Nov 29, 2023Indie Highlight
Welcome to Cheaphaven! It’s a short, but charming game full of agriculture and delightful NPCs. Play as a cute little lizard as you get to know a cast of NPCs who live in a nearby small town. Take time to clear the land of trees and debris in order to start your very own farm. Grow some crops, raise some chickens, and fish for a while. Even go shopping in town and collect fun cosmetics for your character like hats!
You won’t get hundreds of hours out of Cheaphaven, but you will encounter a few great hours of relaxed escapism in it!
You can find this cute game on Steam now!
Craving more farming sims? Check out Little-Known Galaxy and Wish Upon a Llama!
Nov 15, 2023Mobile Game
There’s no lack of farming sims, I know. Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley, Coral Island, Fae Farm, Paleo Pines, and so many more different iterations are out there for everyone to try. Farming has almost completely become synonymous with “cozy gaming” lately. What there is a lack of, is good phone game options for on-the-go gaming. Sprout Valley recently came out for both iOS and Android, and is a great paid option. It’s adorable and simple. However, if you’re looking for a free game to try, Harvest Valley might be right up your alley!
Harvest Valley is a simple farming sim where you can pick your own character from a few presets. You’re the new owner of a run-down farm, and it’s up to you to restore it and make it great! Clean up piles of debris to make room for farm plots and useful equipment. Plant watermelons, potatoes, and a variety of other crops to sell. Even travel to neighboring farms to help out NPCs with different farming tasks like planting, watering, and vegetable sorting.
You can find this cute farming sim on Android and iOS now!
Nov 9, 2023Indie Highlight
What happens when you take the classic farming sim, throw in some microbe research, and a dash of romance? You get Little-Known Galaxy! This adorable pixel graphics game has you playing the main character, a new captain-in-training. You work with your crew to solve the mysteries of an ancient relic found on the Grey Planet, and live a life full of exploration, crafting, and of course farming!
Your crew initially starts small, with just 20 people, but will slowly grow as you meet new friends. Little-Known Galaxy has all kinds of different NPCs like full families and single people. You get to build relationships with them though chatting, gifting, and more. There are also 10 single people ready for you to woo them! Win their affection and you can eventually marry one, too. Not everyone is human, though. An alien, an android, and a genetic clone are all possible romance characters!
When not romancing and befriending your crew, Little-Known Galaxy lets you engage in quite a few different activities. Take off to new worlds to explore to gather resources for crafting. Collect alien artifacts and gems while out exploring to fill in your museum. Raise cute little pet creatures called Xeno. You’ll need to give them love, attention, and plenty of food to see them thrive. Complete microbe research, or use the microbes you find for crafting or selling. Even rise through the ranks to become a full-fledged captain by completing missions and keeping crew morale up. And when you want to kick back and relax, spend time decorating your living space!
Little-Known Galaxy is coming soon to Steam. There is currently no release date listed.
One Lonely Outpost is another space-based farming sim.
Nov 2, 2023News
Roots of Pacha is a lovely farming and life sim set in the Stone Age. You and your tribe mates will discover new ideas and inventions, as well as bring those ideas to life. Improve your community as you explore the world. Tame animals, make friends, even get married! And of course, you’ll run your own farm where you plant a variety of crops to use in jams and other recipes.
Now, Roots of Pacha is receiving another fun update that brings more content, and goodies! This update will add a new animal, called the auochs. This cow-like creature will be tameable by playing its own unique song. Move them to a barn on your land and gather fur and milk from them. Plus, they may even play a major role in future game updates!
Roots of Pacha is adding quite a few new additions for NPCs, too. Voda will be romanceable now. You can join her in the woods to visit with the wolves, and more. Plus, there will be new NPC cut scenes, as well as gifts from those NPCs you’ve achieved a high enough friendship level with. Receive 16 new recipes, 10 new hats/masks, 11 furniture pieces, and 2 new accessories. Then there’s unions. Players have wanted to be able to break unions (marriages) for a while now, and now they’ll be able to! So, if you like to marry everyone in a game for completionism, this is your chance!
Finally, and perhaps the most exciting, is that Roots of Pacha is coming to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation November 28th! An Xbox port will come sometime next year. You can also find it on Steam now.
Oct 26, 2023Indie Highlight
Tales of Autumn is an open-ended wild farming RPG with an emphasis on raising animals and managing terrain. Restore the abandoned ranch to create a thriving new home for yourself. Befriend and tame cute wild creatures, as well as adorable farm animals. Each animal has their own specific requirements for living on your ranch. Meet those requirements to have happy, healthy animals! Change the terrain around the ranch to create different biomes. These biomes will allow the growth of specific crops and attract new creatures for you to tame. And don’t forget the fish, either. Grab your fishing pole and lures to catch a variety of fish.
When you’re not working on the ranch, take time to get to know the people of Tales of Autumn. The inviting town will reward your good behavior and ignore you for poor behavior. Receive gifts, discounts, and helping hands for being friendly with the people of your town, or they’ll keep their distance and shutter their doors to you for not being friendly! Talking to the townspeople will let you hear about their lives, though, and involve them in your own. Plus, you can attend town festivals and experience character and animal events.
