We recently posted an article about Hokko Life’s devlog 3 from July. In case you missed it, you can read all about it here. It seems the solo developer behind the adorable life simulation game is on the ball. This is due to despite being a solo game developer, he still frequently posts devlogs and actively answers questions on Discord.
But even more impressive is the amount of new features and exciting updates he shares in each devlog, with the August one being no exception. With updates and features such as gardening and expressions in the 4th Steam Hokko Life devlog, we just had to share the devlog’s content. But before we dive into the game’s 4th devlog, here’s some background on the game and a synopsis of what we know so far!
About Hokko Life
Hokko Life is described as a ‘cosy, creativity filled community sim game’. The game is being developed by Robert Tatnell who runs his own indie game dev company, Wonderscope. Initially, Wonderscope intended to both develop and publish Hokko Life. However, this is an understandably big feat for one person.
Therefore in April 2020, Wonderscope revealed that they would ‘team’ up (sorry not sorry) with Team 17, who will now publish Hokko Life. Team 17 are notorious for publishing highly regarded games such as My Time at Portia, Overcooked, and Yooka-Laylee. Initially, Hokko Life was expected to release on Steam later in 2020; The impact of COVID-19, however, could (like many games), delay this. The release date for the game on Steam is currently TBA. The price of the game is also not yet known.
Hokko Life begins with your player stepping off of a train. Having taken over your very own (albeit a little dusty and old) workshop, you are free to craft and create to your heart’s content.
The quiet village which you now call home needs your design expertise. Help create an endearing town for its inhabitants. Armed with paint and tools, you can design, build and decorate new homes for your new furry friends.
Players can craft materials and combine them as they wish. Combining them creates amazing new furniture and items for the town. By collecting flowers and mixing paints, you can then design wallpapers, flooring and even clothing.
With an abundance of choice, you can design items from fetching floral wallpaper to interesting urban-industrial furniture. Whatever your taste, with a workshop at hand, you have complete freedom whilst designing the town.
Hokko Life Devlog 4 – What’s New?
Expressions
First on the list of developments in Hokko Life is the introduction of facial expressions. Robert updated the avatar’s head shader to make this happen. With this new Avatar head mesh the team behind Hokko Life set up the texturing in a way that meant details on the face would be handled with different textures. This means that Robert can swap out individual facial features, such as a nose or a mouth, and provide different expressions. Robert also spent this month editing the head shader especially for this as well as adding three new emotions to Hokko Life, which include happy, straining, and winking.
Energy
Robert had been contemplating for a while whether to add a stamina-like system to the game. He decided to trial a first implementation of one this month in order to see if a stamina system suited Hokko Life. He gave a player a finite amount of energy that depletes when doing tasks such as chopping down trees.
When your energy is depleted, your player needs to rest to recharge. Taking a break only replenishes a small amount of energy, so you’ll need to eat food or take a longer rest if you want to do more work. However, your energy bar will never be completely empty and therefore won’t prevent you from working altogether. Robert wanted a nice balance: to reward players for preparing adequately before heading out to gather resources, but to not penalize them in the event that they do run out of energy.
Bridges
The next addition brought to Hokko Life by Robert is a bridge design blueprint. This gives players the ability to design their very own bridges and then place them out in the world.
Farming
Farming was one of the priorities for Robert this mont. He intended to expand a bit upon the simple pre-existing base.
He also decided to add fertilizer to the game;. Players craft fertlizer using the various resources found in the world. If you put fertilizer on tilled soil, it improves the likelihood of growing high quality crops. High quality crops can be sold for money and may occasionally be requested by characters. The fertilizer will only work on a patch of soil for a certain period of time and anything planted there during that timeframe has a better chance of being high quality crops.
Robert also added templates for two new characters. One of them is the farmer character who will induct you on farming and provide you with crafting recipes for your first pieces of equipment. When you’re more adept at farming, the farmer sells a variety of seeds, as well as some farming crafting recipes. The seconf character provides your player with farming challenges. The challenges are essentially requests but with deadlines.
Sprinklers
And talking about making your farming life easier brings us onto the next update. Sprinklers. Robert added two types of sprinklers to Hokko Life. The first sprinkler waters in a ring, whilst the second waters in a line. You can own both of the sprinklers by purchasing the sprinkler crafting recipe from the farmer. The sprinklers can then can crafted with just a handful of resources and will hands down make your farming life a whole lot easier.
