Frostpunk

In Frostpunk, players must build and maintain a city named New London during a worldwide volcanic winter. They must manage the well-being of citizens, keeping their hope high and discontent low. The game starts out with a small group of survivors and several small caches of supplies with which to build a city. These supplies will quickly run out, and players must construct new facilities such as sawmills, hunting huts, mines, and factories to harvest raw materials (coal, wood, steel, and food) in order to keep their society warm and healthy in the midst of fluctuating cold temperatures.

When the players have a surplus of resources, they can be stockpiled in large resource depots for subsequent use. In most scenarios, the city is centred around a massive coal-fired generator that produces heat in a circular radius, which can be extended and upgraded throughout the game to increase its area of coverage and heating. All buildings, therefore, are placed on a circular grid surrounding the generator. Habitations, medical facilities, and workplaces must be insulated to prevent becoming inoperable or causing frostbite and illness in the city's occupants.

The game is set in an alternate 1886 when the eruptions of Krakatoa and other unknown events trigger a worldwide volcanic winter. This in turn led to widespread crop failure and the death of millions. In response to this, several installations called "generators" were built by the British Empire and the United States in the coal-rich North, designed to be city centres in the event that dropping temperatures force mass migration from the South. In all scenarios, the player is the leader of a city or outpost, usually around a generator, and must manage resources to ensure the city's survival.

The game launched with three scenarios, each with different backgrounds and storylines. The main story, "A New Home", involves refugees from London settling in their own city, which becomes known as "New London"; the settlers must face a "Great Storm", while also contending with the fall of the nearby city of Winterhome. "The Arks" is centred around a largely automated city run by scientists from Oxford and Cambridge, seeking to preserve plant samples taken prior to the global cooling. "The Refugees" involves a group that has taken over a generator intended for wealthy nobles' use and the ensuing social struggle.

Frostpunk was developed by Polish developer 11 Bit Studios, the company behind This War of Mine. Codenamed Industrial, the team described it as a significant "step-up" when compared with their past efforts. 60 people contributed to the project. As Frostpunk was a larger project with more complicated gameplay systems, the team had to crunch towards the end of the game's development.

The unexpected success of This War of Mine changed the studio's philosophy, with it focusing on creating what it called "meaningful entertainment". The team felt the seriousness and the hard themes explored in This War of Mine resonated with players and wanted their next game to carry similar themes. Its success enabled the team to be more ambitious with the game's scale and scope, exploring issues faced by society as a whole instead of individual struggles. The team wanted the experience to prompt players to "ask questions about yourself, about society in general, and the dynamic we currently see today in the world".

Frostpunk received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic. It sold over 250,000 copies within three days of its release, over 1.4 million within a year, 3 million within three years, and over 5 million within six years.

Julian Benson from PCGamesN remarked that the game was unexpectedly easy as a management game, having completed its campaign in a single trial, and wrote that the game was special with its focus on the "macro moral decisions of a leader". He wrote that balancing the demands of the citizens and maintaining the hope/discontent level was the game's most challenging aspect. Daniel Starkey from GameSpot liked how emergent events will often challenge the player's long-term strategy, forcing players to make tough calls frequently during the game's campaign as they needed to balance "the will of the people against their own needs". Matt Bertz from Game Informer called the game an overwhelming experience at times.

A sequel was announced on 12 August 2021. Frostpunk 2 is set in New London, 30 years after the "Great Storm" of the original game, and the consequences of the advent of the petroleum industry in New London. The game was released on 20 September 2024.

A Frostpunk board game designed by Jakub Wiśniewski and Glass Cannon Unplugged was funded via Kickstarter in October 2020.