Madame Web is a Period Piece

Wed, Dec 18, 2024 Year 2, Winter 25

Al and Codey talk about Honey Grove

Timings

00:00:00: Theme Tune
00:00:30: Intro
00:03:18: What Have We Been Up To
00:11:21: Game News
00:33:27: New Games
00:44:24: Honey Grove
01:14:35: Outro

Links

Stardew Concert Dates

Pixelshire Delay
Hello Kitty: Island Adventure Release Date
Rusty’s Retirement Winter Update
Go-Go Town “Creative Corners” Update
Mika and the Witch’s Update 2nd Update
One Lonely Outpost “Act 2” Update

Sugardew Island Romance Info
Loftia Neighbourhoods Info

Wylde Society
Litle Rocket Lab

Contact

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

Transcript

(0:00:30) Al: Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of the harvest season my name is Al and we’re here today to talk about being sleepy.
(0:00:36) Codey: And my name is Cody. Or zzzzzz. Z’s. Oh, you say zeds. How do you do you count sheep? Do you count sheep for zed? Like, does that make sense?
(0:00:49) Al: Don’t make me laugh.
(0:00:56) Al: What?
(0:00:57) Al: Oh, isn’t sleep right?
(0:00:58) Al: Yeah, okay.
(0:00:59) Al: Right.
(0:01:00) Al: I understand the concept of counting sleep, counting sleep, counting sheep.
(0:01:04) Codey: Yeah, okay.
(0:01:04) Al: I don’t personally count sheep because, as discussed previously on the podcast, I have
(0:01:08) Al: aphantasia, so I can’t see the sheep to count them.
(0:01:12) Al: And then it’s just, if I’m counting sheep, then I’m just counting.
(0:01:16) Al: » It doesn’t really.
(0:01:16) Codey: Wait, what’s aphantasia?
(0:01:19) Al: Have we not talked about this, Cody?
(0:01:21) Codey: I don’t really think so. There’s a word for that? Because same.
(0:01:21) Al: I can’t see anything in my brain.
(0:01:24) Al: Yeah.
(0:01:27) Al: Oh, nice.
(0:01:29) Codey: I have to explain this to my boyfriend all the time. Because he’s a very visually conceptualization
(0:01:31) Al: Yeah, yeah, I know.
(0:01:36) Codey: human. And I’m like, you can tell me to imagine a strawberry and I imagine a plague space.
(0:01:42) Al: Yeah, yeah, I can I can tell you about a strawberry I
(0:01:43) Codey: and I can’t see it.
(0:01:46) Al: Can give you facts about a strawberry. I can’t see a strawberry can’t visualize one. Yeah
(0:01:46) Codey: It’s not my brain, though.
(0:01:50) Codey: OK.
(0:01:51) Codey: Well, today I learned a Fantasian.
(0:01:53) Al: So I can’t count sheep
(0:01:55) Al: It was because I used to find this so confusing because I didn’t know that
(0:01:59) Al: other people actually could see things in their head until like six years ago or something and so like when people would say like
(0:02:00) Codey: Mm-hmm.
(0:02:02) Codey: Mm-hmm.
(0:02:05) Al: Counting sheep. I’d be like I don’t understand what you mean. I’m just lying in bed counting
(0:02:10) Al: Like how is this?
(0:02:10) Codey: Yeah, so that was my problem too, because like, I would just be counting and I would get bored after like, 17.
(0:02:12) Al: Yeah. What am I meant to be? How is this counting sheep? I don’t understand.
(0:02:22) Codey: I don’t know, I just get bored and then I’m like, I don’t know, I don’t know. Wow, okay.
(0:02:25) Al: It’s like I’m meant to get a video up like that. I feel like that’s not ideal, you know?
(0:02:30) Codey: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, awesome. Well, the lore continues.
(0:02:32) Al: Anyway. This episode, we’re going to talk about honeygrove, a mobile bee.
(0:02:42) Al: Before that, we have some news. The news is maybe a third of the news is from last week’s wholesome
(0:02:53) Al: snack. So there’s that. Did you watch the wholesome snack? No. Fair enough.
(0:02:54) Codey: Mm hmm. Yep, you’re no, because I saw it. And then I asked you and you were like, that’s
(0:03:04) Codey: pretty much what the news is from. And I was like, dope. And I moved on with my life.
(0:03:07) Al: There’s some stuff probably that we won’t talk about, right? Because not all of it is cottage
(0:03:10) Al: But yeah.
(0:03:13) Al: The news is probably mostly filtered down to you, the stuff that matters anyway.
(0:03:16) Codey: - Mm-hmm, correct.
(0:03:18) Al: But first of all, Cody, what have you been up to?
(0:03:22) Codey: I went to PAX Unplugged two weekends ago now, I think.
(0:03:28) Al: What is PAX unplugged? Because I keep hearing you mention it, and I realized I just assumed
(0:03:32) Codey: Okay.
(0:03:33) Al: it was just like PAX, but presumably it’s a different thing. Yes. Yes. I think there’s
(0:03:36) Codey: You know what PAX is, right?
(0:03:38) Codey: Okay, so there’s PAX in like the different regions
(0:03:43) Codey: of America or whatever.
(0:03:44) Codey: Packs unpl–
(0:03:46) Al: one in Australia as well, but be that as it may.
(0:03:47) Codey: Ooh, OK.
(0:03:49) Codey: It’s in different regions.
(0:03:51) Codey: Packs unplugged is not video games.
(0:03:54) Codey: It’s the type of games that you do,
(0:03:57) Codey: like board games, card games, stuff like that.
(0:04:00) Codey: So it’s an entire convention that
(0:04:02) Codey: is just dedicated to those tabletop games and all of that.
(0:04:08) Codey: So there is basically a huge expo hall.
(0:04:11) Codey: It’s downtown in Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania.
(0:04:14) Codey: and it has a huge
(0:04:16) Codey: expo hall and a huge like thousands of tables where you can sit and just play games with your
(0:04:22) Codey: friends. You can bring your own games. There’s spaces where you can buy games. They have different
(0:04:27) Codey: libraries that you can like rent game. Like you check it out using your badge. And then you can
(0:04:35) Codey: play like a game that you might have wanted to play for a really long time but haven’t had access to.
(0:04:41) Codey: Or like Jeff and I, I would pick a game, we’d play it, and then I’d be like okay go turn it
(0:04:46) Codey: and pick your own game. And we would just do that just to like what game looks interesting to you.
(0:04:51) Codey: Okay let me go pick a game that looks interesting to me. And now we have games that we want to buy
(0:04:57) Codey: for when he moves here. So yeah so it’s just this huge convention for that. I mostly went to meet
(0:05:05) Codey: up with friends that live across the country and we’re converging upon this location since it’s
(0:05:11) Codey: only like three hours from me. Um, I got to stay in.
(0:05:16) Codey: Um, a friend’s, um, spare room. Thank you, James. Um, so I didn’t have to pay hotel.
(0:05:25) Codey: I literally just had to pay for the tickets and then parking. I mean, and parking could have been
(0:05:30) Codey: expensive, but it was only, it was not as expensive as I thought it was. But yeah, there was a lot of
(0:05:34) Codey: different things like that. Um, and just got to play a bunch of games. And one game that we saw,
(0:05:43) Codey: so many people like board games that we saw so many people walking around.
(0:05:46) Codey: This is a huge board game. It was called Slay the Spire and we started talking about it and about how apparently it’s not. It didn’t start out as like a board slash card game. It was a game game like a video game.
(0:05:57) Al: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s like it’s uh, uh, what’s the word I’m looking for? Um, yeah, but it’s, uh, it’s a real roguelite deck building game. It’s like people quite often will compare other roguelites to it to be like, oh, it’s like, it’s like Slay the Spire Bot, sort of thing.
(0:06:02) Codey: It’s a deck building game.
(0:06:12) Codey: Oh, okay. Okay. Uh, well, yeah. So because of that, uh, I was like, huh, I wonder what
(0:06:23) Codey: Slay the Spire is and like how different it is. And so I went to Game Pass on Xbox and it is
(0:06:30) Codey: available on Game Pass. So I have now played Slay the Spire video game and I am horribly
(0:06:36) Codey: offended, Al, that you are pulling me from that game right now. Um, I can’t
(0:06:42) Codey: could be playing that right now, but I have to focus on this. So I’m not. So instead I’m
(0:06:45) Codey: playing Honey Grove. Um, yeah, that’s the other game I’ve been playing is Honey Grove.
(0:06:51) Codey: Um, yeah. What about you? What have you been up to?
(0:06:52) Al: Cool. So like the other episodes that you have heard and are going to hear listeners,
(0:07:01) Al: my brain is confused. So I’m going to talk about one specific game in this episode,
(0:07:05) Al: and that is Zelda. I think I talked about that in the last episode as well,
(0:07:09) Al: but I have finished Zelda Echoes of Wisdom now. And I think I can safely say that I did enjoy the
(0:07:12) Codey: Mm-hmm
(0:07:17) Al: game. But I feel like it falls to-
(0:07:18) Codey: Okay, nope
(0:07:23) Al: on to the fact that you have Link’s abilities, like you can actually go around and use your sword,
(0:07:31) Al: I think makes a lot of the boss fights just waste some time and then turn into Link and
(0:07:40) Al: kill it sort of thing. And because it’s just like traditional bosses, like the bosses aren’t
(0:07:41) Codey: Right, right
(0:07:47) Al: more complicated versions of the other puzzles. They’re just standard Zelda bosses.
(0:07:53) Al: And I get that the idea is this is Link’s world and you’re doing things that Link would be doing
(0:07:58) Al: if he was there sort of thing, but it still just feels like they kind of gave up on the bosses and
(0:08:04) Al: they couldn’t figure out a good way to design bosses that worked well for Zelda’s powers.
(0:08:09) Al: So it feels like that didn’t feel great, right? Especially as Link’s powers, I don’t know if
(0:08:16) Al: you’re aware of this code, you gain them part of the way into the game, but you can only use them
(0:08:23) Al: so you’re also like really stressed while being Link, right? You like turn into this weird
(0:08:28) Al: shadowy version of Link because any second you’re in Link’s powers. Not like it doesn’t go down
(0:08:35) Al: based on how much you use your sword or whatever, it goes down purely based on the time that you are
(0:08:40) Al: as Link. Every second you’re Link is stressful because you’re like, oh no, should I be turning
(0:08:45) Al: this off now or do I need to keep it on, you know, these sorts of things. So I just, I didn’t end,
(0:08:50) Al: I didn’t have fun with the bosses.
(0:08:52) Al: And the puzzles at the beginning were fun, but the puzzles in the middle and the end
(0:08:59) Al: were basically just the same thing.
(0:09:01) Al: So you just ended up like the puzzles were like, Oh, you have to get up high.
(0:09:05) Al: So you’re, you’re just doing the same thing again.
(0:09:08) Al: Right.
(0:09:09) Al: So it’s like, Oh, I know how to get up high.
(0:09:10) Al: I can do that.
(0:09:11) Al: Right.
