Vertical Mode Procrastination Farming

Wed, Feb 21, 2024 Year 2, Autumn 08

Kev and Jonnie talk about a number of demos they have tried recently.

Timings

00:00:12: Theme Tune
00:00:43: Intro
00:02:46: Feedback
00:07:29: What Have We Been Up To
00:25:41: News
00:33:12: Demo Bonanza
00:33:21: Lightyear Frontier
00:43:04: Southfield
00:50:19: Rusty’s Retirement
00:57:36: Mika And The Witch’s Mountain
01:04:11: Outro

Links

Rusty’s Retirement Vertical Moment
Ikonei Island Info Update
Kynseed Big Build Update
Farming Simulator 23 Content Update #23
Outbound Steam Page
Outbound Kickstarter Page

Lightyear Frontier
Southfield
Rusty’s Retirement
Mika and the Witch’s Mountain

Contact

Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot
Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot
Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/

Transcript

(0:00:00) Al: Just before we get into this week’s episode, I need to apologize. We had a few audio issues in this episode, so yeah, sorry for that. We’ll get them sorted for next time.
(0:00:44) Kevin: Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season my name is Kevin, and I’m joined by our beautiful co-host
(0:00:55) Kevin: There you go and today we’re here to talk about the cottagecore games whoo and all that
(0:01:03) Kevin: More specifically actually we have a sampling platter of
(0:01:08) Kevin: cottagecore games today because we
(0:01:11) Kevin: Went out and tried some demos
(0:01:14) Kevin: You know we’re gonna have I think we played with two each
(0:01:20) Kevin: So there’s gonna be a yeah a good just good amount of discussion on different games
(0:01:26) Kevin: But before we get into all of that
(0:01:30) Kevin: Transcripts are available in the show notes and on the website as per the always
(0:01:35) Kevin: And of course we’re going to get to the news and all that stuff as usual
(0:01:43) Kevin: Also, oh, we should note…
(0:01:44) Kevin: that Al is here in America, where I am, so, you know, I’m looking forward to hearing his misadventures.
(0:01:52) Kevin: I’m just assuming he’s just smothered in burgers right now, as is the tradition.
(0:02:01) Jonnie: I assume he’s smothered in tipping eggs.
(0:02:05) Kevin: Oh man, yeah that’d be good, he’s just not gonna go to any restaurants, he’s gonna stick
(0:02:14) Jonnie: Honestly, it would so put me off of having to travel to America is like, ‘cause A, tipping is stupid, and B, the anxiety of it, I’m just like, “Nah.”
(0:02:22) Jonnie: I don’t need to deal with that.
(0:02:22) Kevin: See, look, the easiest way to do it, a pro tip for all, but, well, okay, sure.
(0:02:26) Jonnie: It’s not Visit America.
(0:02:30) Kevin: If you are, somehow, find yourself visiting America, the pro tip is just do the credit card if you can, because then you just write it in, and nobody has to see, nobody has to know, and it’s all there.
(0:02:44) Kevin: And you’ll never see them again, so, you know, it’s fine.
(0:02:46) Kevin: Okay.
(0:02:47) Kevin: Let’s see.
(0:02:48) Kevin: stuff though, um, we actually have some feedback?
(0:02:53) Jonnie: - Yeah, some feedback from, or I guess a correction from,
(0:02:56) Jonnie: or corrections were the wrong thing.
(0:02:57) Jonnie: Something that Al and I missed last week when we covered “Turn Up the Boy Robs a Bank”
(0:03:03) Jonnie: is that there are actually accessibility options.
(0:03:07) Jonnie: Neither of us picked up that those were in there and it changes quite significantly,
(0:03:13) Jonnie: I think some of my criticism of the game.
(0:03:17) Jonnie: So I can’t remember all of the accessibility options off the top of my head,
(0:03:20) Jonnie: but I talked a lot about how I really hated the way
(0:03:24) Jonnie: that gaming works in the game.
(0:03:25) Jonnie: And one of the accessibility options is automatic aiming,
(0:03:28) Jonnie: which I think is a really good accessibility option for this game.
(0:03:29) Kevin: Yeah, oh that is a good
(0:03:32) Jonnie: If you’re into the “Turn Up the Boy” sort of law, I guess,
(0:03:37) Jonnie: and want to experience it,
(0:03:38) Jonnie: like it feels like a good option for that.
(0:03:41) Jonnie: So just want to highlight that that’s something that we missed and it’s a cool thing that they have.
(0:03:42) Kevin: Yeah
(0:03:47) Kevin: Yeah, absolutely cuz like you mentioned the calm I I’m the claim I didn’t play turn of boy myself, but my brother played and I witnessed most of it
(0:03:56) Kevin: the combat is the weaker portion, right the the highlights the humor and the
(0:04:03) Kevin: You know the chaoticness going on so kind of sidestepping that that was a good call
(0:04:09) Kevin: Yeah, so good good stuff turn it boy good on you first
(0:04:14) Jonnie: Yeah, and the other thing that we’ve got to talk about, so Elle and I talked about this last week, Kiv, but it would be sacrilegious to not get your take on what you think about wildflowers being on the April 1st.
(0:04:27) Kevin: Well, first, my reaction, and I think I put it in the slash, is 3 and a half grand!
(0:04:35) Kevin: Oh my goodness, I had no idea, like, oh my gosh, I know Apple products are pricey/overpriced, but holy moly.
(0:04:44) Kevin: Now, I didn’t, I have to see the, what the farming looked like.
(0:04:50) Kevin: Looks like it’s an interesting way of doing it, but I think all in all that sounds good.
(0:04:55) Kevin: It’s, it’s so weird though because like, Wildflowers is very narrative/character driven, right?
(0:05:05) Kevin: Which isn’t generally speaking the focus in a first-person/VR type game, but like you guys said, it,
(0:05:12) Jonnie: So have you seen have you seen how the implementation?
(0:05:16) Kevin: here, let me look, I’m gonna look it up right now, but I mean, overall though, I think it’s
(0:05:20) Kevin: good to do it. I do think VR/augmented reality is a good idea overall. I think we’ll get there eventually, and so, you know, each baby step like this in different formats or different ways is,
(0:05:42) Jonnie: Yeah, because I guess how it works is it’s less first person and it’s more like having it up on a screen, you know, kind of like one of the many screens that you can place around with the
(0:05:50) Kevin: Right. Okay. That’s what the farming looks like. Okay. All right. Yeah, that’s what it is. Okay, that is
(0:05:51) Jonnie: Apple Vision Pro and you can…
(0:06:01) Kevin: It looks pretty cool. Um, I
(0:06:05) Kevin: like the
(0:06:07) Kevin: Yeah, no the farming bit look yeah, obviously like putting it in a
(0:06:13) Kevin: On a screen like that is the way to go
(0:06:16) Kevin: And the farming having the plots because it’s very the
(0:06:21) Kevin: simple and very square slash grid like right so I think this is a good one for that
(0:06:28) Kevin: because it’d be so easy to control you like it there’s not a lot of
(0:06:34) Kevin: difficulties in in managing the farming aspect so that’s cool um and on top of that eventually you can automate some of that stuff so you can just skip it out right um but yeah now that looks uh Looks great. It’s I’m so happy
(0:06:51) Kevin: Wildflowers is getting a second third win whatever whatever win we’re at
(0:06:56) Kevin: With the the small DLC update and now this vision pro stuff
(0:07:01) Kevin: I’m curious how much longer they’re gonna keep up the development
(0:07:05) Kevin: But I’m here
(0:07:08) Kevin: You know, I’m here for the long haul. I haven’t fired it up in a while immediately But I’ll wait till they announce maybe they’re done with everything and then see what’s going on
(0:07:18) Kevin: All right
(0:07:20) Kevin: Okay, so that’s that some of the
(0:07:23) Kevin: House cleaning with the tend to from last episode, but now let’s talk about what we’ve been up to more recently Johnny I’ll let you go first. What have you been up to?
