Dawnmaker is now available on mobile letting you bring light to the dark

• Dawnmaker is out now on iOS and Android
• It sees you taking on the challenge of clearing the smog from a lost continent
• Expand your city and the coverage of light as you optimise your deck to keep building

When it comes to the topic of environmentalism, there are two ways to go about it. You can either produce a thoughtful, nuanced and realistic take on the problem. Or you can go the complete opposite way with something over-the-top and fantastical that still, hopefully, puts the point across! I'd say Dawnmaker falls into the latter camp.

Dawnmaker is basically a strategy city-builder in the same vein as something like Kingdomino or Dorfromantik. Or, as I'd put it, a reverse Frostpunk. Rather than holding back the tide of the inevitable, you're working to expand the light by expanding your coverage of it to free Heksiga from the toxic smog covering it.

It's all about optimising your spacing, and to do so, you'll need to make use of the different cards dealt to you. Depending on where you place your buildings and how you upgrade them, it'll make the difference between a sprawling metropolis and a humble hamlet.

Bringing the light

I can't imagine why it's taken this long for someone to twist the Frostpunk formula in a more hopeful direction. But Dawnmaker differs radically from that niche in many ways, not least in its core mechanics and focus on hex-building and deck-building compared to more conventional city-building strategy.

There's plenty of classic resource management to deal with here, too, of course, as you gather necessary materials and food to keep your burgeoning city going. You'll also uncover new technologies that will, hopefully, turn your attempt to restore the continent into reality.

Well, there's certainly a lot to enjoy in Dawnmaker. But if you're like me, then when it comes to strategy, you're always hungry for a new challenge. In which case, you'll want to take a gander at our list of the best strategy games on iOS for some of our favourite picks!