(0:09:12) Al: And they didn’t, there was like a couple of other types of puzzles that they had, but
(0:09:17) Al: they never really felt like they were challenging you in a different way, or even.
(0:09:22) Codey: Mm-hmm.
(0:09:22) Al: Just harder in the same way.
(0:09:24) Al: It was just, Oh, here, here’s again, the same thing.
(0:09:31) Al: And it just felt like time and doing things rather than actually playing the game.
(0:09:39) Al: Like more, cause most games, like they start off easy and they introduce you to a few mechanics
(0:09:42) Al: and then they get harder and they introduce you to more mechanics.
(0:09:45) Al: And then by the end, you’re using all of the different mechanics that you’ve learned and
(0:09:49) Al: all the different skills you’ve gained.
(0:09:51) Al: and.
(0:09:52) Al: This one, it felt like if you had done the first area, and say you could go to the
(0:10:01) Al: final area straight after that, which you can’t, because it’s not fully accessible in
(0:10:05) Al: that sort of way. You have to go through the story to get to the end. But if you could
(0:10:10) Al: go to the last area, the only thing that would be standing in their way is like health, right?
(0:10:16) Al: Like you know everything and you have everything and you don’t really, and if you’re good at
(0:10:20) Al: you’re doing, you could do that. And yes, sure, that might.
(0:10:23) Al: Be fun in some ways, but it didn’t feel fun in this case. Cause this was like,
(0:10:27) Al: it’s meant to be a puzzle game, right? And puzzle games are meant to be different. Like it’s not
(0:10:34) Al: just like, if you just had a puzzle game, that was the exact same puzzle over and over and over
(0:10:37) Al: again, not puzzle type, but the exact same puzzle, right? Like every five puzzles, it was that same
(0:10:43) Al: pattern that wouldn’t be fun. Right. So yeah, I didn’t, I enjoyed it enough to keep, to finish it
(0:10:50) Al: off, but more in the case of like, I feel.
(0:10:52) Al: Like I’m close enough, I may as well finish this, rather than I really want to get to the end.
(0:10:57) Al: Like was the case with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
(0:11:02) Al: So it’s a fun idea and it’s implemented great at the beginning, but yeah,
(0:11:06) Al: just it falls off a cliff quite quickly, I think.
(0:11:09) Codey: That’s unfortunate, but maybe they can innovate it in the future.
(0:11:13) Al: Maybe, maybe, we’ll see.
(0:11:16) Al: Yeah, I think that’s everything that I’ve been up to that I’m going to talk about just now.
(0:11:20) Al: So now we’re going to talk about the news.
(0:11:22) Al: So as mentioned, some of the news from today is from the Wholesome Snack Game Awards edition,
(0:11:33) Al: which I always find it funny that they do it in collaboration with the Game Awards,
(0:11:38) Al: because it happens three days before the Game Awards. And so it’s like, is it Game Awards,
(0:11:42) Al: or is it just like, they’re just like a fancy ad, right? It’s sponsored by the Game Awards.
(0:11:46) Codey: Yeah.
(0:11:51) Al: And like, fair enough, I know you-
(0:11:52) Al: want money. But like, come on, anyway, whatever. We’re not going to talk about specific things
(0:12:01) Al: about the wholesome snack or like go through it like sometimes we do. We’re just going
(0:12:06) Al: to, we’re just going to talk about the news and some of them will be from the wholesome
(0:12:09) Al: snack. So if you really care, I will obviously link the wholesome snack in the show notes
(0:12:14) Al: is linked in last week’s episode as well. You can go and watch it if you really want.
(0:12:19) Al: All right, first of all, the stardew value.
(0:12:22) Al: It looks like most of the new dates now are on sale. There’s a few that are coming soon in
(0:12:42) Al: Australia. But yeah, if you haven’t managed to get a ticket, go check. There might be another
(0:12:47) Al: date for you. There is a second date in Scotland now. Wild.
(0:12:53) Al: Which is good because it’s almost sold out the one night that I booked for.
(0:12:59) Al: It’s in the same place. The same, what’s it called, concert hall. Yeah, venue.
(0:13:07) Al: But yeah, so go look. Next we have Pixel Shire. It’s been delayed until 2025.
(0:13:15) Al: I think we’re nearly done with delays. I have like two things left on my list that say they’re
(0:13:20) Al: they’re coming out this year.
(0:13:22) Codey: What are they?
(0:13:22) Al: Oh wait garden trails that did come out didn’t it because that was two days ago.
(0:13:26) Al: So we’re down to one which is SunKissed City. I haven’t seen anything about that.
(0:13:34) Al: Oh no okay if you go to Steam it now says planned release date 2025 they just didn’t post anything
(0:13:39) Al: about that. So sneaky, sneaky delay there. So that’s everything, nothing else is coming
(0:13:45) Al: out this year, everything’s done. Huzzah no more delays. Speaking of releasing next year,
(0:13:53) Al: Island Adventure have announced their release date and it’s super soon. It is the 30th of
(0:13:58) Al: January which I was not expecting because when they so I think they announced earlier this year
(0:14:02) Al: that it was coming to console and so Switch, PlayStation, and Steam they announced it was
(0:14:08) Al: coming in 2025 and I was like oh probably like a summer release or something no no end of January.
(0:14:14) Al: So if you have been looking forward to playing this and you either didn’t want to play it on
(0:14:18) Al: a phone or tablet or you didn’t want to get Apple Arcade. Here you go.
(0:14:22) Al: It’s coming to Switch. Go get it. In just over a month.
(0:14:28) Codey: Yeah, I honestly hadn’t really looked at it.
(0:14:31) Codey: I think I listened, half listened to the episode,
(0:14:34) Codey: but I watched this trailer and I was like,
(0:14:39) Codey: oh, oh, wow, okay.
(0:14:41) Codey: Like this is more than just like Hello Kitty
(0:14:44) Codey: meets Animal Crossing.
(0:14:45) Al: Mm-hmm.
(0:14:45) Codey: Like I feel like they basically like made it more,
(0:14:50) Al: It’s an adventure game.
(0:14:52) Codey: it really is.
(0:14:53) Codey: It like has the look of Animal Crossing
(0:14:55) Codey: and like, I loved looking at like
(0:14:56) Codey: how you can decorate your houses
(0:14:59) Codey: and the other stuff you can do with the other characters,
(0:15:00) Codey: but then they were like climbing a mountain
(0:15:04) Codey: and underwater and like all, I was like, oh, okay.
(0:15:08) Codey: So,
(0:15:09) Al: And it feels really open. So in the trailer, you see five different areas. A lot of those
(0:15:17) Al: areas you can get there straight away if you try hard. It’s not super easy to, but you can.
(0:15:24) Al: The exploration is really detailed. You can jump up areas and try and climb areas, and you can only
(0:15:32) Al: have a certain amount of stamina, but you can figure out other ways to get up in different…
(0:15:37) Al: It’s really expansive.
(0:15:39) Al: So you can’t get underwater until you’ve unlocked that, and there’s like another area
(0:15:44) Al: that you can’t get to until you’ve progressed the story, but like the volcano and stuff
(0:15:49) Al: like that, you can just try and figure out your way there.
(0:15:53) Codey: Yeah, it looked really interesting.
(0:15:57) Codey: I might have to give it a shot around that time I don’t know what’s going to cost but yeah.
(0:16:03) Al: a good question. I don’t know if they’ve announced that information. I played it on Apple Arcade
(0:16:07) Codey: Did you when you, you played early access or demo.
(0:16:12) Al: because that was what it was on when it first came out. Regular price is, oh wait, is that
(0:16:20) Al: not a… No, that’s not. That’s a different thing. I was about to give you an incorrect
(0:16:25) Al: phrase. I don’t think they’ve announced. I can…
(0:16:25) Codey: I was liking what it sounded like though.
(0:16:32) Codey: Okay, I would like it to be around $30.
(0:16:33) Al: That would feel good. That would feel good. Yeah, the only thing I can see is Play Asia
(0:16:34) Codey: I doubt it’s going to be that low, but I can see how they would just be like 60 bucks.
(0:16:45) Al: have it listed, but obviously they’re just assuming, I think, they’ll be able to get
(0:16:48) Codey: Yeah.
(0:16:50) Al: their hands on copies and I don’t think they have a confirmed price. They’re saying £60,
(0:16:56) Codey: No.
(0:16:57) Al: which would be $70. I don’t think there’s… I mean, obviously that would be inflated
(0:16:58) Codey: No.
(0:17:02) Al: because…
(0:17:03) Al: they’re having to import it.
(0:17:05) Al: Oh, they’re saying $60 for that.
(0:17:07) Al: I don’t think it will be $60, surely, right?
(0:17:10) Codey: I hope not.
(0:17:11) Codey: If it is, then there goes my hope of playing it.
(0:17:15) Codey: Unless it’s actually really not that popular,
(0:17:21) Codey: and then I can go to GameStop two weeks later,
(0:17:23) Codey: and it’ll be lower priced.
(0:17:25) Codey: But we’ll see.
(0:17:27) Codey: Cool.
(0:17:28) Al: There’s a new trailer as well, which I’ll link in the show notes.
(0:17:32) Al: Rusty’s retirement have released their winter update.
(0:17:36) Codey: It’s so cute.
(0:17:36) Al: So you want the snow, there you go.
(0:17:40) Codey: Well, so it’s the snow, but it’s also you get–
(0:17:43) Codey: there’s deer that run around in your thing now.
(0:17:47) Codey: You make all these Christmas decorations.
(0:17:50) Al: I wasn’t just, I wasn’t about, yeah, I wasn’t pretending it was just, no, I was about to
(0:17:54) Al: explain more just to me, just to make it clear. What I quite, what I like about this is it appears
(0:17:56) Codey: There’s dogs, Al. There’s dogs.
(0:18:02) Al: to be a different map that is the wintery map. And I like that because one, it implies that it’s
(0:18:06) Codey: Uh-huh.
(0:18:06) Codey: Mm-hmm.
(0:18:08) Al: going to like stick around. And two, I just, I’m never a huge fan when they’re like, when games
(0:18:14) Al: are like, oh, here’s our winter event. And then it’s like, the game is now winter. And I’m like,
(0:18:19) Al: I get that and I know.
(0:18:20) Al: But artificially restricting me on that doesn’t feel great.
(0:18:27) Al: Obviously I’m in the Northern Hemisphere, but maybe Southern Hemisphere people want
(0:18:31) Al: to flip it around and do it in their actual winter. I like having the flexibility for that.
(0:18:38) Al: So it just being a separate map is a fun way to do it.
(0:18:42) Codey: Yeah, I really liked the dogs and cats too, and how they’ll either sleep or
(0:18:46) Codey: they’ll just follow you around, or they’ll help harvesting with harvesting the crops.
(0:18:51) Codey: Like the dog just kind of like trots up to some wheat and takes it and clips it
(0:18:55) Codey: in the house and then just wags its tail.
(0:18:59) Codey: It’s so cute.
(0:19:00) Al: Looks like a pretty meaty update.
(0:19:03) Codey: The characters now talk to each other if they’re bored.
(0:19:07) Codey: It’s so cute.