Tales of Autumn is available now on Steam.
Wish Upon a Llama is another adorable game that has a focus on raising animals!
Oct 25, 2023Indie Highlight
We’re just a week away from Halloween, and I’m so incredibly excited for it! What better way to celebrate it than with another cozy, yet spooky game to play? This time, we have Harvest Island, a farming sim with a horror twist. The gods demand a harvest offering, your dad is telling white lies, and the island itself seems to be hiding something.
Harvest Island is a narrative-driven horror farming sim game. You can farm crops, collect creatures from the tidepools like starfish and horseshoe crabs, and even forage items like coconuts and seaweed. Spend time catching fish, which you can also offer up to the gods in return for blessings that help you with your farming and crafting. You can also cook up the fish in tasty meals for yourself to restore your stamina!
Explore different areas and find the hidden spots of Harvest Island like a beautiful waterfall hiding a cave behind it, or the vending machine placed in the dark underground room at the beach. Craft different tools like ladders and rope to help you explore the island further, help you on your farm, and progress the story further. You can even befriend the animals you find in your adventure. Offer them food or a friendly pat, and they may reward you with items or show you an undiscovered place!
This deceitful island waits for you to explore it.
You can find this spooky farming sim on Steam now!
For more Halloween fun, check out Book of Hours. Plus, here’s a list of Slightly Spooky Games You Should Play This Halloween.
Oct 11, 2023Reviews
It’s Steam Next Fest time again! Last time, I found five cute and cozy games to play and wrote about them here. This time around, there are 10 games I thought fit the bill. These games are a fairly wide variety, so hopefully you’ll find one you love, too! One has combat, but the rest are perfectly relaxing and stress-free, so perfect for kicking back for some fun. If you haven’t tried any of these demos yet, I suggest you do it!
First up on the Steam Next Fest list is Bug & Seek! Once the lifeblood of the town, as well as the center of its economy, the Insectarium now stands abandoned. Someone stole all of the bugs and displays in the dead of night one day. Now, it’s up to you to restore the Insectarium, and even solve the mystery of the Great Bug Heist! Catch over 175 real-life types of bugs. Use those bugs to fulfill requests, as well as restore the Insectarium to the once fantastic bug display it used to be.
This demo was much shorter than I expected, and left me wanting more! With its charming pixel graphics and simple gameplay, Bug & Seek promises to be a perfectly relaxing game.
Coming this year to Steam!
Cupid Island is a cute life simulator all about bringing together couples and nurturing their blossoming relationships! You play as a Cupid, and it’s your job to explore the human world and make couples. Once coupled, you can bring those humans to live on Cupid Island where you’ll collect their Love, Joy, and Passion which will help expand the island. Build and customize absolutely everything from your own home to the looks of your couples. Farm, fish, dance, and even play soccer in your down time. And who knows, maybe you’ll find your very own true love!
This was another short Steam Next Fest demo that I really enjoyed. It’s adorable, charming, and just so positive. It definitely will give you the warm and fuzzies!
Coming to Steam January 2024!
If you enjoyed Forager, give Vexlands a try. You’re a lone survivor deep within a cursed land and you need to explore the world by unlocking surrounding tiles. You do this by gathering resources that appear around you, sell them, and use that money to unlock new tiles. Those tiles will reveal more resources, loot, dungeons, monsters, and even disasters! Unlocking a tile also cleanses it of the mysterious curse surrounding it. Craft gear to help you in your adventures, and even build your very own home base with decor. You’ll also unlock the ability to raise animals as you grow your home base. There’s even cute hats to collect!
Coming soon to Steam!
In Manitas Kitchen, you play as Trexito, a Tyrannosaurus who has a dream to make pizzas! Your short little arms make that difficult, though. Under the supervision of a tiny, rude boss, however, you’ll gather a team of other dinosaurs to make up a kitchen full of the best cooks. With a humorous crime drama narrative, you’re sure to have a ton of fun with this one. You’ll learn to make pizzas and get to unlock new recipes as you buy ingredients from the store.
I found this Next Fest demo to be quite a bit of fun. You get a little bit of story and a little bit of gameplay to get a peek into the whole picture. I did find Trexito to feel a little slow, and the movement felt a little clunky. However, this one seems like it’ll be a ton of fun once released!
Coming to Steam and PlayStation this year!
Snufkin: Melody of Moomin Valley is a charming game with a classic storybook art style. It’s easy to play and easy to navigate with a compelling storyline. You play as Snufkin, who’s returned to the valley after a long winter, only to find a series of parks has popped up. These parks ruin the natural beauty of Moomin Valley, and Snufkin’s determined to get rid of them all. Explore the beautiful valley as you remove ugly signs, knock over unsightly statues, and dismantle grotesque park fencing. Complete puzzles and gain friendly help using your trusty harmonica. Even sneak around park patrols to restore the beautiful valley to what it once was!
