Aah, camping. The great woodland pastime where people tear themselves from the busy city life to retreat back into nature. Instead of throwing up a tarp in the woods, however, we have campsites that provide a safe spot to pitch a tent as well as many of the comforts from home. It may not be as rustic as it used to be, but hey, the air's fresh, right?
Youda Camper is a slow-paced simulation game along the lines of Sim City or Build-a-lot. You're put in charge of creating and running a camp site, from where to put the toilets to how many spaces for tents to allocate. Keep campers happy by building amenities and learn from their complaints to construct a campsite that rakes in the cash day after day.
You begin with nothing more than a small patch of land, a blank canvas for your soon-to-be empire. A full-featured menu at the bottom of the screen gives you access to dozens of things to build, ranging from several sizes of tents to hedges, park land, fireplaces and parking lots. Each has a specific role to play in keeping customers satisfied with their experience. The game walks you through the first few steps of building sites, assigning campers, and constructing the extras that keep campers happy.
When campers check in, they announce how long their stay will be. New buildings and additional land to construct on is unlocked when you serve a certain number of people. Time progresses quietly, but the screen darkens when its night, so you know when half a day has passed. Don't expect to see the "campers served" number jump very often, as Youda Camper is a very slow-paced and relaxed game. Your persistent managing skills is what will keep everyone happy and the cash rolling is.
As you continue expanding and hosting more campers you'll unlock a ton of extra buildings that can help increase your revenue. In fact, your campsite could look more like a small city than a place to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Bingo parlor, anyone? Advertising also plays a role in bringing in business. Once you serve 75 campers you can choose what to advertise and which media outlets to broadcast your message. Then just kick back and watch the cars roll in.
Analysis: Simple, slow, but nicely paced, Youda Camper isn't your normal sim game experience. In fact, the difficulty level is quite low, as rarely will you be challenged by customer complains or money restrictions. Or maybe I'm just really, really good at managing a campsite? There is something extraordinarily satisfying about the streamlined simplicity of this game, however.
One interesting thing to note is the lack of music in Youda Camper. No soundtrack, only the occasional bird chirping and the hum of machinery when you build something new. This really pushes the relaxed atmosphere of the game, which is one of the niceties that separates it from the simulation game crowd and makes it worth playing.
A sim game of a different kind, Youda Camper is the camping vacation from hectic simulations. Kick back, build a few tent sites, and breathe in the fresh air.
Windows:
Download the demo
Get the full version
Mac OS X:
Download the demo
Get the full version
I played the demo a few days ago, and there were a few things that bothered me;
For example, the complaints which get lodged. Couple X wish there was an electric lamp close by. Campers Y want a camp fire.
I found with the way the game is structured, it isn't too easy to go back and re-organise everything when you get more money, and more facilities, so you get some requests like that which are just plain annoying.
Also, people going out camping and complaining that the roads weren't stable enough seemed strange....
While you can't download the game or demo of Youda Camper for macs, you can still play a demo online at miniclips, or at the youda website.
I bought Youda Camper today after playing the demo from two differnet web sites.
My main problem is, it doesn't save, even though I put in a file name and hit enter and save. So I wind up starting all over again.
But what I've learned to do, is start out with four of each of the first camping spaces. Be sure they aren't close together though. I leave one square between each camp space. That was, I can go back and put in electric lights and trash cans in those empty spaces. I also leave one square between rows, so really each camp space has four empty spaces around it. The bigger ones have more empty spaces though.
I also put in a road and make off shoots to the road and put parking spaces in them, usually five parking spaces across and two deep, with a road on each side.
I try to leave the bottom of the first area we have to build, empty, to put stores, pools, bingo halls etc.
One thing though, I can't figure out how to rotate my pieces.
Hit the "R" key to rotate pieces.
I played the demo. The inability to pause or slow down the passage of time is annoying. Also, 800x600 resolution is far below what I had been hoping for. Further, click-dragging the Bulldozer would be tremendously beneficial, especially since you can click-drag roads.
The Bar consistently made me over 5k cash the first day I built it within the first 5 days.
Thanks Mike, the "R" key was probably the only one I didn't think of to try lol.
I agree about the bulldozer, and it could be smaller too.
I've looked at the screen shots and can't figure out how they got the camps made the way they have. I've tried and it doesn't work for me.
I've given up on that game for a while, I bought the new Build a Lot 2 yesterday afternoon and sat up all night playing it.
So guess I'd better get back to the camp and see what I can do with what I've learned.
There is a pause button next to the button with "?!" on it in the bottom left hand corner.
