We'll never be royals in this new peasant simulator from the creator of Threes

Oh Lorde, we feel you on this one — being royalty is hard work. The latest creation from Threes developer Asher Vollmer, called Royals, is an "optimistic peasant simulator" that challenges you to work your way into royal standing.

Royals has a fairly simple aesthetic to match its seemingly simple task; it's described as "an old forgotten game from your youth" where you've lost the manual. In your efforts to become queen (or king, whatever), you toil away by collecting followers, harvesting resources, enraging the locals with your crappy taste in music and so forth.

Each action expends a precious year of your life, unless you have followers to do your bidding, and a positive outcome is never guaranteed. Sometimes you successfully chop down a bunch of trees, and sometimes those trees belong to a super angry royal family that isn't down with deforestation.

In short, it's a pretty tough game. I've played through it many times and found myself charmed by its quirky, subtle humor. Sure, I never outgrew my peasant life, but I did enjoy all the failures that led me to an early, repeated grave.

Royals is available at a pay-what-you-want price, meaning you can download it for free on Mac or Windows PC or choose to make a contribution to the developer.