Number Go Up Big…Same-

Wed, Oct 28, 2026 Year 3, Winter 17

Al and Chelsea talk about Keep Watering.

Timings

00:00:00: Theme Tune
00:00:30: Intro
00:02:11: What Have We Been Up To
00:17:05: Game News
00:30:20: New Games
00:32:40: Keep Watering
01:03:06: Outro

Links

Emberville Early Access
Littlelands Early Access
Cat Cafe Manager 2 Early Access
Farlands 1.2 Update
Travellers Rest “The Stone Crown”
Disney Dreamlight Valley 2026 Showcase
Usagi Shima PC Features
Crop
Keep Watering

Contact

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

Transcript

Theme Tune

(0s) Theme Tune:

Theme Tune

Intro

(30s) Al:

Hello farmers and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. My name is Al.

(35s) Chelsea:

And my name is Chelsea.

(36s) Al:

And we’re here today to talk about Cottagecore Games. Woo!

(40s) Chelsea:

Woo!

(42s) Al:

This episode has not been delayed and is happening.

(46s) Chelsea:

A true miracle.

(46s) Al:

Why has Kevin been looking at our show notes for this episode? Shocking.

(53s) Chelsea:

Nosey.

(53s) Al:

Yeah, what’s that about? What are you doing, Kevin?

(56s) Chelsea:

Secret third guest.

(59s) Al:

It’s a secret even to us.

(1m)

I guess that’s the funny thing is because most of the regular hosts have access to the whole Notion database, it does mean that they can see any show notes and also any links to any Zoom meetings.

(1m 15s)

So obviously, don’t do this, Kevin, right?

(1m 15s) Chelsea:

you

(1m 18s) Al:

You’re going to think about this and you’re going to think it’s funny.

(1m 20s)

Don’t do it. But technically, anybody could click on any of the normal hosts could click on any of those Zoom links and join surprise.

(1m 30s)

Meetings. You would have to know when it is.

(1m 31s) Chelsea:

that would be incredible to be honest he knows what i’m talking to him right now

(1m 35s)

but I don’t think he’s here I don’t think he’s here

(1m 36s) Al:

Oh, no.

(1m 38s) Chelsea:

okay all right

(1m 38s) Al:

Well, he’s not in the Zoom meeting, so we’re fine. We’re fine.

(1m 42s)

And he’s not going to hear this until Wednesday.

(1m 45s)

So it’s the next episode we have, although he’s on the next episode.

(1m 49s)

All right. We’re going to talk about keep watering, which I’m not going to describe just now because that’ll be half of our topic, I think.

(2m)

Actually describing what this game is.

(2m 3s)

But yeah, we’re going to talk about keep watering because we thought it looked interesting and it’s farming.

(2m 7s)

There we go.

(2m 9s)

Before that, we have some news.

What Have We Been Up To

(2m 11s) Al:

But first of all, Chelsea, what have you been up to?

(2m 15s) Chelsea:

oh um so I went to go see bring me the horizon

(2m 18s) Al:

Why did you react like it was a surprise that that was coming?

(2m 19s) Chelsea:

oh me let me think about my life no um I went to see my favorite band bring me the horizon

(2m 24s) Al:

Not enough episodes now.

(2m 32s) Chelsea:

they never come to ottawa okay it took them like 17 years to come back um and

(2m 37s) Al:

Did they do a Pokemon?

(2m 38s) Chelsea:

oh I don’t know maybe I know they just did something for valla

(2m 45s)

um anyway so I have they might have oh was it for pokemon 25

(2m 46s) Al:

I feel like I’ve yeah yeah they did um no no no they did the if I’m right give me let me just check

(2m 58s)

yes which was the the Pokemon Horizon one of the Pokemon Horizons

(2m 58s) Chelsea:

you have piqued my interest oh they did becoming me oh what

(3m 4s)

how did I not know that okay anyway I saw I saw them like a month ago almost a month ago and i

(3m 14s)

have never had post-concert depression so bad in my life because they’ve been touring this album

(3m 19s)

for years and this is like one of their final shows and I just I saw so much online about it

(3m 24s)

for so long and it finally happened

(3m 26s)

and I’m just, I’m not over it.

(3m 28s)

Oh no?

(3m 29s) Al:

Oh, wait, no, that’s not, that’s not, they didn’t do that song.

