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Flotsam
Sail, scavenge, and rescue survivors in a vibrant floating city-builder. Captain your drifters across the endless garbage sea to uncover soaked ruins, rusting factories, and stories from the old world.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-02 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
64 of the 83 reviews raise this.
“Hello! I played this game blind with only seeing the trailer of the game. I loved it a lot more than O thought with the goofy and cute story along with a game that is simple but doesn't hold your hand. My only thought…”
“Amazing game. Such a great artstyle and original concept. It's very relaxed with many building options. Everything works as expected and they way it works is very intuitive. A hidden gem.”
21 of the 83 reviews raise this.
“Amazing game. Such a great artstyle and original concept. It's very relaxed with many building options. Everything works as expected and they way it works is very intuitive. A hidden gem.”
“Flotsam is pretty to look at, easy to sink into, and mercifully free of food expiration. For those of us who treat inventory management like a sacred calling (and hoard every last scrap of loot we find), food decay is…”
“I don't usually recommend games I'm on the fence about, but I've decided to make an exception in this case because this is a really cute game with a lot of lovingly developed content and it's very likely its heart is in…”
8 of the 83 reviews raise this.
“I love ocean survival games. Flotsam, Raft. This game was non-stop fun from the beginning till the end for 30 or so hours. I had a blast. I have few achievements to unlock, that's great replay value here. On to a new…”
“Just finished this. -------- Pros: - It is what it says on the tin. You start small and build, expand as you go. - There is plenty of resources to support your floating town's basic needs but due to the way the map…”
“!! ACHIEVEMENTS ARE BUGGED CURRENTLY !! I really wish there was a "Neutral" button on Steam, because that’s exactly where I stand. Since I have to choose, I’m going with a Thumbs Up because the game itself is a gem for…”
7 of the 83 reviews raise this.
“I'd give this a soft thumbs up. Overall I enjoyed the gameplay and the setting, though I had more than a couple ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Most of my frustration came in the end game where spent a couple hours trying to find the one…”
“I loved this game. It was so fun, the art is amazing, and the production pacing is well done, so it doesn't get boring like other city builder/resource manager type games. Really enjoyed playing it!”
“I just want to say thank you to the devs for making this game. This is a fantastic colony sim game with pristine progression and an art style that is beyond A+. Seriously, more games need to adopt this art style. It is…”
6 of the 83 reviews raise this.
“Its great to play but wow! does it get involved later on in the game. I have 3 times started again to try different tactics. Will complete it some time. So I would say, go for it. Love this game. Try number 4 coming up.”
“Did you like the game Raft? Do you like base building? Do you like recruiting unique-ish companions? Well this game might be right up your alley. There's lots of resource gathering and production lines and they let you…”
“I'm enjoying this game. it's relaxing and difficult at the same time. I wish I could upgrade my walkways like the buildings though,”
19 of the 83 reviews raise this · 14 of them still recommend the game.
“Hello! I played this game blind with only seeing the trailer of the game. I loved it a lot more than O thought with the goofy and cute story along with a game that is simple but doesn't hold your hand. My only thought…”
“Zero difficulty. The game has functions like pollution or decoration score, but they make no difference at all (actually, I never even encountered pollution).”
19 of the 83 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“Flotsam has a very solid foundation and starts off strong. The early game is genuinely fun and engaging. However, the map is finite, and in practice that’s all there is. Once you’ve fully explored it, the sense of…”
“The base editing needs a lot of work. I wish there was more creative freedom to edit the base, like you can duplicate an item as long as you have the resource, destroy attachments so you can freely redesign. Idk so many…”
14 of the 83 reviews raise this · 6 of them still recommend the game.
“Wow, what a fun game. This is such a chill fun way to spend some time floating around, saving people, and doing some research. The game is great because you can actually get refunded resources. Here is the bad news...…”
“Not enough content. After about 10 hours I was bored and stuck behind a bug where I could not recruit a specialist; which meant I could not advance in the tech tree. Which meant I could not build new technologies and…”
“Game's busted. Enticing at first yes but the research panel doesn't work at all, which hinders how much you can do in game. Which isn't a lot, especially not being able to unlock anything. Not worth it until they fix it…”
9 of the 83 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“Flotsam has a very solid foundation and starts off strong. The early game is genuinely fun and engaging. However, the map is finite, and in practice that’s all there is. Once you’ve fully explored it, the sense of…”
“Flotsam is pretty to look at, easy to sink into, and mercifully free of food expiration. For those of us who treat inventory management like a sacred calling (and hoard every last scrap of loot we find), food decay is…”
“Not enough content. After about 10 hours I was bored and stuck behind a bug where I could not recruit a specialist; which meant I could not advance in the tech tree. Which meant I could not build new technologies and…”
7 of the 83 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“Flotsam has a very solid foundation and starts off strong. The early game is genuinely fun and engaging. However, the map is finite, and in practice that’s all there is. Once you’ve fully explored it, the sense of…”
“Enjoyed this for like 90% of the experience. The end starts to really drag unfortunately so I didn't roll credits as it were, and I'm tired of sinking time into it trying to wrap up, but I still reccomend it.”
“Hello! I played this game blind with only seeing the trailer of the game. I loved it a lot more than O thought with the goofy and cute story along with a game that is simple but doesn't hold your hand. My only thought…”
Counted across 83 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 81.0% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“Very cute and fun little colony builder. Challenge is appropriate for people like me who love colony builders but suck at the complex late game stages of other titles. I managed to finish it without ever really getting into trouble, even though I usually throw in the towel…”
— a player, Steam review · 23 hrs played“Flotsam is a really good game that surprised me in the best way. The mechanics are smooth and easy to get into, but still offer enough depth to keep things interesting. It’s one of those games where you can just sit back, relax, and slowly build up your little floating town…”
— a player, Steam review · 32 hrs played“I'd like to give it a sideway thumb. (Experience from finishing the game's story once) The art says it all. It's a cute, relatively relaxing, non-combat, forgiving colony sim. It's like "what if Raft, but a city builder game." The game is alright if we expect a chill time. But…”
— a player, Steam review · 18 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-09-05.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-09-10). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
1.0.1f7
1.0.1f7FixesFixed issue where some hauling tasks would not be started during the tutorial.Fixed issue where drifters could get stuck hauling from storages that contained more resources than their capa
Hotfix 1.0.1f6
1.0.1f6FixesFixed an issue introduced in 1.0.1f5 where the Tutorial could start without a Townheart.
Support Pack DLC now available!
Hey Drifters,If you've been enjoying Flotsam and want to support the game a bit more, we've now added a small Support Pack DLC :)It directly contributes to the game's development, and, as a thank you,
1.0.1f5
Hey Drifters,1.0.1f5 is now live! This update adds support support for Townheart Selection, letting you choose which Townheart to start the game with.For now, there's only one additional Townheart ava
1.1.0e01: Weather on Experimental!
1.1.0e01: Weather (experimental)Hey Drifters!Yup! Weather is here!It's something we've wanted to implement for a long time, but it didn't quite make it to 1.0. Now that we’re exploring ways to let you
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Indie, Simulation, Strategy |
| Player tags | Early Access · Singleplayer · Colony Sim · City Builder · Sandbox · Base-Building · Management · Building · Casual · Exploration · Colorful · Survival (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Steam Trading Cards · Adjustable Text Size · Camera Comfort · Custom Volume Controls · Mouse Only Option |
| Languages | English * , French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Dutch, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese * |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 42 |
| Official site | http://www.pajamallama.be/flotsam/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS *: Windows 7 SP1+ Processor: Intel Core i5 or equivalent Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 or equivalent Storage: 600 MB available space