(0:07:31) Jonnie: What have I been up to?
(0:07:34) Jonnie: Because there’s been a lot of demos and trying out a lot of stuff, I feel like I’ve sort of reverted back to some comfy kind of nostalgia games in the past week.
(0:07:43) Jonnie: I’ve been playing Diablo 4, partly because it’s something that I can play with friends and I moved countries recently, so it’s a nice game to do that.
(0:07:54) Jonnie: But maybe more funnily, the reason we started playing Diablo 4 is because Diablo 4 has been the news a lot in the last week because they’ve been doing
(0:08:01) Jonnie: very expensive cosmetic items that has generated a lot of media attention and I keep seeing headlines like Diablo 4 enters microtransaction hell and it’s silly things right like your town portal can change colour and I think it’s like you know 50 bucks or whatever for that cosmetic and it’s not entirely fair framing because I believe it comes with some of their
(0:08:27) Jonnie: Premium or quite a bit of their premium currency as well
(0:08:31) Jonnie: So you can can purchase other things but the thing that’s really kind of striking to me is the
(0:08:38) Jonnie: The narrative around this is kind of describing it like it’s a bad thing look, if there are people out there that want to pay $50 for a
(0:08:48) Jonnie: Cosmetic item that has like it’s not even on your character as you’re running around playing the game It’s literally the thing that you use to get to and from
(0:08:56) Jonnie: locations. It’s not that significant in the game. And if people want to spend that amount…
(0:09:01) Jonnie: for that cosmetic and that enables the developer. And I’m putting aside who the developer is and all of those sorts of things because I don’t really want to get into that discussion. But if this extends the life of the game and they’re doing seasonal gameplay and…
(0:09:13) Kevin: What’s there to discuss about Activision Blizzard?
(0:09:17) Jonnie: Yeah, let’s just avoid that one altogether. But if people want to pay a lot for those sort of things, and it means I as a casual player jumping in feel no need to spend money on any of that and it means I can keep investing in
(0:09:31) Jonnie: developing new content for these games then great like I feel as a just for the campaign portion of the game it is fully justified as a full press game I had a lot of fun playing the campaign and if this is how they want to monetize the long life of the game go for it like the game is still very fun I have a good time of the I have a good time playing with friends I just find a lot of the narrative around ongoing monetization if we accept that that is part of the reality of games now this is
(0:10:01) Jonnie: probably the least predatory way to do
(0:10:04) Kevin: Oh absolutely. My two questions are, one, all the news I heard about what little I did was about the cosmetic stuff, but is there any stuff that boosts gameplay or effects mechanics or anything like that? Okay. Okay. Yeah.
(0:10:22) Jonnie: no no so so it’s all yeah it’s all purchasable cosmetics yeah none of it really affects gameplay
(0:10:34) Kevin: Okay, well then that’s yeah, all right who cares then also can you earn premium currency by playing or do you just have?
(0:10:44) Jonnie: uh I feel like you can but I also feel like you earn even and I might be wrong um but I feel like even if you do earn premium currency it’s at a rate that’s so slow that you might as well not earn it at all because you would have to like I don’t know how you would actually save up enough of it to purchase anything uh but I can’t remember if that premium currency is actually locked behind um like a paid season pass thing so I can’t remember if it’s locked behind
(0:11:04) Kevin: It’s a word.
(0:11:14) Jonnie: a slightly different version of a paywall or if those are some of the the free tiers
(0:11:22) Kevin: Right. Okay. Well, they, uh, like you said, who cares, right? It’s cosmetic.
(0:11:26) Kevin: So whatever.
(0:11:27) Jonnie: Exactly
(0:11:29) Jonnie: And maybe i’m just like slightly biased, you know, because you and I both play marvel snap and that’s their approach as well Right you you generally you don’t pay to unlock cards Well, you cannot do like spending money on the game does increase the rate that you unlock cards somewhat, but not
(0:11:34) Kevin: Yeah.
(0:11:44) Kevin: Right, but it’s not explicitly you don’t pay money for a card exactly. It’s generally speaking just a
(0:11:53) Kevin: cosmetic that happens to get you resources that can help you generate new parts, but
(0:11:59) Kevin: But yeah, no, no. Yeah, I understand
(0:12:04) Kevin: I guess like I think about you know Marvel snap is actually a very apt comparison because there’s
(0:12:10) Kevin: Explicitly the price tag a hundred dollar bundles. I think there’s one going
(0:12:13) Jonnie: Mm-hmm, yep.
(0:12:14) Kevin: on right now. And yeah it doesn’t bother me like sometimes it’s a really cool one that I kind of wish I had but it’s not the end of the world there’s plenty the game is still fun doesn’t affect it and there’s plenty of other cool cosmetics I can earn but yeah no I get you um good yeah all right good way of doing it I
(0:12:39) Jonnie: Yeah, and and like so to kind of come back to the actual game you know, I’m having a lot of fun with Diablo as just a thing to jump on with friends and kill a bunch of stuff and
(0:12:48) Jonnie: You know have a good time. And I think the thing that I really appreciate about Diablo 4 is level scaling So the they have level scaling so it doesn’t matter what level you are. You can play with your friends and it’s a really nice version
(0:13:03) Jonnie: Yeah, so you can play with your friends like when we’re playing, you know, one of our friends was level 90 I think I was the lowest level, I was like.
(0:13:09) Jonnie: At level 90, he was significantly more powerful than I was even though the mobs were sort of scaled for us, as you would expect.
(0:13:21) Jonnie: But I think that’s kind of fine, right?
(0:13:23) Jonnie: We were able to sort of play together and not have it be where I wasn’t doing anything, but he was also able to enjoy the fact that he had put a lot more time and effort into building a more powerful character.
(0:13:37) Jonnie: I thought it’s it’s a really nice
(0:13:42) Kevin: That’s that’s pretty impressive because that’s a very difficult balancing act to do
(0:13:47) Jonnie: Yeah.
(0:13:51) Jonnie: Yeah, and then the other thing I’ve been dipping my toe back into is Old School RuneScape.
(0:13:56) Jonnie: I played Old School RuneScape when it was just RuneScape, and I love dipping my toe back into it every once in a while.
(0:14:00) Kevin: - Yeah.
(0:14:05) Jonnie: It’s such a goofy game. I love it.
(0:14:06) Kevin: Oh man.
(0:14:10) Kevin: It’s such a very distinct flavor.
(0:14:13) Kevin: I was actually thinking about dipping back in just last week.
(0:14:17) Kevin: I don’t remember why, but I might do that then.
(0:14:20) Jonnie: Do it, Kiv.
(0:14:22) Jonnie: Send me your username and I will add you and we can see each other online and oh my god, okay.
(0:14:26) Kevin: Yeah.
(0:14:27) Jonnie: I don’t know that you were an old-school RuneScape person, but please, please.
(0:14:30) Kevin: Yeah, the middle, that was definitive middle school gaming.
(0:14:37) Kevin: Yeah, what’d you do in the computer lab when you had the time or nobody caught you or whatever?
(0:14:37) Jonnie: Exactly, yep, that was that was the A draw.
(0:14:46) Jonnie: Oh, well maybe at some point we should do a greenhouse episode on Old School.
(0:14:47) Kevin: Yeah, good stuff.
(0:14:50) Kevin: I was thinking that I was about to say that stay tuned for Stay tuned for our RuneScape greenhouse!
(0:14:56) Jonnie: Oh, yes.
(0:14:58) Jonnie: Great.
(0:14:59) Jonnie: Cool, alright, we’ll leave that one there then.
(0:15:02) Kevin: I have a few things to talk about in the next episode of the M1C, but the M1C will be in the next episode of the M1C, but the M1C will be in the next episode of the M1C.
(0:15:04) Jonnie: Kip, what have you been playing?
