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  • svgJul 8, 2019News

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    Fans of Harry Potter and Little Witch Academia will be pleased to hear that there are currently two very exciting magic school games in development. Whilst Chucklefish’s game, which has the working title of ‘Witchbrook’ is still in its early stages, Ikenfell is much further in development. Ikenfell is expected to be released around June 2018.

    Interestingly, both games use pixel game art, are simulation games, and are (obviously) set in a magic school. However, they both have unique art styles, with Chucklefish’s game Witchbrook having visual similarities to their very popular game, Stardew Valley.

    Ikenfell

    Ikenfell is a JRPG game which utilises turn-based and timing-based battle mechanics. These mechanics enhance it’s variety of characters and story development. It’ creator has said it’s art style was influenced by a plethora of games such as Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Earthbound (Witchbrook, Starbound, Earthbound, Warbound, everything-bound!), and Robotrek. The game also takes i nspiration from fictional teen series such as Harry Potter and Carry On.

    The game’s publisher is Humble Bundle, and its platforms are PC, Mac and possibly Linux. Humble Bundle are helping to polish the game, market it, and will soon add it to Steam.

    An update from the game’s founder talks of the release of a new game trailer at the beginning of 2018, so look out for that!

    Currently, the game takes around 20 hours to complete (possibly more for less experienced players).

    Story

    Safina is invited to the magical school of Ikenfell for witches and wizards, leaving behind her slightly embittered sister Maritte, who doesn’t have magic powers. Safina soon becomes one of the school’s most notorious students.

    However, Safina doesn’t return home one summer. She has gone missing alongside the school’s headmistress.

    You play as Maritte, who goes to Ikenfell to find her sister and discover the truth of what exactly is going on.

    The expansive school is full of ‘magic, mysteries, secret passages, hidden rooms, and many strange characters’ for you to explore.

    Features:

    • Magical duels within an original turn-based RPG battle system
    • The ability to time your hits to increase spellpower and to block incoming attacks
    • An expansive magic school, containing mysteries and secrets
    • A variety of strange and interesting characters
    • Hidden spell, items and equipment to aid you
    • Friendship, rivalry and romance

    Characters:

    Witchbrook

    Witchbrook is an up and coming RPG turn-based strategy simulation game in development by Chucklefish, the creators of Wargroove and publishers of Stardew Valley. Finn Brice, the founder and director of the game says that a formal announcement is “maybe quite a way off”. He also suggests that the game is around a three-to-four year project. The working title Witchbrook came from Chucklefish’s game Wargroove’s working title, Warbound.

    Influences on the game include a variety of old Nintendo console games (Earthbound again perhaps?), as well as games such as Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon and 2D Zelda games. Although not the intention of Chucklefish, many people compare the game’s graphics to Little Witch Academia. However, Brice has said that Ghibli films such as Kiki’s delivery service (which look similar to Little Witch Academia) did influence the game’s art style.

    Features:

    • A day and night cycle
    • Magic classes to attend
    • Dating mechanics
    • Folkore and exciting areas to explore
    • Undisclosed “interesting gameplay twists.”

    However, unlike Ikenfell, which is heavily story based, the developers want Witchbrook to have the appeal of Stardew Valley where players can simply enjoy being inside a charming world and make it their own.

    Dating:

    Similar to Ikenfell, Witchbrook allows players to have relationships with other characters and to go on dates with them. However, these don’t always go to plan, making the game more true-to-life, as opposed to the idealised romance often portrayed in other forms of media.

    However, Brice reassures players that even though the developers want to hit home and capture what it’s like to be in school, they want to provide a nice kind of nostalgia for players. Therefore, interactions with other characters won’t be too difficult or ‘horrific’.

    Ikenfell has been pretty much complete since late 2016, with the kickstarter campaign being set up to mainly fund:

    • Vocals for battle and vocalists for some music tracks
    • Additional battle animations and story animations
    • Additional artwork for cut scenes and critical moments
    • Any additional software and licences required for the above

    However, Witchbrook still has plenty of room for development, influences and features.

    What would you like to see in Witchbrook?

