All posts tagged in Early access
Oct 6, 2019
Re:Legend by Magnus Games is a farming simulation RPG I’ve been waiting to play for quite some time! Thanks to the publishers at 505 Games, we now have a Steam code to try it out and tell you all about it! Re:Legend is still in Early Access and continues to receive patches and updates often and therefore, I decided to do this feature in sections over time. Below you will see a video of my first in-game day along with the befriending with my first Magnus!
Washed ashore on Vokka Island without memories…
Creating my character was a lot of fun because of the unique hairdo choices, the adorable aesthetics, and the vibrant colors. I was so excited to start farming and raising some Magnus that I haven’t put much thought into the story of Re:Legend. The first second of playing, your character gets tossed off a cliff. You’ve got my attention! Then, my first couple nights of sleeping in my bed, I’m being haunted by a ghost trying to tell me something. I’m assuming it has something to do with whatever we’ve forgotten and need to remember, how intriguing!
Befriending my First Magnus, Draconewt!
I’m eagerly awaiting the next update which will include the use of controllers for the game because that is my preference whenever action or battling is involved. The only other difficulties I had was taming the Draconewt as it wasn’t clear that “remaining in the middle” meant going the opposite direction of the arrow shown. Moreover, once you’ve given the required food to a Magnus to raise their affection toward you, you have to mount them and calm them. Personally, I find that to be a bit of a chore if I’m going to try and “catch em’ all”. However, your cave/barn area does seem rather large with dividing rooms so I can’t wait to see a bunch of Magnus roaming around!
What Lies Ahead
When exploring my farm, there is a decent plot size for gardening, a pond area to keep some fish, a crafting area for better gear, and a hot spring to replenish some stamina! The map of Vokka Island alone will take a lot more exploring, so all of Ethia will keep me busy questing for quite a long time. I’ll definitely have to be better prepared to go out there again because dying means returning to the town’s hospital (and to the next day), and your Magnus returning to your farm. So far though, I’m in love with every villager I’ve met and can’t wait to get to know them better, especially Emilia. I’ll also do anything for those little penguin villagers.
- Oct 1, 2019
Since I last played and reviewed Littlewood here, the sole developer Sean Young has made many improvements to this adorable farming simulation game. I rather enjoyed the pixel style graphics of the game, getting to know all of the villagers and fulfilling the requirements for them to move permanently, as well as shaping my whole town to my liking. The game is available now on Steam Early Access and continues to receive updates, such as this most recent and rather large feature added; Tarott Monster.
Now we can start collecting various Tarott Cards and do battle with certain villagers during big competitions that are annually held in Dirboros! The story behind these cards has to do with the fact that there are real monsters sealed away in them since the Dark Wizard’s defeat. There are 5 duelists to beat with varying elemental cards and they are as follows: Bridgette (Fire), Alister (Earth), Maya (Water), Lucius (Light), and Erika (Dark).
Not only will it be satisfying to collect these spooky, whimsical, and cute little cards but if you can manage to defeat The Big Five, you’ll receive some never-before-seen items such as badges, furniture like lamps and tables, as well as cool-looking statues to put on display! Meet your challengers at the new Card Shop and see if you have what it takes to win! Also, how fun is it to have a game inside of a game?!
This update is now live and Sean Young has Tweeted that his next focus for the game is to implement “Littlewood’s Pet System”. Below you can see an image of a cat and a dog which I am all too excited to learn more about! Don’t forget that Littlewood has also been confirmed for the Nintendo Switch so there’s a lot more coming our way.
For updates on another most anticipated simulation game, check out our news of Hokko Life here. Take a look at new hairstyles, updates on flower placement, the fishing mini-game, and more!
- Sep 28, 2019
Spellcaster University is developed by indie studio based in France, Sneaky Yak Studio, and has just released on September 24th, 2019 on Steam Early Access here. It is even currently on sale at 10% off from now until October 1st, 2019. This strategy simulation game is about building your own ‘Hogwarts’ for mages and training them. See below for more details about what to expect in its current form.
About Spellcaster University
In Spellcaster University, you take on the role of the director of a magic university in a heroic fantasy world. Build your school, manage your budget, recruit teachers. Will you make it a high place of black magic, with the best necromancy and demonology teachers? Or a school in harmony with nature to train druids and shamans? Or why not train adventurous mages, offering them options to learn how to fight and be discreet? But this will require surviving the ruthless attacks of the orc tribes and the controls of the education authorities.