(0:19:08) Al: So that’s out now.
(0:19:09) Codey: Yep.
(0:19:09) Al: Go get it.
(0:19:10) Codey: Yep.
(0:19:11) Codey: No, well, it’s, it’s, I think it’s just part of.
(0:19:13) Codey: This is the base game.
(0:19:15) Codey: Oh, yeah.
(0:19:15) Al: Yeah, I know.
(0:19:16) Al: But people still need to update the game.
(0:19:19) Codey: Yeah, correct.
(0:19:22) Al: Next, we have the Creative Corners
(0:19:23) Al: update for Go Go Town.
(0:19:25) Al: That is also out now.
(0:19:27) Al: And the main feature is that it adds player housing.
(0:19:31) Al: Obviously, you didn’t have a space for your own.
(0:19:33) Al: Now, you do.
(0:19:34) Al: You have a space for your own.
(0:19:36) Al: You can purchase the house from Tier 1 in the tech tree,
(0:19:40) Al: which is basically unlocked from the start.
(0:19:43) Al: And there’s a whole bunch of props
(0:19:45) Al: and what they call doodads, a new type of buildable object.
(0:19:49) Al: Doodads are any number of objects
(0:19:51) Al: that can be placed on surfaces, walls, or floors.
(0:19:56) Codey: It has a lot. I mean, you can pick your color palette like on an actual color wheel instead of like buying
(0:20:02) Codey: You have black or blue or purple or whatever. Like you can just straight up pick the color you want
(0:20:08) Codey: um
(0:20:09) Codey: My biggest thing for them in this trailer is they have singing wall fish. Did you ever have those fish?
(0:20:16) Al: I never had one, but I was aware of it. It was all over contemporary media, shall we say.
(0:20:22) Codey: Yeah, so I saw that and I loved it. And then there was a
(0:20:26) Codey: trailer. There’s like a pentagram on the floor and
(0:20:29) Codey: there’s candles around it.
(0:20:32) Al: The funny thing is it’s not like an actual pentagram either. It looks like this universe’s
(0:20:35) Al: version of a pentagram. A completely normal decor. You can get a murder outline.
(0:20:36) Codey: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it is, you know what it is. Like you
(0:20:46) Codey: can’t get exactly you can get a murder outline. Yeah.
(0:20:50) Al: It’s very expansive. There’s a lot of stuff here. Next we have the Mika and the Witches
(0:20:57) Al: Mountain update. Apparently I’ve written Mika and the Witches update.
(0:21:03) Codey: It’s the sequel.
(0:21:08) Al: So this is the second content update. Breaking News, they’ve announced that there’s a third
(0:21:14) Al: update so they haven’t put everything that they said was going to be in the second update in this
(0:21:18) Al: update. They’ve released this one early. And then they’re
(0:21:20) Al: going to have a third update coming. So, buh-buh-buh.
(0:21:22) Codey: - I just, in this event, like news press, they say,
(0:21:27) Codey: the roadmap has suffered a slight modification,
(0:21:30) Codey: but we can explain, we’ve received many messages.
(0:21:30) Al: It’s such a weird.
(0:21:33) Codey: So now there’s another update.
(0:21:35) Codey: And it’s just like, they make it seem like it’s this,
(0:21:38) Codey: like, oh no, we’re so sorry.
(0:21:40) Codey: We have to confess that we’re sorry.
(0:21:43) Al: Yeah, we’re so sorry that we’re giving you another update with more things that people
(0:21:43) Codey: And it’s just like, this is a good, more stuff.
(0:21:52) Al: have suggested.
(0:21:53) Codey: - Yeah, yeah, it was interesting, but, yeah.
(0:21:55) Al: How dare you!
(0:21:58) Codey: It was interesting, but yep.
(0:22:01) Al: Keep on going with the early access tag for some reason.
(0:22:03) Al: I still don’t understand why this game is early access.
(0:22:06) Al: You can update your game without it being early access, I mean, look at Rusty’s retirement.
(0:22:10) Codey: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
(0:22:11) Al: And it’s not like Mika feels like an incomple–
(0:22:14) Codey: Yep.
(0:22:14) Al: It feels like a reasonably small game, but small games are complete, right?
(0:22:19) Al: Like it’s like saying oh this film was only 70 minutes long, that makes it not a film,
(0:22:25) Al: because it’s incomplete. And you’re like no no, it tells a complete story, it is a complete thing.
(0:22:30) Codey: Mm-hmm. There’s just a, yeah, there’s just another.
(0:22:31) Al: Just because they do a sequel later on doesn’t mean it’s like what are you doing? Or like yeah
(0:22:35) Al: there’s like a TV show that they do afterwards, or there’s deleted scenes, like it doesn’t make
(0:22:39) Al: it not a complete film. What are you talking about?
(0:22:42) Codey: And all Marvel movies are now just early access copies.
(0:22:53) Al: So this content update brings the Phishing minigame.
(0:22:57) Al: It brings a minimap to the game, so that’s nice.
(0:23:01) Al: I did miss having that.
(0:23:04) Al: I would have very much enjoyed that for the main story.
(0:23:07) Al: And a new language, Philencian, is a very specific language.
(0:23:13) Al: Is it?
(0:23:14) Codey: I think that’s where they’re from.
(0:23:15) Codey: I think so because they say at the bottom had to include
(0:23:15) Al: Oh, it does say, yeah, we’re very, okay, yeah, we are very proud of our land and language.
(0:23:23) Codey: Valencian.
(0:23:24) Codey: Yep.
(0:23:24) Codey: Yep.
(0:23:24) Al: Fair enough.
(0:23:25) Codey: Even so, we know that very few people will play in this
(0:23:25) Al: That makes sense.
(0:23:26) Al: I just thought it was like, are they going to go through all the small European languages?
(0:23:29) Al: Are we going to get Scots in there?
(0:23:33) Codey: language, but we’re proud of it.
(0:23:35) Al: I guess it’s weird that they didn’t, if they are from Valencia, and presumably at least
(0:23:39) Al: one of them speaks full engine, right, presumably. Weird that they’ve
(0:23:43) Al: didn’t add that at the beginning because they had language support, and adding a translation
(0:23:50) Al: is not a huge job for someone that speaks the language that it’s in and the language
(0:23:58) Al: they’re translating to. It’s not like, I mean, it depends on how much text it is, obviously,
(0:24:02) Al: but it’s not like you’re talking months and months. It just seems weird that it would
(0:24:06) Al: take to the second update to add that. I guess maybe they just prioritise it. Just feels
(0:24:10) Al: funny to me. Anyway.
(0:24:12) Codey: Mm-hmm. The third one is coming out in early 2025.
(0:24:13) Al: Yep. And that will add dungeons or something? I don’t know what to make of that, but dungeons.
(0:24:18) Codey: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that’s what they said.
(0:24:26) Al: We’ll see. Speaking of updates, one lonely outpost have announced their Act 2 update,
(0:24:26) Codey: Ungeons.
(0:24:38) Codey: Mm-hmm. And they specifically have this, like, warning triangle, like, alert sign,
(0:24:44) Codey: and it says that it’s recommended that you start a new save.
(0:24:48) Al: So I think the Warning Triangle feels unnecessary, I think it’s just to drag attention to it.
(0:24:54) Codey: I know.
(0:24:54) Al: I think they’ve recommended that because there’s a lot of updates that you would only
(0:24:58) Al: experience early game.
(0:25:00) Al: And so if you want to experience it to its full, then you would best to…
(0:25:05) Al: I don’t think it’s all like, “Oh, things won’t work properly,” or anything like that.
(0:25:08) Codey: Okay, okay. That makes sense.
(0:25:10) Al: It’s like what Concerned Ape said about Stardew 1.6, it’s like, “You can keep going and it’s
(0:25:14) Al: fine.
(0:25:15) Al: you’ll just miss a bunch because they’re really early on.
(0:25:18) Al: You know, it’s like how if you started 1.5 with you already fishing 10, then you’re
(0:25:27) Al: never going to experience the starter rod, right?
(0:25:30) Al: Because that’s something that they added in that update that doesn’t make any sense unless
(0:25:35) Al: you are right at the beginning of the game.
(0:25:36) Codey: Mm-hmm
(0:25:37) Al: That sort of stuff.
(0:25:38) Al: So I wouldn’t, yeah, I wouldn’t worry about it.
(0:25:41) Codey: Okay, cool
(0:25:42) Al: Yes, it brings marriage, which I guess makes sense in a colony.
(0:25:48) Al: New characters, quests and maps, there are nine eligible characters that you can marry.
(0:26:01) Al: I think the five are part of those nine.
(0:26:06) Al: I’m not 100% sure though.
(0:26:07) Codey: Mm-hmm. I think it is, yeah.
(0:26:10) Al: They’ve also added to teleportation, so fast travel, which is cool.
(0:26:14) Al: There’s not a huge number of God school games that have that.
(0:26:16) Al: I know Carl Island has it.
(0:26:18) Codey: Mm hmm. Doesn’t start to have it, but you have to use the totems.
(0:26:18) Al: Can’t think of another. Yeah, I guess it’s not, it’s very limited and it’s basically like
(0:26:26) Codey: But. But like, you have to constantly have the total, like,
(0:26:27) Al: it’s okay. Fine. Technically. Yeah, it does. It does have a yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
(0:26:32) Codey: it’s not just go up to a thing and just get like whooshed.
(0:26:36) Codey: Yeah, it’s a different. Yeah.
(0:26:36) Al: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I like the, the, the rod that you can carry around and start you that
(0:26:43) Al: always takes you to your house. That I find very useful because it’s like you just hold it.
(0:26:48) Al: But with the other ones, the, the, the consumable totems, I just never bother using because you
(0:26:54) Al: have to craft them and then use only one use. They do have the pillars that you can buy,
(0:27:01) Al: I can’t remember what they’re called that transport you, but they are like so end game.
(0:27:04) Al: They’re basically pointless because you’ve basically finished everything by that point.
(0:27:06) Codey: Yeah, by the time you get them you don’t really need them anymore because you don’t need to go around.
(0:27:12) Al: Exactly. It’s like woo. I can teleport to the mountain. It’s like, okay, fine.
(0:27:18) Al: Going to the mountain. I don’t need to. The only one I ever really used was the, the desert one,
(0:27:24) Al: because the advantage of that is you can get there earlier than the bus can get you there.
(0:27:29) Al: Because you can, you can teleport anytime so you can wake up and go straight there and have more
(0:27:33) Al: time in skull cavern. But again, you, you only get that really late on. So also changes to seasons
(0:27:44) Al: and weather and gene splicing.
(0:27:47) Codey: Yeah, I looked at that and I was like, what, uh, and it says you experiment with a common,
(0:27:54) Codey: so you, by doing it, you create like five new things that you can plant and you experiment
(0:27:59) Codey: with combinations of seeds, fish and insects.
(0:28:05) Codey: So what you take a seed and you’re just like, I’m gonna give it insect mandibles now, or
(0:28:11) Codey: like, I’m gonna take this genetic, but I mean, I guess the scientist in me is like, yeah,
(0:28:17) Codey: that’s how it works.