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  • svgJul 5, 2019News

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    The Good Life is a debt repayment daily-life RPG co-developed by SWERY and Yukio Futatsugi, along with their teams at White Owls and G-rounding. Languages will be in both Japanese and English with the possibility of others as subtitles. You can still help fund them on their Kickstarter campaign here as they are very close to their big stretch goal; bringing to game to the Switch. The Good Life will release this Fall 2019 on Xbox One (as well as Xbox Game Pass), PS4, and PC. Look forward to snapping tons of photographs to earn yourself some money, and to discover this strange town’s secret as well as uncovering a mysterious murder!

    About the Good Life

    Play as Naomi, a journalist from New York who moves to a backwoods British town called Rainy Woods in order to pay off her massive debt. The only way for her to escape from debt hell is to take pictures of happenings in the town and report on them. Of course, ‘the happiest town in the world’ is not your average town…

    The inhabitants of the happiest town in the world are some of the most bizarre people you’ll ever come across. You’ll live alongside them as you solve mysteries and experience a hearty helping of craziness. We’re sure that you’ll eventually come to love all the mystery, horror, and good old charm that this town has to offer.

    The townspeople are also hiding a big secret…

    In the moonlight, all the townspeople suddenly transform… And suddenly, the town is filled with cats and dogs! Once a month, everyone who lives there transforms into either a cat or a dog. Naturally, Naomi and the player will also turn into a cat or a dog. What happens in the town depends entirely on you! How the townspeople behave, how their lives play out, and how the story ends… It’ll all change based on your decisions.

    You’ll be able to select whether you want to transform into a cat or a dog at the very beginning. But if you get far enough in the story, you may reach a point where you can freely switch between them…? Turn into a cat and climb up to high places, scratch walls, and steal fish and chips from kitchens… Or turn into a dog and dig holes, follow scents, and swim in rivers and lakes… It only happens once a month, so make sure you enjoy it to your heart’s content!

    More Information

    Note that the gameplay video above has some crude language dialog and is not geared toward younger children. However, the game is very relaxing and mostly centers on open-world exploration and taking pictures. You can take photos of anyone, anything, anywhere, and even see in-game what’s trending to earn yourself more money. Interact with every object that you see and place them wherever you want to take your own unique photos. Some photos will be requested from villagers to complete quests and push the story forward. You might even have to get crafty as some townsfolk will stop what they are doing if they can see you. Furthermore, upgrade your camera to take better quality pictures!

    If snapping shots is what interests you, you can check out our other article on Pupperazzi here. If crime-solving is your thing, we’ve got a list of our Top Ten Crime-Solving & Mystery Games here.

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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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  • svgJul 3, 2019Reviews

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    Garden Paws, created by Bitten Toast Games, has it all in this simulation/adventure! You can garden, farm, fish, mine, run a shop, tame wild animals, decorate yourself and your home, build new stores and homes for the town, and much more! Constant quests to either progress the town or to help out some villagers makes it so that everything you do has a grander purpose, aside from just being cute that is.

    The game is out now on Steam but is still not content complete. Meaning, the developers state that they are still building upon the game and doing frequent updates. However, there’s already a lot to do and we highly recommend starting to play now and be part of the feedback! It’s even on sale until July 9th, 2019! We’d like to also thank Bitten Toast Games for providing us with a Steam code so we could do a review and show our Potato Family the finer details of Garden Paws.

    Customizing Your Character

    When first creating your adorable character, you get to choose from 10 different species: Cat, Bunny, Fox, Bird, Badger, Dragon, Chipmunk, Horse, Dog, or Bear! Afterward, choose your color and design, which are called “skins”. Skins can be found in treasure chests or purchased later on after gaining access to that specific shop. Your character customization doesn’t even stop there! Once you begin to play, you can start getting clothes and accessories to wear such as glasses, headbands/hats, dresses, backpacks, and even beautiful wings of all sorts! Side note: the music will indicate when a treasure chest is nearby!

    I am the night!

