Open world game Archives - myPotatoGames
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All posts tagged in Open world game

  • svgDec 20, 2023Feature

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    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

    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

    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

    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. 

    While the Iron’s Hot

    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!

    Loddlenaut

    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!

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  • svgMar 15, 2023Mobile Game

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    Explore An Open-World and Compete in Courses

    Some of you might be familiar with mobile game developer Foxie Ventures. They’ve put out games such as Virtual Sim Story, Wolf Tales, Dino Tamers, and Horse Riding Tales (which is also available for free on Steam). A few months ago they put out incredibly cryptic ads to sign up for their new game, Star Equestrian. Now, Foxie Ventures has released this new mobile game, and of course I’ve been playing!

    Star Equestrian is a beautiful open-world MMO adventure game that centers around, you guessed it, horses. You play as a character you create, with a name you choose, and experience a traumatic riding injury. Once recovered, you don’t allow that accident to keep you from horses, and re-establish yourself as an experienced equestrian.

    Explore an open world where you can collect items like carrots and lettuce to feed your horses. Go in search of your lost horse, Snowdrop, and complete quests for the residents of  Evervale to see if they have any information on him, too. Ride around practice arenas, sprint across cross country courses, and participate in show jumping to improve your horse’s skills. You’re not only chasing down your lost horse, but chasing your dream of becoming the best rider, the Star Equestrian. 

    You’ll also get to build your very own ranch, where you can customize the interior of your home and build stables to house your horses. And what I think helps set Star Equestrian apart from some other mobile horse games is the ability to interact with your horse. You can pet them to help raise the bond level, which unlocks certain skills. It makes the game feel a little more personal and cozy. I have high hopes for this game, as so far it ticks what I want out of a horse game (quests, competitions, story, and interaction).

    Available Now for iOS!

    Star Equestrian is currently available for iOS devices through the Apple App Store. There are plans for the game to be available on Android via the Google Play Store. Unfortunately, there’s no word on when the game will be released for Android, though. You can pre-register on the Play Store to have it automatically downloaded when it is available!

    You can also checkout Horse Club Adventures and Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch for more horsey fun!

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  • svgMay 31, 2022Do not use this

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    Relax, Garden, and Help Villagers, Ghosts and Wild Animals

    Aside from the alluring fact that you get to play this open-world adventure game as a red panda, Aka also has a giant capybara you can sleep on and baby dragons you can feed. Now that I have your attention, I’d like to point out that this story starts very much like Littlewood. War is over and as a retired soldier, it’s time for you to settle down on an island paradise.

    The different environments you’ll get to explore range from maple tree forests inspired by Canadian landscapes, to tropical beaches inspired by South Asia and South America. The characters you meet can be villagers, monsters, animals, and even ghosts! Of course, due to the ravages of war, everyone will need your help to restore the local fauna and flora to its original glory.

    The gardening in Aka puts an emphasis in permaculture whenever designing, cultivating, or crafting. When taking a break from your farmland, you can relax in the hot springs with monkeys, or play mini-games like sledding and trekking through mazes.

    Coming Soon to PC and Switch

    Aka is developed by Cosmo Gatto and published by NEOWIZ. It’s slated to release sometime in Q4 2022 on Steam here, and for the Nintendo Switch via the eShop.

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  • svgOct 30, 2019Reviews

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    Eastshade is a first-person open-world walking simulation game where you travel a serene fantasy world as a painter with the simple goal of capturing specific areas of the island as per your mother’s last wishes. If you’ve ever wondered from other RPGs, like Skyrim, what it would be like to be one of those vendors you purchase goods from and not having to save the world, well wonder no more. Relax and play this game at your own pace and meet the interesting inhabitants of Eastshade. They might even ask you for painting commissions!

    Eastshade has been available on Steam since last year but as of October 21st, 2019, you can purchase the game on consoles! I’d like to thank Eastshade Studios for giving me a PS4 digital copy of the game in order to share this review with our community!

    Exploring Eastshade and Painting

    You start off on a ship set for Eastshade as you mother boasts about the beauty of this place you’ve never been to. Your boat sinks but you make it to shore along with the other crew members. From there, you are free to go anywhere you please! There are helpful paths leading to points of interest but if you stray from those, you can forage for herbs, roots, feathers, and other items you’ll need for crafting. The first thing you’ll want to learn is how to craft a canvas so you can start painting right away. The mechanic for painting isn’t you actually using an in-game paintbrush to draw something; it’s you framing scenery as if you were going to take a picture with your camera. Then your character automatically paints exactly what you’ve selected.

