It was an old 1995-2005 computer game I played as a kid. Top-down. Simple very cartoonish graphics. Difficult game. RTS vibe to it. Without an enemy base. You would just build, train guards, and get attacked IIRC.

You build and manage a town with a day/night cycle where night time was basically the screen fading to black and then every new day starts with a rooster crowing (most memorable, vivid part for me). You have to farm to feed your villagers or else they'll starve. When one of your villagers die, they leave behind a skeleton. You can build stuff and your town gets attacked as well. Grass was bright green.

Game's name was something like Dungeons & Monsters, Monsters & Dragons, or whatnot (not Dungeons & Dragons). CD art was black and white.

Can't recall much more than that for the life of me

It was not a Caeser, Zeus, or AoE game. It was an obscure game afaik.