Aug 28, 2024Indie Highlight
Horticular is a relaxing gardening game with a magical twist. Developed by inDirection Games, this beautifully vibrant game begins with you being magically summoned by garden gnomes. They want you to restore a garden that was abandoned by its previous caretaker. So, take on this huge task, but at your own pace, and build a lush garden to be proud of!
You have total creative freedom to turn this garden into whatever you want. Use hundreds of unlockable surface types to create biomes with different terrain. Plant tons of different kinds of flowers and plants. Even place fun decorative items like pillars, planter boxes, and more to create your dream garden. Of course, you want to build the garden in a way that it’ll attract creatures! Each critter has requirements before it will move in, though. So, plan accordingly and soon your garden will overflow with plants and animals!
You also need to maintain the magic of the garden in Horticular. Animals will become unhappy, the garden will decay, and you’ll see corrupted agents sent by your nemesis show up. With the help of the garden gnomes and your abilities, though, you’ll be able to prevent all of that. There are also garden upgrades you can purchase. These upgrades will increase your skills and unlock new items. And while each playthrough will be different, no choice locks you out of upgrades. You’ll be able to unlock everything every time!
You can find Horticular now on Steam!
Like gardening? Try Botany Manor!
Feb 22, 2024Indie Highlight
Welcome to Minami Lane! This lovely little life sim by indie developers Doot and Blibloop is a short, but wholesome play. It lets you build your very own street where you can decorate and manage shops. Build cozy homes to attract villagers to your street. Choose from a number of different colors for the roof and walls to create the perfect look. Your villagers need more than just a comfortable place to live, though!
Keep the villagers of Minami Lane happy by meeting several of their needs. Beautify the neighborhood with decorations, shops, and attractions. Parks add a beautiful pop of natural color and provide the perfect spot to relax. Ramen shops serve up delicious steaming bowls of food. Boba shops give villagers tasty treats to boost their mood. There are other shops your villagers may want, too. Plus, each shop has its own inventory and effects on the neighborhood. Play missions for a challenge or sandbox mode to focus on the creative side of building.
Minami Lane releases in just 5 short days on Steam! Grab the demo now to prepare for the release on February 28th.
If you prefer a free-form building game with no objectives, try Tiny Glade!
Dec 20, 2023Feature
We’re another week closer to Christmas and I can’t wait! I love going around the neighborhood looking at people’s decorations. I think that’s part of why ACNH having lights in trees feels so satisfying to me. What else is super exciting about the Christmas season, is the new gaming systems and games you get! And with Steam Decks being fairly popular, what better way to celebrate the approach of the holiday with some gift ideas for that system?
The following list only features games that have been Steam Deck verified, to save the gamer in your life some troubles and heartache!
My Time at Sandrock is the long awaited sequel to My Time at Portia. And just like the prequel, this one takes place in a post-apocalyptic world 330 years after the Day of Calamity destroyed a lot of modern technology. You accept the role as a builder of Sandrock, a desert community. Gather resources to build machines, befriend locals, fight enemies, and lead the town to economic prosperity! Uncover the backstories for over 30 NPCs while you forge friendships with them. Complete side quests, play fun minigames, and even team up with a friend to play the game together!
APICO is a lovely game where you leave your boring city job and return to Port APICO, where you grew up, and return to your beekeeping roots. The APICO islands feature a set of lush, beautiful environments for you to explore. Each biome has its own breed of bees for you to discover. Gather resources to use in your studies or crafting. Make and sell Apicola (honey) and other beekeeping items you will discover. Play fun beekeeping minigames, without the stings! More importantly, breed different cross breeds of bees and discover 30 new species to help repopulate the APICO islands with. Plus, uncover the secrets of the islands while you explore.
I even have a review of APICO here, if you want more information!
Cornucopia offers the same comfortable features players have grown to love from the farming game genre, but in a lovely 2.5D pixel art style. You plant 52 types of fruit trees, 15 types of berry bushes, and grow 52 different crops, including their different artisan varieties. Sell crops or cook them up in one of 200 different recipes! There’s also logging, fishing, mining, and pet breeding to occupy your days. Also enter the pets into competitive races or use them to help you fight monsters. Then, kick back and relax with some crafting and decorating. Unlock furniture and decorations to turn your farm into your favorite getaway. Make friends with Cornucopia’s NPCs, too. Who knows, maybe one of the over 47 NPCs will catch your fancy! Romance them, go on dates, and unlock their romantic cut scenes. Even marry one, start a family, and decorate their room in your house.
Play as a simple journeyman blacksmith in While the Iron’s Hot. You’re looking to become a master blacksmith. This game features an exciting combat-free experience. Journey to the mystical lands of Ellian where you’ll meet a cast of quirky characters. Explore tunnels full of puzzles and resources. Master every step of the blacksmithing process. Smelt ore, turn metal into ingots, and shape them into useful items. Use your skills to repair machinery to open up new areas to explore. Craft equipment that helps you explore new regions. Even work hard to restore the defunct blacksmithing town of Stal. Revitalizing the village just might prove to Eillian’s artisans that you’re worthy of being a master blacksmith!
In Loddlenaut, you play as an interstellar custodian who has been hired by the spacefaring mega corporation GUPPI to clean up their mess. They’ve inundated GUP-14 with pollution, and want you to restore the planet. This is an open-world ocean adventure where you’ll get to explore this beautiful alien planet, along with the corporate ruins of GUPPI. You’ll find remnants of their buildings, ships, and machinery that have all sunken to the bottom of the game’s ocean. Use your bubble gun, clean up the trash, remove oil spills, and uncover clues about the past inhabitants. Unlock better gadgets to help you clean up different types of ocean pollution. Recycle the trash you collect and use it to craft items. Even befriend cute little axolotl-looking creatures called loddles!
Did you get a new Switch instead? Or perhaps you got one for someone and want some games to go with it. Either way, check out my list of 5 Farming Games for Your New Switch!
Aug 30, 2023Indie Highlight
Meet Mûn, a Junior Ranger from the Interstellar Patrol, long before the events of Deiland: Pocket Planet and Summer in Mara. Play as Mûn in this tale about growing up, making friends, and connecting with nature. You’ve crash landed on the unexplored planet of Ankora and are stranded there. You’ll need to craft your own tools in order to collect resources to survive in this brand new world. Ankora: Lost Days will have you exploring this beautiful new planet and building your very own home.
Ankora is a mysterious planet with a wide variety of unique biomes to explore. Trek through sandy deserts or snowy meadows, frolic in idyllic meadows and cross magnificent rivers while searching for secrets hidden in Ankora: Lost Days. Even settle down somewhere to build your very own home. You can terraform the area, too, to create your ideal living space. Then, learn new recipes and skills as you explore the planet, and make friends with the anks, a group of toothy humanoid creatures.
Ankora: Lost Days is available now on Steam! There’s even a bundle available that includes Ankora, Summer in Mara, and Deiland: Pocket Planet if you wanted to try all three. You can also find it on Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation.
You can take a look at Deiland: Pocket Planet and Summer in Mara, too.