Gardening
Intended to tie in with farming, Robert recently added gardening to the game. With this new feature, players can grow plants and flowers in the world from seeds. Whilst plants and flowers did exist previously, they would sprout in random locations. Additionally, players couldn’t really move them. As a result of the recent gardening update, players can now dig holes and plant trees and flowers as seeds. They are more low maintenance than crops too. Seeds don’t need water and grow nicely on their own. Additionally, plants and trees are movable. (even whilst still growing). The only exception is big trees, which need to be chopped down if you want rid of them.
As well as allowing players to be more creative and have more control over their town, flowers serve another purpose besides looking pretty: They can also be used in some crafting recipes.
UI Stuff
Largely because of the new farmer character providing players with an abundance of seeds and other goods, Robert decided to make a system in the UI where players can see detailed information about items. This new feature is more helpful than you might think. One example is that players need to know how long a seed takes to grow. A second example is that players need to know the required resources to craft a recipe.
Piece Packs
And the final new addition to Hokko Life is Piece Packs.
Once you are further into the game you will unlock more pieces. Pieces are used to design items with. In August, Robert implemented the necessary things to make this work. This brings us on to his introduction of “Piece Packs”. Piece packs are essentially collections of pieces to use when designing. Piece Packs are unlocked as a bundle for a set price.
As Piece Packs are purchased items, Robert updated the Design Tool so the packs show as groups. He also added filter buttons. which allow the player to show or hide different packs based on the materials needed.
Hokko Life is described as a ‘cosy, creativity filled community sim game’. The game is being developed by Robert Tatnell who runs his own indie game dev company, Wonderscope. Initially, Wonderscope intended to both develop and publish Hokko Life. However, this is an understandably big feat for one person. Therefore in April 2020, Wonderscope revealed that they would ‘team’ up (sorry not sorry) with Team 17, who will now publish Hokko Life. Team 17 are notorious for publishing highly regarded games such as My Time at Portia, Overcooked, and Yooka-Laylee. Initially, Hokko Life was expected to release on Steam later in 2020; The impact of COVID-19, however, could (like many games), delay this. The release date for the game on Steam is currently TBA. The price of the game is also not yet known.
Hokko Life begins with you stepping off of a train. Now the proud owner of a kinda dusty old workshop, you are free to craft and create to your heart’s content. The quiet village you’ve moved to, needs your help to create an endearing town for its residents. Armed with plenty of paint and tools, design, build and decorate new homes for your neighbours.
Players can craft materials and combine them as they wish. Combining them creates amazing new furniture and items for the town. By collecting flowers and mixing paints, you can then design wallpapers, flooring and even clothing. With an abundance of choice, you can design items from fetching floral wallpaper to interesting urban-industrial furniture. Whatever your taste, with a workshop at hand, you have complete freedom whilst designing the town.
July Hokko Life Update – Gone Fishin’ 🐠
The first game element to be discussed in the July Hokko Life update is fishing. It’s already been announced that fishing will be a feature for players to look forward to. For example, the game’s Steam page informs us that the fish have unique habits. The advice therefore given is to switch up your approach, and to anticipate each catch presenting unique challenges when reeled in.
The game’s fishing feature, however, has since been switched up. And we’re ‘searious’ when we say it’s possibly one of the best updates yet. We’re not even ‘squidding’!
It’s ‘Ofishal’, In Hokko Life You Get An ‘Oppor-tuna-ty’ To Fish. But There’s A Catch: Actually Catching Fish… 🐟🎮
The majority of Wonderscope’s work this month has been dedicated to working on and improving the fishing gameplay. Robert from Wonderscope has kindly decided to walk people through how fishing works in Hokko Life to show how far the game has come!
After re-starting the inventory, Robert was able to add bait to the game! Players can attach the bait to an equipped fishing rod. Having bait on your fishing rod will alter your chances of reeling in certain fish. Players can craft bait using different resources found in the game: but only once you’ve unlocked the crafting recipes.
If you right click on a certain type of bait in your backpack, you will then be prompted by a message. The message will give you the option of attaching the bait to your fishing rod:
Cast your line so that your bait and hook are in the water. It’s then just a matter of waiting for a fish to spot them. Resist the urge to try to reel in the fish as soon as it nibbles. The fish could take quite a few nibbles at the bait before being hooked, so patience is key. You’ll know when the fish has taken the last bite as the action UI will pop up. When this occurs, you have a short amount of time to press ‘Interact’ to hook the fish before it gets away.
