Foundation is a medieval city-building simulation game developed and published by Polymorph Games, released to Early Access on February 1, 2019, and leaving Early Access with its 1.0 release on January 31, 2025.

This game differs from more modern city builders because the game takes place in the Middle Ages. The player takes on the role of a lord or lady that has just entered and new uninhabited land. The player must help build buildings but must also manage natural resources and make people happy as they move into the new village.

---

Tropes:

• Achievement System: The game includes a quest log where the player can obtain help requests from villagers. Completing the assigned tasks earns the player new building parts.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Don't want to build a new building fully by hand? The game includes a building block system where the player can snap buildings together quickly using pre-made parts.
  • The game has a Paint System which allows the player to direct villagers to perform in certain ways.
• Death Mountain: One of the pre-made maps the player can start with is a range of mountains.
• Early Game Hell: At the beginning, you have a very limited number of tools, which makes expansion very tough, and you can only get food from berry bushes. However, as you expand and build up,things get easier, and finally crafting your own tools marks a point where things get much easier.
• In-Universe Game Clock: The game has a clock which can be slowed or even completely stopped. The clock shows only the month, week, and day and does not feature a day/night system.
• Middle Ages: The game is a city-building simulator set in the Middle Ages.
• Palmtree Panic: One of the pre-made maps you can begin with is a Coastal Map.
• Type Caste: Much like the real-life Middle Ages, villagers can move through the ranks from peasant, serf, and ultimately up to a citizen.
• You Have Researched Breathing: You have to pay through the nose so your village can have fishing, farms or fences (among other things one would think were common already).
• You Require More Vespene Gas: All buildings require a number of materials to be built. The basic ones only need a few items (or none, in the case of the builders' hut), but as you advance and get more complicated buildings, the materials get more elaborate.