(0:15:08) Kevin: Okay, it’s been a minute since I’ve been on, so I’ve got a few things. Actually, all the stuff kind of was in the last week.
(0:15:16) Kevin: I’ve been playing a lot of games, I guess.
(0:15:18) Kevin: First, shout out to Rainbow Road Radio, the Mario podcast host with mutual friend Alex.
(0:15:24) Kevin: We covered Mario vs Donkey Kong, which came out just yesterday, well, from the time of M1C.
(0:15:30) Kevin: I did not purchase the game myself, Alex did, but I played the demo.
(0:15:36) Kevin: Have you played any of the Mario vs Donkey Kong games at all, Jonny?
(0:15:40) Jonnie: I don’t even think I’ve ever heard of a Mario vs Donkey Kong game.
(0:15:46) Kevin: Okay. So, it is, so right, the original Donkey Kong arcade game, right? The debut of both Mario and Donkey Kong.
(0:15:56) Kevin: If they reinvented re-imag- I won’t even say that.
(0:16:00) Kevin: This game was originally on the Game Boy Advance. They did a remake for the Switch, that’s what we discussed.
(0:16:09) Kevin: It is a puzzle kind of platformer game. Essentially, you’re presented with a level with platforms and obstacles like spike pits, jumps you have to make, switches, things like that.
(0:16:30) Kevin: It’s not a horizontal scrolling type level like standard mario’s, it’s just one screen.
(0:16:38) Kevin: And you have to figure out the puzzle of how do I get to the key, what order do I have to clear these obstacles or flip these switches, and then you get the key to the door.
(0:16:50) Kevin: And that’s kind of the gist of the gameplay. It’s fairly straightforward, but they add a lot of depth, they add a lot of obstacles and stuff like that.
(0:16:58) Kevin: Um, the Switch Remake specifically…
(0:17:00) Kevin: It’s very nice presentation
(0:17:04) Kevin: The the game is the premise is centered around these little toys called mini marios
(0:17:11) Kevin: So a lot of the games
(0:17:13) Kevin: Enemies and things like that are toy versions of Mario enemies very cute very reminiscent of Link’s Awakening remake art style
(0:17:22) Kevin: very colorful and fun I enjoyed the demo Alex enjoyed the game that he played thus far
(0:17:30) Kevin: Yeah, check that out. That was that’s a fun one
(0:17:34) Jonnie: Nice. I might have to check that out. I love a puzzle.
(0:17:34) Kevin: aside from that
(0:17:38) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, it’s it’s great and they added new stuff for the remake right so it’s got a substantial amount
(0:17:45) Kevin: It’s not just a short GBA
(0:17:49) Kevin: Venture Yeah, I definitely recommend at least people should check out the the trailers and stuff just to see how the cute little mini marios are
(0:17:59) Jonnie: or people should check out rich road radio rainbow road radio
(0:18:00) Kevin: And
(0:18:04) Kevin: That your rainbow Road radio, that’s correct. No, don’t worry. I’ll be plugging that later
(0:18:12) Kevin: Aside from that Disney speedstorm have you heard of this one Johnny?
(0:18:16) Jonnie: I have not heard of this.
(0:18:19) Kevin: Okay, it is a
(0:18:22) Kevin: Just came out last year. I believe it is Disney’s version of Mario Kart. Um, it’s part racing game with Disney
(0:18:30) Kevin: here’s okay, so
(0:18:33) Kevin: it’s
(0:18:35) Kevin: It I’m two ways about it because on the one hand the actual racing is fantastic It’s a strong Mario Kart type game the if you’re a big fan of Disney, you’ll get even more enjoyment out of it
(0:18:49) Kevin: With the music tracks the characters pretty wide variety of characters. They have Pixar and Disney, but here’s the kicker
(0:18:57) Kevin: It’s free to play which do hey, that’s cool. You don’t spend money
(0:19:00) Kevin: But it is slathered with loot boxes, season pass, microtransactions, just filled to the brim with it.
(0:19:13) Kevin: And it’s not prohibitive, but you do have to know how to invest your resources.
(0:19:23) Kevin: Because you get plenty of resources, basically the kicker is you have to level up your characters,
(0:19:28) Kevin: racers that affects their stats and that actually
(0:19:31) Kevin: does affect your performance in races, including the single player.
(0:19:35) Kevin: In fact, I would say primarily the single player, which is what I’ve been playing.
(0:19:41) Kevin: And so getting the resources is the challenge.
(0:19:44) Kevin: You have to win certain races, do certain objectives, get from boxes, yada, yada.
(0:19:51) Kevin: So it is a limited amount you get, at least like daily, but if you just invest them smartly, you can get through the races.
(0:19:58) Kevin: Okay, but so you know
(0:20:01) Kevin: That’s kind of a bummer how grindy you can feel at times But the grind is fun because the game itself is really fun They it as you can expect from disney money. The presentation is pretty stellar like I said the
(0:20:15) Kevin: All the visuals the audio is good. They got
(0:20:19) Kevin: Not every voice actor but a good majority of them. They didn’t get you know, john goodman for sully, but uh
(0:20:27) Kevin: They got ariel’s voice actress, which is pretty cool. Um
(0:20:31) Kevin: And i’m a big disney fan. So i’m uh, i’m thoroughly enjoying the game. Um
(0:20:37) Kevin: and it’s like on every console or Platform whatever and you can move your account and all that good stuff. Um
(0:20:46) Kevin: so I uh I I I enjoy I kind of recommend it if you’re a big disney fan in particular
(0:20:56) Jonnie: This sounds like the sort of game that in a different stage of my life I would have got very into and it’s more that I just don’t have space for another like daily check-in game in my life at the moment.
(0:21:06) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, now that’s understandable um I
(0:21:10) Jonnie: And how would you say the racing compares to like a Mario?
(0:21:12) Kevin: I think
(0:21:14) Kevin: Overall the the pacing is faster in general. There’s a big emphasis on boosting and has a boosting mechanic
(0:21:24) Kevin: The number of power-ups are
(0:21:29) Kevin: They’re general. I don’t know if they’re smaller the actual amount, but they’re less impactful. Let’s say right
(0:21:34) Kevin: There’s no blue
(0:21:36) Kevin: Shell or lightning. There’s nothing super chaotic like the most
(0:21:40) Kevin: There’s a shield you can get there. You can fire like a homing disc
(0:21:46) Kevin: They do put some fun twists on it because the power-ups you can actually
(0:21:52) Kevin: Have variations some you can charge up
(0:21:55) Kevin: You can hold the button down and charge up the power-up to do something different some you can throw backwards others. You can’t
(0:22:02) Kevin: uh… and most interestingly uh… every character
(0:22:06) Kevin: has a unique uh… power-up uh… that matches their character right um… so for instance uh… ariel has a really fun one when you use her special skill she uh…
(0:22:19) Kevin: these little uh…
(0:22:21) Kevin: the trinkets and artifacts uh… just uh… spawn on the racetrack and if you collect them you get a higher top speed which is cute uh… there’s other ones like stitch he’ll just start blasting all her crazy like with his ray gun.
(0:22:36) Kevin: Sully will roar at people and it’s just cute to see the ones that they do and how they match each character.
(0:22:46) Kevin: But yeah, overall it feels less chaotic than a Mario Kart because Mario Kart is just utter chaos with everything flying around.
(0:22:58) Kevin: It is a bit more straightforward racing but still enjoyable.
(0:23:06) Kevin: And one more I’ve got to talk about, Moonstone Island.
(0:23:10) Kevin: Funnily enough, you guys talked about the update last week.
(0:23:16) Kevin: I was playing before the update dropped, I didn’t even know it was coming.
(0:23:20) Kevin: You can see there was an update on Steam.
(0:23:22) Kevin: I have actually not hit credits, I don’t know if you can hit credits in the game, but I completed a full year and defeated the final boss.
(0:23:30) Kevin: I did a whole episode on that and I think my feelings are more or less…
(0:23:36) Kevin: They added the marriage and that was fine, but it’s not enough to change the entirety of the game.