Come On Guys You’re Just ‘Krilling’ It Now! 💀💫
But because nothing in life is easy right? Wanting to make Hokko Life that bit more challenging, Wonderscope have added another step which players must complete before that fishy is theirs. That next step, or challenge is the fishing mini game. The aim of the game is to keep the fish in the ring until it reaches the goal line. Naturally, the fish have minds of their own and the pests will try and swim away. This means you’ll need to position your rod left and right, and press ‘interact’ to reel a fish back into the ring.
If the fiendish fish remains outside of the ring for too long, it’ll get away and you’ll fail the mini game… 😒
On the other hand, there’s a chance that a chest could emerge in the mini game. If you manage to guide the frustrating fishy through this chest, it’ll pop open! And voila! You’ll get your fish and a random reward!
Robert said that he recently tried out a “diorama” look for the fishing mini game. He decided upon building a little scene to make the mini game look more appealing and generally aesthetic. The dev confessed to the mini game originally resembling a boring rectangle and likes the cuter direction he has taken with the fishing aspect. Robert also excitedly added that depending on the location you fish in, the diorama will change in accordance with it!
Oh For Cod’s Hake! I’m Not Shore I Wanna Buy The Game Now! I’m Gonna Have To Mullet Over! 😂🎣
Fishing challenges were also added to the game more recently. These challenges will unlock for players after they’ve been fishing for a while. Furthermore, Hokko Life will offer a weekly challenge where players can get bonus rewards.
These challenges are generated once an (in-game) week and necessitate players to catch a specified amount of fish within a certain time. These can either be specific fish, or any type of fish. The time limit varies and is based on the rarity of the fish, as well as if there are any nearby. But don’t worry, if you fail you can always go back and retry! Also, things can occur behind the scenes too, making sure that you have a chance of winning the challenge. I smell something fishy there. 🤔
Robert wanted more variation in the challenges, but explained that setting them up and getting them to work took considerably longer than expected, so he decided to settle with just one type for now. On the plus side, he excitingly added that the system is now there for challenge types to be added in the future.
Whilst the fishing update was the most prominent part of July’s Hokko Life devlog, other updates were also covered. These include:
Brief Updates On Avatars (Because Apparently They Looked Ugly). RUDE. ☹️😂
Spending more time working on the animation system
Improving how equipping and un-equipping tools works behind the scenes, among other things.
Attempting to make changes so that the system is less buggy
Simultaneously aiming to improve the game’s overall appearance whilst de-bugging
Changing simple things like adding an acceleration to the player to make the transition from standing to running look nicer.
Adding equip animation variations to fit the different ways the player can hold an item.
Working on some of the avatars animations. Mostly focusing on improving their weighting and timing.
This character thinks that the deletion of avatars is quite rude!
Finally, Hokko Life Devlog #3 contained some brief updates on improvements to other avatar assets and features. These include face and head shapes, tweaks to hair styles, and deleting ‘ugly’ old clothing items and old avatar assets. Robert said deleting the old ugly stuff felt good, so we’ll take his word for it. But seriously though, please give the basic avatar assets some clothes and features before showing them to us. Especially when they seem to be crazily wielding weapons of some kind… #NightmareFuel 😱😂
This character definitely thinks that the deletion of avatars is quite rude!
Make sure to stay tuned for our coverage of Hokko Life Devlog #4! The game is really shaping up, with some new features and updates you won’t want to miss! 😊
Click here to check out an exclusive interview with the game’s solo developer.
For more info on the game be sure to take a peek at this article
Created by Marvelous and XSEED, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town is a remake Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, which was initially released for Game Boy Advance back in 2003. No longer working with Natsume, Marvelous have rebranded their farming games, hence the change from the original game title. The game was recently released on July 10th in countries such as the UK, and is set to release on July 14th in the US. The game is playable on Nintendo Switch and PC.
Story (of Seasons)
Despite there now being a rather saturated farming simulation game market, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town still manages to earn a place amongst popular games such as Stardew Valley and My Time at Portia. In my personal opinion, it even manages to surpass such games in certain ways due to it’s adorable simplicity. The game features a charming close knit town, harvest sprites with unique personalities, and is unburdened with too many anxiety-provoking features.
Your character has inherited a farm from their grandfather which they used to visit as a child. Entrusted to restoring it to its former glory, you are entasked with raising both crops and animals.