Key Features
- Build your university with a mechanism of magic decks. Each game will be different.
- Manage the well-being of your students by building refectories, dormitories, rest rooms… and ensure their discipline with a dungeon.
- Customize your rooms with powerful artifacts such as Xar’Saroth’s raclette machine or the Soul Devouring Bed.
- Tame legendary creatures: dragons, fauns, pegasus, janitors…
- Push your students towards a glorious future. At the end of their courses, you discover their future (necromancer, archimage, peasant…) according to the success of their training, and win new bonuses.
- Select your students: traits, personality, alignment, wealth… each decision will have its consequences.
- Escape the armies of darkness by building your university in isolated environments: lake, mountain, desert, volcano, giant turtle back, etc….
- Collect powerful grimoires to strengthen your university and to confront increasingly hostile environments during a procedural campaign.
Looking for more magic and spooky Halloween fun this October? Check out our article here: Mildly Spooky Games You Should Play This Halloween. And for more magic school games, make sure to check out the latest on Witchbrook Stardew Valley of magic by Chucklefish.
- Sep 21, 2019
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!
We’ll keep you updated as the developers continue to post weekly news about their progress with Farm Folks. If you can’t wait to get farming now, check out the Nintendo eShop sale, including My Time at Portia!
- Aug 26, 2019
On August 30th, we will finally get our hands on the game we’ve been pining for. Re: Legend, by Magnus Games! With early access opening so soon, Magnus Games has used their regular 25th-of-the-month update on Kickstarter to talk about what we can expect to see in the world of Ethia. Quite literally, too. We got a good look at the world map.
Magnus Games also made a second map to highlight the smaller islands, which will be of much interest to explorers. Is that island basically just one HUGE STATUE? “Sunken Valphyr”? And the other island looks like one enormous, jewelled turtle shell! And over there is a massive shipwreck! We don’t know about you, but we can’t wait to explore these islands for ourselves! What will we find? Treasure? Special materials? Rare magnus? OH MY.
Explore
With the Re: Legend just about to enter early access, everything we see now is still very much subject to change. Magnus Games is looking forward to player feedback during this period, to refine and add to their game to make it the best it can be. Those of us who will be waiting for the full release are grateful to the pioneers who will play the game in its rougher, not-entirely-finished state. Re: Legend already looks great. Imagine how much fun it will be when it’s polished to its final lustre! Magnus Games hopes to complete the early access phase in 9 to 12 months.
Farm and go questing
Even in early access, there’s going to be lots to do. Not just finding and taming the game’s many magnus, but also farming and questing. In the screenshots Magnus Games posted, we saw evidence of several quests, such as to find the ‘forest island’ and to search for someone in trouble. We also need to get answers from a guardian? Answers to what? Who is the guardian! Our intrepid (and lucky!) early access players will get to learn these things for themselves in just a few days. We can’t wait for that sweet, sweet farming, whether on land or water.
Befriend
Also newly revealed in this update was the existence of shadow magnus. They are special (and difficult-to-see) versions of regular magnus, but with special stats that make them well worth carrying around lots of taming goods for. They really are tricky to see, though. We think one is supposed to be in this screenshot. Do you think it’s that blue bit by the spot of light?
If a regular Draconewt has stats like this, what kind of stats would a Shadow Draconewt have? And what will it look like?
We have so many questions, and look forward to all the feedback that will be coming from early access players very soon. If you want to get in on this great action, go wishlist Re: Legend on Steam and get set to sail the seas on the back of one of your aquatic magnus buddies!
In the meanwhile you can also check out some of our previous coverage of Re: Legend and its upcoming early access period.
- Aug 22, 2019
Ever since we’ve played an early demo of Alchemy Story, we have been keeping close tabs on all of Éloïse Laroche’s updates via Steam on this adorable farming simulation game. These new additions include: more villagers and their cute animal forms, mining and fishing, farm expansions, the Market, and our personal favorite feature; character outfit and hairstyle customization. Now you can play the most recent version of Alchemy Story on Steam Early Access right here starting today (August 22nd, 2019)! We here at myPotatoGames can’t wait to delve deeper into this magical and whimsical world and free the spellbound villagers from their curse. See below for a list of the newest features as well as the most updated trailer.