(0:23:44) Kevin: There’s still a lot I like about the game, but there’s also a lot that it feels lacking.
(0:23:50) Kevin: But hopefully they’ll keep updating it and we’ll see it get to a better place.
(0:23:54) Kevin: The one thing I will definitely give them props for is the monster design.
(0:24:00) Kevin: The hands down winner, the new ones they added, is called…
(0:24:06) Kevin: …the bread mouse. It is a toaster with a piece of toast in it with a little face on it and the toast will pop out.
(0:24:16) Kevin: But yeah, I still kinda recommend it. I went back to it, right?
(0:24:22) Kevin: There’s enough for me to actually go through the whole year.
(0:24:24) Kevin: Yeah.
(0:24:26) Jonnie: And that’s a big thing, I guess, you know, in this year or, you know, in modern time.
(0:24:32) Jonnie: Going back to a game is a really good sign, because there’s so many games that we get to play,
(0:24:40) Jonnie: and you can try something and be like, “Oh, that was fun,” but you never really feel the need to go back to it, and you’ll be scrolling through your library, and you’ll be like, “Oh,
(0:24:46) Jonnie: I never went back to that.” And you kind of realize, like, while it was fun, there wasn’t that hook to pull you back. So anything that can do that, I think, is a solution.
(0:24:50) Kevin: Yeah, yep, yep, there’s something almost like I keep going back because I want it to be good right like I had fun going through the bosses and everything the last fight is actually very challenging but I just I still wish there was like a story giving me a reason that I’m hiding this thing. Oh, you know, I’m just gonna spoil
(0:24:56) Jonnie: It’s kind of a pretty good game.
(0:25:20) Kevin: it for anyone who cares the boss’s name is missing no actually just straight up missing no like Pokemon’s missing number but but yeah so that and hey I did I can pat myself on the back and close it for now unless something update comes. Ah, but yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to a lot of stuff and speaking of a lot of stuff we got news actually I don’t think it’s that much news but we got some items here so let’s let’s get into it first up.
(0:25:50) Kevin: Alpone Island, yeah, console releases are still coming, but we don’t have any date yet,
(0:25:57) Kevin: and they’re doing improvements to the UI, which is always good.
(0:26:02) Kevin: I feel like, oh man, UI design, it’s so critical, but it feels so underappreciated, even just from the dev side, but you know, so I do appreciate them putting some effort on that.
(0:26:20) Jonnie: Yeah, so I guess the key to this one is that they kind of recognize that their launch on Steam was a little bit rocky.
(0:26:25) Jonnie: They got kind of hit with a few bugs that were probably unexpected.
(0:26:29) Jonnie: And so they’re just calling out that they’re still fully intending to do their console launches,
(0:26:34) Jonnie: but also recognizing that it’s probably going to take a bit more work than they initially intended.
(0:26:38) Jonnie: So no official date as of yet, but I really appreciate this sort of communication.
(0:26:45) Jonnie: and probably unsurprising that when you have a launch on Steam.
(0:26:50) Jonnie: And you get hit with some bugs that you didn’t expect like, it’s not only that it can be disappointing sort of, you know, that that happens and disappointing commercially, but it could also be like it’s just hard right when you put a lot of time, effort and love into into a game like this.
(0:27:05) Jonnie: And, you know, it’s very hard to predict we all know that building games is difficult.
(0:27:11) Jonnie: So, I think it’s a good sign that they’re taking the time and not putting the additional pressure on to, to get the, to get those things done.
(0:27:12) Kevin: Oh yeah, absolutely.
(0:27:18) Kevin: Yeah, absolutely yeah, and even just in this
(0:27:24) Kevin: Cottage cord subspace there’s plenty of games, so there’s definitely no need to rush
(0:27:30) Kevin: I agree, it’s good for them to be clear for one to folk it to
(0:27:36) Kevin: Plan things out like this right like they’re gonna delay it and to be clear about it
(0:27:41) Kevin: So I
(0:27:42) Kevin: Think that’s a sign of a good developer. So, you know, I hoped for that console release eventually
(0:27:49) Kevin: Kinseed has a what they call the big build update Great.
(0:27:58) Jonnie: Yeah, so the the big build update is hot now and I guess the key to this one is it introduces farm customization
(0:28:06) Kevin: Yeah, uh
(0:28:08) Kevin: So I have not honestly I have not seen that much about
(0:28:13) Kevin: But boy that art is beautiful. It is wow that’s some lovely lovely pixel art
(0:28:19) Kevin: Yeah farm customization is the big one. They have actually they have a big list of stuff on Steam you can see
(0:28:27) Kevin: They even adjusted some of the story pacing
(0:28:31) Kevin: Let me see. Oh, that’s cool NPC a talent system for NPC That’s really cool improvements to their progress screen
(0:28:41) Kevin: You can
(0:28:44) Kevin: Not just customize it not just not visual customization for the farm, but actual structures that can improve
(0:28:52) Kevin: like your shelters for your animals and
(0:28:57) Kevin: Things to make travel and commerce easier. Um, if this is a pretty hearty update. Oh batch crafting. There’s the
(0:29:04) Kevin: That’s the one everyone loves
(0:29:06) Kevin: That’s a lot of that’s a lot of that’s a big update. I appreciate that. I’m gonna have to check this out This is some really pretty art. I totally forgotten about this one I don’t like and like I said, that is out now already on Steam. Is it anywhere else?
(0:29:18) Kevin: I don’t remember but at there at least on Steam, okay
(0:29:22) Kevin: Let’s see next up. We have oh, this is fun one a game called outbound
(0:29:31) Kevin: Let’s read the blurb shall we
(0:29:35) Kevin: Build your own home
(0:29:36) Kevin: Come on wheels and live sustainably off-grid Craft workstations and power supplies Source energy from the sun, wind, or water Upgrade and customize your vehicle Grow crops, automate your production, and explore a colorful world That’s a lot of stuff to do from a vehicle
(0:29:54) Jonnie: look this game looks incredible so so I guess the the shorter summary we’ll keep just read out is you’re driving around in a in a minivan that you live in and you can customize I’ll put a note down here that I well I was on board before this but the moment that got Al was they built an insane structure on top of the campervan which I think is amazing from what they’ve shown you know being able drive around the world, dick out.
(0:30:24) Jonnie: The game is a bit of a game, but it’s a bit of a game.
(0:30:32) Kevin: Yeah, it’s a very pleasant visual style too, it’s full 3D cell shaded, I think is probably the best way, or closest approximation, I would say.
(0:30:47) Kevin: This is very interesting, right? Because so many farm games, they’re centered around the farm or the base, right?
(0:30:56) Kevin: But this one’s mobile, so, like, how, that will make sense.
(0:31:02) Kevin: This will make, I assume, traversing between different little mini bases, because they show you can build structures on the ground and stuff, so I assume you can build little buildings and things like that.
(0:31:13) Kevin: I wonder how big the map will be if you have a car, like, there’s a lot of potential there.
(0:31:18) Kevin: It looks like wind turbines on the top of this thing. Oh, that’s great. I hope you can go really high, I want it to look absurdly ridiculous.
(0:31:30) Jonnie: And it’s I guess in terms of like this game is being announced. They have a
(0:31:35) Jonnie: Kickstarter page like but no no campaign launch or launch date. So probably just want to keep our eyes on
(0:31:46) Kevin: Um, all right, so that is, again, Outbound, that’s a fun looking one.
(0:31:52) Kevin: Um, and actually, that’s it.
(0:31:55) Kevin: I think we’ve covered most of the news.
(0:31:55) Jonnie: Oh we got one more one more
(0:31:58) Kevin: Well, one more by yes, but I’ll let you take this one.
(0:31:59) Jonnie: We’ve got farming some farming simulator farming simulator 23. Yeah, you scroll past it
(0:32:02) Kevin: Wait, what?