(0:28:18) Codey: Like it does.
(0:28:20) Codey: There are actually things that plants or insects will take from each other, but to like make
(0:28:24) Codey: a new thing or like have a new adaptation, but like, I don’t think it works the way that
(0:28:30) Codey: it’s fine.
(0:28:31) Codey: It’s a game.
(0:28:32) Codey: I need to not look for reality.
(0:28:35) Codey: I’m really curious what these new plants are like, is it a, an insect plant?
(0:28:41) Codey: Like, does it move?
(0:28:42) Al: Everyone wants an insect plant. Well, maybe you’ll have to play and find out.
(0:28:44) Codey: I do.
(0:28:45) Codey: No, that’s not happening.
(0:28:47) Codey: Listeners, tell me what the new points are like.
(0:28:52) Al: And a new festival.
(0:28:55) Codey: Yeah, that too.
(0:28:57) Al: Next we have Sugardew Island. They have announced their information on romance. I think this was
(0:29:03) Al: their first public announcement that they’re going to have romance. I forget whether I’ve
(0:29:06) Al: mentioned it or not because they mentioned it on Kickstarter like two months ago.
(0:29:12) Al: The way they’re doing romance is weird. So there are four nature spirits, which I guess are like
(0:29:18) Al: the like Harvest Sprites and stuff like that and other in Harvest Moon games and story seasons.
(0:29:24) Al: Those four are the only romanceable characters in the game. It’s like they went, okay, romance,
(0:29:29) Al: right? Well, let’s make it completely separate to the rest of the game. I find that a little bit
(0:29:34) Al: weird. And also they all look like literal children. Like this isn’t like…
(0:29:34) Codey: Mm-hmm.
(0:29:38) Codey: Mm-hmm.
(0:29:42) Al: Oh, they look a little bit young. No, they look like they’re eight. And I know that Harvest
(0:29:46) Al: Sprites, like what are they called? Harvest spirits, is that what they’re called?
(0:29:49) Codey: Yeah, I think so.
(0:29:51) Al: So they’ll be like ancient, but they look like children, right? Like this is weird.
(0:29:58) Codey: Yep. Yeah. It’s a, I didn’t, I don’t, I saw that. I also just like the, the idea that you come to an
(0:30:06) Codey: area and there are like other humans around, but you’re like, no, no, I’m going to go.
(0:30:14) Al: I want to romance the mythical creature that looks like a child.
(0:30:20) Codey: Yeah. That’s a little, a little odd to me, but whatever.
(0:30:27) Al: Yeah, yeah.
(0:30:29) Codey: You do. You sure do. I,
(0:30:32) Al: So they’re sticking with their March release date
(0:30:37) Al: and they have announced, I don’t think the physical editions is a new information,
(0:30:44) Codey: Mm. I just copy pasted it in there.
(0:30:45) Al: Yeah, you confusing me by posting stuff not in your color.
(0:30:49) Codey: Sorry, some, some, uh, insider baseball, y’all, I just copy pasted a bunch of stuff
(0:30:53) Codey: that I was like, Ooh, this might be interesting to talk about.
(0:30:54) Al: which normally, well normally it’s fine because you normally put all your stuff in purple
(0:30:56) Codey: And Al then has to read it live and be like, that’s not, I don’t care.
(0:31:04) Al: and so I see purple and I know it’s you whereas and if I see white I assume I’ve put it there
(0:31:05) Codey: That’s true.
(0:31:05) Codey: I didn’t.
(0:31:09) Al: so I’m like oh this is a thing I’m going to read out. I’m guessing it’s not purple because
(0:31:09) Codey: Okay.
(0:31:09) Codey: Okay.
(0:31:10) Codey: Okay.
(0:31:12) Codey: Let me do my, I’m going to do all my.
(0:31:14) Codey: Yeah, and I was lazy.
(0:31:14) Codey: I was lazy.
(0:31:15) Al: you copy pasted it so it kept whatever it was from the from the the website. Shocking. I mean
(0:31:16) Codey: Let’s be honest.
(0:31:16) Codey: I did.
(0:31:18) Codey: Cause I want to, I want to look as if we have like multiple, if we had like three people,
(0:31:23) Al: I mean, I never asked you to put stuff in practice.
(0:31:25) Al: You just did that right from the first time we used this.
(0:31:31) Codey: I want people to know that it was my stuff.
(0:31:34) Al: It’s just nobody else ever does it.
(0:31:36) Al: It’s only you that ever adds things into the news,
(0:31:38) Al: which I’m not complaining about you doing, for the record.
(0:31:42) Al: All right.
(0:31:43) Al: Loftia have announced a new feature coming to their game,
(0:31:48) Al: which is neighborhoods.
(0:31:52) Al: Attach your personal floating island to others,
(0:31:54) Al: farming a small, cozy community where you can host events,
(0:31:56) Al: hang out, farm together, and more.
(0:31:58) Al: So I’m guessing this is like online multiplayer.
(0:32:02) Codey: I think it adds multiplayer is the vibe I’m getting.
(0:32:04) Al: Yeah, yeah, so presumably the whole neighborhoods thing is just like when you connect online,
(0:32:12) Al: the other islands come and join yours and then you can walk to their island because Loftia is a
(0:32:18) Al: floating island based game. And presumably when you’re offline, they disappear and it’s just your
(0:32:20) Codey: - Mm-hmm.
(0:32:24) Al: floating island. So I’ve been keeping an eye on this game for a while. I think it’s interesting
(0:32:32) Al: licking. Uh, yeah.
(0:32:35) Al: This is a nice addition to it. It’s, it’s the, the animal crossing, uh,
(0:32:41) Al: multiplayer rather than the Stardew multiplayer, but connecting your islands together means that
(0:32:48) Al: you can go to any of the islands that you connect to go together rather than with animal crossing.
(0:32:53) Al: It’s like, we’re all going to this person’s island and you, you do that. Whereas here it’s let’s join
(0:32:59) Al: our islands together and we can both see both of our islands at the same time. That’s a cool change.
(0:33:04) Codey: Yeah, I like the idea of going and mucking about on your island and ruining things while you and Kevin and Johnny are like off doing something actually useful.
(0:33:11) Al: Oh dear, don’t multi-play with code.
(0:33:15) Codey: And me just like putting B.
(0:33:21) Codey: Me just putting like B graffiti all over. Yep.
(0:33:28) Al: and that’s all the game updates the game news we also have two new games announced one of which
(0:33:36) Al: i’m a little bit sad that kevin isn’t here to actually revel in his prediction but we do have
(0:33:42) Al: a new wildflowers game wild society which by the way fantastic name love it and this is
(0:33:48) Codey: Yep
(0:33:50) Al: I believe a prequel it is a what they call period piece which I just hate the term because all
(0:33:51) Codey: It is yeah
(0:33:58) Al: means is in the past um uh
(0:34:02) Codey: I mean don’t don’t they ever I think I feel like they only use period piece to talk about like Victorian or Renaissance past like I wouldn’t call something that goes to like cave and times like a period piece.
(0:34:12) Al: Nope, nope, no, no. If it’s set in the 90s, it’s a period piece. If it’s set in the 1100s,
(0:34:18) Al: it’s a period piece technically. So the definition of a period piece is a work of art, literature,
(0:34:23) Al: film, music, or furniture that evokes a historical period. It can be anything.
(0:34:28) Codey: He was you were ready
(0:34:30) Al: I was ready, yeah. Like, I think the idea is that it’s very clear that it’s set then. So like,
(0:34:36) Al: say something like Madam Webb, which is based in the 90s.
(0:34:42) Al: But it’s not like so very clearly based in the 90s, right? Like it’s not, we are making this so
(0:34:48) Al: obvious. It is because if you pay attention, it’s clear, but it’s not like they don’t shove it in
(0:34:53) Al: your face. Whereas if you take, what is that one that people like from Netflix, the sexy one?
(0:35:02) Al: Bridgerton. If you take Bridgerton, it’s like very clear it’s set in a specific time period.
(0:35:08) Al: But if you take like, for example, I watched our
(0:35:12) Al: A time travel slasher film a few months ago, which is almost entirely set in the ’90s,
(0:35:14) Codey: Okay.
(0:35:18) Al: and because of the story, it’s very clearly set in the ’90s. And everything about it is
(0:35:25) Al: trying to evoke the fact that it’s based in the ’90s. That’s a period piece.
(0:35:30) Codey: Okay, I need to change my, yeah,
(0:35:30) Al: So, yeah, that’s why I hate the term. [LAUGHS]
(0:35:34) Codey: I need to change my brain, the rewiring of that term,
(0:35:39) Codey: for sure.
(0:35:40) Al: I mean, I do think it’s one of these things where it could be argued that because people
(0:35:44) Al: mostly just use it for that sort of time period, then what, like 1700s, 1800s, that it’s morphing
(0:35:50) Al: into meaning that. But I’m not going to let it happen. Anyway, step into the elegant heels
(0:35:57) Al: of Vivian Wilde. Was she Wildflower’s character’s grandmother, I think?
(0:36:08) Codey: That makes sense, though. Yeah. Yeah, I went back to the-
(0:36:10) Al: So step into Elegant Hills of Vivian Wild, which socialite and host in period drama sim
(0:36:19) Al: wild society. Build, run and customize your magical boarding house in turn of the century
(0:36:24) Al: Fairhaven, host splendid events, expand your witchcraft and influence the top town. Who will
(0:36:29) Al: you invite for tea? So I don’t think nothing says that this has farming as far as I can see.
(0:36:38) Al: It’s it’s more kind of
(0:36:40) Al: B&B style gameplay. So there’s a screenshot of them moving items around in your boarding house.
(0:36:51) Al: So presumably your if you’re running the boarding house is going to be that’s going to be like the
(0:36:55) Al: main gameplay. It’s mostly I think the trailer was entirely like pre-rendered story trailer type
(0:37:03) Al: thing rather than gameplay and the Steam page has like four five screenshots.
(0:37:10) Al: So we’re not seeing a huge amount it’s obviously the same graphical style as Wildflowers
(0:37:17) Al: but yeah I mean I know that Kevin is very excited about this and it looks it looks fun.
(0:37:23) Codey: You can perform a seance and then at the bottom it says whose spirits will you help with their unfinished business?
(0:37:30) Al: Oh interesting, so that’s going to be like the overarching story thing rather than the mystery
(0:37:35) Al: that is wildflowers. Yeah interesting yes because presumably you’re starting out as
(0:37:37) Codey: Yeah, instead of, like, learning to be a whip.
(0:37:44) Al: you are already a witch and I would assume that if because there is like spells and potions and
(0:37:51) Al: stuff that you do in wildflowers presumably that stuff will all exist in this game. You’ll start
(0:37:52) Codey: Mm-hmm
(0:37:54) Codey: Yeah, yeah, but your character already knows them yeah
(0:37:56) Al: off being able to do them. Yeah. And they see, say on the
(0:38:01) Al: you’re learning new and that. And then obviously you’re running the boarding house as well.
(0:38:05) Codey: Yeah, run the boarding house, have a host of parties, and run a
(0:38:09) Codey: seance, and hopefully help a ghost to kill their cat revenge
(0:38:13) Codey: with murder.