(3m 32s) Chelsea:

Hold on.

(3m 33s) Al:

I don’t, no, no, I don’t think they did.

(3m 36s) Chelsea:

So what if, you think, you think the AI

(3m 38s)

would just go on here and tell me lies?

(3m 40s) Al:

Yeah, I think so.

(3m 42s) Chelsea:

Yeah, okay, I disregard all of that.

(3m 44s) Al:

I thought they’d done something Pokemon, but maybe I’m.

(3m 46s) Chelsea:

Okay.

(3m 47s)

Okay, well they did,

(3m 48s)

there’s these fan-made Pokemon cards

(3m 51s)

of their different albums

(3m 52s)

and they look so freaking cool.

(3m 53s) Al:

Right.

(3m 55s) Chelsea:

I might have to just buy those.

(3m 57s) Al:

No, no.

(3m 58s) Chelsea:

Not at all farming related,

(4m 1s) Al:

It’s not all to do.

(4m 1s) Chelsea:

but I,

(4m 2s)

nothing is going to hit the same as the show

(4m 2s) Al:

It doesn’t all have to be farming related.

(4m 6s) Chelsea:

and I’ve been to like hundreds of concerts,

(4m 9s)

I’ve seen so many bands

(4m 10s)

and I just, yeah, no,

(4m 13s)

I’m not done thinking about it.

(4m 16s) Al:

fair enough I don’t tend to go to concerts very much um no but uh it’s

(4m 16s) Chelsea:

Is that what I’ve been doing now?

(4m 20s)

Oh no.

(4m 21s)

Do you get a lot of good big names?

(4m 24s) Al:

um so a lot okay we’ll have two types of of bands over here uh there are the bands that will do uh

(4m 32s)

two european dates and they’re both in london um and and then there are bands who will do like an

(4m 40s)

actual proper european tour and they will do one in scotland generally

(4m 46s)

um so it’s like if you’re if you’re free that day then you’re fine but yeah no I i I don’t go to

(4m 51s)

london for them because it’s far I don’t want to hear it I don’t want to hear how unfar it is from

(4m 55s) Chelsea:

Yeah, see, we’re kind of lucky.

(4m 59s) Al:

the americans thank you very much I know it’s not that far I know you guys will commute five hours

(5m 2s) Chelsea:

I am not going to Belgium for that.

(5m 4s) Al:

hmm

(5m 7s) Chelsea:

No, we were kind of spoiled in Ottawa just because we have Montreal.

(5m 11s)

It’s like maybe two hours.

(5m 12s)

So if there’s anything really big that we really want to do, we’ll go to Montreal.

(5m 17s)

There’s been times where like, we’ll go for a Sunday concert and come back and then just

(5m 21s)

go to work the next day.

(5m 23s) Al:

Hmm. So, are you quite close to Quebec then?

(5m 23s) Chelsea:

But we’re old now.

(5m 26s)

So it’s harder to do.

(5m 31s)

Yeah, well, where we lived before, we were only like 20 minutes from like going into Quebec.

(5m 36s)

But yeah, we can get to Montreal in like two and a half hours probably.

(5m 40s)

Yeah.

(5m 41s)

Anyway, yeah, that’s kind of just been my whole life is like thinking about the concert and

(5m 46s)

I just made a shadow box for the concert and at the end of one of the songs, I had a big

(5m 51s)

blast of confetti, but I didn’t get any because we were not on the floor.

(5m 55s)

So someone in the Facebook group, I messaged somebody, I said, if I pay shipping, can you

(5m 59s)

send me some confetti for my shadow box?

(6m 2s)

And she did.

(6m 2s)

And she sent me a bracelet and like a key chain and I printed off a bunch of photos and I’m

(6m 8s)

immortalizing it.

(6m 10s) Al:

fair enough cool what have I been up to well obviously i’ve been playing uh keep watering um

(6m 11s) Chelsea:

Yeah.

(6m 11s)

So that’s what I’ve been up to.