(0:32:04) Kevin: Oh, oh, I missed it.
(0:32:04) Kevin: You’re right.
(0:32:05) Kevin: I skipped it.
(0:32:05) Kevin: Yeah, I did.
(0:32:08) Kevin: Wait, they do content updates for these guys.
(0:32:10) Jonnie: Yes, they do lots of content updates for farming simulator they’ve got all the farming freaks and
(0:32:14) Kevin: I thought each year was the con-
(0:32:16) Kevin: content of the- laughs
(0:32:17) Jonnie: No, there are there are updates within the content updates
(0:32:22) Jonnie: So this one introduces a new to.
(0:32:25) Jonnie: a new video.
(0:32:36) Kevin: And no
(0:32:40) Kevin: I do enjoy seeing the reactions from the people who are fans, right like
(0:32:46) Kevin: the I remember years back when they finally brought John Deere into farming simulator just the
(0:32:54) Kevin: the
(0:32:56) Kevin: The height was
(0:32:58) Kevin: Through roof from the farm simulator community
(0:33:03) Kevin: That’s that’s pretty fun
(0:33:05) Kevin: All right, yeah, the boat
(0:33:07) Kevin: I’ll put an exclamation point. I wonder if he knows who that is. I don’t know that company
(0:33:13) Kevin: Alright, let’s just get into the demos Johnny. I’ll let you take the first one. That’s I chair to the class what what demos you’ve been
(0:33:22) Jonnie: So I guess the first one that I’ll kick off with is Lightyear Frontier.
(0:33:26) Jonnie: And as I wrote that down, I’m actually questioning, is that the name of the game?
(0:33:29) Jonnie: Because we’re in the classic word salad of games where you start looking at things,
(0:33:38) Jonnie: and then you wonder, is that right? Or is it something else?
(0:33:42) Jonnie: It is… Yeah. Right.
(0:33:42) Kevin: This is not one lonely outpost or whatever that one’s called. That’s the other space future one [laughs]
(0:33:52) Jonnie: So yeah, so Lightyear Frontier is the mech space farming game.
(0:34:00) Jonnie: And actually, having played the demo, I feel like farming or cottagecore game
(0:34:05) Jonnie: is maybe not quite the right description. To me, it feels maybe more similar to
(0:34:17) Jonnie: like a survival game. So the premise is you are dropped on a planet with
(0:34:22) Jonnie: your mech and you are the only thing on there. I think part of it is the intent is maybe more for like do it with friends, right? So there might be three or four of you and you explore the planet and sort of build and establish a base more so than a farm. Like farming is definitely an element of it, but I guess that’s kind of the core base of the
(0:34:42) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, it definitely feels more, as you said, survival as great like no man’s sky or perhaps power.
(0:35:00) Kevin: But okay, tell me how is the mech though, right? Because that’s that’s the differential to the star of the show How does it feel oh?
(0:35:08) Jonnie: the mech is unfortunately disappointing and there’s one very clear reason for it and I get where they’re going I just don’t think it works in execution so what happens with the mech is you know it can jump higher you can get in and out of the mech so you’re not always in the mech and there are elements where you need to be outside of it but what happens I think in order to sort of limit traversal around the world as the mech is not great.
(0:35:12) Kevin: No
(0:35:39) Jonnie: If you are on unstable ground, it is highly likely to fall over and then you need to get out and you need to right the mech.
(0:35:40) Kevin: Oh, no.
(0:35:47) Jonnie: I get why they want to limit some of the traversal.
(0:35:52) Jonnie: I assume it might be that you can get a higher jump or a longer boost later in the game, but it just doesn’t feel great.
(0:36:04) Jonnie: You know to me part of what I want to feel when I’m in a mix is like I am like
(0:36:08) Jonnie: Human plus and in many ways it feels like you’re a human - we
(0:36:12) Kevin: Right, absolutely, like, I’m looking at the trailer and one thing I’m seeing is that the actions you do from the map feel very similar to what you could do in any other sort of survival game, right, collecting resources, planting, etc, etc.
(0:36:36) Kevin: And, I mean, obviously the visuals match the Mac you’re using tools and gadgets.
(0:36:42) Kevin: And what not to do it. But like you say, when you’re when I’m in a mech, I’d want to be more than human plus I want to be outrageously absurdly powerful and doing nonsense right like I just want to low, if I’m going to clear a lane, I want to do it just in till a field I want to do it in just one button push, you know, something like that, something absurd and over the top.
(0:37:06) Kevin: And I’m not really seeing that, which is unfortunate.
(0:37:08) Jonnie: Yeah, and I didn’t really feel that in the gameplay, so that was unfortunate.
(0:37:14) Kevin: Yeah, what about the the rest of it right?
(0:37:18) Jonnie: So I think the rest of it… So I think it’s well known that I’m not a particularly big fan of survival games,
(0:37:24) Jonnie: but I even feel that in the realm of survival games, this one suffers from not really having a clear identity of what it is.
(0:37:36) Jonnie: So if I think about something like you know the classic Minecraft, Minecraft is all built around the creativity aspect of what can you build and what can you do in this world. There’s no narrative element, it’s just come up with whatever narrative you want but this is the game which is great for what they’re doing. Something like Pylia is like hey go out into the world and beat these bosses right so there’s there is more of a here’s an objective of a thing to do. Now you can talk about how good it is at doing that but it’s
(0:38:08) Jonnie: very clearly there. In Lightyear Frontier there is a narrative aspect that is so you’ve got an AI
(0:38:22) Jonnie: counterpart that’s like watching over you and giving you guidance I guess is is probably the way to describe it and you’re landed on a planet there’s some allusions to you know like why didn’t humanity come here and you know explore this planet and you know you’re gonna clean up some of it
(0:38:38) Jonnie: but it doesn’t feel particularly like the narrative doesn’t feel particularly compelling or strong like there was a few quests that kind of were meant to introduce it to you but they kind of just feel like they appeared and I didn’t really feel like I had a compelling reason to go and do those I didn’t care about completing the quests right like it was more just like here’s a task to complete and then on the other side I didn’t get that like the building side of it
(0:39:08) Jonnie: and I didn’t feel strong enough that I was like oh but like that I could see how I want to build out this planet it more felt like kind of just standard base building stuff so to me it felt stuck between all of the different aspects of what a survival game could be and just wasn’t really
(0:39:28) Kevin: Yeah, I again, looking at the trailer, I can I can get that like, I think a concern just from looking at it, the house you can build is like a little wood cottage type ranch home and in a mech game, you know, I’d hope for a big hulking metal robot base.
(0:39:50) Kevin: So I can see that it feels like they’re trying to go in two different directions. They’re going through all the usual trappings of these survival.
(0:39:58) Kevin: Type games, but they’re trying to do this next stuff, but not enough. So that’s that’s a tad unfortunate, like, honestly, just looks like a more colorful no man’s sky again.
(0:40:11) Jonnie: Yeah. I don’t know that I have a huge amount else to say on this game, and I guess my takeaway is,
(0:40:19) Jonnie: you know, sometimes you play a game and you’re like, “I didn’t enjoy that, but I know the sorts of people that would enjoy it, right? I know who I would recommend the game to.” Unfortunately,
(0:40:28) Jonnie: with my time with Lightyear Frontier, I kind of left it thinking, “I don’t know who this game is for.” It feels too much like we built a thing where, you know, it’s sort of like Mad Libs.