(0:38:14) Al: Oh, I mean, that’s that’s one way to go with it.
(0:38:17) Codey: I would love that.
(0:38:18) Codey: Oh, you can also have a familiar of a cat or an otter and other
(0:38:22) Al: Obviously.
(0:38:24) Codey: things. So yeah, that’s what it says. Cats, cats to otters. I
(0:38:24) Al: An otter, obviously, I mean, what else?
(0:38:28) Al: Where does it say that?
(0:38:29) Codey: want a familiar underneath the seance. I want
(0:38:31) Al: Oh, yeah,
(0:38:33) Al: I love that from cats to otters, like that is the entire spectrum of animals.
(0:38:35) Codey: And that’s pretty, that’s pretty small spectrum.
(0:38:39) Al: Yeah, it’s like from cats to water cats.
(0:38:39) Codey: You just, you just listed pretty much.
(0:38:44) Codey: I’m pretty sure, oh, okay, but no, yeah.
(0:38:48) Codey: But they’re all in the family mammalian or the order class, class mammalian.
(0:38:53) Codey: So they’re all mammals.
(0:38:54) Al: They’re all mammals.
(0:38:55) Al: Is that what you’re trying to say?
(0:38:57) Codey: Yeah, and they’re all in the order, the order carnivora.
(0:38:57) Al: Yeah.
(0:38:59) Al: I’m translating for the listeners.
(0:39:02) Al: Huh.
(0:39:02) Codey: They’re all carnivores, but then they’re in two different families.
(0:39:05) Codey: But yeah, give me a familiar, uh, Mantis.
(0:39:12) Codey: I want to know.
(0:39:12) Al: well, like the stick insect type thing. Yeah, I’m just like a praying mantis. Oh, yeah, yeah.
(0:39:14) Codey: I want to, yeah, you don’t know what a Mantis is.
(0:39:17) Codey: Oh, cause you guys don’t have them.
(0:39:20) Codey: Yeah.
(0:39:20) Codey: Like praying Mantis.
(0:39:23) Codey: Um, no, I want a tarantula because I, we just got a new tarantula for our
(0:39:27) Codey: insect zoo and I put her on my shoulder the other day and she just sat there
(0:39:31) Codey: for like an hour and I want that in a familiar.
(0:39:33) Al: I mean Tarantula feels like something that would work as a witch is familiar as well.
(0:39:35) Codey: Yeah, praying nature is pretty cool though, or I just really like praying nature.
(0:39:38) Al: Praying mantis, not so much.
(0:39:43) Al: The other new game we have is a little rocket lab.
(0:39:47) Al: Transform your childhood home as you build brilliant factories and forge lifelong friendships.
(0:39:52) Al: Then reach for the skies and finally finish your family’s dream, your mother’s precious
(0:39:58) Al: rocket ship.
(0:39:59) Al: Roll up your sleeves. It turns out that saving this town really is
(0:40:03) Al: rocket science. I think so but it’s also it you’re also individually you
(0:40:05) Codey: Ha, ha, ha.
(0:40:10) Codey: Is this just cozy factorial?
(0:40:12) Codey: Thank you.
(0:40:17) Al: playing a character like it’s not management style where you’re just like
(0:40:22) Codey: Yeah.
(0:40:25) Al: clicking and doing things like you are a character in the world who’s going and
(0:40:28) Al: doing things, which I’ve talked about in previous episodes, I
(0:40:33) Al: I’ve still not played a game like that, because there’s a bunch of games that are coming out soon
(0:40:36) Al: that are like that style. And I feel like that might help feel less overwhelming than management
(0:40:44) Codey: Mm hmm, yeah.
(0:40:45) Al: games normally do. Yeah, it looks fun. The graphics are cute, kind of what, SNES style graphics.
(0:40:54) Codey: I’d say that. Yeah. I mean, I just, I see that you build like the little conveyor belt
(0:41:01) Codey: systems and you, like it, it looks very, it’s got that kind of like build a, an empire of
(0:41:08) Al: Yeah. Yeah. Do you know what? Do you know what? I think that might actually really help me as well,
(0:41:09) Codey: resource collection that factorial has, but then it also has like an RPG element and you’re
(0:41:17) Al: because one of the reasons I’m not a huge fan of management games is it feels like they’re just,
(0:41:21) Al: there’s no real goal other than build. Whereas here, your goal is to build a rocket. You’re
(0:41:24) Codey: Yeah.
(0:41:27) Al: fixing your rocket. So like that feels to me like I can set that as my goal and play until I get to
(0:41:28) Codey: Yeah. Yeah.
(0:41:33) Al: to that point and then finish that, you know, could help.
(0:41:35) Codey: Well, in fact, Toria does that too, but like the goal once you launch the rocket, you like
(0:41:42) Codey: win or whatever.
(0:41:43) Codey: And then now with a new expansion, they have more, more to it, but it once you do that,
(0:41:47) Codey: it’s like, okay, I sent game over.
(0:41:53) Codey: That’s it.
(0:41:54) Codey: Whereas this, it’s like, you get to build the RPG aspect of it and like the blueprints
(0:42:02) Codey: are really cute.
(0:42:03) Codey: your little dog follows you around, and yeah.
(0:42:06) Al: Lots of the machines look super fun, like there’s a toaster grasscutter type looking thing,
(0:42:12) Codey: Yeah, yeah, and it just cuts harvest hay for you.
(0:42:14) Al: which you ride along on.
(0:42:18) Al: Yeah, and there’s like a washing machine on tracks that I have no idea what it does.
(0:42:23) Al: It’s just one screenshot of it.
(0:42:24) Codey: Well, and in the, one of the screenshots, like, is it the one that’s no,
(0:42:28) Codey: there is just a washing machine named scrubs who just walks around,
(0:42:32) Codey: but his, his language is just like symbols.
(0:42:32) Al: Oh, right. Okay. Gobble the gook. Yeah. Wingdings. Oh, you can throw a ball for your dog. So under
(0:42:39) Codey: Yeah, it is a wing day.
(0:42:42) Codey: So yeah.
(0:42:48) Al: about this game, there’s like a gif of a bunch of different scenes, and one of them is throwing
(0:42:50) Codey: okay okay i’m almost there i’m assuming oh my gosh I saw it that is very cute so yeah
(0:43:03) Codey: this I mean this game looks really cute uh let me see oh it’s just gonna be windows
(0:43:08) Codey: lame but that’s fine maybe by then i’ll have a seen dick
(0:43:14) Al: Yeah, Steam Deck.
(0:43:17) Codey: It has full controller support too for Xbox controllers.
(0:43:19) Al: Uh, yeah, yeah, will have like, it’s all very, it’s, it’s funny when we say it,
(0:43:20) Codey: » Right, right, coming soon.
(0:43:24) Al: because it’s like, what is that?
(0:43:26) Al: What is that?
(0:43:27) Al: Yeah, coming soon has control control support.
(0:43:30) Al: I’m like, are you finished the control support?
(0:43:33) Al: Are you just saying that you will have it before you release?
(0:43:37) Al: Or is that before our 1.0, like, will it be an early access?
(0:43:40) Al: Like you just never know with developers nowadays, you know.
(0:43:44) Codey: Well, so the developer is, it’s the, this is going to be their first thing.
(0:43:48) Codey: Teenage astronauts.
(0:43:49) Codey: I think this is their first thing.
(0:43:51) Codey: And, but the publisher also published a let’s build a zoo.
(0:43:55) Al: Mm-hmm. Yeah, they’re no more robots. They’re pretty big
(0:43:58) Codey: Yep.
(0:43:59) Al: publisher
(0:44:00) Codey: Yep.
(0:44:01) Codey: Looks cute.
(0:44:01) Codey: I’m excited.
(0:44:02) Codey: We’ll keep it on our radar.
(0:44:05) Al: Absolutely, I’ve got it on my wishlist on Steam already
(0:44:08) Al: - Thank you.
(0:44:10) Codey: I told, I played factorial with my partner and I told him, I was like, oh my gosh,
(0:44:14) Codey: there’s a cozy factorial coming out. And he was like, disgusting. Tell me more.
(0:44:18) Al: Alright, that’s all of the news. We’re now going to jump into Honey Grove, which is a
(0:44:22) Codey: Yeah.
(0:44:30) Al: game we’ve been playing. So this is a mobile game. It is I would describe it as before we
(0:44:36) Al: talk about the official description, which is you’ve put in there, I would describe it
(0:44:38) Codey: - Right, right.
(0:44:40) Al: as bees planting flowers and then making honey.
(0:44:46) Codey: That sure is something that happens in this game.
(0:44:48) Al: I mean it’s the core main game. There’s other parts to the game, but it feels like it’s
(0:44:58) Al: the farming in Stardew. Yeah, you can do lots of other things and that’s fine, but it feels
(0:45:05) Al: like without that nothing else would happen.
(0:45:08) Codey: I mean, the honey part, the only reason you do the honey part is because you then use the honey for cooking.
(0:45:14) Al: I see I didn’t, I’ve not really played this game a lot, Cody, do you want to talk about
(0:45:18) Al: this game?
(0:45:19) Al: The one thing that I, the one big thing, and this is actually the reason why I’ve not played
(0:45:24) Al: it as much as I should have is because it doesn’t have cloud support, cloud save support.
(0:45:31) Al: So I’ve put it on my iPad that’s next to me at work initially.
(0:45:36) Al: And then I was all ready to put it on my laptop, which is what I generally do things on when
(0:45:42) Al: when I’m in the evenings.
(0:45:44) Al: And yep brand new save and I was like well that’s a shame.
(0:45:49) Codey: Yep, that would suck.
(0:45:51) Al: I’m not going to be able to play in both settings so that’s going to reduce my game time quite a bit.
(0:45:55) Codey: Well, you know me, uh, I dive right in.
(0:45:58) Codey: So we’re good.
(0:46:00) Codey: Um, bees.
(0:46:00) Al: Bees yes tell me about this game Cody.
(0:46:03) Codey: Yeah.
(0:46:03) Codey: So they’re, um, they’re blurb is that honey Grove is the cozy gardening and
(0:46:08) Codey: farming game that you’ve always wanted to play, which is a bold statement.
(0:46:12) Codey: Uh, design and nurture your garden of wildflowers where every bloom and harvest
(0:46:17) Codey: will help you revive honey Grove.
(0:46:19) Codey: So I would classify this game as a hive growing game.
(0:46:24) Codey: So like you’re growing your home base basically, and
(0:46:28) Codey: you’re reconstructing the town.
(0:46:30) Codey: Um, and there, cause there’s three like main parts, like, um, not parts, but
(0:46:38) Codey: like three main like physical locations in the game that you can go to to
(0:46:44) Codey: interact with the game and help rebuild the town or build up your hive or
(0:46:48) Codey: build your bees, etc.
(0:46:50) Codey: So yeah, I think of it more as like a town reconstruction
(0:46:54) Codey: game. And like, I just have to say I am loving the fact so all
(0:47:00) Codey: of the bees that you can get have like realistic names. So
(0:47:04) Al: Yes.