    One of the most interesting accessories for your character is the Glider. After completing a certain quest, you get a free glider but you then have the option to buy prettier ones. With a glider you can jump from all of the hills and soar through the air at high speeds. I love getting around this way and taking short-cuts to where I want to go. It’s also a great way to reaching new little islands with different items to forage. In one of the updates by the developers, it is said that there will be a fast-travel method to unlock in the middle of your second year! It’s so wonderful that they’ve added some goals for the next year which makes me want to continue playing all the more!

    Building Up the Town

    The town of Florens starts only with a few characters, Frank being a vital part in helping you expand which brings in new villagers and shops. Certain buildings and characters are only available after quests, but for the most part you start off with quite the list. You’ll want to start off with the Blacksmith and the Miner’s Camp as they progress your main quests and unlock new areas to explore! Frank will ask you for some materials for certain expansions or buildings, or he will tell you to purchase the building outright from his Upgrade Table.

    The Upgrade Table

    In the town there will be a few villagers with booths that sell cloth, seeds, inventory expansions, and lemonade (to gain more stamina). The more quests you do for them, the more items they will be able to sell! Sometimes they will even supply you with some blueprints so you can build your own things from workstations such as storage and furniture. This is also a good way to earn some money which you will receive as rewards upon completion.

    My first display case that I also use for storage

    Your Farm and Your Home

    Speaking of workstations, some items are just for decorative purposes but others are key to quests. For example, you’ll need a Stone Furnace to make bars out of your ore or glass out of sand. You’ll need to always have coal on hand to keep the fires burning. You’ll probably first start out with a Campfire Grill, like I did, to grill up some fish to either eat for energy or to sell. Then, you can move up to a Cooking Station which is where you’ll be creating dishes out of your crops that sell for quite a bit of money! Both of these activities will take time, but you can queue up to 10 items for each and leave to do other things.

    Gardening & Foraging for Crops

    To grow some crops either by tilling soil or making some planters, you’ll need to either purchase seeds or forage. I love how you can harvest items all around the waterfall and forest areas, which takes very little stamina. I mean, free items! Sometimes you will even pick up some seeds as well as the crop which is my sneaky way of gardening.

    What I find the most refreshing about gardening is that you can plant whatever you want, whenever you want, in any season. You don’t have to stress out about which crops you’ll need and how much time it will take them to grow. They also don’t wither at the end of the season. The items you can forage however will change with the seasons but you can always find the off-season ones in chests that will continue to periodically respawn.

    My plots are diagonal but finally got them straight

    Tilling you soil is a bit of a nightmare for those that want to perfectly place everything, even with the suggested “Grid Placement”. Placing anything for that matter can take up a lot of time as your cursor will start going all over the place with the slightest movement. I like the freedom of placement but a little more control would be nice. Now back to the crops. You’ll need to water your crops every day unless it is raining out or you have sprinklers! You’ll eventually get a blueprint for them and you’ll be set to let the magic happen! If you have animals, you can pick up their poop and use it to make fertilizer to get more seeds. Poop is actually useful for many things but more on that later.

    Glid Placement in Settings

    Taking Care of Animals

    You’ll be given your first chicken coop and some chicks for free after doing some quests. You can easily make chicken feed out of wheat which you can grow and forage or just buy the seeds early on. You only have to feed a chick for about 6 days in a row and then they become an adult. The best part? Adult farm animals do not need to be fed! I love this so much because it doesn’t deter you from taming or buying more animals than you can handle and frees up a lot of your time to do the many other things! It makes every day feel less like a chore and more like an exciting adventure with options. Your chickens will give you either poop, feathers, or eggs (all golden sometimes).

    Someone had potatoes on their mind while naming these chickens…

    Barn Animals

    Getting your first barn and cows will be a lot more costly in terms of material, time, and money. This may not be possible to obtain early on unless you make it a priority and save your money. Again, the same applies with calves; feed them hay for a few days and they will become adults. Hay is made out of grass that you cut with your sickle and then place to dry. The cows will give you poop every day and you can use a wooden bucket to milk them.