    Painting Requires Inspiration

    I suggest reading every single book you come across as they not only give you inspiration, they give you helpful hints. Inspiration is a sort of stamina bar you’ll need to fill in order to be able to paint anything. This is probably the most important thing you need to keep an eye on. The only way to gain more Inspiration is by discovering new locations, drinking teas, completing side-quests, and sitting in hot-springs for the first time. This became a little stressful for me since I wanted to paint everything in sight, however, if you meet someone not too far from Lyndow, you can listen to them sing a bard song for an infinite amount of Inspiration.

    Modes of Transporation and Favors

    I really loved talking to everyone I met as they all have stories to tell and favors to ask. This will open up side-quests for you to complete and some of them will let you decide on the outcome. You can even learn recipes either from townsfollk, or books, in order make teas with varying effects, for example. One of the teas will allow you to fast-travel to select areas you’ve already visited on your map. Not that traveling takes too much time in order to see everything, and who wouldn’t want to take in the sights anyway, but it’s pretty convenient to have modes of transportation. You can make yourself a raft, buy a bike, ask villagers with wagons to bring you to the two major towns, etc.

    It’s Freezing Out at Night

    Speaking of towns, I recommend heading to Nava as soon as possible. Once there, you can buy, what I find to be, the most useful item in the entire game; a coat. After 6:00 p.m., Eastshade gets too cold for you to be outside so you either have to go inside someone’s house, an inn, drink a specific tea, or build a campfire or tent if you have the schematics.

    If you fail to do either one of those things, your character will freeze and automatically return to the last inn you stayed at overnight (probably Lyndow). When I got the coat in Nava, I was so relieved that I could just journey around outside whenever I wanted. Some quests even need you to stay out until after midnight, which are so much easier to complete if you aren’t on borrowed time. One time, I stayed in someone’s house for several real-life minutes waiting for the morning to come as I didn’t have any items with me.

    Shopping With Glowstones and Commissions

    Don’t worry about spending your precious Glowstones on a room at the inn because it is very cheap and you only have to pay once! After that you can keep using the room to sleep if you need to speed-up time. Glowstones are hard to come by at first and require you to sell paintings to certain folks. There are three Shadefolk that will buy items off of you for a small amount of Glowstones as well, in case you’re in a pinch.

    In Nava, there is so much shopping to do, like that coat, so you’ll want to save up. You can even buy canvases as there’s a finite amount of those particular crafting materials. While you’re there, become an employed artist and start submitting paintings via requests for more Glowstones! I only wish there were more commissions as I loved finding specific things all around Eastshade but still having the freedom to decide exactly how to paint them. For example, you can decide on distance and angles. Weather and time-of-day will also affect the hues and lighting in your paintings. There are some teas you can drink to change the filter of your graphics which is also very fun to use. There’s a lot of weird tea-drinking in this game.

    The Lore and World of Eastshade

    The day-night cycle in Eastshade is relatively the same as ours but with the difference of the daily solar eclipses at noon and the daily lunar eclipses at midnight. The skies can go from blue to red, to blue again, and then to a golden color. I could have sworn that Eastshade’s moon looks to be like the planet Earth so I did a little digging on the developers’ intentions and found the following:

    “The moon in Eastshade appears habitable, and since its about the same size as the planet you’re standing on, you orbit it as much as it orbits you! In other words, both planets are moons to one another. This means Eastshade’s moon remains in the same place in the sky all the time, which creates daily solar and lunar eclipses. At midday it blocks you from the sun, and at midnight you block it from the sun. Tidally locked, you orbit around each other in a double planet dance all the way around the sun. Is there another world of intelligent life just across the cosmic pond? The residents of Eastshade can’t know. All they can do is look up and wonder…”

    Learning About Early Settlers

    This whole new world that was built is so fascinating that it is too bad that there isn’t more lore to learn about. My favorite quest would be the one at Sinkwood Inn since you get to play as a detective and solve a theft. It’s nothing too complex but rooting through people’s personal belongings and learning a tiny bit about politics and things going on in Eastshade, was a blast! That quest really got me excited about the ancient ruins they described, only, you can’t even go inside. I guess the point isn’t to be a treasure hunter but learning more about the history of certain areas and these so-called First Folk would have been awesome.

