i'd like to back up my game. where can i find my game files? i don't mean the game itself, of course, just the files that store the information of the game i'm currently playing. thanks

The location of the files depends upon how/where Virtual Villagers is installed. The following is typical:

For Windows the files are in Program Files => Virtual Villagers. They are named Isola**.ldw (where ** is a number). The single-digit numbers are your "primary" savegame files and are numbered 1-5 (corresponding to the player slots). The two-digit numbers are the "backup" savegame files, and are numbered 21-25. There is also a file Isola0.ldw which contains settings.

For Mac, the files should be in User => Library => Preferences => LDW => Isola.