There are some important points to keep in mind as you develop your own strategy for playing Virtual Villagers:

The berry supply is limited and you'll need to find another food source as soon as possible.

Nursing mothers devote all of their time to caring for their baby and don't do any productive work in the village for 2 years of game time.

Babies eat as much as adults and making too many babies too soon can quickly create a food crisis.

Any villager (even a sick one) can heal another villager, but healing is only possible when a villager's status is "Sick" (check the Details screen).

Sometimes a villager will "resist" healing attempts by a specific doctor. If that happens, try to heal your sick villager again with a different villager.

Sick villagers need to be healed or they will weaken and die [*] Villagers can become weakened by such things as prolonged disease, starvation, on-the-job injuries, animal attacks, or old age.

Villagers who show a status of "Weakened" will generally improve in health over time unless they are sick, elderly or continue to suffer injuries.

The villagers need to be taught to perform a job - they will not initiate tasks in an occupation in which they have no skill.

You can view information about various technology advancements on the Village Tech screen by clicking on the "?" button for that technology. This information will help you choose the order in which to purchase new technology.

The villagers' curiosity is often a clue to puzzles.

The children can find and harvest a certain kind of food.

Picking up a villager while they're working will interrupt them, and they will drop the object that they were carrying.