Character Customization
A slight disappointment upon beginning the game was the lack of character customization. With only 3 different skin tones to select from and 2 character options from 2 genders (4 character options in total), the game seemed quite out of touch, and I found myself not relating to my character like I had in Stardew Valley.
For me, the gameplay experience was therefore somewhat comparable to living the lives of the pre-made characters and families in The Sims games. On the upside, a variety of different outfits, some of which are absolutely adorable, can be changed into. To do so, you simply need to interact with the mirror in your home.
Plot & Gameplay
Moving onto the game’s plot; there isn’t one. At least not in the traditional sense. However, players can watch their farm grow, as well as mine, forage, and fish. Players can also explore Mineral Town and its shops, meet the townsfolk there, make friends, and even find a potential marriage candidate if they so desire.
A nice element of continuity is that the child your character spent time with during childhood summers returns part way through the game, and is a marriage candidate.
Additional features include seasonal festivals and events, often occurring with mini-games that players can participate in. Examples include the Cooking Festival, the Frisbee Festival, the Cluck Cluck Festival, plus more.
A very much welcome addition to the game is the introduction of same-sex marriage. In the original game, players could only become best friends with NPC’s of the same sex of their character. Other changes include the introduction of two new marriage candidates, Jennifer and Brandon. Another cool feature is the introduction of a coffee cow, which produces coffee that players can harvest.
When in certain places at certain times/circumstances, players can also watch entertaining little cut scenes unfold. From gossiping, to acts of flirting to family squabbles, these cut scenes give an insight into characters’ personalities, and can also liven up the game when farming becomes a little monotonous.
Graphics
The aforementioned cut scenes utilize 3D graphics, just like the rest of the game. This a move from the 2D sprite art of the original game. The use of 3D graphics in the remake is controversial. Some have argued that the 3D graphics appear simplistic and ‘cheap’. Others, however, have shown approval of the game’s chibi-like art style, great resolution both docked and undocked, as well as it having a consistent 60 FPS.
However, from a personal standpoint, I can definitely see why the default Nintendo Switch cursor is 2D and not 3D. You can change the cursor to 3D, but I’d really suggest otherwise unless you fancy a floating box as a cursor…
Sound
I was confused to say the least upon starting the game, as I am accustomed to background music when playing farming simulation games. On the very first day of gameplay, there was no background music (BGM) whatsoever, which was rather unsettling. I messed around in settings seeing if there was a way to ‘turn it on’, but to no avail.
However, there was BGM from day 2 onwards, which also changes with each season. I then realized that the absence of music on day 1 was due to a lapse in my attention during the game’s introductory speech with the mayor. He had said that the first day there was a day to rest, and I assume the lack of BGM was to symbolize that.
A feature I found pretty cool (albeit a little eerie), is a chime at 8pm, followed by an absence of BGM and featuring the occasional hoot of an owl. This is helpful, as it is quite easy to get absorbed into all of the daily tasks and got to bed late. Going to bed late will mean that your players oversleeps the next day.
TL;DR 8pm is Bed o’clock.
Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town Tips and Tricks
1x bag of seeds actually covers 9x tiles of tilled soil, as opposed to 1x tile, which I wrongly assumed.
Pay attention to instructions and accept the mayor’s tutorials. It took me until nearly autumn of year 1 to realize I had to hold down the Y button on my Nintendo Switch to water more than one crop at a time with an upgraded watering can..
Befriend the 7x Nature Sprites that live in a quaint hut behind the church as soon as possible. By giving each of them gifts that they like, your friendship with them will increase. Once you have enough hearts of affection for a sprite, you can ask them to assist you on your farm (the level of affection required was 3x hearts in the original game.
Don’t chop down the fruit tree directly in front of your house as this is a source of honey, which can be used to befriend Nature Sprites. However, don’t panic if you do, as you can speak to Gotts to buy more fruit trees.
Each Nature Sprite’s favorite gift is the grass type that corresponds to their color. This is the ideal gift, as your fruit tree will only spawn 1x honey from the tree’s beehive each day. However, not all types of colored grass can be found all throughout the year. Since most Nature Sprites seem to like honey and fruit, these can be gifted to the Sprites whose corresponding grass color is in season.
In order to cook and participate in the cooking festival, you will need a kitchen. To have a kitchen (and also to obtain a fridge), you will first need to upgrade your house.