(6m 18s) Al:

but i’ve also been continuing to play harvest moon echoes of teradier um yeah did you listen

(6m 23s) Chelsea:

you’re getting through it yes I did yeah I did yeah

(6m 25s) Al:

to last week’s have you listened to last week’s episode yet because I talked about that so i’m

(6m 29s)

gonna say my thoughts on it have evolved uh and obviously I don’t want to talk too much about it

(6m 34s)

because I will be doing an episode on it um when exactly i’m not sure it might be uh

(6m 40s)

might be a quite a few weeks because um uh organ organizing times and having both me and micah

(6m 47s)

having played the game for a decent amount of time so um I i’m not going to go so far as to say I like

(6m 53s)

this game or that it’s a good game but what I will say is I do keep playing it

(6m 55s) Chelsea:

okay

(6m 56s)

it keeps you coming back

(6m 59s) Al:

yeah yeah so I think what’s interesting is so i’m i’m nearly at the point where i’ve done like

(7m 7s)

So there’s four different towns…

(7m 10s)

And each of them has different independent story chapters, right?

(7m 14s)

But there’s some interconnectivity between them, which is interesting,

(7m 18s)

which I’ll talk about more on the episode when we actually do it.

(7m 21s)

But I’m at the point where I’ve almost finished the first chapter of each of the towns.

(7m 25s)

And so I think what I’m going to do is get to that point

(7m 28s)

and then stop playing for a couple of weeks, play something else,

(7m 33s)

and then see if I can get back into it.

(7m 35s)

Because that, I think, is always an interesting thing for me

(7m 38s)

is whether I come back to it after I started

(7m 40s)

playing it? Can I

(7m 42s)

jump back in and figure out where I am

(7m 44s)

and stay

(7m 45s)

engaged again after

(7m 48s)

because I think part of the problem

(7m 50s)

is that am I just playing it

(7m 52s)

because I need to get to the next

(7m 54s)

bit and it feels like a checklist

(7m 55s)

at this point, right? Like is it

(7m 57s)

I just need to keep going because this is what I’m doing

(7m 59s)

or is it that I’m actually enjoying it

(8m 2s)

that’s a hard thing to figure out

(8m 3s) Chelsea:

Okay, let it marinate it a little bit.

(8m 3s) Al:

when you’re just playing

(8m 4s)

Yeah, I think so

(8m 8s)

I think so

(8m 8s)

so

(8m 10s)

we’ll see how things go

(8m 11s)

but yeah

(8m 12s)

got some other games

(8m 13s)

to play as well

(8m 14s)

so we’ll see

(8m 14s)

how that goes

(8m 15s)

I also watched Clayface

(8m 16s) Chelsea:

oh how did you like it that’s good

(8m 17s) Al:

the film

(8m 18s)

I did

(8m 21s)

I thought it was very good

(8m 21s)

I will

(8m 23s)

it’s a little bit

(8m 24s)

baby’s first body horror

(8m 27s)

in that it’s not like

(8m 29s)

super super bad

(8m 30s)

like if you’ve seen anything

(8m 31s)

more body horror

(8m 32s)

you’re not going to be shocked

(8m 33s)

coming into it

(8m 34s)

and I worry a little bit

(8m 36s)

that it’s too much body horror

(8m 38s)

for normal people

(8m 40s)

but too little

(8m 41s)

for like body horror fans

(8m 42s)

and

(8m 43s)

the kind of

(8m 44s)

the in between

(8m 45s)

is just me

(8m 47s)

right

(8m 48s)

like I’m not

(8m 49s)

brand new to body horror

(8m 50s)

but I’m also not

(8m 51s)

the sort of person

(8m 52s)

that’s like

(8m 52s)

I need the most

(8m 54s)

disgusting nonsense

(8m 54s)

you’ve got

(8m 55s)

so I’m like

(8m 56s) Chelsea:

Okay, yeah, yeah.

(8m 57s) Al:

kind of in the middle

(8m 58s)

where I’m like

(8m 58s)

it was disgusting

(8m 59s)

and it was you know

(9m)

I like

(9m 1s)

there were a couple of bits

(9m 2s)

where I had to watch

(9m 3s)

behind my eyes

(9m 4s)

because I was just like

(9m 5s)

oh that’s so rank

(9m 6s)

I just can’t stand

(9m 7s) Chelsea:

Yeah.

(9m 7s) Al:

watching that

(9m 8s)

um

(9m 10s)

but I yeah it wasn’t like really really bad that some things can be so it was if you don’t like body

(9m 17s)

horror at all you’re not gonna like this but if you do like body horror I don’t know whether it’s

(9m 22s)

gonna do anything interesting for you and is it just is it are you gonna have to care about dc

(9m 29s)

to watch it not really it’s kind of independent right like it doesn’t it doesn’t it doesn’t feel

(9m 34s) Chelsea:

• Okay, that’s what I was gonna ask.

