New vertical city builder Stario lets you construct a tower up to the heavens

If you've never read any Ted Chiang, you should change that. Start with Stories of Your Life and Others, a collection of short stories which begins with a tale called Tower of Babylon. It follows a nation trying to reach heaven by building a tower all the way there. I won't tell you what they face or whether they succeed, but it's one of the most powerful pieces of literature I've ever read, and a hell of a way to start a writing career. However, you can get some semblance of what Chiang was going for in Stario, a new city building game released into early access that sees you attempt the very same challenge.

Now that you've read that incredible story (you have, haven't you? Good.), you can grasp the premise of Stario a little better. Like the ancient Babylonians themselves, you're tasked with building a monumental city. You have to feed your people (known as Towertizens), keep their morale high, and lead them through crises of faith and natural disaster. That's easier said than done when you can only build vertically.

In a traditional city builder, you can build acre-spanning farms to harvest grain and let cattle graze. You can build roads and even trains to transport that vital sustenance to the rest of your city or empire. But roads don't go up.

Stario presents unique challenges thanks to its vertical nature. How do you build a farm in the upper levels of the atmosphere, where the temperature has dropped to below freezing? You can't? Well, how do you transport food from the lower levels to the lofty heights?

Its vertical nature isn't Stario's only USP, however. There's a fantasy element here, as you can perform rituals in order to shape miracles to guide your path. Flying animals like turtles and whales provide interesting visuals and potential transport options. From sky ports to hope beacons, there's a lot more to Stario than initially meets the eye.

With three difficulty modes, six atmospheric biomes, and four types of disaster to weather, Stario is setting out its stand as an innovator in the city builder genre.

Stario is available now in early access on Steam. It costs $12.59 / £10.61. You can buy it here.

If Stario is your kind of thing, check out some of the best strategy games to stretch your brain vertically and horizontally. I also recommend our list of the best indie games, which is full of hidden gems, novel ideas, and boundary-pushing games.

Will you be trying to touch the sky in Stario's early access period? Let us know in our community Discord server, where readers and staff enjoy discussing the latest gaming news and making tall towers out of abandoned Lego blocks.