(0:40:41) Jonnie: And I guess that’s probably something we should say maybe not right up front, because now that we’re a little bit into the conversation, but there’s a huge possibility that these things could change,
(0:41:09) Jonnie: All right, um
(0:41:11) Jonnie: And I think for me the thing that would need to change with lightyear frontier
(0:41:14) Jonnie: In order for me to go back in is I would want to hear about this game having a clear direction in terms of what it is whether that’s adding a lot more narratively or you know really going into what it means to clean up the planet and to
(0:41:30) Jonnie: Build a base or do whatever the thing is that you’re aiming to do on this planet
(0:41:34) Jonnie: Uh, I would just like to see more of a direct
(0:41:40) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, it’s it’s unfortunate and they have the big hook they have the mech right like if they got in all in on that right like
(0:41:50) Kevin: customize it to be just
(0:41:52) Kevin: Ridiculously different builds or whatever right like I think of you know armor court six I don’t know if you’re familiar with that that was the big mech game from from software
(0:42:01) Kevin: Like that’s the sort of thing. I want to see from Mecca’s
(0:42:04) Jonnie: And I think that’s a really good sort of like point to raise is that, you know, and I think we talked about this a few weeks ago, the tools just kind of feel like the tools that you would have anywhere else like it doesn’t feel like they’re really taking advantage of the of the mech and some of the cool things that it could do, you know, you’ve got this big open game, give us a, you know, a super fast boost.
(0:42:26) Jonnie: Like, I’ve not played Armoured Core 6, but I’ve seen the gameplay of Armoured Core 6, and you kind of take all of the aspects of that game.
(0:42:31) Kevin: right like yep
(0:42:35) Jonnie: And you delete them. And that’s what playing a mech in this game feels like.
(0:42:39) Kevin: yep yep oh man that’s that’s disappointing but uh it is still technically early access so you know who knows maybe one day we’ll we’ll see improvements maybe they’ll hear this episode down the ground grapevine and then then then then they’ll go all day but um all right there you go Well, that’s lightyear frontier.
(0:43:00) Jonnie: - Yes, that’s my first tempo.
(0:43:01) Kevin: All right, I want to talk about Southfield.
(0:43:02) Jonnie: Kip, what’s your…
(0:43:08) Kevin: So we covered this relatively recently on the podcast last time I was on with Al.
(0:43:14) Kevin: They’re hook, they’re premise.
(0:43:16) Kevin: It is a physics-based farming, your cottagecore type game.
(0:43:21) Kevin: It is, so if you watch the trailer, see the images.
(0:43:25) Kevin: You can see just from the visual style what they’re going for.
(0:43:28) Kevin: You’re playing as this very
(0:43:31) Kevin: round colorful I call it gun gumdrop creature um with goofy cartoony eyes and and just like no fingers or whatever just brown ball hands and this demo is fascinating because
(0:43:48) Kevin: unlike other demos it’s not a they’re up clear about it up they’re clear and upfront about it it’s not a like example of a level or whatever this is kind of a
(0:44:01) Kevin: proof of concept they want to uh show what they want to go for that’s how they describe it now that said the it is a fairly robust and complete uh demo uh it is very large and the kicker is you can’t save but it yeah yeah it’s rough so like if you want to if you think you’d enjoy this you’ve got to clear a couple hours because it is a it is a very amply sized uh demo
(0:44:17) Jonnie: Oh no!
(0:44:31) Kevin: both in terms of like the area you can cover and the amount of things you can do it uh so going to the main hook of the the physics space portion so for instance right in your standard farming game when you want to harvest a crop you you just push the button and you collect the resource right maybe you put it down with a sickle or whatever right in this game you have to grab the fruit Whatever it is, and you actually have to pull that sucker out like it
(0:45:01) Kevin: will stretch cartoon style and you have to yank it off in a very sort of satisfying way of doing it. It’s not all completely fixed space, for instance when you’re plowing the the ground it’s still a grid based sort of system as is the usual, but for instance when you’re watering it’s not just water square by square it’s like you’re you actually just can run around and just rush all and spray water everywhere as you’re doing it.
(0:45:31) Jonnie: This game just looks incredible. I love this. I have like- I love the-
(0:45:31) Kevin: The Legend of Zelda Series is a very bright, bouncy, colorful cartoon. It’s a dedicated combo button. You can just roll around and roll around.
(0:45:38) Kevin: Everything about it, even as you’re playing the mechanics, all feel like how it looks. For instance, there is a dedicated combo button where you just kind of roll up into a ball and then you can just start rolling around like a Goron from The Legend of Zelda Series.
(0:46:02) Kevin: It’s very fun, it’s very cute. There is a huge, like, 30 or something crops that you can grow in the demo.
(0:46:14) Kevin: And they do get into some of the other aspects, like building and crafting and whatnot.
(0:46:20) Kevin: In particular, the automation stuff where you can construct conveyor belts and things like that. You can see in some of the trailer, like, you can have these wacky…
(0:46:31) Kevin: bouncing fruits on the conveyor belts as they’re moving along. So it can… the possibilities are… they’re vast. Like, I can’t even imagine the nonsense that will come out of this game.
(0:46:44) Kevin: And overall, like I said, it’s a real… it sucks that you can’t say it because I want to play this more and more, but having to restart every time is a real bummer.
(0:46:57) Kevin: bummer but yeah the whole demo as a whole is very sandbox
(0:47:01) Kevin: like here’s the island go here’s basically all the things you can do and just go do whatever right I don’t know what the if they’re gonna try to go with a narrative thing because they have some other NPCs and characters which are fun in design and have personality so maybe they’ll lean into that I don’t know but it is still overall I think a great demo I’m excited for the game I’m glad the demo didn’t disappoint because just what looking at the.
(0:47:31) Kevin: very excited by the visual style and I’m definitely keeping my eye out for this and you know,
(0:47:40) Kevin: whenever how long it will take to get a big game actually done.
(0:47:43) Kevin: So definitely a thumbs up.
(0:47:45) Jonnie: I loved the look of some of the automation in the game where they set up the conveyor belts and like fans and was that in the demo?
(0:47:53) Kevin: Yes, yes it was. I can’t remember fans, but I think it was. I didn’t fiddle around with the animation too, too much, but they definitely had a lot of different components that you could mess around with to basically achieve the sort of stuff you see in the trailer with fans pushing them and bouncing and things like that.
(0:48:11) Kevin: Yeah, I’m definitely a thumbs up from me on Southfield.
(0:48:16) Jonnie: game looks, it looks incredible. My feeling looking at this game is it kind of gives me the silliness that I feel like an Ooblets was going for and Ooblets massively failed to deliver on because it just tried to be absurd. This feels like absurd with a purpose, right? That’s, to me, that’s the appeal is like the ragdoll physics style element and what you’ve said about like it’s not everywhere,
(0:48:27) Kevin: Yes.
(0:48:42) Jonnie: right like the the hoeing being more grid-based as well.
(0:48:46) Kevin: Yeah, it’s it’s still grounded. Yes, right
(0:48:47) Jonnie: That to me says a lot because yeah it’s grounded there’s still intention behind it and doing that those things where it makes sense right here like Ublitz was just like we’re gonna make everything silly because that’s the thing we do we’re silly look at how silly we are and it’s like hey you kind of just cringe in lane right like whereas this looks just amazing.
(0:49:06) Kevin: Yeah, absolutely. I I fully agree with that because
(0:49:11) Kevin: Yeah, nothing felt nothing felt bad like for better lack of way of putting oh my gosh I think I’m looking at the trailer again I forgot there’s this fruit that will just start growing if you don’t harvest it quickly enough. It’s it’s pretty fun
(0:49:25) Kevin: Yeah, they have the cannons. Yeah, all this stuff is in the demo looking at it. There’s not like your dog I don’t remember that but oh, yeah, I think the vehicle was in there, too
(0:49:33) Kevin: But I agree like it’s very thoughtful
(0:49:36) Kevin: in its design. It’s goofy as much as it can be but still absolutely grounds it with working systems. And honestly I had the same feeling of like this is kind of what I want Ooblets to be like because it’s bright and colorful but not ridiculously like I don’t I don’t know what it is about Ooblets something about the names that always throw me off about Ooblets but but here it’s just so much fun. I mean just looking at the
(0:50:07) Kevin: It’s it’s great. Yeah, so I don’t think we have a any date or anything like that for Southfield yet, but
(0:50:15) Kevin: Keep your keep your eye out for it because I think it’s gonna be a great one
(0:50:20) Jonnie: Alright, so Rusty’s Retirement is a game I’m very excited about, I’ve been very excited about,
(0:50:28) Jonnie: and I was very excited to try the demo. I feel like the idea of an idol-ish farming game that kind of just sits at the bottom of your screen is genius and something that I had
(0:50:42) Jonnie: not considered and something I didn’t know that I wanted until I saw the trailer.