(9m 37s) Al:

like it requires any existing

(9m 40s)

knowledge of things um but will you care if you don’t know that’s the question right like it’s it’s

(9m 48s)

on its own standalone it’s fine in terms of body horror I think that’s the thing whereas like i

(9m 55s)

enjoyed it because I enjoy the character I enjoy the world just in general it didn’t feel like it

(10m 1s)

wasn’t like cameo fest which is good but there was little bits and pieces um I just I enjoyed it

(10m 10s)

i’d suspect it’s not going to do well

(10m 11s)

yeah and well and that yeah well and that and the you know the horror

(10m 12s) Chelsea:

No, it just doesn’t do enough for what people might want it to be.

(10m 16s)

Kind of like you said, like people either want one or the other kind of thing.

(10m 22s) Al:

world is not big enough to sustain the amount of money that superhero films cost right like horror

(10m 31s)

films traditionally do well because they don’t cost a lot um let me see what

(10m 34s) Chelsea:

Right.

(10m 35s)

Just rent out your warehouse and go…

(10m 38s) Al:

Yeah, so…

(10m 40s)

Like, I mean, pretty much, right?

(10m 43s)

For example, I remember the paranormal activity budget was like $15,000.

(10m 49s)

Now, that’s obviously ridiculously low.

(10m 52s)

It did mean that people weren’t basically getting no money for being in it

(10m 56s)

until it actually started making money.

(10m 58s)

But because it then made a lot of money, it’s basically all profit, right?

(11m 3s)

And, you know, I’m really bad with names sometimes.

(11m 7s)

What’s the one?

(11m 8s)

Obsession from this year.

(11m 10s)

budget for that was um uh up to a million dollars right so again basically everything like it’s made

(11m 18s)

over 400 million dollars worldwide which is insane for a horror film right um but the point is that

(11m 25s)

like these are obviously on the lower end of them but they generally you know they’re not going to

(11m 30s)

be more than like you know 10 million for most of them um whereas clayface costs 30 million dollars

(11m 37s)

to make so it’ll need to

(11m 39s) Chelsea:

• Oy.

(11m 40s) Al:

make like

(11m 41s)

80 million to be profitable

(11m 43s)

that’s

(11m 47s)

not I don’t I don’t think it’s

(11m 50s) Chelsea:

they’re hoping for that Halloween, uh, timing to work for them.

(11m 50s) Al:

yeah yeah I don’t know we’ll see

(11m 58s)

I just I don’t think there’s like I went to this

(12m 2s)

I went to the cinema and so I’ve been opening weekend for

(12m 5s)

Superman Supergirl and Clayface now and this was by far the

(12m 10s)

in terms of the people that were in there there were maybe this was like

(12m 13s)

opening opening night in a cinema in Edinburgh

(12m 18s)

the there there it’s not an IMAX but it’s kind of like a an off-brand

(12m 23s)

equivalent you know their largest screen

(12m 25s)

kind of the best time of day if you have a job

(12m 30s)

this was there were maybe 10 people there

(12m 33s)

so and it’s also I think is going to be very

(12m 34s) Chelsea:

Bye.

(12m 40s) Al:

top-heavy it’s going to make most of its money this weekend

(12m 42s)

I don’t think so I don’t think so so if it if it makes a profit it’ll

(12m 43s) Chelsea:

Yeah, it’s not going to be a sleeper hit where people talk about it.

(12m 48s) Al:

scrape past that I think

(12m 50s)

but we shall see

(12m 52s) Chelsea:

Yikes.

(12m 53s) Al:

well we’ll we’ll we’ll find out next week what its opening weekend was but

(12m 58s)

yeah I don’t think it’s gonna I don’t think it’s gonna make a profit

(13m 1s)

but I enjoyed it I thought it was fun

(13m 4s)

um there we go uh

(13m 5s) Chelsea:

Well, that’s good.

(13m 9s)

Not everything’s for everybody, right?