    You can choose to expand these buildings to house more animals (I have 6 chickens in one coop) or you can just make as many as you want! Therefore, there are no limits to the amount of animals you can have. Now that taming animals has been added to the most recent update, you can go in search of them and gain their trust rather than having to buy them! When you are carrying animal food with you, the animals’ favorite food will be displayed above their heads such as fish, grass, carrots, etc. In the wild you’ll find alpacas and dung beetles (hidden places), sheep, goats, and even hippopotamus that you can place in barns! Hippos, how cool is that? There are also other animals that you can purchase from a shop later on which will carry pigs for example.

    Said hippos looking cute

    As if that wasn’t enough, every large animal you own, you can ride! That includes the legendaries which you can read about in our previous post linked above. When you have a stable, you can also add horses to them and ride them to get places even faster!

    That wild horse will one day be mine!

    Small Wild Animals

    Smaller animals will need specific habitats for you to make before you start trying to tame them. Early on you’ll have access to one for cats and another for rabbits which can hold up to 3 of each. Unfortunately, if you miss a day of feeding them, your meter with them will drop so you want to make sure you have the time to do this consistently. I probably haven’t found all of the forest animals yet but you should also be able to tame deer, foxes, and ferrets that you’ll see roaming around. Normally I hate bugs, but the dung beetles can be particularly useful as you only have to feed them poop to tame them and then they will gather other animals’ poop in their habitat for you!

    Something that I found interesting was the fact that all animals in the wild will respawn so you can keep taming as many as you want! Some of them also come in a variety of colors: beetles can be rainbow-colored, cats can be black and white, rabbits are brown and white, and sheep can be black, white, or pink! I’m definitely going to tame that cute little pink sheep!

    You’ll notice that as soon as you tame an animal it will start following you. You need to lead it to its habitat to consider it yours and to name it. I figured out an easier way to do this is not to go all the way home with it but rather you can plop its habitat right next to it. Once it is yours, you can put everything in your inventory, provided you have a hammer to remove and relocate your habitat. I hope this is intentional because otherwise it’s a pain.

    Shopkeeping and Selling Your Goods

    On your farm there will be a table to place up to 3 different items which can hold a max number of 30 of that kind, and a cute little cash register. You have to go to your sign and open the shop from noon to 6 p.m. in-game and then watch multiple characters come running! These characters aren’t necessarily the ones from your town but I love that you can see all kinds of available skins like the one fox that looks like Amaterasu from Okami! They’ll buy absolutely anything you put on your tables, even poop! It’s a great way to not only make money but to get rid of your unwanted junk. Then you get to watch them scurry off with the item in their hands which I can do all day because it is so adorable.

    I wish I could see these little guys all the time!

    If you have other pressing things to do, you can go into town and “hire” an assistant for that one day! They don’t cost you any money but they will take a 30% cut of your sales. You also have to make sure to hire them before noon so that they will open your shop for you automatically. I’m not sure if this is intentional or a bug but it is not a huge deal since I often go to town. There you can purchase expansions at the Upgrade Table to have more tables to sell more items which will in turn bring more characters.

    You get a different Assistant every day

    Fishing and Bait

    Although fishing is my least favorite thing to do in the game as it takes a lot of time (you can sit there and not catch anything) and effort for very little payoff It is however necessary for one quest so far, and to tame cats and foxes. You need fish bait to catch anything at all which can only be found in certain plants that will yield Insects, if you are lucky.

    The animals do have very specific types of fish they want so you just have to hope you catch the right ones among several different kinds. You will occasional catch garbage like soggy paper which also consumes your bait. Too bad there isn’t specific areas for certain fish. I used to think old bottles were useless but you needs those for the quest I just mentioned and to catch bugs in them (butterflies and bees). The seaweed you also catch can actually be made into sushi so there’s that. On the bright side, fishing doesn’t take up your stamina.

    Mining and Cutting Down Trees

    Mining can be fun as you can use your pickaxe on rocks that are found everywhere, or go to town and unlock caves to find geodes and coal. When you find geodes, you need to use them on the anvil to get rocks, copper, silver, or gold. You’ll need to do this quite often so make sure to upgrade your tools by buying them from the Blacksmith. You can eventually make your own anvil at home as well so you don’t have to keep going into town.