Also when you save I think you have to put in a name, then click the orange button, at the end of the name box, so it changes to a tick.
The game is good in idea and concept but needs some work.
If you have built all the way at the bottom you would need to go right to the top to drag the campers down.
The resolution is very small, as is the writing and everything on screen. I do like to play games windowed so I can do other things and flick back to the game, but everything is so small I probably would play this fullscreen and it would have been nice to be given this choice.
And I agree with the other comments that have been made.
Overall not a bad game though.
I love the game but had trouble twice. The screen went blank but the game kept running underneath. Had to restart and lost the progress. Anyone else?
RuthieJo: I had the same problem with the saving thing aswell but I worked out that you have to press the little circle next to the filename so that a little green tick appears before you press enter.
I like this game for the most part. I'm having trouble saving though. I get past the first part (as in having a certain number of campers) so my property expands. I build some stuff on it then save. Yet when I load the game again, I don't have that property anymore. What is weirder is that the stuff I built is still there but I can't do anything with them. Other then that, it's a pretty good game.
I also have a problem with going back to the game and not having access to property that I had previously. Does anyone know whats up with that?
Is there a way to move objects once built? I have just been bulldozing and rebuilding but that is expensive.
Yea, the game only saves when you tick the box. I had 650 people served and then it didn't save.
I played this games and it was brilliant. You have to play it. I love it!
I'm having the same problem on saving and coming back, and areas I had previously acquired are still there, but useless... any ideas on how to fix this issue?
We had problems too. As always, I tried a different version to check that it all works ok before buying. We really enjoyed playing but the game bombed out and refuses to start again, even after a reboot. It worries me that if I paid for it, it would just do the same :o(
Needs a bit of work maybe. This would make a great game maybe written in something other than flash. Screen resoloution could be better.
[Edit: Please contact customer support at Youda Games for assistance with your issue. I am sure there is something they can do to help get the game running for you again, or at least put your mind at ease about the transaction. Mail your inquiry to support at youda games dot com. -Jay]
I am also having the same problem with saving and returning to game to find my upgraded areas aren't playable. I know it isn't specific to my computer, as I also tried it on my husbands and we run two different systems. I am very frustrated and have contacted the makers, but since coming and seeing this I am even more irritated that this is a known error and they are still allowing people, like me, to spend our money on a game that can not be played through more than one sitting without the need to start from the beginning each time.
[Edit: Please email customer support at [email protected] with this issue. Someone there will help you. Thank you. -Jay]
Hey!
Having a problem opening the game... i double click on the icon to open it and the screen pops up as if it's about to start but then dissapears and nothing happens... It just started doing this all of a sudden after cutting out half way through a game. Any suggestions?
[Edit: Please contact Youda Games customer support at: [email protected] ]
how do you move people out of the tent to another, because the camping spot needs fixing?
To move the campers you mouse over the tent, click their info and drag it to another space. Then fix the original site andd move them back. Took a while for me to figure that oout also. Wasn't in bteh help files or anything *frustrating*.
Good luck.
PS...Thanks for the rotate thing *r*.
For all have problems saving I had the same prob but what you do is type in the name box what you want to save your game as then click on the orange button and it will make a green check mark over the orange box then you click save and viola you saved your game and don't have to start all over. Thanks for the transfering people when you have to repair their tent tip that was driving me insane
The game is okay to me....but it does lack some things! I don't care for the fact that it only gives you four sections of ground to work with,that could be better..more ground! I just like to build,if thats what you like to do,try the Sims2,you can build a dream home!
I would like to see more maps become available. Does anyone know if they admins will be doing any think else with this game, or are they done??
I have no problem saving. I love this game. Been playing the annoying 60min trial off and on for the past year or so and finally bought it yesterday. The only improvements I'd like to see are a quick-link button to scan to the new arrivals and different scenarios/campgrounds.
How do you advertise when i go to the menu it is all dark and i cant click anything?????
I can't advertise, either. Nothing is click-able. I think it would hurry the game along a little bit if cars would show up faster.
how do you buy land? anyone know what to click?
Have the same problem with built areas not being accessible after you save and reopen the game. This is very annoying. I also cannot figure out how to advertise. It doesn't allow you to select any of the options. Whomever keeps posting to contact support@youdagames for the inaccessible land problem- can't you just post the solution on here for everyone?
Maybe this can STILL help someone...
Advertising in Youda Camper is easy: you need to upgrade your reception (building) after some progress in the game).
Very nice game, BTW.
Update