(0:50:46) Jonnie: And I was like, yeah, I really want to play this.
(0:50:50) Jonnie: Good.
(0:50:51) Jonnie: And having played the demo, it seems like it’s exactly what I wanted it to be.
(0:50:57) Jonnie: So you have your farming plots that sit at the bottom of the screen.
(0:51:01) Jonnie: You select a crop, you plant it.
(0:51:04) Jonnie: Rusty, he goes out and he’ll plant the crops,
(0:51:07) Jonnie: or he’ll order them, he’ll harvest them.
(0:51:10) Jonnie: You can purchase robots that will help with the automation,
(0:51:14) Jonnie: effectively just increasing the number of tasks that you can complete.
(0:51:20) Jonnie: The first crops you grow, then maybe they take a minute or two.
(0:51:24) Jonnie: And then as time goes on, the crops take longer and longer to grow.
(0:51:27) Jonnie: And you just need to grow more of them to unlock future stuff.
(0:51:32) Kevin: You’re right. Okay
(0:51:33) Jonnie: The demo has some pretty obvious blockers on it.
(0:51:39) Jonnie: I assume you’ll be able to purchase more land.
(0:51:41) Jonnie: There are some big bits on the screen that we just grade out with the words demo across them.
(0:51:46) Jonnie: I’m sure there’ll be more buildings and stuff like you could buy.
(0:51:50) Jonnie: a few buildings in this one, but nothing significant.
(0:51:56) Jonnie: It was just kind of everything. I was hoping it was going to be.
(0:52:01) Kevin: okay so the prison like the visual is very cute I actually like the style a lot um my question is
(0:52:09) Kevin: how intrusive do you find it right like because it’s running at the bottom of your screen
(0:52:16) Kevin: like how frequently are you checking in or how much is it distracting you
(0:52:22) Jonnie: Yes, I don’t know if it’s fair to say, Chris, this is probably the thing that I hope changes the most as the game goes from demo to full implementation.
(0:52:33) Jonnie: And I should call out that they’re very explicit that the demo is a work in progress and that a lot of things will change.
(0:52:42) Jonnie: So in terms of how intrusive it is, I’m playing on a laptop with, you know, like a 15 inch screen and a monitor. It’s a textual monitor that’s like.
(0:52:52) Jonnie: Maybe 27 inches and it does feel quite intrusive. They do have options where you can keep it up permanently or have it minimize, which is which is handy.
(0:53:02) Jonnie: It did feel quite intrusive, but they’re one of the good things that I guess has come out of the demos.
(0:53:10) Jonnie: They’ve announced that vertical mode is coming and I think the vertical mode would change it quite significantly.
(0:53:15) Jonnie: I think there’s quite a difference to it being on the right of a screen versus.
(0:53:22) Jonnie: It being sort of on the bottom in terms of the amount of screen real estate it will take up.
(0:53:27) Jonnie: So I really like that change. I think that makes a lot of sense and it’s something that I’m very excited for because I think I would I would be much more likely to have it up permanently if I was playing in vertical mode versus horizontal.
(0:53:40) Kevin: Okay.
(0:53:41) Kevin: Yeah.
(0:53:42) Kevin: I, I guess I can see that.
(0:53:44) Kevin: I guess also like just how much like in terms of attention, does it,
(0:53:50) Kevin: does it track from you, right?
(0:53:52) Kevin: Like, is this something you would run while doing something?
(0:53:56) Kevin: I don’t know, a work type task or, or is this something just while you’re watching videos or like, how, yeah, how much of your attention?
(0:54:06) Jonnie: Yeah, so I think this is the other thing that I kind of hope changes in the full implementation is that it slows down a bit.
(0:54:13) Jonnie: So I felt like it was requiring too much attention for what it was.
(0:54:20) Jonnie: But again, that’s sort of a pass I’m willing to give it because it’s a demo.
(0:54:23) Jonnie: And I think it felt like, you know, to me, it felt like that was intended because you kind of progress to purchasing some of the buildings and getting a lot of the resources.
(0:54:34) Jonnie: what felt like very quick for a game of
(0:54:36) Jonnie: this sort and I wouldn’t be surprised if in the in the full implementation everything else was slowed down so I feel like I did everything within the demo you know which which goes from starting with not a lot to generating you know thousands of gold within the course of an hour or two which is which is not the pace you necessarily want to play a game like this at so I feel like the pace was too quick, but also for demos, like yeah, if this was the game.
(0:55:06) Jonnie: But it was just slower. That would be fine. So it felt more like this. If this is the pace,
(0:55:10) Jonnie: it’s definitely more the sort of thing that you would play while like watching a show,
(0:55:15) Jonnie: but definitely not something that you would play where you would try to achieve something else productive because it takes too much attention to do that.
(0:55:22) Kevin: All right, that’s interesting.
(0:55:24) Kevin: Here’s a question.
(0:55:25) Kevin: Can it do a full screen type mode?
(0:55:28) Kevin: Because generally how I like to play these types of games,
(0:55:32) Kevin: I’d like to just pop in and check on them,
(0:55:36) Kevin: but not actually see them while they’re running.
(0:55:39) Kevin: Right, so I played a phone game or two.
(0:55:42) Jonnie: No, I can’t do full screen but what I wouldn’t be surprised with is if in a full implementation as you purchase more land like that might be, you might be able to see it in a way where it could take up more screen real estate, the fact that you can minimise it so you can kind of play it the way you’re intending but there’s no reason for it to go full screen at this stage because literally the gameplay space is that bottom bar, there’s nothing
(0:56:10) Kevin: Okay, sure. Yeah, that makes sense. And in the end, probably wouldn’t. Yeah, as long as you can minimize it, I could I could run with that. Okay, does it have any sort of music because like running over what you’ve got, right? Or is it just completely visual?
(0:56:28) Jonnie: I don’t recall, and I’m one of those people that as soon as I start a game, I turn sounds off, but generally I don’t really care that much about video game music, so it maybe has music, it maybe doesn’t. I have no idea.
(0:56:44) Kevin: Okay, that’s fine.
(0:56:46) Jonnie: Yeah, I don’t have a huge amount else to say. The game is like Watch a Trailer, and that’s what the demo is.
(0:56:53) Jonnie: I don’t think we have a date yet on when it’s coming out.
(0:56:58) Jonnie: But I think everything about this game is kind of what I want it to be.
(0:57:05) Jonnie: So yeah, very excited for Rusty’s retirement to come out in full.
(0:57:13) Kevin: Alright, well, at least it definitely looks like it’s delivering on what was promised, so I definitely respect that.
(0:57:22) Kevin: Do you have anything else to add to that?
(0:57:24) Jonnie: Uh, no, just excited to see as this game develops.
(0:57:28) Kevin: Alright then, in that case, I’ll wrap this up with the last demo I played.
(0:57:36) Kevin: Mika and the Witches Mountain, which listeners may know that I am extremely excited about.
(0:57:43) Kevin: Excited for? So excited.
(0:57:47) Kevin: Okay, for people who may not remember, this is by Chibig, and this is Kiki’s delivery service meets Wind Waker, very openly and explicitly.
(0:58:02) Kevin: They wear their influences on their sleeve.
(0:58:05) Kevin: So, on the opposite end of the spectrum for the Southfield demo, the…
(0:58:13) Kevin: The worst part about this demo is that it’s very, very short. Like, 15 minutes.
(0:58:21) Kevin: I’m pretty sure I cleared it in 15 minutes because I didn’t realize it was going to end.