(0:47:06) Codey: like, well, so Beatrice Wood, for example, is the first gardener
(0:47:11) Codey: bee that you get. And it also says leafer, but I have no idea
(0:47:15) Codey: what that means. And she it says.
(0:47:19) Codey: European honeybee apis mellifera. And then when you go to the second one, um, it’s a
(0:47:26) Codey: blue orchard Mason be Osmea lignaria. And like that Osmea lignaria is the scientific
(0:47:33) Codey: name for the blue orchard bees. So I really liked that. Um, that they have that. And I,
(0:47:39) Codey: my favorite one is, Oh my gosh, they have Khalidies in here. Wow. Sorry, I’m getting
(0:47:44) Al: I think the leaf cutter, by the way, is like how experienced they are, because mine all
(0:47:48) Al: say rookie.
(0:47:50) Al: Was it after gardener?
(0:47:51) Al: Was it gardener, comma?
(0:47:52) Al: Leaf cutter.
(0:47:52) Codey: Yeah, Gardener comma Leifer.
(0:47:53) Al: Yeah.
(0:47:54) Al: Leafer.
(0:47:55) Al: Yeah, yeah.
(0:47:56) Codey: Oh, that makes sense.
(0:47:56) Al: I think that’s their rank of how experienced they are.
(0:47:58) Codey: Because I have for my explore.
(0:48:02) Codey: I have three explorers now and I have an explorer who’s.
(0:48:04) Codey: I have two explorers who are buzzers and then one is a scout.
(0:48:08) Codey: And then I have four.
(0:48:10) Codey: I have all the crafters so far.
(0:48:12) Codey: So the first one is the professor who’s like the big.
(0:48:16) Codey: I mean, she’s kind of like the queen, basically.
(0:48:18) Codey: She’s the one who is directing the show.
(0:48:20) Codey: She’s at a computer.
(0:48:22) Codey: And she’s always just bossing people around.
(0:48:24) Codey: It’s very hilarious.
(0:48:26) Codey: Um, and then there are other crafters.
(0:48:30) Codey: So there’s one that’s an Eastern carpenter B, um, and she runs the.
(0:48:37) Codey: Like crafting tools and crafting like doors and stuff like that.
(0:48:42) Codey: And then there’s the, um, what does she do the cooking one?
(0:48:48) Codey: Yeah, the cooking one.
(0:48:49) Codey: and then there’s one that
(0:48:51) Codey: Um,
(0:48:52) Codey: and I love her. So she has one of her one side of her hair shaved. And I love that. And she also,
(0:48:58) Codey: um, is an andrenid, which are mining bees. So it’s funny that like, and they, they actually like will
(0:49:05) Codey: make little mud things. And so it’s, I love that she’s the one that’s, they made an andrenid, the,
(0:49:10) Codey: the kiln bee. Um, yeah. So I just really kudos to them for that. Love that. Thank you. They also have
(0:49:17) Codey: two pairs of wings.
(0:49:22) Codey: That have to like, there are four, so there’s four wings total because bees don’t have two wings.
(0:49:30) Codey: They have four wings. Yep. That’s me.
(0:49:34) Al: Do they just look like one wing with two parts?
(0:49:36) Codey: No, they look, if you look at them like in the, if you zoom in on anything like in the game,
(0:49:43) Codey: it’s very clear that there are, there’s a four wing, which is the bigger wing and the hind wing,
(0:49:47) Codey: which is the smaller wing and which is what bees have. They have four wings.
(0:49:52) Codey: Um, and when they fly, they use a special hair to hook their wings together so that they
(0:50:01) Codey: look like they have two wings, but then they really have four wings. So anyway,
(0:50:06) Codey: that’s me being pedantic. Um, just about this.
(0:50:08) Al: I mean, I think that’s what people expect.
(0:50:12) Al: I don’t think they would want you to talk about bees and not be specific.
(0:50:15) Codey: That’s true. Uh, about this very specific topic. Uh, what level are you at now?
(0:50:21) Al: How do I find that?
(0:50:22) Al: Is that the number in the star?
(0:50:23) Codey: Yeah, okay. I’m at level nine.
(0:50:25) Al: I’m at four.
(0:50:28) Al: Oh, okay.
(0:50:28) Al: That’s not, I mean, I presume it’s like, it takes longer and longer to get to each level,
(0:50:33) Codey: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And so there’s multiple mechanics in the game that I’m going to go
(0:50:33) Al: but it’s not like I’m at level two, you know, I’ve played some of the game.
(0:50:43) Codey: through. And like, it’s, I kind of also, when I do that, I go through the, the different locations.
(0:50:52) Codey: Three locations. The first location is the garden. And that’s where you have gardening
(0:50:58) Codey: bees that do the garden. So when you go outside of the hive, there’s a map that you, that’s,
(0:51:06) Codey: when you first start, it’s just cluttered and has stuff like weeds that you need to pick or
(0:51:15) Codey: stumps or rocks all over the place. And so you clear those things with those tools.
(0:51:22) Codey: And you can build the tools. Yeah. Yeah. Correct. It’s not, the weeds are just really,
(0:51:23) Al: Although I have to question, right?
(0:51:26) Al: So the weeds you get rid of with scissors.
(0:51:28) Al: The scissors die after one use.
(0:51:30) Al: What’s our terrible scissors of these?
(0:51:32) Al: Right, seriously.
(0:51:36) Codey: there’s a lot of, like, they’re hefty, you know, you gotta,
(0:51:39) Al: They’re little B scissors.
(0:51:41) Al: They can’t just…
(0:51:43) Codey: the weeds are just like, they’re a lot and they just dull the scissors really fast.
(0:51:48) Codey: Well, they’re shears. But yeah, like gardening shears.
(0:51:52) Al: It’s just a different can of scissor, come on.
(0:51:52) Codey: Uh, I’m curious if in the, within the definition of sheer.
(0:52:02) Al: Are they just like garden scissors?
(0:52:04) Codey: Yeah. I want to know. So it’s a verb. I don’t see anything definition. I love, I love this.
(0:52:12) Al: Define garden shears. Large shears used for gardening. Come on, helpful.
(0:52:14) Codey: Shears. Shears may refer to scissors.
(0:52:23) Codey: Which are also called shears. Hair cutting shears.
(0:52:24) Al: Ah, here we go. A cutting instrument in which two blades move past each other, like scissors, but typically large.
(0:52:32) Codey: but it looks like it looks like “shears” is the original word and “scissors” is within.
(0:52:38) Al: It depends. Yeah, it depends what language. Old English had sira here and scissor.
(0:52:40) Codey: Okay, so “shear.”
(0:52:49) Al: Yeah, it looks like sira is probably older word than scissors.
(0:52:53) Codey: Okay, cool. We’re starting off great.
(0:52:55) Al: We love the etymology of words.
(0:52:59) Codey: Yeah. So
(0:53:02) Codey: in this area, this is where you’re going to grow different things and collect resources.
(0:53:07) Codey: You start off with only one gardening bee at first. And but as you explore the town,
(0:53:12) Codey: you find more and then you recruit them to your hive and to help out with gardening.
(0:53:18) Codey: So there are three like kind of classes of things that you can garden. So there’s flowers,
(0:53:25) Codey: which you plant a flower and then it has stages, four stages of being nurtured.
(0:53:32) Codey: And so it just like grows and grows and grows. And then when it becomes a full flower,
(0:53:36) Codey: your bees will gather nectar from it. And then nectar is what is used as the energy to
(0:53:43) Codey: fuel the exploration. It’s not honey, it’s nectar. It’s just nectar. Well, I mean,
(0:53:44) Al: Oh yeah, it’s not even funny.
(0:53:49) Al: I was wrong on so many levels.
(0:53:53) Codey: honey is nectar that has been like cooked basically. Okay.
(0:53:58) Al: Stop trying to stop trying to make it sound like I was being correct.
(0:54:02) Codey: Okay. So yeah, that is what nectar is. Yeah. So once you fully grow a flower,
(0:54:03) Al: Look, it’s orange, it’s an orange sticky liquid.
(0:54:12) Codey: it will stay as a flower. So it stays there. It just kind of goes to sleep. So it has like
(0:54:16) Codey: inactive periods and then active periods. And during its active period, your bees will
(0:54:21) Codey: passively collect nectar from it and fill your nectar tank, which is something you can also
(0:54:27) Codey: expand so I’m at 75 space in my nectar tank.
(0:54:32) Codey: Um, the next thing you can grow are fruits and veggies, um, where anything that there’s
(0:54:39) Codey: actually any fruits that are what I’m talking about here. So I guess I’ll just say veggies.
(0:54:42) Al: I think it’s just veggies. Yeah, I don’t think it’s any
(0:54:43) Codey: Um, yeah, I think it’s just veggies. So these are things that are similar. So you plant them
(0:54:49) Codey: and then you have to go through the nurturing cycle and whatever, but you have to like whenever
(0:54:53) Codey: something’s being nurtured, you have to manually tell your bee like, Hey, go upgrade that. Like,
(0:54:58) Codey: go check on it or whatever. And then it upgrades.
(0:55:02) Codey: And then once you collect it or harvest it, the plant disappears. So your veggie is harvested,
(0:55:08) Codey: that little plot goes away and there’s just nothing there. You do get the plant and it goes
(0:55:17) Codey: into your inventory, I guess. I don’t, there’s no way to look at your inventory that I can tell. So
(0:55:23) Codey: I’m assuming that’s where it went. You also receive one seed of the next plant rarity up.
(0:55:32) Codey: It’s common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary. So if you have harvested a common plant, you will
(0:55:41) Codey: then get an uncommon seed. And then the final category are shrubs and trees, which I guess
(0:55:47) Codey: is also, it’s a fruit. This is a fruit. Again, you manually nurture it and then you harvest it,
(0:55:56) Codey: but once it’s harvested, the plant just goes on a cool down. So like the shrubs kind of just go to
(0:56:02) Codey: pop up with new fruits eventually. Yeah, no, there isn’t. Other than looking at the crafting
(0:56:08) Al: Yeah, there really is no way to find to see your inventory. That’s weird. Why?
(0:56:14) Codey: things and seeing what you have. So I’ve, yes, yeah. But I’ll be like, oh, I wonder how many
(0:56:14) Al: Yeah, but you’re only seeing there what’s related to that specific thing, right? Like that is an
(0:56:24) Codey: of this one resource I have. And so I’ll just go to the crafting thing and look for something
(0:56:28) Al: Yeah. Yeah. But there’s no like way to see all those resources and also like your consumables
(0:56:29) Codey: that uses that resource. And I’ll be like, Oh, I should probably go
(0:56:32) Codey: get more. Yep. Yep. The garden. Yeah. Yeah, so, um, there’s Yeah, I
(0:56:36) Al: like your shears and your watering cans and stuff like if you want to know that you have
(0:56:40) Al: to go to the garden and yeah.
(0:56:51) Codey: guess I forgot to mention the watering cans. So that basically
(0:56:54) Codey: stops your it makes your plans wake up. So if they’re all on a
(0:56:59) Codey: the cool down, they’re all sleeping.