If you get stuck or are looking for tips, you’re in luck! A the game is a remake of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town (and an authentic one at that!), you’ll likely find helpful information on existing guides for the original game.
Replay Value
As the game is rather slow-paced (as is the norm for Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games), it is unlikely you’ll immediately want to replay the game. Personally, it is the type of game I’d return to a year or two later, when my terrible memory has forgotten all about it and it’s like getting a brand new game!
Personal Overview
Albeit slow-paced, one of the most appealing things about the game is that there is always something to do. The phrase ‘not enough hours in the day’ really does ring true. With the only real danger/threat in the game being collapsing from fatigue, the game is definitely family-friendly. In comparison to more modern farming simulation games, some may feel that the game is too simplistic. But sometimes simple is better, especially when it comes with fond childhood memories, wholesomeness and a pinch of modern-day relevance.
The Pros
Only take up 999mb of space to download on Nintendo Switch
The most adorable of animals
If you see a beehive you don’t need to run for your life
The Cons
Little character customization
Gameplay lacks some features that more modern farming simulation games have
The 3D ‘curse-or’ of doom
★★★★
Big thanks to XSEED Games andMarvelous USA, Inc. for providing myPotatoGames with a copy of Story of Seasons Friends of Mineral Town!
Hokko Life is desribed as a ‘cosy, creativity filled community sim game’. The game is being developed by Robert Tatnell who runs his own indie game dev company, Wonderscope. Initially Wonderscope intended to both develop and publish Hokko Life. However, this is an understandably big feat for one person. Therefore in April 2020, it was revealed that Wonderscope had ‘teamed’ up with Team 17, who will now publish the game. Team 17 are notorious for publishing games such as My Time at Portia, Overcooked, and Yooka-Laylee. Hokko Life will hopefully release for PC via Steam at some point this year. The price of the game is not yet known.
About The Game:
Hokko Life begins with your player stepping off of a train. Having taken over your very own (albeit a little dusty and old) workshop, you are free to craft and create to your heart’s content.
The quiet village which you now call home needs your design expertise. Help create an endearing town for its inhabitants. Armed with paint and tools, you can design, build and decorate new homes for your new furry friends.
Players can craft materials and combine them how they wish. This allows you to create a variety of cool new furniture and items for the town. By collecting flowers and mixing paints, you can use them to design wallpapers, flooring and even clothing!
Given plenty of design choices, you could design a bright flowery wallpaper set, or instead create an urban-industrial furniture collection. Whatever your taste, with a workshop at hand, you have complete freedom in designing a beautiful town for the townsfolk.
Features:
Chop, mine and dig for resources by venturing out to the forest or the abandoned mine. After bringing those resources back to town, where you can craft them into materials to use in your designs.
Gather materials, head into your workshop and put your own spin on each item you make. The design table lets you build your own furniture. Here you can combine various shapes and materials using a simple yet powerful editor.
Design a variety of wallpaper, flooring and T-Shirts for you and the villagers to wear. Feel like a famous fashion designer and get everyone in town wearing your bespoke designs.
Enlist the help of the local builder in order to begin expanding the town. You get complete freedom over where buildings are located and then need to ensure they are ready for new villagers to move to town.
Customize both the interiors and exteriors of any home. Release your inner interior designer and pick designs and place furniture to create a home your new friends will adore.
Turn any plot of land into a place where plants and vegetables will grow. When your produce is ready, you’ll be able to sell it.
Enjoy quiet moments at the various fishing spots located in Hokko and expand your fishing collection. The fish have unique habits, and so players will need to vary their approaches. Similarly, each catch provides it’s own challenge when you reel them in.
Hokko is home to a wide variety of different insects. These insects can be caught and added to your collection. Be sure to keep a eye out, as some may be hiding in a bush.
So, What’s new pussycat? Woah, woah. What’s new pussycat? Woah, oh, woah (ahem).
About The Latest Devlog:
The latest Devlog from the creator of Hokko Life appeared on Steam on May 6th BST. In it, featured some exciting little updates about the game’s progress.
Now working with Team 17, Wonderscope have stated that ‘epic updates to Hokko Life’ have apparently already been made! The ones mentioned in the Devlog include:
Art Updates:
More variety in the shape, pattern and color of mine rocks
The fish receive makeovers. After contemplating how he’d like them to look, Robert settled ‘on a clean and stylized look’. Additionally, there are now a wider variety of fish in the game.
