Idle Lumber Empire or Lumber Empire: Idle Tycoon made by developer Game Veterans is a great way to spend your free time.

GRAPHICS 9/10

The graphics are kind of simple but very beautiful. There are so many details, animations, and even props, which is so rare for such a simple phone game. Speaking of props, there is one hammer hanging on the wall that’s very similar to Thor’s hammer. Maybe it’s an attempt to optimize game size and unused props, or maybe it’s made on purpose as an Easter Egg—which is also very rare for phone games.

SOUND QUALITY 7/10

There aren’t many sound effects in this game, but they perfectly match the animations and timing. They’re a little cartoonish, but very interesting to hear when you move with a free camera.

GAMEPLAY 8/10

The gameplay is mostly automatic, so you can literally focus on something else while you play. The only thing you need to manually do is select one of three buyers every few minutes when you’re notified about them. That is very important, because they help you earn money to hire new workers and upgrade your sawmill. However, even if you don’t choose buyers, you will still automatically earn money if some of the lumber-making processes are finished. For example, every time after your worker finishes cutting a tree, you will earn some money. That is kind of weird, but I guess it’s based on the fact that real sawmills don’t just sell lumber, but also logs and other wood products.

CHARACTERS 8/10

There are so many characters in this game, but they are mostly nameless workers. Only buyers have a unique name and appearance. In the version I played, there is one bug that I hope is already fixed: when you hire a female worker to plant new trees, that worker sometimes becomes male when you start the game again. Or maybe that’s not even a bug—maybe that worker just earned enough money to pay for surgery to become male (just kidding)!

OVERALL 8/10

Because there are so many automatic processes in this game, you can play Idle Lumber Empire while you are focused on something else, like cooking. But please don’t play this game while you are driving a car or doing something where you could get hurt by being distracted.

Lumber Empire: Idle Tycoon is available now for Android and iOS platforms. Version 1.3.9 was last updated on February 16, 2022. Version 0.0.8 was used for this review.