(0:57:00) Codey: Um, you know, I think that’s a good question.
(0:57:02) Codey: water them and then they start producing nectar again. So this
(0:57:05) Codey: is good if you have like, if all of your flowers are inactive,
(0:57:09) Codey: and you want to go adventuring and you’re out of nectar, you
(0:57:12) Codey: just wake up all your plants, but I barely ever use it. I have
(0:57:16) Codey: 102 watering cans right now, because I just don’t do it that
(0:57:18) Codey: often. So that’s gardening. The next thing is all the different
(0:57:22) Codey: things that you can do inside the hive. I think the biggest
(0:57:26) Codey: thing in the hive is a merge table. I’ve never played a merge
(0:57:28) Al: Yeah. You’ve never played one before. And it is funny that this is just, yeah,
(0:57:29) Codey: game before so this
(0:57:32) Codey: I don’t think so.
(0:57:36) Al: the crafting is literally just a merge 3 game, which it is exactly, listener, what you would
(0:57:38) Codey: Yeah.
(0:57:42) Al: expect. It’s like you have, you add some things to the table and then you put them next to each
(0:57:48) Al: other and they turn into different things. But what this is used for then is like, it gives you
(0:57:54) Al: other items that you can use. So like you have seeds that you can put together.
(0:57:58) Al: And it gives you like generic seeds that don’t actually aren’t a seed for something
(0:58:03) Al: that you can’t use them. And you put through them together and it will give you
(0:58:07) Al: an actual seed that you can use for a random plant. And it kind of works like that.
(0:58:10) Codey: Yeah, it randomizes it.
(0:58:11) Codey: Um, Mm-hmm.
(0:58:13) Al: It’s an interesting way of doing that, I guess, compared to other games.
(0:58:18) Al: I’m not sure I would say I find that super fun, but it’s interesting.
(0:58:22) Codey: Yeah, I think for me like there are so many plants that I have not found
(0:58:29) Codey: like you can look in your compendium or whatever and and look and see how many things you’re missing and
(0:58:34) Codey: There’s so many that I haven’t found and I’m like, I don’t know how to I don’t know how to get those I’ve done
(0:58:40) Codey: the
(0:58:42) Codey: I’ve opened up so many of these seeds. Why have I not received at this point like another?
(0:58:50) Codey: Like why have I not filled all of the
(0:58:52) Codey: I’m like missing like half of them.
(0:58:56) Codey: And there’s nothing on the ones I’m missing that say, Oh, these are received by this.
(0:59:00) Codey: This is received by this.
(0:59:00) Codey: I’m just assuming it’s just through as you play the game, they’ll just come up, but it was a little weird.
(0:59:08) Codey: Yeah. And there’s two merge properties that just are on a cool down.
(0:59:14) Codey: One of them is the pollen that builds up that you then merge into a random goop pile.
(0:59:20) Codey: and then that merges to become.
(0:59:22) Codey: And then also whenever you send your bees on missions during the town,
(0:59:26) Codey: there’s like certain areas that you can go to to get resources.
(0:59:30) Codey: And then you can merge those resources. So for example,
(0:59:32) Codey: there’s a lumber yard from that. You get a pile of sticks.
(0:59:34) Codey: You can then merge the sticks and then you get like a piece of usable
(0:59:38) Codey: wood.
(0:59:38) Codey: That you can then craft used for crafting.
(0:59:40) Codey: So for example,
(0:59:42) Codey: if you’re going to be able to find a lot of wood,
(0:59:52) Codey: if you’re going to be able to find a lot of wood,
(0:59:54) Codey: you’re going to be able to find a lot of wood.
(0:59:56) Codey: So, yeah.
(1:00:00) Codey: I also think it’s interesting that like,
(1:00:00) Codey: you usually have to merge three items, but then if you merge.
(1:00:02) Codey: It like goes to the cost goes down.
(1:00:06) Codey: So if you merge five items.
(1:00:08) Codey: You would think that you would get one of the crap.
(1:00:12) Codey: Like created item and then have two leftover.
(1:00:15) Al: I don’t know yet. I think it depends on the game. I think it’s fun. I think for this,
(1:00:16) Codey: But if you merge five, you actually get two, like it uses everything.
(1:00:18) Codey: I was just really surprised when that, when I, when that happened.
(1:00:22) Codey: I think.
(1:00:24) Codey: Okay.
(1:00:26) Codey: Thank you.
(1:00:30) Al: I think it makes more sense because it’s like you can get more of the, you know, the rarer
(1:00:38) Codey: Yeah, I think it’s so I also think it’s funny because like, you actually have to think about the merge tables, and where everything is because if it’s not touching. There’ve been so many times where I’ve had, I thought I’ve had four of a resource, and then I go to merge and like, oh, well, I’m just gonna have something left over and then I merged them and I there’s one left over and then I just see one of another one of the things over off in the corner and I’m like, ah, I could have used you.
(1:01:03) Al: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s nice because you can like, it doesn’t automatically merge them.
(1:01:04) Codey: I’m like, “Dang it!”
(1:01:08) Codey: Mm-hm.
(1:01:08) Al: You can put them next to each other and then you just drag one of them onto the rest of
(1:01:12) Al: the group and it merges them all together. So if you, if you are in that situation and
(1:01:14) Codey: Yep.
(1:01:17) Al: you don’t have ADHD, you can look around the entire board and see what you have and put
(1:01:21) Al: them all together.
(1:01:22) Codey: Yeah.
(1:01:23) Codey: Which I usually catch, but not always.
(1:01:26) Codey: So, so it’s kind of interesting because like if you, for example, collected three legendary seeds,
(1:01:32) Codey: you could merge those or you could wait to get two more legendary seeds and then merge them into two plants.
(1:01:38) Al: Yeah
(1:01:38) Codey: And it’s like a delayed gratification thing, but that’s not happening.
(1:01:42) Codey: Not in this economy.
(1:01:44) Al: You’re eating the marshmallow
(1:01:44) Codey: So, yeah.
(1:01:47) Codey: I am eating my cookie.
(1:01:48) Codey: I’m not gonna, I don’t care if I receive two the next day.
(1:01:51) Codey: Because I’m gonna forget it.
(1:01:53) Codey: If it’s that I’m just gonna be like, oh, I got two cookies today.
(1:01:55) Codey: That’s cool.
(1:01:56) Codey: I don’t know why that happened, but.
(1:01:58) Al: Yeah.
(1:02:00) Codey: And then you expand the merge table through the quests.
(1:02:04) Codey: Yeah.
(1:02:05) Codey: And then there’s also just regular crafting.
(1:02:08) Codey: There’s like a chef, there’s a regular crafter who makes like lumber out of base wood and makes nails and roof tiles and whatever.
(1:02:17) Codey: And a kiln worker who makes clay and I think glass eventually, but I haven’t gotten that yet.
(1:02:24) Al: » I definitely haven’t.
(1:02:25) Codey: Yeah.
(1:02:26) Codey: And then you, you use those resources for improving the town, trading with folks, upgrading the hive, like different things like that.
(1:02:38) Codey: But you can go to the town map.
(1:02:42) Codey: So you go to that and there’s different quests that you see.
(1:02:46) Codey: And you can choose the quests and they usually use nectar and there are certain distance away.
(1:02:54) Codey: So you have to make sure that the bees that you have can make that distance.
(1:02:57) Codey: Or if you only have two bees that can, like each bee can move, has like 50 power or whatever.
(1:03:03) Codey: And the thing has like 90.
(1:03:05) Codey: you have to take both of the bees to.
(1:03:08) Codey: And then you get 100% success on that mission.
(1:03:13) Codey: You start off the map is very limited at first everything’s in fog, but pretty quickly you clear an area of the map, and it gives you access to like a resource gathering point like the walnut tree, so you go and collect walnuts and then you can use that to make like an oil.
(1:03:33) Codey: That is then, for whatever reason, given to your exploring piece, usually.
(1:03:38) Codey: Um, or it’s used, sorry, it’s used to for crafting, but also sometimes they want it.
(1:03:42) Al: Has everything– isn’t everything?
(1:03:43) Codey: Yeah.
(1:03:45) Codey: Yeah.
(1:03:46) Codey: Um, there’s also like villagers that you like neighbors that you have that you find
(1:03:52) Codey: them and you give them things.
(1:03:54) Codey: So they usually want like a salad or, or a muffin or whatever.
(1:04:00) Codey: And so you can just make that and give it to them and your reputation with them
(1:04:03) Codey: increases, and then you can, they give you free stuff every now and then.
(1:04:08) Codey: Sometimes it’s useful.
(1:04:09) Codey: Sometimes it’s not.
(1:04:13) Codey: Um, but yeah, you’re basically like cleaning up the town with all of that.
(1:04:17) Codey: Um, so there’s the, oh, there’s also the shops.
(1:04:20) Codey: So there’s a gardening shop where you can buy things.
(1:04:23) Codey: It’s usually two different tools, a specific flower, and then a bag of random
(1:04:29) Codey: veggie seeds, um, there’s that, uh, there’s a decoration shop, which I don’t touch.
(1:04:39) Codey: And then there’s a cafe, and then that will buy things that boost your
(1:04:42) Codey: bees, um, like make them go faster for a bit, uh, expedition or whatever.
(1:04:49) Codey: Um, and each of these shops have their own currency that
(1:04:51) Codey: you just get through gameplay.
(1:04:54) Codey: Um, like you gain flower petals from your flowers eventually.
(1:04:59) Codey: And then you can take that to the gardening shop and then they’ll, she’ll
(1:05:01) Codey: give you points for giving her combinations that she wants.
(1:05:05) Codey: Oh, I didn’t mention that there’s also like a question.
(1:05:08) Codey: board or a request board, I guess, where it’s just like someone wants these resources and
(1:05:15) Codey: they’re willing to give you these, these rewards. And you can do that to get, I usually do that
(1:05:22) Codey: for anything that gives me resources to make the tools, because I want to clear that map,
(1:05:29) Codey: my garden map. I want it to be pristine so that I can not decorate it. Everything levels
(1:05:36) Codey: up throughout the game as per
(1:05:38) Codey: gameplay as games do. So for example, your explorers start out
(1:05:43) Codey: with, oh, I said 75, but I think it’s 50 power. But by doing, if
(1:05:49) Codey: you look at their like collection page, it’ll tell you
(1:05:52) Codey: what they want. So right now I have one that wants to complete
(1:05:56) Codey: 30 walnut tree expeditions, 20 in the Woodlands, 20 in the
(1:06:00) Codey: quarry and 20 in the oat field. And if I do all of those things,
(1:06:03) Codey: then she’ll increase her power to 125, I think.
(1:06:08) Codey: Guess where I’m at right now. And that’s the same for all
(1:06:11) Codey: these. So that’s my explorers, my gardeners want to like
(1:06:15) Codey: nurture common flowers 50 times nurture this blah, blah, blah,
(1:06:19) Codey: blah, blah. crafter, this crafter wants to craft vegetable
(1:06:24) Codey: soup 10 times. And yeah, it just makes them more efficient or
(1:06:31) Codey: provides more options for things that they can build. Yeah,
(1:06:35) Codey: number of Gober number get big.