(13m 10s) Al:

sure sure but the problem is that when you make them

(13m 13s)

I mean it’s not expensive in terms of superhero films you know superhero films

(13m 16s)

generally cost a couple hundred billion um but

(13m 20s)

when you’re spending 30 million uh you you it needs to be for more than just a few

(13m 27s)

people you know that’s the thing so

(13m 29s) Chelsea:

Fair enough. Okay, fair enough.

(13m 30s) Al:

yeah I don’t know I don’t know how long this DC universe lasts for

(13m 35s)

I guess we’ll see how next year’s Superman film works out but

(13m 39s) Chelsea:

I don’t know, but I’m just looking at my cinema here and Spider-Man’s still in theaters.

(13m 40s) Al:

yeah well but I mean yeah yeah yeah

(13m 46s) Chelsea:

But they have a lot of older Halloween movies out just to get people in, I guess.

(13m 53s) Al:

yeah yeah for sure for sure there’s we’re at the point here where we have this fun thing

(13m 59s)

in the uk and presumably other countries as well have it but where films at this time of the year

(14m 6s)

come out here like a month to two months after they come out in the us specifically at this time

(14m 11s)

of year because I think it’s more the smaller ones so like your a24s and and your indie films

(14m 18s)

and stuff like that they don’t tend to come out at the same time as the u.s so it’s like I i’d

(14m 23s)

track what i’m planning on watching a lot um and so my my upcoming film list that I have tracking

(14m 30s)

here the first three are all films that are already out in the u.s in fact one of them came out

(14m 36s)

the beginning of september and it’s no that was that’s onslaught and so it came out on the 4th of

(14m 40s) Chelsea:

Was it prime time?

(14m 44s)

Oh.

(14m 45s) Al:

september in the u.s and it’s coming out here on the 11th of december prime time is also one of them

(14m 49s) Chelsea:

Woo.

(14m 52s) Al:

though, it came out

(14m 53s)

on the 25th of September, so a month

(14m 55s)

ago, and it’s coming out here

(14m 57s)

next

(14m 59s)

Wednesday, I think.

(15m 1s) Chelsea:

Okay, yeah, I’m looking up. Yeah, I’m looking at my theater, and they only have one, they only have primetime at 1030.

(15m 1s) Al:

So, that’ll be a month, a month

(15m 3s)

late. And then you can see it

(15m 5s)

Yeah, well, you get most

(15m 10s) Chelsea:

Like, they made so much hype about it.

(15m 10s) Al:

films at the same time as the US, don’t you?

(15m 14s)

Yeah.

(15m 16s)

And you can see

(15m 17s)

Everything is the other one that’s in that list, and it

(15m 19s)

is coming out here on the 20th of November,

(15m 22s)

so a month late.

(15m 23s)

Again, for that.

(15m 25s) Chelsea:

175 minutes holy crap you can see everything wow okay

(15m 25s) Al:

So, yes, it is

(15m 29s)

long, but it’s getting very good reviews,

(15m 31s)

so I’m going to have to see it.

(15m 32s) Chelsea:

oh wow oh that’s rare for them both to get along

(15m 34s) Al:

It’s got a

(15m 35s)

97% on Rotten Tomatoes

(15m 37s)

for both

(15m 39s)

critics and audience.

(15m 42s)

And it’s got

(15m 43s)

a 4.7% on Letterboxd,

(15m 45s)

a 97% on Metacritic.

(15m 47s)

So, yeah, it’s…

(15m 49s)

I have to see this thing.

(15m 51s) Chelsea:

For sure.

(15m 51s) Al:

But I have to wait a month.

(15m 54s)

But, yeah.

(15m 55s)

So, this week I’ll be watching

(15m 56s)

Primetime

(15m 56s)

and Clara and the Sun.

(15m 59s)

And I think Wicker

(16m)

comes out on Friday?

(16m 1s) Chelsea:

yeah I know of it

(16m 2s) Al:

Are you aware of Wicker?

(16m 5s) Chelsea:

oh my god yeah it’s playing here uh yeah I know another okay yeah the big one around here is uh

(16m 5s) Al:

Oh, I’m so excited

(16m 6s)

for this film.

(16m 7s)

The moment I saw the first trailer,

(16m 8s)

I was like,

(16m 9s)

perfect.

(16m 10s)

Yes.

(16m 11s)

Yes, absolutely.

(16m 12s)

Give me all of that.

(16m 13s)

I need to see this.

(16m 19s)

Yeah, it looks like we’re getting that only a week late.

