When I play Tower defence games, I am basically enjoying watching brainless AI units get destroyed by my gradually improved/upgraded defence structures. It is brutal and not that complex, apart from knowing what to upgrade and when, more or less. That is the fun of that. I don't want it to be too clever. I'm not too fussy - there are lots of tower defence games that work for me.

When I play city-builders or other management type games I am enjoying the complexity. I don't like it dumb. My favourite city builders are Workers and Resources Soviet Republic, Amazing Cultivation Simulator, or, especially, Songs of Syx. I want it deep and complex and I want it to reward my brain cells, not kiil them as so many supposedly complex games do these days.

Rise to Ruins, somehow manages to engage the part of me that wants brainless, along with the part that likes complex, and gets them to play nicely with each other. It is a fragile arrangement, on occasion, when playing my brain will spasm with a "why is the AI so stupid?" but mostly it works. Because undead, mostly.
Also it is, I think, a very cleverly designed game, there are in-game lore reasons why things are as they are and if you cllick with that it is a very fun game with hidden depths.

RtR is a game that I am really happy I have in my library because when I need that particular mix of game-play elements it is really fun.
If you have ever found yourself wondering what game to play, and not quite fancying any of the tower defence games or city builders in your library - this game might be just the thing. Certainly I have found nothing else like it.
I recommend it, works great in linux and if you have problems the dev is very responsive and helpful.

fun colony builder with territory mechanics & tons of lil easter eggs. dev is very responsive on their discord, and will help out if you get a bugged savefile.

highly recommend going to the unstable version- its not that unstable, and the achievement system + new mana mechanics make things a lot more driven and balanced. the difficulty settings are also highly customizeable, and if traditional is too hard for you, you can go in and adjust it for a custom setting somewhere between peaceful and standard. updates are far and few between, but this is basically a full release game as is.

looking forward to modding support!