    Beltran the Blacksmith

    Cutting down trees or even bushes is what you will be doing the most of in order to make anything. What I found useful is that if you are already going around for a ‘forage run’ then you can often find logs lying around that you can “harvest” which takes up way less energy and can add up quickly without you noticing much.

    Seasons and Festivities

    It took me approximately 10 hours to complete a season and I’m already in winter of my first year. Yes, that means I put 40 hours into this game already and still going! Time flies when you’re having fun! Your surroundings will change based on the season you are in and, as previously mentioned, different items such as plants and crops will appear all around Florens. I also just found an arctic fox in the winter month so my next immediate goal is to tame it. Winter also has the most adorable decorations like candy canes, wreaths, and gingerbread cookies all over town.

    Every season, except summer for some reason, has either special items to purchase or contests. I don’t want to give too much away on this but in the middle of spring you can find hidden Easter eggs all around town! Bring these eggs to the new bunny character and smash them for surprises! The rarer decorative eggs will have better items (I won a sprinkler and clothing) and maybe some tickets! You can redeem tickets for the best of prizes but those darn multicolored bunnies cost a lot! These eggs are very small and hidden very well so I had a very hard time finding them. I ended up only getting about 5 and supposedly there are 20.

    I just wanted to mention that at nighttime, exactly at 10 p.m., you can look to the skies and watch where a shooting-star will land. Usually it is in the forest for me which doesn’t give me much time to return home before midnight. When midnight hits, you will pass out and go to the next day but aside from that I don’t see any other penalties. It can be a nice warp home actually. If you manage to get that shooting-star, you can break it open on the anvil for extra surprises, use it for some quests, or donate it at the Museum.

    Controls and Details

    Not many buttons are explained to you so it is probably best that you check your Controls menu. You can also remap the buttons of your keyboard and mouse as desired. I figured out pretty late that there’s an “auto-run” button which would have saved my fingers a lot of pain.

    Until you get used to where everything is, it is very easy to get lost. Even with a map in your menu. I wish there was a mini-map on my screen at all times. The character names on that map are not listed very clearly and I would like the names of their respective shops there too. Maybe even an overall name for sections of the map so I know what the quests are referring to.

    Florens is quite vast!

    I really love receiving letters in my mailbox telling me if something has changed or if there’s something going on. I want to make sure I don’t miss anything so I find myself running around everywhere to check if anyone has a “!” above theirs heads for new quests. All quests stay listed on the screen and let you know if you have the required items, which is nice so I don’t have to keep clicking around menus.

    My grandparents are nice

    Game Playthrough – Starting Out

    Although I haven’t tried out the online multiplayer part of the game, I’m really looking forward to it. You can meet members of the Garden Paws community! With the newly added Creative Mode and some occasional “socials”, it sounds like this could be a blast together! However, for the sake of this review I only had time to do offline single-player. Below you will find a few minutes of gameplay footage from the beginning of the game, as I urge you to play for yourselves and discover everything Garden Paws has to offer! You’ll also see my first holiday and my first taming of an animal. We here at myPotatoGames look forward to more quests, and updates that will later include dungeons and mini-games as stated by the developers!

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  • svgJul 3, 2019News

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    Rolling Hills is a simulation game about owning your very own sushi restaurant, created by indie developer Catch & Release. To get all of the updates on this game you can follow the developers on Twitter here and their Discord channel here. You can also see below on everything we know so far with tons of new screenshots!

    Here are some of the bigger changes coming to Rolling Hills this month:

    • Conveyor belt sushi! We’ve finally come up with a fun way to learn what each customer likes while still letting you flex your creativity as a sushi chef.
    • Procedurally generated customers, therefore a sci-fi convention might bring a dozen different robots to your restaurant instead of just the one.
    • Occasional special orders that you can fulfill for big bonuses.
    • Plates that need to be collected and washed for a more realistic restaurant sim vibe.
    • Super cute receipts at checkout and lots of ways to reward different play styles (rewards for quality, for variety, for speed, etc.)!