Key Features
- Care for your cute animals!
- Join a cozy village life!
- Learn the art of alchemy!
- Fish along lakes and rivers!
- Delve into the mine!
- Grow a garden and keep beehives!
- Lift the Witch’s curse & save the villagers!
- Gather lumber in the forest!
- Manage your own marketplace!
- Customize your outfit and hairstyle!
Steam Early Access Trailer
For the latest on Steam updates and/or DLCs, check out our articles here: Two Point Hospital Reveals Close Encounters DLC and Don’t Starve Together: Return of Them – Turn Of Tides Out Now on PC.
- Aug 14, 2019
It’s medieval. It’s pretty. It has good music. It’s…gridless? Foundation is a city-building simulation game on PC. We’ve probably all played them, and they tend to be different variations of the same thing. But Foundation is a little different, right from the start. It operates on a grid-free system. And the monuments you place are not pre-designed…you make them yourself. So your town can look different from anyone else’s.
Innovative…
To allow them to create the game they wanted, Polymorph Games started by making their own game engine, which they call Hurricane. They also hired composers to give their game the beautiful soundtrack you can hear in the video below. It’s clear that Foundation is a labour of love, and that Polymorph Games is serious about seeing their vision come to life just as they envisioned it.
So, what does the game being grid-less mean for you, the player? It means that the way you shape your city, and the way it grows, will be organic, not snapped-to-grid. Foundation appears to be a much more natural, personal experience, compared to the standard city-building sims. We love that you can even get up close to the people of your town, and they all look like real little individuals whom you can watch going about their daily lives.
You can also take part in quests and events, which are often part of larger scenarios. Depending on how you manage your game, different scenarios, with different quests associated, can be triggered, giving your town a different story each time you play. (Unless you always play the same way!)
…Yet familiar
But Foundation isn’t so different that lovers of the city-building genre won’t have enough to love. The familiar exists here, too, with resource-managing and ensuring that your population grows while keeping the villagers happy and healthy.
Foundation has been in Early Access on Steam since February 2019, and is still receiving regular updates and improvements. At this point the game appears to have less than about half of the content they mean for it to have upon completion. We do not yet know when the full release will be, or if Foundation will become available on any other platforms after launch. The estimate for now is to have the game in early access for about a year, so if you aren’t the type to want to help shape a developing game or squish bugs, keep your eye on Foundation in early 2020! Foundation is currently available in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. The game is also available on GOG.
If you like unusual takes on the city-building genre, then check out our coverage of Before We Leave, a city-building game that takes place across the universe.
- Aug 10, 2019
Alchemy Story is coming to Steam Early Access this August 22nd and you’ll be able to transmute six villagers and complete the first part of the storyline. Meaning, there will be some adorable animals walking around town that were former humans but have been cursed by the Witch. They need your help to remember who they are! You’ll also get to farm, fish, garden, forage, chop some trees, mine, and brew potions. See below for Éloïse Laroche’s, the sole creator of the game, newest update which includes one last spellbound character and some other amazing new additions.
Devlog – July 2019
After helping this mysterious cat complete his transmutation, all spellbound villagers will be liberated from the Witch’s curse! While the village will be restored, this doesn’t mean the end of your quest. On the contrary, a new chapter will begin once you meet the Witch…
Luckily, a few villagers weren’t spellbound and this fisherman, Aiden Luckywave, is one of them! You’ll be able to chat with him to get your first fishing pole, learn some fishing tips and complete deliveries to earn some gold.
Research and brew six new potions, such as the Forester Potion which will increase your luck when cutting down trees, or the Golden Brew to gain a random amount of gold when you drink it!
Unlock different outfits and hairstyles in the villager’s shops! Once an outfit is purchased, it’s placed in your dresser and you can change clothes from home. The plan is to add more clothes you can unlock from quests and secret areas around the village later on.
If you missed the last update for Alchemy Story, you can read our article here: Snacko, Alchemy Story, Ooblets, & Button City Indie Updates. You can also view some of our gameplay footage of an earlier demo of the game here: Alchemy Story – Demo Version Summary. Something that was mentioned in our demo was how adorable the chicks are with their little red bows so naturally we here at myPotatoGames will be all over that new in-game T-shirt.