(16m 23s)

Yes, yes. Big films we tend to get at the same time. So we got Street Fighter at the same time. We’ll obviously get, we got Clayface at the same time. We’ll obviously get Doomsday at the same time. The big ones we get at the same time. But it’s the smaller ones that we tend to get later. Interestingly, Godzilla, we are getting at the same time as Japan, which is before America gets it. Two days before.

(16m 42s) Chelsea:

Yeah. Yeah. Mine is zero. Yeah. Crazy. That’s awesome. Yeah.

(16m 44s) Al:

Mm hmm. Yeah. So there you go. I think with the with the with the first of those ones with minus one.

(16m 53s)

We got it like three months late and then another month until they actually released it in IMAX.

(16m 58s)

So, yeah. All right. That’s what we’ve been up to and what we’re going to do.

Game News

(17m 5s) Al:

Let’s talk about some news. First up, we have three early access releases announced.

Early Access Releases

(17m 10s) Al:

We have Emberville coming on the 27th of October, Little Lands coming on the 16th of November and Cat Cafe Manager 2 coming on the 25th of November.

(17m 21s)

Any of these stand out to you?

(17m 23s) Chelsea:

title of cat cafe manager I gotta say but I haven’t played the first one i’m shocked crazy

(17m 23s) Al:

I’m shocked. I’m shocked. I don’t think I don’t think you’ll I don’t think you’ll need to have played the first one together.

(17m 31s) Chelsea:

no I didn’t take a long look at emberville but I was reading through the the early access all that

(17m 31s) Al:

I don’t think it’s a story based game at all.

(17m 39s) Chelsea:

stuff and they put a lot of work into that and the voice acting and all that looks pretty cool

(17m 43s) Al:

yeah yeah uh well I backed cat cafe manager on uh to on kickstarter whenever that happened when i

(17m 44s) Chelsea:

yeah how about for you

(17m 53s)

Okay.

(17m 53s) Al:

was uh really bad at backing everything um little lands I can’t remember whether it did a kickstarter

(18m)

if it did I backed it but I can’t remember if I did but i’ve been excited about that for quite a

(18m 4s)

while uh it looks very cute um so I want to play that one emberville maybe I i think uh

(18m 13s)

if there were no other games that I was like I need to play this then I would be playing it but

(18m 17s)

i’m trying to think whether I would prioritize it over any of the other games that i’ve got that’s

(18m 23s)

always the problem with these things so I don’t know but it’s on maybe maybe it’s on a maybe yeah well

(18m 23s) Chelsea:

yeah

(18m 31s)

maybe if nothing else comes around yeah that’s the thing you see these like little games and

(18m 36s)

you want to fit them in but you don’t know what to push aside for it

(18m 39s) Al:

Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.

(18m 43s)

Little, no, Little Lans, it didn’t look, doesn’t look like it had a Kickstarter, so, but yeah, Cat Cafe 2, Cat Cafe Manager 2, I do have backed there, so, and it looks like their original plan for their first release was in May of this year, so that’s not too, too late, that’s not too bad, considering some, some things.

(19m 4s)

Let’s see, what’s my, what’s my oldest thing that still isn’t, well, other than the portable bidet that I backed in December 20, in 2020 that was meant to be delivered?

(19m 10s) Chelsea:

God.

(19m 13s) Al:

Delivered in December of 2020, that almost certainly was a scam, other than that, oh, and the, the other oldest one is Farmer Supreme, where the guy went, uh, right-wing conspiracy theorist crazy, and then went off the face of the planet.

(19m 29s)

The next one would be Wanderlust, um, that one, I believe they are currently developing, uh, but they had to break, take a break from developing that, and that was meant to be May 2022, and then I’ve got another one where they had to take a break from developing that.

(19m 43s)

developing, which is Arklands, and that was January 2023, so the only, the earliest one that isn’t abandoned, wasn’t a scam, and, uh, they didn’t have to pause development at any time, was Katori Academy, which, uh, estimated delivery of May 2023, so that’s nearly three and a half years out of date.

(20m 5s)

I have multiple from that time as well, one, two, three, three from May to July.

(20m 7s) Chelsea:

oh my god oh no see I would always browse kickstarter and for me it was more uh board

(20m 16s)

games so I was like I i can’t do it I i can’t look at all because then you get your hopes up but then

(20m 18s) Al:

Yes.