    Once all of these changes have been implemented, the developers plan on working on their long-term goals; the storyline, lots of recipes and ingredients to discover, and new people to meet! By people we mean adorably weird humans and talking animals.

    Feast Your Eyes on This!

    Below are a few animations from the prototype of the game to tie us over until we can get our hands on it for Steam and the PlayStation Store. As you can see, we have been shown three customers: a chicken wanting our recommendations, a caveman that’s free at last, and a wizard making ‘punny’ jokes. We also get to take a look at the overall aesthetics of the restaurant so far and what seems to be the way we can fill our displays with sushi. Moreover, that making sushi will require you use your skills at pressing buttons just at the right time.

    Want more games with sushi in them? Check out our most recent article on The Sushi Spinnery, and own another restaurant. Because sushi is yummy.

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  • svgJun 28, 2019News

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    In Mr. Tic Toc & the Endless City, you play as an antiquarian whose suitcase is actually a time-travelling device. Solving problems by travelling through time and time-crafting, you will get to change the shape of the island and meet different characters from prehistoric times all the way to the 3000s. You can play this beautifully hand-painted watercolor and 3D game on PC, and other platforms (TBD), sometime in 2019.

    “What if planting a tree could turn your life upside down, would you do it?” Mr. Tic Toc’s goal is to go home with his family by solving puzzles across time. Thanks to his time-traveling briefcase, that’s as mysterious as Mary Poppins’ as it can also hold many large objects, Mr. Tic Toc will be able to voyage as he pleases across time! For example, he can travel to different times throughout history such as Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the nineteenth century, and the twenty-first century. Set out to recover a rare artifact to become the most famous antiquarian. However, be aware that every action has a consequence.

    Mr. Tic Toc & the Endless City is in development by Un Je Ne Sais Quoi, a studio based in France. They describe this game as a ‘time-wrecking adventure’ on Twitter here, which you can follow for more information and illustrations. You can also purchase their lovely artwork on their official website here. If you like the visual design of this game, check out Guinea Pig Parkour here! It’s a hand-drawn 2D adventure game with bright colors.

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  • svgJun 26, 2019News

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    Garden Paws is a farming simulation game where you can grow crops, run your own shop, tame animals, rebuild the town, go spelunking in the caves, and much more. You can get all the details about the game in our previous article here. We here at myPotatoGames wanted to catch you up on what we think are the most exciting new features. This includes one of our favorite mythical creatures, unicorns, which have been added as a legendary mount. If you thought being an animal yourself was cute enough, well now you can tame and have more pet animals on your farm as well!

    Taming Animals

    You can now tame every animal that you see and give them a home on your farm which will yield rewards. Newer animals have also been added along with the capability of feeding them their favorite food which is displayed above their heads.

    Let’s start with the Fox. The Fox can be found in the forest area and can be tamed with Small Fish. You need to pick up a Forest Animal Habitat from Roman the Blueprint Vendor and give the fox a nice home for it to stay with you. Once you have the fox tamed you can visit it every day to collect some fish, or some poop.

    Next up, the Ferrets! The Ferrets are something Kristina, the designer of the game, really wanted to add since she grew up with them. Simply purchase the Ferret Habitat and grab some wool and you can head off to start taming these little ones. The ferrets can be found on one of the southern islands, or in the ruins. Once you’ve got them tamed they’ll collect all Fiber, Wool, Fur, Feathers and Eggs in the area!

    Last but not least, the Dung Beetles! Once you have collected 100 poop you’ll be able to build a Dung Beetle Habitat (it’s stinking cute!) and craft some Beetle Feed. Beetles tamed and in their habitat will start collecting all the poop within the area the next day! The beetles come in 6 color variations, and if you choose to pursue the Beetle Mania achievement and tame 100 beetles, the Legendary Beetle will have a chance to spawn! This Gold Legendary Beetle is even a mount and can be ridden around the map!