    The Shadefolk and Their Music

    There are different types of anthropomorphic animals in Eastshade such as deer-folk, bear-folk, owl-folk, and ape-folk. Their garbs and homes are quite primitive and adds to the “relaxing pastoral” feel of the game. I’m very impressed that most characters are fully-voiced, and very good at that. That one song that someone sings, as mentioned above, is absolutely beautiful. The background music is so peaceful too that I would definitely get the soundtrack and listen to it on its own.

    Eastshade’s Scenery

    The detail to everything astounds me and there isn’t a single thing that isn’t great to look at. Even this boulder, that’s a nice boulder…The only thing I would change about the visuals are the menus. Compared to everything else, they are so drab in their black-and-white. It can make it difficult to see the item in your inventory you are looking for. Even the quests are white if you haven’t completed them and ever-so-slightly greyed-out if you have. Perhaps even simply adding current and completed quests in different menus would have been helpful.

    Completing Your Journey and Returning Home

    When all is said and done, and you have fufilled your mother’s wishes with the four mementos, you leave Eastshade and return home. You actually get to walk around your house afterward and read letters sent to you from the Shadefolk you met and helped out. This had me tearing up a little and made it even harder to say goodbye to the game. Even my paintings that were still in my inventory were hung up on my walls! I painted mostly cats, because they are so cute. With the amount of cats lying around Eastshade, there should be an achievement to paint them all. That is something I would definitely do. The only other thing I would have wanted is to see in my home a portrait of myself or my mother just to know what race I am.

    I highly recommend playing this game for yourselves and discovering hidden areas, solving a puzzle or two, and painting to your heart’s content! If you’re interested in purchasing the game on PS4 as well, click here for the link.

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  • svgOct 4, 2019Quick Bits

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    This gorgeous open-world adventure and simulation game developed by Eastshade Studios is available now on Steam here. You can catch up with the details of Eastshade in our last article here. Now, the developers have announced a specific date for the PS4 and Xbox One versions, and it’s just around the corner! Look forward to exploring this island full of beauty, mystery and unique inhabitants as a wandering painter this October 21st, 2019!

    Take photographs of these stunningly beautiful environments of forests, lakes, hills and long forgotten places. Then, watch how they become paintings on your canvases! The sights are so peaceful and the graphics so realistic that I absolutely can’t wait t play this game on consoles! Instead of being the hero of games like Skyrim, Divinity Original Sin, etc, I can see what it would be like to be one of those merchants you see selling their wares. See below for a new extended trailer of Eastshade celebrating this great news!

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  • svgSep 28, 2019News

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    Cubemon is an open-world adventure RPG, created by a small indie team of 3 members, all about catching these adorable creatures in the shape of a cube. With over 50 Cubemons, different environments, countless quests, secrets to uncover, items to collect, abilities and spells to learn, the player will be busy for quite some time! Early Access to the game is planned for sometime in 2019 with console releases to come later. See below for what we know so far about this game and know that the translation of their website may give some slight inaccuracies.

    About Cubemon

    Experience a spectacular adventure of a special kind. Discover the sun island and its inhabitants: The Cubemons. Travel with your little companion through great plains, dangerous places and mystical areas. Train your Cubemon and fight other wild Cubemons. Help locals and friends, explore caves, collect resources, open hidden chests, and move about freely wherever you want!

    Pay enough attention to your Cubemon, feed it, collect resources, and teach it new abilities. Through battles and tasks, your Cubemon gains experience to level up. Your Cubemon may evolve into a new Cubemon as the game progresses. This requires a lot of tact and skill – well, and luck! Countless factors play a role in the development potential of your cube. So it is possible for you to create essences from rare resources. These essences can be given to your Cubemon, whereupon, for example, it can develop into a water Cubemon. But factors such as diet, exercise, fighting, and whereabouts also play an important role in developing your cube.

