Chelsea
Sep 21, 2023
Tiny Life is an isometric pixelart style simulation game that seeks to capture the essence of The Sims. Like The Sims or the upcoming Little Sim World, you control a group of people and take care of their needs, build their skills, forge new relationships, or whatever you want to do. Have them lead perfectly normal lives, or cause chaos and totally upend their lives. It’s up to you, really!
You get to create your own characters using a number of different options. Tiny Life lets you choose personality traits and skills. Plus, there are over 100 clothing items and thousands of colors for you to pick from. There’s even age groups that you can pick, each with its own unique interactions and gameplay possibilities. Craft each of your Tinies exactly how you want them.
Then, build houses and community spaces like parks and cafes for your Tinies to explore. Tiny Life has hundreds of furniture, wallpaper, tiles, roofs, and more so you can create a beautiful town. You’ll even be able to share all of your creations with the community, as well as use mods to add additional content to the game!
Available Now
You can find this fun simulation game on Steam now!
- Sep 21, 2023
Fantastic Haven takes place in a world where magic has been gradually fading while technological advances take over. These advances threaten the balance, and your role as the Elders means it’s up to you to help rebalance the world. You need to save the magical creatures people like to hunt. Use diplomacy and teach people how to live in harmony with these fantastic creatures!
You’ll start by choosing the perfect starting spot. Pick from a number of different areas in Fantastic Haven, each coming with their own challenges, and begin building basic infrastructure. Unlock new research and buildings as you play to be able to welcome the magical creatures to this new haven you’re creating. Even send your mages out into the world to find new creatures, negotiate with hostile populations, and more. Every choice you make can impact how your future turns out, so choose wisely.
As you find the magical creatures of Fantastic Haven and bring them back to your refuge, you’ll place them in the quarantine facility. Then, you can place them in an existing biotope (enclosure) or create a new one. Either way, you’ll need to respect its needs, as well as its compatibility with other creatures to find it the perfect home. Your goal is to take great care of these creatures before returning them to the wilds, so meeting their demands is important for restoring magic into the world!
Coming Soon
You’ll find Fantastic Haven on Steam and GOG next year! There are plans for releases on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox sometime after that, too.
Planet Zoo is another great zoo game!
- Sep 20, 2023
Veil of Dust: A Homestead Game is a farming simulator seeking to turn the genre on its head. Inspired by the likes of Stardew Valley and Don’t Starve, this game is a historically-grounded fantasy homesteading and survival game with a more adult-oriented gameplay. You’ll play as the Callahan siblings, Shane and Áine, as they learn to cope with loss and learn how to survive life in the desert of eastern Oregon.
With a more task-centric focus, and less grinding, Veil of Dust sets you on an adventure to explore magic, intrigue, small town politics, and more. You’ll farm, forage, and hunt to scrape together the resources and food necessary to survive. Overcome challenges with tools you craft, and fill bellies with different recipes you’ve scraped together, as well as forge relationships. Survival isn’t just about finding food and shelter, after all. Life needs to be worth living, too! Experience deep characterizations and explore realistic, relatable scenarios that touch on heavier topics.
Veil of Dust isn’t devoid of humor and fun, though! Guide Shane and Áine as they search for answers as to why mysterious monsters attack their town and livelihoods. While defense wasn’t always a priority, you might need to protect your homestead from them. The homestead you’ve carefully made your very own by lovingly choosing the perfect colors, turning your inhospitable dirt patch into a comfortable home.
Where will your adventure lead you?
Available Now
You can find Veil of Dust on Steam now!
Want more farm sims that are just a little bit different? Checkout Moondrop.
- Sep 20, 2023
If you haven’t taken a moment to check out Dredge, let alone play it, you really should. I have a review here that you can read, but it’s a spooky, cozy fishing adventure that really nails just about everything. You play as the captain of your very own fishing trawler as you explore a set of mysterious and remote islands, as well as the deep sea that surrounds them. Sell what you catch to the local markets, and spend your hard-earned money on boat upgrades that will allow you to carry more cargo, go faster, and fish deeper. While you’re at it, unravel the mystery surrounding the islands by talking to the inhabitants and completing missions. Just, be careful about being out at night. You might not enjoy what lurks in the darkness.
The Latest Update
Dredge has already released one paid DLC, called Blackstone Key, which gives players access to the locked workshop on Blackstone island, as well as a new engine option and talisman. However, the devs have recently released a new free update! This is actually their third free update, and this update includes some fun stuff, plus bug fixes.
This new update for Dredge now lets players customize their boat! After you acquire the dredge crane as part of the main quest line, you can head on over to Little Marrow where a new character has set up shop. The Painter will be able to make adjustments to the appearance of your boat. He starts with some basic options, but you’ll be able to unlock more as you discover paint ingredients. Dig through the different shipwrecks, including the new ones added with this update, to find different flags. You can then take those flags to The Painter to have them recolored and displayed on your boat. The Painter will also allow you to change the bunting that’s displayed (the little garland of triangle flags), including the color of it, too.
Previous Updates
The Painter being added is the biggest, and best part of this update. However, Dredge does now have crab aberrations, or crabberations as per the Steam update page. As well as a new filter to the Encyclopedia to display crabs, which brings me to the other two free updates. The first free update added map zoom and map pins, so you can set one of 50 markers in 6 different types on the map to have reminders for yourself. They can also be viewed through the Spyglass. The second free update added Photo Mode, so you can take pictures of the different creatures you come across. These include 10 new aberrations and 8 new types of wildlife, and now the crab aberrations! There’s also a Passive Mode, so you don’t have to worry about the things that lurk in the night for a more relaxing experience!
These are some great additions to an already great game. Plus, Dredge announced their next paid DLC, Ironhaven. This DLC will feature the mysterious Ironhaven Corporation who’s looking to establish a drilling operation in the area to revitalize the towns. Their ultimate goal, however, is unknown, and you may yet uncover it through meeting new characters and helping the company build its operation!Available Now
You can find Dredge on Steam, Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox!
- Sep 14, 2023
Palia is a free-to-play cozy MMO all about farming, cooking, fishing, and more. Expand your homestead and build a gorgeous home for yourself, while you’re at it. Play solo or with friends and immerse yourself in a beautiful new world full of interesting characters and compelling storylines.
August 10th, 2023 saw Palia enter the Open Beta phase, and the developers over at Singularity 6 have spent a lot of time patching bugs. This month also saw the very first game-wide event called the Maji Market. Players are able to set off mesmerizing fireworks, buy some tasty treats, complete a few quests, and take part in the Chappa Chase!
What’s New
Now, Palia has had its first update since entering Open Beta, and it’s got some fun content. Players can now explore the Temple of Flames and complete the bundles it has. Finish all four bundles to receive the very special Ancient Rock Garden item that can be placed in your yard. The fabled Kitsuu will visit the rock garden, and you can offer up items to it once a day for a chance at some rewards. Even more fun is that players can now befriend Tau, Hassian’s canine companion. You’ll even receive a cute Tau plushie for completing his friendship quests!
That’s not all this Palia update has to offer, though. You can pick up a brand new furniture set, the Emberborn Set. In celebration of the Temple of Flames being added, this new set is a beautiful, fiery addition to anyone’s home. Zeki’s Wondrous Machine has new items for you to win, too. And you can now multi-craft recipes on the workbench, which is such a relief to me. I couldn’t efficiently flood my plot of land with torches before! Players can now grow corn and spicy peppers in their gardens, as well as cook a number of new dishes:
There’s also some cosmetic shop updates, which you can read about, as well as a list of fixed bugs, and a list of known bugs that are being worked on. You can access all of that, plus the full patch notes here on their website!
- Sep 14, 2023
Remember those adorable desktop pets and helpers you used to be able to have? I touched on them a bit when I talked about Werydlets, a cute desktop pet game that’s coming to Steam. Well, it appears developer 3DM Live Wallpapers has jumped on the cozy game train to bring us Desktop Farm.
As the name suggests, it’s a farm that you play on your desktop! Your farm becomes your very own live, interactive wallpaper. There’s no rushing necessary in Desktop Farm. Develop your farm in your own good time. And since it sits in the background, it’s perfect for playing when you have an idle few minutes to spare. It starts when you start your computer, and pauses when you open other applications, so you aren’t missing anything. No need to spend all your time and energy on your farm. Just visit it when you have a moment and wish to relax!
Available Now
This fun little desktop game is available now on Steam!
- Sep 13, 2023
I’ve previously played the cute Everdream Valley, and written a review. At the time, the game was far from a finished product. It was pretty empty and had some other issues. Even as I wrote the review, the devs, Mooneaters, added some features that improved the quality of life of the game. And now, they’ve released a roadmap of new features they intend to work on implementing!
October Update
October brings a great update that includes fast travel! One of my chief complaints was how big the Everdream Valley map is, making adventuring a little tiresome because running everywhere was the only option. The developers have been listening, though, and fast travel is certainly an exciting new addition that will improve the game. The fun doesn’t stop there, though. You’ll get access to a new lawnmower tool that allows you to tidy up lawns and hedges. Which sounds like a great way to further decorate and personalize your farm. You’ll be getting new plants to decorate with too! Add some charm and vibrancy to your little farm with a riot of natural colors.
Then there’s my favorite part. A Halloween event! Get spooky with fun new items and decorations. Even get dressed up in costumes. I can’t wait for that. There’s nothing like making your home cozy with pumpkins and ghosts. Perhaps the best update, however, if the addition of multiplayer! That’s right, you and your friends will be able to team up to play Everdream Valley together. There’s no word now on how many people can play in multiplayer as the feature is currently in beta, but even just making it two players would be great.
Roadmap
As for the rest of the intended updates, here’s the list straight from Everdream Valley’s Steam page:
- Sep 13, 2023
In Fossil Corner, you’re a retired paleontologist who enjoys the calm environment of their garage. There, you’ve created a peaceful sanctuary to hang out in and build your fossil collection. Then take some time emailing old friends to stave off the loneliness, or stare out the window at the beautiful fall leaves swirling in the wind.
To really pass the time in your retirement, you’ll focus on building your fossil collection. Fossil Corner features a variety of randomly generated fossils, trilobites, and crinoids for you to collect. You’ll work through a number of puzzles, too. Each puzzle is a box of procedurally generated fossils that form a whole family tree. It’s your job to unscramble that family tree by observing how the species changed over the generations. Once you complete a puzzle box, you receive a fossil to display!
Available Now
You can find this cute fossil collector on Steam now!
For another cozy puzzle game, try A Little to the Left.