Tidier textures for buildings. Using the workshop building, one of the older elements of the game, Robert gave it a newer style and cleaned up its texture.
Improved ground textures. One of the biggest improvements is the appearance of the game’s grass. The grass is now 3D, has more depth, and in the words of Robert ‘brings the quality level up a notch’.
Want to see what’s been going on with Hokko Life development?
In April, Robert started work on allowing players to edit the design of objects in the world, by simply interacting with them. Until that point, players had to return all the way to their workshop in order to edit a design. They would also need that object in their backpack to do this. (Sound familiar to Animal Crossing: New Horizons crafting and customization peeves? 😂). Now, however, if players spot something that they want to edit, they can do so from anywhere in the world.
Lessening Hassle & Frustrating Things and Making Hokko Life More Immediate & Fun To Play:
Robert says in the Devlog that he will continue to think of ways to make the game more convenient and fun to play. He wishes to remove anything that might be a hassle to players in order to improve their gaming exprience. (Take notes, Nintendo 😂).
Another small change could possibly be the ability to evolve your players avatar. The information about this is in a recent Hokko Life Patreon post from May 15th. However the post is only accessible to the game’s Patreon supporters (which is totally fair btw!). If you are a supporter of the game on Patreon though, and know what this post is about, feel free to enlighten us! We’re curious!
You can check out an exclusive interview with the game’s solo developer, Robert Tatnell here.
And to get a more in-depth insight into the game, you should check out this article here.
You can visit the game’s website for info here and visit their Steam page and read their Devlogs here. Additionally, you can follow them on Twitter, and/or join their Discord server here.
The developer of Hokko Life just launched an app that allows you to design clothing for Hokko Life.
HokkoLife is an upcoming farming and life sim game with loads of customization options and some absolutely adorable graphics. Robert Tatnell, the developer of Hokko Life, has recently released a load of great new details about the game, including a reveal trailer.
Hokko Designer
Another big announcement for this super cute upcoming farming indie title is the release of Hokko Designer, a new app that will allow you to upload some custom designs for your clothing in Hokko Life. The app will let you preview your designs on the clothing of two different characters from the full Hokko Life game, which you can then transfer to the full game when it releases.
Simply download the app, use the template to create in your favorite painting app (photoshop, adobe paint, etc.), and you’ll be ready to look your sharpest when the game launches in early access sometime this year.
The developer also mentions that Hokko Life will have its own in-game designer for clothing and furniture, and that only the pre-launch designer app will require a separate painting program.
With all the new information coming out all the time, I grow ever more excited to try this amazing, Animal Crossing inspired life sim.
More Info
For more information on the Hokko Designer app, and on Hokko Life in general, check out the official Hokko Life website. To stay up to date with what’s happening in Hokko Life, join the conversation on Twitter and Discord. For more great games like Hokko Life, check out my coverage of My Time at Portia.
Here are a few of the best Stardew Valley like games available now for Nintendo Switch.
Having poured many hours into Stardew Valley myself, I can certainly say that I am always stoked to find a new game that follows the same theme. There is just something so peaceful and rewarding about running your own digital farm; tending crops, feeding and loving the animals, tilling and paving for fine tuning.
While Stardew Valley has certainly the standard when it comes to simple, cute and addictive; there are many games out there that bear some resemblence and certainly deserve their time in the light. So hold on to your straw hat, cuz these are some cute farming games that just might blow you away!
My Time At Portia
My Time Portia is wonderfully charming life sim that is as beautiful as it is relaxing. Since being ported to the Switch, My Time At Portia has gone through some major updates to make it currently one of the best games on the console (personal opinion). My Time at Portia is currently available through the Nintendo eShop for $29.99. My Time at Portia Nintendo eShop Hardcopy though Amazon.
