Cardboard Town

Card-based city builder balancing resources against random disasters

Stratera Games, cukuto · Published by Rogue Duck Interactive, Gamersky Games · Released Aug 18, 2023

Reviews: Mostly Positive; 80% of 2,321
Recent reviews: Mostly Positive; 71% of 21 in 30 days
Playing now: 17; right now
Steam Deck: Playable
Last update: 1 year ago; Jun 7, 2025

What is Cardboard Town?

A tabletop-style city-building card game where you place buildings and roads while managing money, water, electricity, environment, and safety. Each turn brings new cards, and random events and disasters can derail a run. Rewards unlock more cards and upgrades for later attempts.

For you if...

+you like planning city growth through turn-based card placement
+you enjoy replaying runs with new cards to unlock

Not for you if...

−you want freeform building without cards or resource pressure
−you prefer city builders without random setbacks or failed runs

What players say

80% of 2,321 reviews are positive · 71% of 21 in the last 30 days

Players praise the cardboard art style and the planning involved in managing a city with cards. Common complaints concern unclear rules and card effects, limited control over growing decks, and repetitive runs.

Screenshots and trailer

Cardboard Town system requirements

As published by the developer.

Minimum

OS: Windows 7
Processor: Intel Pentium CPU G860
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 840M
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Storage: 1 GB available space
DirectX: Version 8.0
Notes: 64 Bit

PC version details

DRM, required accounts, controller support and Steam features.

DRM: None declared on Steam
Controller: Full controller support
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
Achievements: 20
Steam features: Cloud saves, Family Sharing, Trading cards

Steam Deck: Playable

Default controller config not fully functional
Sometimes shows mouse, keyboard or non-Deck controller icons
Some text entry requires manually opening the on-screen keyboard
Some in-game text is small and may be hard to read
Default graphics settings perform well on Steam Deck
Cloud saves are not shared across platforms

Multiplayer and co-op

Languages

Full audio: English, Turkish, German, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish - Latin America, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese.