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  • svgAug 29, 2023Reviews

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    Blue Gravity was kind enough to provide a copy of Little Sim World for me to play!

    I received a pre-alpha demo version of Little Sim World to play, which means I got an early view of a game that is growing bigger and better nearly weekly. What I saw, however, was already incredibly promising.

    What Is It?

    Little Sim World is an adorable life sim that draws inspiration from popular games like The Sims, Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley and Pokemon. You are in charge of your very own little cartoon-looking sim person. Start the game by creating one using a number of customization options (with more to come later!), like hairstyles and color, clothing, and facial attributes. Then, pick out different personality traits like favorite foods and quirks. After that, you’re released into the world of London and set in front of your very dingy new home. 

    Really dingy. Your fence is broken in spots and the paint is flaking. The front door and windows have seen better days. The appliances in the kitchen are dirty and barely fit to use. At least the furniture looks worn, but comfortable and cozy. Your computer, however, looks like the old dinosaurs from way back when that ran Windows ‘95. 

    Worry not, though! You receive a meager paycheck from unemployment benefits that you can use to survive and maybe even fix up your new home. Or, you can hop on that ancient computer of yours and search for a new job! Pick from one of five career paths like athlete, culinary, science, journalist, or painter. Detective is also listed, but either isn’t available yet, or I haven’t reached an appropriate milestone to unlock it. Either way, you’ll Start with basic jobs like professional fan, dishwasher, lab cleaner, greeting card wordsmith, and brush washer. As you level up in skills and traits, you’ll be able to earn promotions that will get your better pay. Better pay means better food, clothes, and house decorations!

    The City

    There isn’t too much to the city just yet, but it’s beautifully drawn and animated. There aren’t any transition screens, either, so moving from one activity or building to another is smooth making it feel like a big open world for you to explore. No waiting on a silly dark screen with a loading bar!

    You’ll find several useful stores spread throughout London. Buy groceries needed to cook and level up your cooking skills with. Or trot on over to Simon’s Pub for some spirits and ready made meals. Get furniture from Futon Furniture and flooring or wallpaper from D&Y. Berry’s Electronics has all your appliance needs, while Banana21 Apparel provides for all your clothing needs!

    Not in the mood for shopping? Head to the gym to get your sweat on. Or go to the library to relax with a good book that’ll level your skills. Perhaps you need to edit your sim’s profile? Pay the Royal Snail a visit and take care of that real quick. The nearby museum is worth a visit, too. You’ll be able to donate items you’ve found to replenish the exhibits, as well as collect stamps for accomplishments. Throw in cars and busses driving around, as well as other people walking along the sidewalks, and London is full of life and things to do!

    Home Design

    The design aspect of Little Sim World is super simple. You buy the elements you want from the shops, like wallpaper from D&Y. Then, while at home, you’ll enter the build menu which is laid out in an easy, intuitive manner. There’s a remove tool to not only remove walls and items, but to get some money back for them. You click the design element you want to work with, like wallpaper, and you can click each individual wall you want papered.

    Or click and drag to cover the whole room. It’s easy to change whole rooms in this manner. Just be sure you have enough money. Buying the design at the shop merely unlocks the use of it. Placing it costs money too!Placing items is just as easy, too. Select the furniture you want to work with and simply click to place it where you want.

    This part of the game is so easy and so simple to learn and do. It was fun designing my sim’s home instead of it being a chore. Switching flooring or rearranging furniture is quick and painless. I can foresee many, many hours spent simply building a fun house.

    Sim’s Needs

    Little Sim World isn’t just all about the fun shopping sprees and exploring, though. Your sim is essentially a real person. They need to eat, drink, and use the toilet. Bathing is essential to a happy and healthy sim, too. Of course entertainment and exercise needs should be looked after as well.

    It’s up to you to fulfill all those needs, and I have to say, that’s a full time job on its own. Maybe it’s because I like to push things instead of balancing my time appropriately, but my sim always feels like it’s starving or needs a shower. Learning to balance my time between working, cooking, having fun, and other needs will take some practice. The challenge is fun, though. It doesn’t feel like a hindrance, but an aspect to rise up to and overcome.

    Final Thoughts

    Little Sim World has quite a few other game elements that aren’t included in this early version. Finding love, traveling the city via car, bus, or underground, even having a roommate if you want to play with a friend. And if they implement those with the same care and effort as they’ve done with the rest of what’s in the demo, it’ll be excellent! One of the planned additions is the ability to choose Identity attributes. You’ll distribute points among attributes like smart, health, charm, courage, energy, and luck. I suspect these will help determine how well your sim does in their romantic relationships, as well as maybe their job, and overall life. 

    There is constantly something to do. Care for the sim’s needs, get them to work on time, and fulfilling tasks are all just what’s available in the demo. Add in romance and whatever exciting new features that are planned for Little Sim World, and it’ll be hard to be bored with the game. 

    As for designing your home and clothing options, the demo has a limited view of each. I imagine Little Sim World will have a much larger variety of everything upon release and I can’t wait. The clothes and design items are already great. I look forward to even more variety for cute or dark aesthetics! 

    I for one cannot wait for the full release of Little Sim World. It’s bound to be an adorably great time.

    Coming Soon!

    This lovely little game is projected to come out in the beginning of 2024! You can find it on Steam now to add it to your Wishlist.

    Want more reviews? Checkout my review for Ooblets or Roots of Pacha!

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  • svgAug 2, 2023Snack Size News

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    Moonfrost is an upcoming free-to-play farming sim, and it is beautiful! How you play and where your journey will take you is completely up to you. You’ll start by customizing your very own character. Decide how you want to look, or who it is you want to create, then embark on your big adventure. Meet a growing cast of characters that range from legendary heroes, ancient evils, and lovable souls. Build friendships as well as find someone to fall in love with!

    You’ll also have your very own home and farmstead to care for. Build a beautiful house and decorate it to match your tastes. Plant crops, harvest produce, and care for animals. Moonfrost also has fishing and resource gathering. And if you get bored of farming, go on an adventure through an ever-expanding world where you’ll come across secrets and experience the familiar and the fantastical!

    Moonfrost is coming to PC and mobile soon.

    Looking for more magical farm sims? Check out Fae Farm and Witchbrook.

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  • svgJul 26, 2023News

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    In Millennials, you’ll create your very own college freshman. Experience the prime of your youth while also experiencing the ups and downs of college life. Attend classes, work, make enemies, and forge friendships. Even chill out and decorate your dorm room!

    When you create your college freshman in Millennials, you have control over what type of person you make. Choose qualities and skills to create a hard-working bookworm or an extroverted party animal. Make time to network with those around you, as it can make college life more fun. Or go the lone wolf route and avoid making friends at all. Join a sorority or fraternity and take part in mysterious initiations. Even throw parties or arrange annual events. If that doesn’t appeal to you, though, you can join a club or just forge friendships and maybe even find love. 

    You’ll even have to find the perfect work-life balance while you’re at it! Partying is fun, but you’ll need to attend classes and study in order to pass exams. Mix in working part time to pay for tuition, and you’ll have to manage your time in Millennials really well! Just don’t forget to have fun, because all work and no play is dull. Oh, and don’t forget about your reputation on campus. Network with influential students, complete goals, and accumulate good grades to become a campus celebrity. 

    Coming Soon

    You can Wislist Millennials on Steam now! There is no current release date listed.

    Looking for more life sims? Check out Palia, an upcoming cozy MMO. There’s also the adorable Japanese Rural Life.

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  • svgJul 19, 2023Snack Size News

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    Songs of Glimmerwick is a charming story-driven RPG where you play as a young witch. You’ll be attending the renowned university of magic in the land of Glimmerwick. Complete narrative quests that focus on unique characters and an intriguing story. Attend classes to learn new magic, have fun at bustling festivals, keep an ear out for some juicy drama. Don’t forget to listen out for some mysterious rumors. Learn new skills like talking to frogs, plant crops, and even cast spells using the power of music! 

    Coming soon to Steam

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  • svgJun 14, 2023Reviews

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    Welcome to Everdream Valley, an inviting and cozy little piece of the world where your grandparents have a farm. Unfortunately, Grandma and Grandpa went on vacation for a while, and the farm has fallen into disrepair. They need help restoring the farm, and your parents have volunteered you! You’ll get to spend the whole summer with your grandparents, restore the farm, take care of adorable animals, and experience the magic that comes out at night!

    An Abundance of Animals

    I’m not sure I’ve played a game with quite so many animal options. Stardew Valley has a handful of the barnyard staples, Wylde Flowers has recently added more options, and so on. Everdream Valley, though, has a heavy focus on the animals, and I love it. There are pigs, cows, chickens, horses, ducks, deer, geese, alpacas, sheep, bees, wild boar, magpies, beavers, frogs, beetles, butterflies, mice, snails, and different kinds of fish. Nevermind the different variations of the farm animals. Each one has several different breeds, which makes for a colorful barnyard. Nevermind that they’re round, and you can pet them. You’ll even get to choose from a variety of dog breeds, and have a cute little kitty running around

    At the time I played this beautiful game, the only way to get new animals was by visiting the merchant, then pet them to make them follow you, and run to the farm. Chickens you can carry, thankfully, as petting only makes them follow you for a whole 20 seconds.

    Pair the 20 second time with the fact that they’re essentially feral unless they’re on your farm with their wooden sign. So they run if the 20 seconds is up, and you need to chase them to pet them again. This mechanic made some of the quests where you fetch critters, well, annoying.  However, the Everdream Valley team listened to the constructive criticism and introduced a magic flute that makes animal following SO much easier. Play the flute and they’ll follow. Play the flute again and they stop following. 

    The Map

    The map is HUGE… and lifeless. There are quite a few areas to run around and discover new animals, useful items to grab, and bushes and trees to take back to your orchard. From a beautiful forest, to lush fields, and winding rivers, Everdream Valley has a beautiful atmosphere, but the map is almost too big. You can’t walk through the rivers (which look more like shallow streams), so you’re stuck using a single bridge to access each area past the farm. Unfortunately, the bridges are usually not in a convenient position, so trekking across the map is a time-consuming undertaking. It is nice to just wander around and take in the beauty of nature, though.

    That said, things feel a little empty, too. There’s you, Grandma, Grandpa, and the merchant at the farm. That’s all you have to interact with, besides the animals. It makes for a lonely experience, though it does allow you to focus on farming and quests instead of running around to build relationships with people. So, maybe it’s more of a nice little break from the norm.

    The Minigames

    Every night you dream of a talking scarecrow who shows up with a handy roulette wheel. Spin the wheel to see where your dreams take you. Perhaps you’ll be a duck fighting to get her ducklings in a row, or a goat jumping across an obstacle course, or even your trusty dog defending the farm from thieving wolves.

    The way these minigames are used make for an interesting change from the usual. What minigame you play will be different night to night (unless you have bad luck like me), and you can even skip them altogether. You forfeit any rewards you would have gotten from them, but I really enjoy having the option to just not do the minigame when I’m not feeling like completing them. Some of them are a little annoying, too

    I’ll admit I’m not the most dexterous gamer, so maybe it’s on me, but I felt like the goat minigame was difficult when simply walking knocked over obstacles, which reset the game. Or the magpie game was difficult to maintain an appropriate flying height without crashing to the ground. My biggest complaint is the wolves not only stealing your sheep if you don’t chase them off in the dream, but they break SO many fences. I dreaded spinning that minigame, but much like the addition of the magic flute, the Everdream Valley team listened and added a mode that made the wolves a lot more lenient. 

    Final Thoughts

    I know I brought up a few issues I had with the game, but overall the game is nice. There’s no pressure to complete quests as soon as possible. Run around and explore, farm, and decorate your treehouse whenever you wish, and complete those quests as you feel like it. And we can’t forget Grandma and Grandpa. Aside from giving out quests, they’re not just there for random conversation. Every morning Grandpa actually gives you crops and animal products they’ve collected, which you’ll need to sell to earn money to buy more animals.

    What’s really great about this game is their development team. It’s not a perfect game, but instead of ignoring player feedback, the devs accept it graciously, then actually implement changes. From the magic flute for easier animal following, to the more lenient dream wolves option, Everdream Valley has seen quite a few excellent quality of life changes in their recent update. There’s now object rotation to make decorating easier and better. You can now turn off animal breeding, too, if you’re being overrun by babies.  And for those of us who get motion sick, a crosshair has been added to give us a visual anchor for smoother, more enjoyable gameplay.

    There’s a LOT of great work going into this game, it seems, and I’m excited to see what new features get added.

    Overall, I’d give Everdream Valley

    You can find Everdream Valley on Steam and PlayStation, with an upcoming release on Nintendo Switch.

    Want more reviews? Check out this Roots of Pacha review, as well as this one on Ooblets.

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  • svgJun 7, 2023Indie Highlight

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    Renovate, Decorate, Plan, and Manage the Town

    Congratulations! You’re the new mayor of Go-Go Town, a declining, rundown tourist destination. One short phone call was all it took, and now it’s up to you to not only take care of this crumbling place, but return it to the vibrant tourist town it used to be. Can you make Go-Go Town prosperous again?