    For more information on Cubemon, you can follow the developers on Twitter here. If you love creature-catching and raising games, check out our articles here: Temtem – Alpha 0.2.5 Includes a New Breeding Feature and Sushi Wildlands Headed Soon to Kickstarter.

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  • svgAug 19, 2019News

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    We’ve been keeping an eye out for Cat Quest II ever since Gentlebros, the developers, have been teasing an announcement “coming soon” and we assumed it would be during Gamescom 2019. Not long after we’ve posted Nintendo’s Indie World indie games list, showing Cat Quest II coming this fall to the Switch, an announcement on Twitter was made! The game releases later this year in the fall on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and on September 24th, 2019 on PC (Steam here)!

    Cat Quest II is a fast-paced open-world action RPG where you play as both a cat and a dog cooperatively. Explore a massive world filled with monsters, dungeons and quests, as you strive to bring peace back to your kingdoms during a time of war! See below for the newly released announcement trailer! This sequel returns to the world of Felingard to expand on the original with more explosive spells, expanded weapon options, an exciting new character switch mechanic, and local co-op!

    Opening Night Live will be announcing some more great games soon so stay tuned with us here at myPotatoGames! We’d also like to hear from you on what your favorite announcements have been so far and what games you are the most excited to play!

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  • svgJul 4, 2019Interviews

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    Critter Cove is an open-world RPG set in a world of fantastical islands, crazy critters, and high sea adventures. You’re a captain of your own ship and you get to recruit unique crew members that will help you along your journey of foraging for goods, salvaging shipwrecks, and finding buried treasure! Customize your character, several ports, your ship, and the homes of many townspeople you will get to meet and befriend. You can get caught up with all of the main features of Critter Cove with our previous article here.

    Below is an interview with the creators of Gentleman Rat, a three person indie game studio. Eli is the designer, writer and wearer of many hats, Jason is Eli’s brother and programmer of the game, and Christine is Eli’s girlfriend and artist of Critter Cove. It’s really great to see a family working together on a videogame and they were all very pleasant to speak with!

    Continue reading for some exclusive screenshots and a deeper dive (get it) into all of the things we can do as a great seafarer. We here at myPotatoGames can’t wait to help these ports thrive, chat up the locals, and find rare items!

    We’d like to thank Jason, Christine, and Eli for taking the time to answer all of our questions in astonishing detail and we wish them all the best on this endeavor!

    Q&A with Gentleman Rat – Creators of Critter Cove

    About Critter Cove: Your character is a ship captain who has been hired by the citizens of Critter Cove to help put their town on the map. You see the potential in this quirky little town to become a tropical paradise, but it’s up to you! You must convince new shops and critters to move in through fixing up the existing town, but also by sailing the world to explore other exotic islands, find trade routes, collecting lost relics, and meet new and interesting critters who might be interested in doing business with, or moving to, Critter Cove; all while looking absolutely smashing in your fancy new captain’s coat.

    [su_service title=”What was your inspiration in creating this game and your interest in pirates?” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    The team: We started a few years back making mobile games but we’re not completely happy with the market or the types of games that were doing well on that platform. We’re all by nature more console or PC players so it seemed a natural fit to switch platforms. The life sim genre was always a genre that we had a lot of fondness and passion towards and we always knew that it was something we wanted to take a swing at. So when we switched platforms we felt it was also the right time to try our hand at something a little bigger.

    Our original title was a game that was far more similar to Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon called Seeds of Magic. Over time, we noticed that it was naturally leaning towards something more akin to Animal Crossing and we felt it was missing a sense of exploration and discovery. Therefore, we decided to shift to 3D and the game morphed into its final form of Critter Cove.

    The desire to add more exploration and discovery into the game led us to the island and sea-faring theme which we felt was just a natural fit. Honestly, Critter Cove isn’t really a true “pirate” game. We don’t have any plans on raiding other ships or towns. The theme is really more about capturing the sense of adventure, exploration, and discovery that comes along with the high seas and sailing between points unknown.

    [su_service title=”What are features are you going to be working on?” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    The team: Our two big long term tasks are the development of a good trailer and demo. Something that we can start to show off to really give people a good sense of what Critter Cove is all about. For the demo, we are trying to put together a vertical slice of the game so people can get a good feel for it. Hopefully those two things will get people as excited…or at least close to as excited…about Critter Cove as we are.

