Free Game! Aven Colony on Epic Games Store

Build a new home for humanity in Aven Colony. Discover Aven Prime - an alien planet of deserts, tundras, and wetlands light years from earth. Build your colonies into massive, sprawling cities whilst dealing with the threats faced when settling on a new world.

In Aven Colony, you take on the role of colonial governor to a human city on the wild alien world of Aven Prime. While overseeing all aspects of the economy, social welfare, construction, and defense, the player shepherds Aven Colony into a bastion of interstellar civilization while overcoming the odds of alien nature, ideological splinter cells, and the possible remnants of an alien civilization.

Aven Colony is not the top of the charts when it comes to simulation games or empire builders—but it’s fairly middle-of-the-pack, and it has some exciting differences from other games in the genre. The way relatively constant disasters and crisis appear, for one thing, ensures that players will be engaged the whole time they’re playing. The downside is that there isn’t a ton of flexibility to the game, making it primarily fun for short bursts when you just want to have some fun.

The game has some seriously lovely graphics, as well as an overall high-quality aesthetic. The designers really created a nice immersive experience with the sort of intensity that one might normally expect from a rougelike game. This combo is fun, especially in short bursts, making Aven Colony extremely worthwhile for those who like being in the thick of things while enjoying gorgeous artwork and sound.

Team17, the company behind Aven Colony, started way back in 1990 when a British and Swedish developer merged. They’ve been active ever since on the indie scene, turning out neat original games and testing the boundaries of what a small publisher/developer can do.

A recent success story for the company as a publisher was Hell Let Loose which debuted in mid-2021 and focused on platoon-level combat in a WWII setting.

Other games, like in-house designed The Escapists and The Survivalists have been extremely popular in niche markets with handheld fans. My Time at Portia, a role-playing storytelling game, has also been extremely popular. It will be exciting to see if Team17 comes out with more RTS or simulation games in the future, though!