    Legendary Animals

    The unicorn has a 1% chance to spawn every day, when you see the rainbow you’ll know it’s out there, somewhere. However, you’ll only be able to tame the unicorn when you have some Legendary Feed. You can get that by activating another Legendary to spawn. (Don’t worry the fastest legendary to trigger is just by collecting 100 poop.) The Unicorn, like all legendary creatures, is a little bit faster than regular mounts and a little more legendary.

    Kahuna Chicken and Big Bunny can be found roaming the islands. Once you prove your worth as a tamer of that animal type that is, you’ll be able to find them in the wild. Certain achievements also have to be met.

    New Animals

    • Arctic Fox (doesn’t show up every season)
    • Black Cat (tamed with fish)
    • Mountain Goat (tamed with Hay)
    • Black Horse (Roaming the lands)
    • Pigs and Piglets (Poppy’s Shop)
    • All sheep can be tamed (Black, White and Pink)
    • New Black Bear variation (tamed with Honey)
    • You can tame the Deer

    More Coops and More Barns

    A buildable barn has been added in this most recent update and therefore you can now raise more animals! You’ll receive the blueprint in the mail your first winter and start building barns that hold up to 4 animals! If you need some Hay there’s a blueprint for a Drying Rack to turn Tall Grass into Hay. Same goes for the coops so you can house more Legendary Chickens! Once you build the max level coop you’ll receive a Chicken Coop Blueprint to start building your own coops. Each coop will hold 6 Chickens or Ducks, and you can build as many of them as you’d like.

    Creative Mode

    To test out this new feature, the developers held many socials for their community online such as dance parties and trampoline jump puzzles. Now that Garden Paws has larger server sizes, you can do your own 10 Player Creative Server. In Creative Mode, you’ll instantly unlock all the items and you are able to build anywhere and everywhere. There’s no town and no quests, just room for you to roam.

    New Items and Furniture Sets

    Garden Paws has 2 new furniture sets amounting to over 30+ new items between them. The Heverli Set includes: a hot tub, beach umbrella, lounge chairs and a canopy. The Crystal Garden Set, which has lots of intertwining wood pieces decorated with leaves and crystals, is to give you an enchanted forest vibe.

    With the new Seed Bundle Station, you can now combine 4 seeds and 1 Fertilizer to create a Large Seed Bundle. When planting this seed bundle you’ll notice it looks a little bit larger than other crops. This Super Crop will yield a seed when harvesting, and you’ll have a chance to find a Seed Mystery Box.

    There are still many more additions to the game as it continues to receive large updates every couple of weeks or so. If you want the full low-down you can check out Bitten Toast Games’ Steam updates and news here.

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  • svgJun 25, 2019News

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    This wonderful adventure under the sea about building relationships and making choices that will change the fate of all of creation was created by indie developer Paralune. The game will be releasing late 2019 for PC and you can wishlist it on Steam right here. A couple of months ago the creators announced the following on Twitter: “we just want to say how excited we are that the writing is now finished for every quest in the game…” Therefore, there isn’t too much longer to wait!

    About Mythic Ocean

    What would you do if you were friends with the gods, and your influence on them could change the cosmos? Mythic Ocean is an atmospheric and charming adventure where you’ll befriend a pantheon of gods under the sea, help solve their problems, and make choices that shape the birth of a new world. Explore all the outcomes. Which god will rise above? What kind of world will they create? You decide – choose wisely.

    Every deity can grow, learn, and change their personalities based on your choices and what you teach them. You can always play through the game again and see all of the different outcomes for all of your choices. With so many charming characters to meet, underwater exploration to do, and endings to discover, we are very excited to keep an eye out on this one!

    Key Features

    • Narrative Exploration – through deep conversations with gods, your choices influence the fate of the universe
    • Diverse, peaceful underwater environments
    • Meet tons of goofy, charming creatures
    • No death, no combat, no failure. The challenge is influencing the gods to get the result you want – outcomes range between harmony and pandemonium
    • There’s a break-dancing crab

    We’re not sure about you guys, but we here at myPotatoGames are definitely down with bonding with break-dancing crabs. For more information, you can go to their official website here. If you love exploring the sea and islands, you can check out our update on Stranded Sails.

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