(0:58:27) Kevin: It is very much just one “mission” or one delivery quest or what have you.
(0:58:35) Kevin: And they block off a lot of the island or whatever, like they’re just invisible walls you can’t pass.
(0:58:41) Kevin: That is–
(0:58:43) Kevin: I doubt my biggest gripe, and that’s just more because I want to play more of it right the actual game itself. I think is
(0:58:51) Kevin: It’s great the visual style very wind waker it it looks just as great as wind waker
(0:58:57) Kevin: very pretty very colorful the
(0:59:01) Kevin: Gameplay, so you’re playing as a little witch Mika and she’s
(0:59:07) Kevin: training to become a witch and she’s earning money to
(0:59:13) Kevin: so the premise is you get your meet your
(0:59:17) Kevin: Mentor witch who just kicks you just straight up off the top of an eye of a mountain on this island And you have to make your way back up And so she has to get some money to buy better broom and things like that and so she picks up this
(0:59:31) Kevin: delivery service assistant job and
(0:59:35) Kevin: It feels great because the primary mechanic is you’re flying on
(0:59:39) Kevin: Which is broom right and the flying feels great as you can go
(0:59:43) Kevin: Up you can go down
(0:59:45) Kevin: Increase the speed It feels like how I would hope that sort of flying would play the actual delivery aspects of it I wasn’t terribly hard at least not in this demo. You just you like physically pick up an item It’s not just in your inventory You have to hold it and you take it to the recipient right and you get graded on the delivery, right?
(1:00:06) Kevin: Like it did you drop it or damage it in any way?
(1:00:08) Kevin: you do lose some quote-unquote points for that you get
(1:00:13) Kevin: graded on each job being so short right like I got the the faintest taste of how it played I enjoyed what was there but hopefully they’ll do some fun stuff like the very last bit you do you have to deliver a fish from the ocean and you do that by picking up a goldfish bowl and flying over the ocean and kind of just straight-up scooping up the fish out of the water which I thought was a little different than your standard fishing and whatnot, right?
(1:00:43) Kevin: I liked it. So, hopefully they have some clever ideas to do different things with the flying mechanics.
(1:00:51) Kevin: I’m just really excited for it. The demo, I don’t think, I wouldn’t say it disappointed me. It’s really short, right?
(1:00:59) Kevin: So, you know, it could go either way. Maybe the full release would be a little more disappointing, or maybe it’ll be exactly like this.
(1:01:07) Kevin: But, at the very least, right now, with this demo, I’m still just as excited.
(1:01:16) Jonnie: That’s awesome. I’m super excited to to hear that because I think they like both of us right the risk with this game was that
(1:01:24) Jonnie: It looks amazing. It looks like something we really want to play and then you know
(1:01:30) Jonnie: It is it actually fun and it sounds like it it’s so I’m very excited and everything that you’ve said just sounds
(1:01:36) Jonnie: Great, like I love the game little things where I like but what you said about fishing to me
(1:01:41) Jonnie: sounds like a game that’s being designed with a really clear intention.
(1:01:46) Jonnie: Which is so good.
(1:01:48) Kevin: Yeah, absolutely.
(1:01:51) Kevin: There’s two things about that.
(1:01:53) Kevin: One, very clearly the focus is on the flying,
(1:01:56) Kevin: and they’re executing it well.
(1:01:58) Kevin: I don’t have any complaints, so I felt in the demo.
(1:02:01) Kevin: And two, it’s different from cottage core stuff.
(1:02:06) Kevin: It’s very fast in space, so that’s probably why I cleared it so fast, because the room was at a pretty good pace for that sort of flying.
(1:02:16) Kevin: and it’s
(1:02:18) Kevin: uh the right in a sort of like fully directional movement like it’s very different from even just your standard survival or cottagecore anything else so I i just really hopeful that uh the rest of it is just as charming and fun um but yeah that’s that’s that’s all I got to say
(1:02:37) Jonnie: Yeah, do we have an updated date on when they’re planning to release?
(1:02:44) Kevin: And also I’m happy to find out that there was a demo because I thought they released one but just for a brief period but now it’s just available.
(1:02:54) Kevin: Right now they’re just saying it’s 2024.
(1:02:57) Kevin: What was there felt like a game.
(1:02:59) Kevin: So you know I could see it launching in 2024, yeah.
(1:03:20) Kevin: They have the froggy chair!
(1:03:23) Kevin: Alright, that’s all I got for Mika’s, and I guess that’s kind of it for the demos we played.
(1:03:31) Kevin: That was fun, a pretty healthy mix of games there, a lot to look forward to, some more
(1:03:40) Jonnie: Yeah, and it’s it’s fun to see sort of like demos making a bit of resurgence again this year I feel like I preferred demos to open betas. I don’t know why maybe it’s just the nostalgia
(1:03:52) Kevin: Yeah, I know I, you know, my feelings on early access and whatnot are, are well known I just like a complete package even if it’s a, you know, pre release demo complete package that’s I’m fine. I’m done with that.
(1:04:08) Kevin: But yeah, good stuff. And so with that, let’s, let’s wrap this up. Johnny, where would people like to not find you on the internet?
(1:04:20) Kevin: on the internet.
(1:04:22) Jonnie: They can do that by not finding me.
(1:04:22) Kevin: People, find me at Koopapres on the tweeter if you want to see my personal account.
(1:04:25) Jonnie: Where can people find you, Kev?
(1:04:27) Jonnie: Where should they go if they want to give you some feedback or thoughts?
(1:04:38) Kevin: Find me at writer’s square if you want to see my art account.
(1:04:41) Kevin: Both of which are loosely tied to Rainbow Road Radio, the aforementioned Mario podcast that I host.
(1:04:49) Kevin: You can find that on Twitter @mariorainbow Mario rainbow
(1:04:52) Kevin: Pod, or at Rainbow Road Radio on almost every other platform. Like I said we did Mario vs Donkey Kong, we just did that episode and that’ll be releasing well that’ll be out by the time this episode drops, and I did even did some Mario art on my art account so you can go look at that in celebration of the game, but other than that you can also find both of us on other episodes of this show if if you search on Tumblr or Twitter.
(1:05:22) Kevin: You can go to the website directly to see all the show notes from all the stuff we talked about today and every other episode.
(1:05:37) Kevin: Feel free to leave feedback there or at any of these other places.
(1:05:40) Kevin: Go bother Al and ask him, “Tell him your thoughts on America and what you should do while he’s here.”
(1:05:46) Kevin: You can also find us at Patreon, on patreon.com/thspod, where you can…
(1:05:52) Kevin: Find exclusive content, including the Greenhouse show on things not Cottagecore.
(1:06:01) Kevin: And with that, thank you again, Johnny, for joining me.
(1:06:04) Kevin: Thank you, Al, for having us on, and until next time, dear listeners, have a good harvest!
(1:06:12) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa.
(1:06:26) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess.
(1:06:31) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website harvestseason.club for show notes and links to things we discussed in this episode.
(1:06:46) Jonnie: oh my god that was so like after after last week’s episode I like i’ve been talking with al about my microphone and stuff she’s like are there something weird going on in the background like just a little thing and like I was i’ve got a new laptop right so I was just kind of getting everything reset up and so I did some testing this week and I was like no I should be using this setting like this is what sounds the best and like had everything set up and then I was like cool it should be all good and then time to die halfway through I was just like well
(1:06:52) Kevin: yeah
(1:07:16) Jonnie: clearly I was picking up that that was not working because I was like maybe just try a new table or something like that and I did the test and I was like no it all sounds fine and then just to have that happen I was like I never wanted to quit an episode part way through but having to talk about rusty zero time was like the fourth time I was just like oh I hate technical difficulties so much
(1:07:34) Kevin: Yeah
(1:07:37) Kevin: Yeah, yeah, but the listeners will never know unless Al puts it all in [laughing]