Last week, I decided I was in the mood for something a little different. I was at a friend's apartment, bored out of my mind, so I started downloading demos from the Internet. The game I ended up settling on, and eventually buying, was My Tribe - an Animal Crossing style time management game. In My Tribe, you control a tribe of regular folks who have washed up on a desert island and have to build their own culture and city there, harvesting resources, building structures and uncovering the mystery of each unique island.

My Tribe, conceptually, takes a huge leap forward from games like Animal Crossing, which is primarily concerned with getting items and making sure you play every day so that your town doesn't feel neglected. My Tribe operates under that same assumption, except instead of getting items, you need to check up on your island to make sure all your islanders haven't died out before procreating. Since your tribespeople continue working (and aging) even when you're not playing the game, not playing the game can actually speed things up in terms of development. While they need you to tell them to build new structures and procreate for the good of the tribe, they will diligently work at their assigned task of researching, gathering building materials and gathering food until you give them a different task.

The gameplay is pretty addictive if you enjoy this type of game. It's the definition of casual as sometimes you will start My Tribe up, do two actions on your little island and shut it down. However, this strength is also My Tribe's greatest flaw. Unfortunately, there is very little to do until you've increased your scientific development in pretty much all areas, which requires generations of research for science points. To give you an idea of just how much time this takes, the first construction upgrade that allows you to build better structures costs 400,000 science points. I've had the game for over a week now and my total science points are about 100,000 short of that mark. It can be eternally frustrating to see many of the tribespeople you started with simply die in the name of progress.

While at times, My Tribe can feel very much like an interactive screensaver, there are a number of mechanics in this game that do make it worth playing. If you're super-attached to your tribespeople, you can mix a potion that will prolong their life. Packages will occasionally wash up on shore that will give your tribespeople the expertise they need to excel at their jobs. The mystical materials of stardust and moondust occasionally fall from the sky that allow you to speed up your progress in many different areas. Each island has a few mysterious objects that you'll need certain specialties to unlock that will grant you special bonuses within the confines of the game.

I suppose the greatest strength of My Tribe is that, even while checking in every single day to look in on your townsfolk, it takes a number of weeks to complete as there is little ability to manipulate time in the game, so you're always looking forward to the next stage of development for your tribe. It's something that you can actually play casually instead of actively if you want, much like those interactive pet games. While I haven't found out what happens if you go away for too long and your entire tribe dies, I really don't want to. I've become attached to my little island and its tribespeople to the point where I'm even hesitant to start a new island, even though that's an option.

At the end of the day, My Tribe feels like a watered-down, drawn-out version of Civilization, which isn't a bad thing at all. However, as mentioned before, gameplay can slow down to a snail's pace while waiting for your tribespeople to finish developing and researching, which can be a bit of a turnoff. At the $7.00 price point, though, you can't really argue with the experience that you're getting.