can’t mount the curb, so you’ll still have to ferry items back and forth manually.
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If you build it, they will come
You’ll need to make decisions about which shops to build and where, decide whether you want more farming spots versus fishing spots, and other such cosy quandaries! As you play, the biggest issue is simply finding places to put everything! To be honest, I’m usually so focused on the building and providing services parts of the game, that it takes me a good while before I even think about beautifying my town. But boy, once I did, then I really regretted some of my placement choices. At one point I feared it might’ve got to the point of wiping the slate clean, like the time I had to terraform my whole island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, shudders!
However, Prideful Sloth has made it super easy to move your buildings around, and rearrange your whole town on a whim. I also eventually realised that I DID have more space to build things on, I just needed to change the foundation type of the ground square to grass first! Which opened up a whole new terraforming can of worms, but at least changing the ground type to dirt, road, or pavement is totally free. It’s a good problem to have.
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Should I give it a go-go?
I did encounter a few bugs during my time with the game, which is understandable given the game is in early access. For example, equipment not rotating to certain positions properly and difficulties seeing what stock shops needed, because of persisting icons covering the information. These small bugs didn’t really disrupt my gameplay at all though, so you can keep go-go-ing away.
It is vital however, to save your game manually because it doesn’t autosave on the Steam Deck. Hopefully an autosave feature is in the works, but for now it’s important to keep in mind for early-access players.
Go-Go Town is shaping up to be a heavy hitter in the world of cosy-sim time-management games. While it has inevitably been compared to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, I find it has its own charms, and focuses more on town management and less on decorations and collecting… Although you can do that too.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the progression and pacing of the game, coupled with its adorable design, it’s definitely one I’m keen to play more of.