I loved this demo. It’s an absolutely gorgeous game. I felt like I’d been dropped down into one of my childhood storybooks. Plus, it’s easy to learn how to play. It’s perfect for relaxing after a long day, and great for adults and kids alike!
Coming to Steam and consoles early 2024!
Ever wanted to escape city life and run a cute, cozy little cafe out in the woods? Now you can in this Steam Next Fest demo, Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe! This game is a relaxing cafe management game where you complete simple rhythm minigames to bake tasty treats. Serve a variety of adorable animal customers, and even talk to them while they enjoy their food. Even decorate the cafe to your liking with different wall colors, flooring options, windows, signs, and more! You can also design custom t-shirts to give away to your customers as a thank you.
This demo was WAY too short. I got to experience a single customer, made one item for that customer, and decorated the cafe with a few options. I wanted more! What was there was so, so cute, though. Definitely keep your eyes on this one!
Coming to Steam soon!
Time to Morp is like Pokemon meets automated machine production, and I’m all about it! You’re in charge of building up this planet, starting with making use of the cute little creatures name Morps. Build them suitable enclosures, and feed them different materials to watch them transform and produce resources! Explore a vibrant, colorful world in search of new Morps, new resources, and exciting new biomes. Then, settle in and build a network of pipes, pumps, wires, tubes, and more to create an automated system. Use it to feed your Morps, or direct them where to go, and more!
This demo was a lot of fun. The colors are super vibrant, but work really well within the game. The Morps are fun to take care of, and exploring is interesting with the wild variety of terrain and plants. Plus, the people you interact with are quirky, which makes for fun dialogue. This game doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Coming to Steam early 2024!
Next up on my Steam Next Fest list is Horticular! You’ve been magically summoned by gnomes to restore a garden that’s seen better days. You’ll engage in a fantastic world where you have total creative freedom. Build and expand your garden. Use hundreds of unlockable surface types to create lush grasslands, lavish pond habitats, and ornate rivers. Decorate with a variety of items and plants, too. Create inviting habitats to attract back animal friends in order to restore the ecosystem. Just be sure to maintain the magic elements as magic will help you with unhappy animals, garden decay, and corrupted agents sent to sabotage you!
I really enjoyed this demo, too. It was relaxing, even though there were objectives to complete. There wasn’t a rush to complete them, and I could rearrange and redo my garden however I wanted. Plus, the sheer number of items promised in the full game, just makes me more excited. This will be the perfect game for designing gardens!
Coming to Steam soon!
Chill Town promises to be a soothing blend of idle game and life sim. And really, it reminds me of ACNH, but people instead of anthropomorphic creatures. You run around collecting resources on a beautiful island. Catch bugs, visit the shops or town hall, fish, farm, and tame cute creatures. Unleash your creativity in build mode and create your perfect home using a variety of different decor items. Even add your personal touch to the outside of your home with benches, light posts, and more. Even take care of your very own furry friend!
This demo was super cute. You got to interact with some of the townspeople and get an idea of what they’re like, while learning how to fish and collect items. I’m thinking this will be a great alternative to players looking for more ACNH-like games!
Coming to Steam soon!
A New Leaf: Memories is an adorable new farming sim where you wake up on a mysterious beach with no memories of how you got there. The mayor has graciously gifted you a plot of land, and the townspeople helped equip you with the necessary tools. Grow a number of fruits and vegetables on your farm, and sell the produce or use them to cook fun recipes. Explore the island to find a network of caves where you can gather resources. Even take a moment to fish in the different bodies of water found across the island. Plus, raise farm animals, complete quests and build relationships, befriend an adorable cat or dog, and decorate! You’ll be able to customize your look, as well as change your clothes. And of course decorate your home to create a cozy escape from farm work!
I’m sure we’ve all been eagerly awaiting A New Leaf: Memories, and thankfully they released this demo during this Steam Next Fest, because boy was it adorable. The demo shares just the basic first steps, but it was beautiful to run around and explore. Plus, the plot of land you get for your home is massive! I can’t wait to see all of the fun farms people create!
Coming soon to Steam!
Oct 5, 2023Indie Highlight
Next up for games to get you into the spirit of Halloween, there’s Farm For your Life! Your village was hit by a heavy storm that damaged a lot. Then, an apocalypse happened, and now there are zombies everywhere. Together with your fellow survivors, rebuild your little community into a sustainable life. Cultivate a flourishing farm and run a successful restaurant while dealing with the undead!
Farm For your Life combines farming, tower defense, and time management elements into an unbloody survival game. It’s a light-hearted mix of casual and horror elements, making it perfect for casual gamers looking for just a little bit of spooky. You’ll set up your farm plot and plant a variety of fruits and vegetables. Care for your crops as you ward off the zombie hoard. Build mazes and towers to thwart those vicious vegetarian undead. You can even engage in a story mode, or a peaceful mode is available for players who just want to farm!
You can find Farm for your Life on Steam, Xbox, Switch, and PlayStation now!