Doraemon: Story of Season
For the ones who are not familiar with Doraemon Story of Seasons, it is a crossover game that combines the best out the beloved farming sim Story of Seasons and the more adventure driven Doraemon. The game was originally released in Japan back in July of 2019 and received overwhelmingly positive feedback from fans. Now you can get it through the eShop for $49.99. Doraemon Story of Seasons Nintendo eShop Hardcopy though Amazon
Harvest Moon: Light of Hope
HM: Light of Hope
In Light of Hope, you must rebuild a town and its lighthouse to its former glory after you are shipwrecked and forced to start your life over. Farming, building and crafting about in in installment in the Harvest Moon series. Harvest Moon Light of Hope is currently available through the eShop of $39.99. Harvest Moon Light of Hope Nintendo eShop Hardcopy though Amazon
Graveyard Keeper
Graveyard Keeper
Graveyard Keeper takes the player back to medieval time, where you will have to take on all the responsibilities of a cemetery manager. The simulation game allows you gather resources to create your very own environment by building and managing your own graveyard, finding ways to cut costs and make sure that all the dead find rest and peace. Graveyard Keeper Nintendo eShop
Don’t Starve Nintendo Switch Edition
“In Don’t Starve: Nintendo Switch Edition, You play as Wilson, an intrepid Gentleman Scientist who has been trapped by a demon and transported to a mysterious wilderness world. Enter a bizarre and unexplored world full of strange creatures, dangers, and surprises. Learn to exploit the environment and its inhabitants to escape and find your way back home.” Don’t Starve Nintendo eShop
Farm Together
Farm Together
Farm Together features immersive and beautiful 3D graphics that really bring your farm to life. As the name implies you can choose to farm alone, or invite friends and share the hard farm work. Farm Together is now available on PC and Mac, you may check it out here, and is available through the eShop for $19.99. Farm Together Nintendo eShop.
Harvest Life
Harvest Life
Harvest Life is taking a cute approach to the oh so adorable farming life simulation genre. In this game the player will of course do some extensive farming, taking care of livestock and exploring the gorgeous environment. But beyond its usual farming features, the game also delivers an intriguing story line. Harvest Life Nintendo eShop
Nintendo Switch Confirmed – Littlewood
In Littlewood, you get to fully customize your town. This doesn’t just include building homes for townsfolk, plotting farming areas, furnishing your home AND the townsfolk’s homes, but it also includes customizing the elevation of the land and choosing where to put bodies of water. This interesting element of customizing the terrain brings an extra touch to making the town your own.
More Farming Games
If you’d like to see a bunch more great farming games for all consoles, available now and in the future, you can check out my coverage of fantastic farming games for console gamers.
These are just a few games that have many similarities to Stardew Valley. If you feel that I missed any that should go on the list of available for Switch farming games, let me know in the comments.
Now is your best chance to be the rudest goose in gaming.
In case you happen to live under a rock, Untitled Goose Game is a hilarious indie game where you get to play as troublesome goose. Use your honk to scare people, and move things around to generally be a nuisance. It is a hilariously fun time.
Farm Folks is a farming simulation RPG developed by Overgrown and published by Crytivo. The creators say they were inspired by the classic Harvest Moon series, and now after a successful Kickstarter, they will be bringing this game in late 2019/early 2020 to Steam (wishlist here) and Crytivo (pre-order here). Farm Folks have it all; farming, raising animals, fishing, mining, relationships, exploration, and more! If you’re interested in what the developers have been up to since our previous article, read on below.
If you didn’t get the chance to make a pledge on Kickstarter for all of the awesome rewards, Crytivo offers different tiers for pre-order purchases, the largest costing $89.99 but includes the following: Unicorn Cow Pet, Beta Access, Digital Art Book, Name in the credits, Pre Alpha Access, Full Game, Digital Strategy Guide, Wallpapers, Alpha Access (now available), Steam Key, Silver Backer Badge, and Soundtrack.
What’s New and What’s Next
The developers recently published a devblog update announcing that they have made big improvements to their core game mechanics as well as some bug fixes. Right now they are working on some changes for their crops, mainly the fact that there will now be diseases and auras! On that matter they say the following:
“We’re working on adding a few different types of diseases to the game. Each will affect your crops in a slightly different way, and require a different kind of pesticide.”
“On Softshoal Island, some species of crops have a mysterious aura surrounding them. These provide various benefits to nearby crops, such as reduced disease chance, faster growth, increased yield, or a better chance at a bumper harvest!”
Since the pre-Alpha, they have implemented weather; Sunny, Rainy, and Stormy. They’ve also added a diary to record all major and minor events (there will be a story), more buildables to unlock more areas to explore, and new animation for the farm animals. Speaking of farm animals, the developers have done away with gates and have allowed players to be able to pick up and throw their livestock! But what I’d love to learn more about most of all, are the new creatures native to Softshoal Island called Molo! They look like an adorable combination of floppy-eared rabbits and little pink piglets!
Sep 19, 2020