    [su_service title=”I would love to know more about some of the characters we will meet on the islands and examples of some of the things we can do for them.” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    The team: There will be a wide variety of characters basically split into 2 different categories: Vendors and Citizens. Vendors run the various shops, like the general store or the shipwright, which you will be able to build in your town. These characters have jobs they have to do and often times will make requests of the player to help them grow their business. Requests can range from simple; make a cargo run, to more complex; building a shop upgrade.

    Citizens are the different characters who move into the town to live and be part of your crew. Every citizen has its own personality, likes, and dislikes. They also have wants and needs and will often recruit the player to help them fulfill those needs. Some are immediate, like if a citizen gets left a treasure map in their late uncle’s will. Some are more long term; a character is trying to decorate their house entirely purple. Citizens can also be taken on as part of your crew when you leave the island. Vendors usually cannot, since they are busy with their businesses.

    Our relationship system is a bit more complex than in many games of this genre. We decided to avoid the linear like/dislike system, where certain actions increased the relationship’s overall score while others decreased the score. Instead we wanted NPCs to “remember” how the player treated them in a more nuanced manner and react appropriately. NPC relationships are represented by a radar chart with the points being the NPCs’ reactions (friendly, mean, helpful, silly, etc). The deeper into the chart the relationship is, the more likely they are to react in that manner.

    Meaning, if a player is consistently mean to an NPC, they are more likely to be wary of the player, less likely to ask for help, and have a higher chance of leaving. If the player is helpful to an NPC, they will look to the player for even more help. If the NPCs’ reaction leans towards silly, they might play pranks on the player. These reactions combined with the different personalities of the NPCs lead to some interesting behaviors. In this manner, depending on how the player treats different NPCs, 2 different players can have very different experiences with the same character.

    Critter Cove

    [su_service title=”Wow so there really is a lot of player choice in terms of interacting with NPCs! I like how they can also all be very helpful. Do you have a set number of vendors, citizens, and crew members in mind? ” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    Eli: We don’t have a set number. Our intention is to keep building shops and new NPCs for as long as we are able. Even after launch we would like to constantly add new things for the players to build and NPCs for them to meet. Yes, NPCs both vendors and crew/citizens will be very helpful and in fact be necessary to progress. Vendors own shops and those shops are how the player can get new items crafted, recipes discovered, etc. This allows the player to explore the world further and as those shops are created, the town increases in desirability which causes new citizens/crew members to move in.

    [su_service title=”I love how much life you have already given some characters. I think the neurotic and nervous Lamps is my spirit animal. Do any of you have favorite characters so far? ” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    Critter Cove
    Lamps

    Jason: I am an engineer at heart so I love Copperbottom. Plus I have a fascination with The Wizard of Oz and he reminds me of Tik-Tok.

    Critter Cove
    Copperbottom

    Eli: I would probably go with Pokee myself. She has a fairly sassy sort of personality and she can give the player a bit of gruff at times which is something I really like. One thing that we are trying to do with all of our characters is to give them unique personalities that hopefully people will be able to connect with.

    Christine: Pokee is my favorite she’s based on my sassy but sadly now late bearded dragon Nacho.

    Critter Cove

    [su_service title=”Yes I think all of the characters with their distinct personalities are very interesting! Is Copperbottom a robot? ” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    Jason: Yep. He is the engineer in town and helps with the construction of buildings. You also work with him to craft various mechanical devices. We really are focused on building strong relationships in the game between you, the player, and the Critters. Another way we are doing that is crafting which involves other NPCs. Think of them as extended crafting stations that you have to keep happy and healthy.

    Relationships also opens up fun little side-tasks for the player, for instance, Copperbottom will occasionally breakdown and you have to help fix him, or go find him some oil. This might require you to go exploring, develop new tech, etc. All Critters have wants, needs, desires, that you will, over time, learn about through interaction and gameplay.

    Eli: We wanted to break out a little bit from the standard pure animal or human type characters and leave ourselves open to create whatever whim we might have. For example, we also plan on doing some fantasy style critters (griffins, dragons, etc) or alien type critters.

    Mort on the left is a chupacabra!