(20m 22s)

No.

(20m 23s) Chelsea:

if they don’t meet their goal like do you lose the money or do you get a refund if they don’t meet

(20m 23s) Al:

Yeah.

(20m 26s)

No, you don’t get it.

(20m 28s)

Well, if they don’t hit the goal,

(20m 30s)

they never charge you until after they hit the goal.

(20m 33s) Chelsea:

Oh, okay, okay.

(20m 34s) Al:

But if they hit the goal

(20m 35s)

and then they just never do the thing,

(20m 37s)

too bad.

(20m 39s)

So, yeah, whenever you purchase it,

(20m 43s)

they make it clear that this is not buying a thing.

(20m 46s)

This is an investment, basically.

(20m 48s)

And so it carries risk.

(20m 50s)

So I think that it’s a difficult one

(20m 53s)

because I don’t think I can actually tell people

(20m 57s)

they should kickstart or they should back kickstarters

(21m 1s)

because there is a lot of risk there.

(21m 2s)

But also it is a good way for people to get the support

(21m 6s)

that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to get.

(21m 8s) Chelsea:

• Well, that’s it.

(21m 9s)

And then I know that they usually have the perks and stuff,

(21m 11s)

but I guess there’s no guarantee of those either.

(21m 13s) Al:

Yeah.

(21m 14s)

Yeah.

(21m 15s)

So, yeah.

(21m 18s)

That is three early accesses coming soon in the next month.

Farlands

(21m 24s) Al:

Next up, we have Farlands have released their 1.2 update.

(21m 28s)

This brings machines and upgrades.

(21m 31s)

So machines, they say,

(21m 32s)

we’ve introduced a living machines in Farlands

(21m 34s)

that process resources

(21m 36s)

and turn them into other resources.

(21m 39s)

Furnaces,

(21m 40s)

biocompressor,

(21m 41s)

energatron

(21m 44s)

and trienergatron,

(21m 48s)

goodness sake,

(21m 48s)

I regret immediately trying to say all these.

(21m 53s)

Polymerizer.

(21m 54s)

Polymerizer.

(21m 56s)

Preserver.

(21m 57s)

Seeder.

(21m 58s)

Recycler.

(21m 59s)

Researcher.

(22m)

And dimensional exchanger.

(22m 2s)

There you go.

(22m 2s) Chelsea:

what what’s going on i’m just looking at the gif you’re just walking through a forest of machines

(22m 9s)

okay

(22m 9s) Al:

That is,

(22m 10s)

yeah,

(22m 10s)

yeah,

(22m 10s)

there’s a lot of machines there.

(22m 13s) Chelsea:

yeah

(22m 14s) Al:

It looks like it’s going the stardier way of doing machines

(22m 16s)

where you have like an individual machine you put,

(22m 18s)

something in and does it,

(22m 19s)

which I have grown to dislike over time.

(22m 24s)

And I think there are better ways to do these things now.

(22m 27s)

But a lot of,

(22m 28s)

well,

(22m 28s)

a lot of games still have to,

(22m 30s)

you know,

(22m 31s)

focus on the way Stardier does things.

(22m 35s) Chelsea:

They gotta get that GQ feature.

(22m 40s) Al:

they’ve also added a bunch of upgrades for stuff and some more story

(22m 46s)

progression and updates.

(22m 48s)

some information on what happens if you’ve already completed the game.

(22m 53s)

They say,

(22m 53s) Chelsea:

Do you get another machine?

(22m 53s) Al:

if you’ve,

(22m 54s)

if you’ve,

(22m 54s)

if you’ve progressed far enough in the save to have missed some of these

(22m 57s)

rewards,

(22m 58s)

you will receive an email containing the machines you have,

(23m)

should have obtained.

(23m 1s)

This way we make sure no one is left without essential items required to

(23m 4s)

keep playing properly.

(23m 5s)

There you go.

(23m 6s) Chelsea:

There you go.

(23m 6s) Al:

But they say you should also restart your save because it’s more fun.

(23m 10s)

That’s what they say.

(23m 10s) Chelsea:

Okay, okay.

(23m 11s)

I’m not doing that.

(23m 13s) Al:

I think there’s very few games.

(23m 14s) Chelsea:

I’m gonna get into that with the game that we played today, or the one we’re talking about today.