    Luckily, you’re not alone in your endeavors. The aging population of Go-Go Town will help teach you the ins and outs of being the mayor, starting with construction. Part of your job will be to collect materials and repair current buildings across town, or build new structures and shops. You’ll also have a number of power tools at your disposal, from chainsaws and drills to leaf blowers and trimmers.

    Once you’ve repaired the town, you’ll get to decorate it, as well as plan how you want the town laid out and what shops will populate the streets. It’s your job to decide which types of shops to build, who will run the shops, how those shops will bring in money for Go-Go Town, and how to manage the supply chain. Will a new arcade with neon lights do well? Or perhaps a burger joint for tourists to grab lunch at will be better? Oh, but what about a souvenir shop? Everyone loves taking home a memento of their vacation!

    Running a whole town will keep you busy, but the residents will help you out. Expand the industries in Go-Go Town by hiring miners, fishermen, lumberjacks, shopkeepers, and more. With the right combination of tools and people, the town will run smoothly. When you run out of room in your now prosperous town, you can expand. Unlock useful new tools and skills in the tech tree so you can build bigger houses, terraform the land, and much more.

    Make Go-Go Town an incredible place to visit, and some of the tourists may even decide to stay!

    Coming Soon!

    Unfortunately, Go-Go Town! doesn’t have a release date available. However, you can Wishlist it on Steam!

    For more cute life sims, check out Dinkum, My Time at Sandrock, and Wylde Flowers!

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  • svgJan 31, 2023Indie Highlight

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    Farm, Learn Magic, Befriend the Town

    In Wylde Flowers, you play as Tara as she starts her new life in the town of Fairhaven, located on a small rural island. She may be a city girl turned farmer with little outdoors experience, but she has the can-do attitude needed to help Gramma Wylde take care of the family farm.

    Learn how to plant and care for crops, mind animals, and gather materials like mushrooms and wood. You can also learn to fish, craft items, and much more!

    Wylde Flowers features a diverse multicultural cast of characters.  Get to know each of them through talking, quests, and story moments. Each one has a compelling backstory and even personal mysteries to discover. You may even find romance and love in one of them! Or if you prefer, platonic relationships and friendships are available and equally fruitful.

    Rural life isn’t the only new thing for Tara, though. She’s also learning to become a witch! You will learn how to fly your broomstick, craft potions, control the weather and the seasons, and turn into a cat. Join the local coven who will guide you in your lessons.

    Available on Steam Now

    Wylde Flowers is already available to play on Apple Arcade and is now also available on Nintendo Switch and Steam. There is currently a free demo available on Steam, too.

    The game is also getting a huge free content update, take a sneak peak here.

    Check out Sun Haven or Super Zoo Story more cute sim games.

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  • svgAug 3, 2022Indie Highlight

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    Adventure, Gather, and Create With Friends in a Vibrant High Fantasy World

    Palia is a free-to-play open-world MMO game that is still in the early stages of play testing. The game boasts sprawling and beautiful landscapes, as well as numerous avtivities. Players can look forward to an ever-changing adventure with quests and fun NPCs to encounter. However, the fun doesn’t stop there.

    Palia will also include all of the fun hallmarks that makes Animal Crossing so entertaining, and more. Players will be able to choose from activities such as fishing, cooking, hunting, foraging, gardening, bug catching, and mining. Building and decorating a home will also be available. So, gather some friends and adventure together, or relax and build your homestead alone in the beautiful world of Palia.

    The developers, Singularity 6, recently included a blog post about the update and the opening of the Alpha 2 testing phase, which shed only a little light on new features. What the update did reveal was new color palettes and new customization features for home decorating.

    A decorated room in a home showing decoration options added in Alpha 2 phase.

    Alpha 2 Testing Phase

    July 28th, 2022 saw the beginning of the Alpha 2 testing phase of play testing. Palia developers announced via their official Twitter and Facebook pages that they invited a new batch of players who signed up as playtesters, and Alpha 1 players are also able to return for Alpha 2. The developers are not only looking to remedy bugs and receive feedback on features, but they’re hoping to create a friendly and welcoming early game experience so players will be ready for what may come in the adventures later in the game.

    Palia still does not have an official release date at this time. However, while expected to release first on PC, there is the possibility of console releases at a later date. And while you may have missed your invitation for the Alpha 2 testing phase, sign-ups for future testing phases are still open at http://palia.com.

    While you wait for the game to release, scratch that relaxing and cozy sim game itch by checking out Sun Haven.

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