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Dev Diary I - An Insight into Galaxy Grove

[h3]Greetings, citizens! We present to you our first Dev Diary for Town to City šŸ” [/h3]

This month, get to know the developers, Galaxy Grove, and their journey in more detail.

[h3]How (and when) did Galaxy Grove start?[/h3]

Our founder Joost van Dongen was previously co-founder of Ronimo Games, the studio behind Awesomenauts and Swords & Soldiers. That was great fun, but as a gamer, Joost likes to play management games, not Ronimo’s action-packed multiplayer games. So after 13 years, Joost left Ronimo Games to follow his heart even more and make management games. At the end of 2021 he started working on Station to Station. When funding was secured he was able to start hiring a team and turn his solo project into a real team effort: Galaxy Grove! We’re now a 16 people team, working on Town to City and another unannounced management game.

Galaxy Grove Team

[h3]What drew you to the Voxel art style?[/h3]

We saw some amazing voxel art on Twitter. When thinking of voxel art, most people think of Minecraft’s big cubes, but the art we saw was highly detailed, vibrant with tiny voxels. This looked amazing and we thought it should be possible to bring such detailed voxels to games too. One of the voxel artists that inspired us most was Dima and he even worked for Galaxy Grove for a while!

[h3]What made you decide on the direction of a city builder, especially after Station to Station?[/h3]

We looked at the tiny towns in the Station to Station landscapes and felt like we wanted to build those ourselves. We also wanted to make a deeper game than Station to Station, with a real economy and more management.

Screenshots of Station to Station

[h3]Where did the inspiration for the architecture in Town to City draw from?[/h3]

Do you know that feeling of a summer vacation in France? That’s what we wanted to reproduce! So we took inspiration from the south of France and other Mediterranean counties, especially Italy and Spain. We also wanted to take Station to Station’s paper UI aesthetic to a new place and got inspired by art nouveau posters. To match that in our game world we decided that the fanciest, most high-class buildings in Town to City should be inspired by art nouveau architecture.

Examples of Art Nouvea buildings

[h3]How are you finding creating Town to City different from Station to Station?[/h3]

It’s an interesting experience. On the one hand we can draw on our experience making Station to Station, so we can skip a lot of big research steps. On the other hand, Town to City is a much more complex game, with a real-time economy, more features, more buildings, more UI, more everything! It’s a much bigger game!

Town to City

[h3]What has it been like working on Town to City so far? [/h3]

Really fun! The first prototypes created a fun experience after only a month or two and from there it has been continuously getting better. There’s an interesting challenge in trying to make something that’s more relaxing and easier to understand than most other city builders, while still having a good amount of depth and real management gameplay.

[h3]Add Town to City to your Wishlist now! šŸ”[/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3115220/Town_to_City/

[h3]Keep up to date with all things Galaxy Grove in the Discord![/h3]



Town to City Selected for Hits You Missed

[h3]The train hasn't left the station yet, but we want to make sure you don't miss the next big stop šŸš‚

We're thrilled to announce that Town to City has been selected to feature in the 'Ones to Watch' section of Hits You Missed, presented by Fellow Traveller![/h3]



Town to City is a cozy city builder with a unique voxel art style, where you start with just a train station and an empty plot of land. Customize your town with a variety of buildings and decorations inspired by 19th century Mediterranean architecture, complete tasks from the townsfolk to raise happiness, and nurture your humble town into a bustling city.

The city building system in Town to City is entirely grid-less, so you’ll get to freely draw roads and place objects wherever and however you like! Most decorations will be modular, so you can transform your favourite flower bed into a flower window box by simply placing it below a window instead of on the ground or take a stylish streetlamp and turn it into a hanging wall lantern to light up a house’s doorway.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3115220/Town_to_City/

[h3]Want to get a sneak peek at what to expect in Town to City?

Then check out our announcement trailer below šŸ‘‡[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Keep up to date with all things Galaxy Grove in the Discord![/h3]



Introducing Town to City šŸ˜ļø

[h2]Welcome to Town to City, we are thrilled to have you here šŸ˜ļø[/h2]

[h3]Unleash your creativity and build a beautiful, thriving city that your citizens will love! Construct and research a variety of buildings as you manage your town's growing economy.[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Town to City is a cozy city builder with a unique voxel art style, where you start with just a train station and an empty plot of land. Customize your town with a variety of buildings and decorations inspired by 19th century Mediterranean architecture, complete tasks from the townsfolk to raise happiness, and nurture your humble town into a bustling city.

The city building system in Town to City is entirely grid-less, so you’ll get to freely draw roads and place objects wherever and however you like! Most decorations will be modular, so you can transform your favourite flower bed into a flower window box by simply placing it below a window instead of on the ground or take a stylish streetlamp and turn it into a hanging wall lantern to light up a house’s doorway.



Assign workers to jobs, research new buildings and decorations, and boost your sleepy settlement into a bustling centre of commerce. As you expand beyond the bounds of your first town, you'll pursue new developments in farming and tourism by building new towns, all connected by trade and travel routes.

With its soothing soundtrack, soft pastel colour palette, and charming art style, Town to City offers endless creativity with a calming atmosphere.



Galaxy Grove is a team of 16 developers based in Utrecht, formed in 2022. They released Station to Station in 2023, a voxel art railway building game. Dedicated to creating atmospheric management and building games, they combine stunning visuals with fresh gameplay mechanics.

We are excited to announce that we will be working alongside UK-based publisher Kwalee to release Town to City!

Wishlist Town to City now:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3115220/Town_to_City/

[h3]Keep up to date with all things Galaxy Grove in the Discord![/h3]