(1:06:38) Codey: Yeah, number get big. There’s some in game currencies. Like there’s the pay. Yeah.
(1:06:38) Al: Yeah, you struggled with that initially, a little bit.
(1:06:48) Al: Yeah, let’s talk about the monetization in general, right? Because the interesting thing
(1:06:54) Al: and the thing that obviously we want to praise is that this game doesn’t have ads, and it
(1:07:00) Al: definitely doesn’t feel like it’s trying to shove paying lots of money all the time in
(1:07:06) Al: your face. Which is good, just to make it clear, we like this.
(1:07:06) Codey: Yeah, I actually, I didn’t even realize that it, that it did this until I was talking to
(1:07:15) Codey: someone recently about ads and how some games, like so many of these mobile games, they just
(1:07:20) Codey: throw ads at you constantly and you can barely play before they just throw an ad at you.
(1:07:25) Codey: And this game doesn’t do that.
(1:07:26) Codey: It just doesn’t, there’s a little shop thing that you can go to that’ll give you tokens
(1:07:30) Codey: or event tickets or the in-game B-Bucks and you can use the B-Bucks to then make things
(1:07:36) Codey: go faster, but I’ve had no, no desire to do any of that.
(1:07:42) Codey: You don’t have to, which is really cool.
(1:07:43) Al: Yeah.
(1:07:47) Codey: I think the last like big main gameplay thing for this game is that the traveling trader
(1:07:52) Codey: B, her name is Abigail.
(1:07:57) Codey: Actually she’s not a B, she’s a ladybug.
(1:07:59) Al: It’s shocking! Shocking! Come on, Cody.
(1:08:00) Codey: I just went to her page.
(1:08:01) Codey: I was like, oh, this is a ladybug.
(1:08:04) Codey: I’m sorry.
(1:08:06) Codey: Look for tiers of, I don’t even know what to call this, like requests.
(1:08:14) Codey: So the first one is always going to be easy, the easiest requests.
(1:08:18) Codey: So she just wants like one of this, two of that and five of that or whatever.
(1:08:22) Codey: And you get a pretty basic request, basic reward.
(1:08:26) Codey: And then as you go down the tiers, you get more things.
(1:08:27) Codey: So I made sure to go through so I could get three shares because I wanted that really
(1:08:32) Codey: bad.
(1:08:33) Codey: Um, if I do this next one, I get speedy grow, which hurries.
(1:08:36) Codey: The time left on a plant by 30 minutes.
(1:08:38) Codey: And then the last one, she gives you three rows.
(1:08:42) Codey: Grape is currently the one that I have, which I would like, but she departs
(1:08:46) Codey: in a day and there’s no way I’m getting this done.
(1:08:48) Codey: So, um, so yeah, that’s a way to get more resources, get more flowers, get
(1:08:53) Codey: decorations sometimes are the, are the end goal and she’s just around for a week.
(1:08:59) Codey: And yeah, it’s not too in your face.
(1:09:02) Codey: So I don’t know.
(1:09:04) Codey: That’s it’s it’s just a cute little little game not
(1:09:06) Codey: too difficult. It hasn’t really like like we’ve been playing I’ve been playing it for
(1:09:11) Codey: like three weeks now and it doesn’t really like the difficulty level doesn’t increase
(1:09:18) Codey: a lot like some mobile games. It’s like oh but now you got to go do this so that you
(1:09:22) Codey: can do this so that you can do this other thing and oh here’s this other mechanic and
(1:09:26) Codey: it’s it’s just the the three places and it adds stuff that you could do but you don’t
(1:09:31) Codey: have to like I could just leave that bunny never visit the bunny again either of the
(1:09:37) Codey: I think they’re both bunnies oh one’s a mouse but I could just like ignore them for the
(1:09:41) Codey: rest of my life and never talk to them and the game’s not going to punish me for that so.
(1:09:45) Al: Yeah, I didn’t get super into it. And I think that’s mainly just because it’s…
(1:09:51) Al: Why didn’t I get into it? It’s always a hard one to figure out.
(1:09:53) Codey: Oh, because of the cloud save.
(1:09:55) Al: I mean, that’s part of it, right? But like, I still sit next to my work tablet for eight hours a day,
(1:10:01) Al: right? And I could absolutely have had it on my screen and playing it loads if I wanted to.
(1:10:06) Al: So it’s always a hard thing to figure out why a game never grabs you.
(1:10:11) Al: I think for me, certainly to start with the game.
(1:10:15) Al: The game feels very busy, and because you don’t understand all of the mechanics to start with, it feels a little bit overwhelming.
(1:10:24) Al: It introduces things to you slowly, but all those things it introduces to you slowly are on the screen to start with.
(1:10:31) Al: And it’s like you go to the garden initially, and it’s completely overgrown. You’re like, “Whoa, this is well overwhelming.”
(1:10:39) Al: And then you get introduced to the fog cleaning mechanic, and you get shown this humongous map.
(1:10:45) Al: That is a lot of fog to clear. I was looking for a quite casual cam game, and although that can be what it is, it also in that moment felt quite overwhelming to me.
(1:11:04) Al: And I probably never got over that initial feeling.
(1:11:10) Codey: Yeah, that’s that’s fair. I think for me it’s like, I looked at it and I was like, oh, that’s, that’s something to do over like a period of time, like, I can do this, this is just something that I’ll play until like, and finish the clearing and stuff and, but it’ll be satisfying.
(1:11:28) Codey: So, versus like a game, and it seems like there’s an end because you can see that the garden map ends you can see that there’s not more past the fog areas or.
(1:11:40) Codey: Whatever. So yeah, so you could totally, I mean, they could add to it for sure if they wanted, but as it currently stands, like there is an end in sight versus, you know, sometimes in some of these games, it’s like, and it’s sometimes it seems so unattainable, but I currently have like maybe a quarter of my garden cleared out.
(1:11:40) Al: Yeah, that’s fair. It’s very much an island.
(1:12:04) Codey: So I’m feeling pretty like I know that I can, like, I can attain this.
(1:12:04) Al: Right. Yeah, I also think that I never really mesh well with like crafting to craft games,
(1:12:10) Codey: It just takes time.
(1:12:16) Codey: Yeah.
(1:12:16) Al: which is what this is, and it’s kind of a little bit unfortunate that we had Luma Island two weeks
(1:12:20) Al: ago, and then we’ve got this later, which is like they’re very different games, but also
(1:12:24) Al: fundamentally, they are both craft for the sake of crafting. And I think the craft to craft can
(1:12:33) Al: also over realm make.
(1:12:34) Al: quite a lot because it’s like there is so much. And yeah, sometimes we just I mean,
(1:12:41) Al: there’s just types of games that we never we don’t gel with. But if that’s something
(1:12:44) Al: that you like, then I can understand why it would be a good game. I mean, it looks gorgeous.
(1:12:49) Al: I love how it looks. And I think a lot of what it does is good. It doesn’t feel scammy
(1:12:54) Al: like a lot of mobile games do it. It worked really nicely on my 13 inch iPad Pro. It filled
(1:13:01) Al: of the screen, like it wasn’t trying to be like a small window in there.
(1:13:04) Al: So that’s good. Like it does a lot of things really well. It’s a well made game.
(1:13:12) Al: Other than my cloud save issue, I think it’s really good.
(1:13:16) Codey: Yeah. I concur wholeheartedly. So yeah. In conclusion, I said this is the first game that dot dot dot and then I said it’s a mystery for Al because I was like I was going to write it out but then I was like, no, I’m going to wait.
(1:13:22) Al: if that’s oh yep oh yes yes you had a you had a little secret for me for some reason
(1:13:35) Codey: Hello, I’m going to go on for dramatic effect. This is the first game that I’ve played on this podcast.
(1:13:42) Codey: That’s a mobile game that I will have.
(1:13:47) Codey: I have no intention of uninstalling this game going forward.
(1:13:54) Codey: I don’t see it.
(1:13:56) Codey: It doesn’t annoy me.
(1:13:58) Codey: I don’t feel overwhelmed by it personally.
(1:14:02) Codey: I’m going to keep playing it until I’m done.
(1:14:06) Codey: I was just thinking about all the mobile games we’ve played.
(1:14:10) Codey: And usually it’s just like, I’ve already uninstalled it.
(1:14:13) Codey: It’s like, “Please, Al, let’s record it.”
(1:14:16) Codey: I can uninstall this game, but not this one.
(1:14:19) Al: Yeah I guess that’s good because it’s like in most of the time when you’ve done that it’s not
(1:14:20) Codey: This one’s good.
(1:14:24) Al: because you don’t like the game it’s because you get too sucked into it and it consumes your life.
(1:14:28) Codey: Also that yes, there’s also that this this has struck a nice balance for me for sure. That’s it
(1:14:36) Al: All right. Well, thank you, Cody, for joining me to talk about Honey Grove.
(1:14:40) Al: Everybody loves a Cody talking about bees episode.
(1:14:44) Codey: I am on Instagram @hikingbeagle and I am on Blue Sky at Cody Mathis.
(1:14:46) Al: Where can people find you on the Internet?
(1:15:00) Codey: It’s my name.
(1:15:00) Codey: That’s it.
(1:15:02) Codey: What about you?
(1:15:03) Al: You can find me at thescottsbot on mastdons.scot and also blue sky and probably some others,
(1:15:12) Al: but I don’t care about them. You can find the podcast on tumblr and on blue sky at THSPod.
(1:15:20) Al: You can find a feedback form on our website harvestseason.club. Send us feedback there.
(1:15:27) Al: Also on the website you can find links to everything to do with the podcast,
(1:15:30) Al: including our link to our patreon patreon.com/th
(1:15:34) Al: where you can get access to our slack. Sometimes you get sneak peeks of what’s coming up
(1:15:39) Al: and you also get access to our bonus podcast episodes. We have two
(1:15:46) Al: recorded and edited ready to go exciting episodes of the greenhouse coming up.
(1:15:53) Al: I think that’s everything. Thank you Cody again for joining me.
(1:15:56) Codey: Thank you, as always, for having me and the listeners for listening to me ramble about bees.
(1:16:00) Al: Until next time, have a good harvest.
(1:16:02) Codey: Have a good harvest. Holiday harvest? Oh, yes.
(1:16:03) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our
(1:16:03) Al: Have a good nectar harvest.
(1:16:14) Theme Tune: pro farmers Kevin, Stuart and Alisa.
(1:16:18) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess.
(1:16:22) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestsseason.club for show notes and links to things we discussed
(1:16:28) Theme Tune: in this episode.
(1:16:38) Codey: Do you want me to take the reins on this one, or you got it?
(1:16:39) Al: No, I’m good. I’m good. I’m good. I need to, I need to, no, no, it’s not, it’s not, it’s
(1:16:43) Codey: Stop taking my podcast, Robbie!
(1:16:46) Al: not that, it’s not that. I just, I like to, I like to drive it because otherwise I think
(1:16:46) Codey: Okay.
(1:16:53) Al: I get distracted by other things.
(1:16:54) Codey: Yeah. Sounds good.