    [su_service title=”I really love the fantasy/magical elements you guys are bringing into the game with the characters. Do you plan on carrying that over to other parts of the game such as designs or certain quests? ” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    Eli: Fantasy style creatures will have fantasy style wants and needs. We are also planning on doing differing island environments, some of which could be consider alien or fantasy. An example of that is an island covered with giant mushrooms that is in the works. Different and unique islands are an important part of the exploration aspects of the game we really want to come through.

    Jason: I personally would like to see a underwater city inhabited by various sea going creatures. We’ll see if I get outvoted.

    Christine: We’ll see if I have time to make that!

    [su_service title=”It’s really great that you get to befriend absolutely everyone. What are some of the benefits to being best buds? ” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    Jason: Potential benefits would be them joining your crew for an adventure, unlocking new items to craft, and quests. Other things would be allowing you into their home, requesting decorative items, allowing you to help them decorate their houses and outfits.

    [su_service title=”Speaking of underwater, you recently showed that the player can swim to the depths of the seas but will need gear the deeper they go. Are there limits to how long we can be there or can we explore at our leisure? ” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    Eli: There will be a limit as far as time goes. So the player will only be able to hold their breath for a certain period of time before having to find a new source of air. If they have a re-breather, they can stay under even longer. With the diving suit they can go deeper and stay under even longer. But while it is not an indefinite period of time, it will be long enough so no one feels rushed. However, there will be a slight bit of pressure to get the job done before air runs out. We want Critter Cove to have a relaxed play style but with a few ‘gamey’ elements mixed in.

    Critter Cove
    swimming underwater for treasure

    Jason: We want to instill that desire to go deeper and stay longer, which in turn gives you goals and challenges you need to overcome. It all ties back into relationships. Perhaps now you have to find some Critter who knows about diving, befriend them, and then they can help you design and build a diving bell, teach you how to hold your breath longer, or give you a snorkel.

    [su_service title=”That makes a lot of sense. So we’ll be going underwater and digging in the sand as well to find treasure? What kind of treasure can we find? Are there other areas of the islands we’ll get to explore? ” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    Eli: There is going to be wide variety of different island biomes that will help drive the exploration aspects of the game. We really want players to have a desire to hop on their ship and sail in a direction to see what they might find out there. Not only will they find new islands but also treasure and resources that are not available on their home port. Some of those islands will have mines and caves which lead the player underground.

    Different island to discover

    On the port island, players will be able to build the Royal Museum of Natural Science and Stuff, who will enlist the player in helping them build out their collection with all sorts of flora, fauna, fossils, and, of course, relics. These will be found in a wide variety of ways. For example, everything from digging them up, solving puzzles, having your critter pals gift them to you, etc.

    What we are really looking forward to doing is treasure maps and sunken treasure. Treasure maps come in a couple of forms, either the “X” marks the spot where the player has to figure out the location of the treasure based on a simple “X” on a map, or a riddle where the player will need to follow the clues in order to find the location of the treasure. Sunken treasure will be especially fun because it will involve swimming down to explore wreckage and sometimes to depths that require a bell suit to go all the way to the sea floor.

    Use a shovel to dig for treasure

    [su_service title=”What can more crew members in particular help with and how do we keep them happy? ” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    The team: When you take on a crew member, they each have different skills that help in the operations of a ship. Some make the ship travel faster, others help with any loading and unloading of cargo, some help get better prices from trade outposts, etc. Some NPCs can even be taught to drive the ship so the player can do something else while traveling.

    Crew are also very useful when on shore of different islands. They can be issued orders to help collect resources or carry heavy cargo boxes back to the ship. But be careful, overworking crew members will make them mad at you.

    [su_service title=”We’re really looking forward to seeing what kind of shops the vendors will run. What can we expect in terms of other items we can buy or equip? ” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    Eli: At the beginning of the game the town is very humble with only a few shops and production facilities available. This means that the player starts off with only a few choices of items available for purchase. These being wearables to customize your appearance or give to the NPCs to customize theirs. There will also be tools that help in resource gathering or unlocking new areas. There will be a wide variety of furniture sets to help decorate living spaces and there will also be decoration items to spruce up the town as it grows. As more shops are built, more of these items and in a wider variety will open up.

    Jason: Shops and facilities will include General Store, Lumberyard, Mechanic, Shipyard, Quarry, Farm(s), to name a few. Also Tavern(s), Carpenter, Restaurants.

    Items and equipment are varied as well which include lots of decorative items like clothing and furniture. Equipment is like shovels, picks, metal detectors, diving bell, engines for your ship, wallpaper, I could go on and on. One thing to note, our items are highly customizable many of them letting you change their color(s) and patterns.

    Customizing your clothes

    [su_service title=”What parts of the ship can we decorate or customize? ” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    The team: There are the active parts: engines, rudders, cargo space, etc that can be upgraded. This will allow the ship to function better. There is also all the cosmetic upgrades. Rails, sides, window, wheel, etc. This is to make your ship look the way you want it to. These are all ship-related items that increase the performance and custom appearance of your ship. Once the shipwright has been built, new ship types can be built.

    Critter Cove

    There is also the captain’s quarters, where the player lives. This space can be fully decorated and furnished to the player’s liking. And if you run out of room, it can be expanded to add more rooms.

    [su_service title=”What kind of furnishings can we expect? Are they themed? ” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    The team: There are going to be a number of furnishings available. They will come in sets that include 1 bed, chair, sofa, end table, wardrobe, dresser, and table. There will also be a number of one-offs that include light fixtures, lamps, pictures, and other knickknacks. We are going to allow interiors to be customizable as well in the forms of different wallpapers, flooring, ceilings, and doors. This way the player will be able to create their own unique space.

    Critter Cove

    Critters will also decorate their own spaces according to what they like and will often rope the player into helping them find different things they are looking for. It is possible that they will become dissatisfied with how their decorating is going or if the player is considered to be good at it, they will ask the player for help in decorating their home. They will give the player some guidelines as to what they are looking for and then the player will have so many days to try to accomplish that using the items the NPC has available or by finding new ones for them.

    [su_service title=”There’s so much to do and it all sounds so fun! It sounds like we’ll have control of the ship and you mentioned we can build new types? What will these different kinds of ships do?  ” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    Eli: Yes. You will be able to drive the ship manually. We want driving the ship to fun fast paced experience so the ship is fairly responsive. You will be able to upgrade the parts of the ship which changes how the ship behaves. Upgrading the engine for example makes it go faster, while upgrading the keel increases acceleration.The different ship types come with different base functions. For example, each ship only has a limited number of berths and cargo space. Getting a new ship will change those values. That way by upgrading the ship, the player will be able to take more crew along when they leave port. Increased cargo storage allows the ship to hold more cargo.Also the ship types will look vastly different so players might like one look over the other.

    Steering your ship

    NPCs also will occasionally ask the player to take them somewhere like a cruise-line. This requires the ship to have space to take on passengers. Ships that are good at hauling passengers are not necessarily the best at hauling cargo or diving from. Different types of ships will be optimal for different jobs.

    Jason: We would also like to be able to modify the cargo hold to allow for upgrades so that you can transport different type of goods. So a refrigeration unit to transport perishable goods, perhaps a lead lined container for radioactive material or toxic waste.

    That world will contain points of interests, like waterfalls, ruins, sea turtle habitat, places that are interesting that Critters will want to go to and see.

    [su_service title=”The ship really can do many things! I’m looking forward to snapping pictures of those locations. Tell me, can we interact with the sea turtles?!  ” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    Christine: Maybe to pet or even be able to feed the turtles, that would be cool! We will have the Museum, so you’ll need to photograph or capture animals and plants to place there.

    [su_service title=”That’s awesome! Collecting things for displaying purposes is always great! Well I for one am very excited to try out your upcoming demo. Is there anything else you’d like to add before we conclude this interview? ” icon=”icon: star” icon_color=”#8300ff” size=”32″ class=””][/su_service]

    Eli: One thing that we do want to mention is that we are currently working an extremely robust character customization system which we are extremely excited about. The system gives players the freedom to make and create almost any character they wish, including not having to be human at all. If you want to be a cat, dog, lizard, or whatever and we have it in the game you’ll be able to create it. We are even going to allow for mixing and matching so dog head with horns or cat tail…sure, why not? We really want players to be able to be whatever they want to be in the world and will do our best to give them as many options as we are able.

    Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us. This is actually our very first interview. So this is pretty cool.

    You can follow and help support Critter Cove by going to their official website or their social media pages such as: Facebook, Instagram, Discord, and Twitter.

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