(23m 18s) Al:

Yep.

(23m 19s)

Yep.

(23m 19s)

Yep.

(23m 19s)

Yep.

(23m 20s)

There’s very few games I would do that for Stardier.

(23m 22s) Chelsea:

Yeah.

(23m 23s)

Yeah, yep.

(23m 25s) Al:

I think that’s it next up.

(23m 27s)

I guess,

(23m 28s)

did I do it for Carl Island?

(23m 29s)

Did they do a reset on 1.0?

(23m 30s)

I think they may have.

(23m 31s)

Oh yeah,

(23m 31s)

they did.

(23m 32s)

They did a reset on 1.0,

(23m 34s)

which annoys me,

(23m 34s)

but the way they did it was your new save started out as a new game plus

(23m 40s)

where you got all of the money of the value of all the things you had in

(23m 45s)

your,

(23m 45s)

in your previous save.

(23m 47s) Chelsea:

Okay, okay, that makes it easier.

(23m 48s) Al:

you could like absolutely zoom through the early game.

(23m 52s)

And I think if you’re going to do the reset,

(23m 54s)

do something like that.

(23m 55s)

I don’t think you should do the reset,

(23m 57s)

but if you’re going to do the reset,

(23m 59s)

do it that way.

(24m)

I think that was really good actually.

Travellers Rest

(24m 3s) Al:

Next up travelers rest have released a new update.

(24m 7s)

The stone crown.

(24m 9s)

It is out now.

(24m 10s)

It includes some new areas and characters.

(24m 12s)

It also includes a new tap system as in taps for your,

(24m 18s)

bar for your beers and stuff that allows you to increase their capacity and

(24m 21s)

personalize them to your taste.

(24m 24s)

Your taverns will look better than ever.

(24m 25s)

They say.

(24m 27s)

They’ve also added fast travel.

(24m 30s)

Oh,

(24m 31s)

but this update is not out now.

(24m 32s)

Sorry.

(24m 32s)

This is coming in December.

(24m 34s)

However,

(24m 34s)

they confused things because they also said in addition this year,

(24m 38s)

the Halloween event will return.

(24m 39s)

And that made it sound like it was coming in the event in the update and the

(24m 43s)

update.

(24m 44s)

The event is live now.

(24m 45s)

So I assumed that meant the,

(24m 48s)

they do clarify this content arrives in December.

(24m 50s)

So.

(24m 51s) Chelsea:

Yeah, because it says 22nd tomorrow.

(24m 53s) Al:

Yes.

(24m 54s)

So the stone crown coming in December,

(24m 56s)

the Halloween event is live now and it’s the same as last year’s Halloween

(24m 59s)

event.

(24m 59s)

So if you played that,

(25m 1s)

that’s what you’re getting again.

(25m 2s)

If you haven’t,

(25m 4s)

then you can,

(25m 5s)

you can get it now.

(25m 7s)

Yeah.

(25m 8s)

There we go.

(25m 9s)

One,

(25m 10s)

one thing that I think is fun about it is that what they say is nights will be

(25m 13s)

darker than ever as fog rises and your tavern is visited by dread beings

(25m 18s)

and the beyond.

(25m 19s)

I do think that is fun what I don’t like tell me what you think about this I don’t like how many

(25m 26s)

games are doing real time events in games I get why things like animal crossing and even pocopia

(25m 36s)

do it um because it’s about getting you back into the game and they’re big enough and their their

(25m 41s)

point is about playing it real time blah blah I get all that but games that aren’t based on like

(25m 48s)

real time

(25m 49s)

know why

(25m 49s)

they do

(25m 50s)

real time

(25m 51s)

events like

(25m 52s)

why do I

(25m 52s)

only get

(25m 52s)

Halloween if

(25m 53s)

I’m playing

(25m 53s)

Halloween why

(25m 54s)

can’t I get

(25m 55s)

it when the

(25m 55s)

in-game time

(25m 56s)

is Halloween

(25m 56s)

yeah so

(25m 58s) Chelsea:

No, I agree 100% with that.

(25m 59s)

Like, not everything needs to be a real-time bonus kind of thing.

(26m 3s) Al:

yeah I

(26m 4s)

don’t I

(26m 5s)

think most

(26m 6s)

games you

(26m 7s)

are not big

(26m 7s)

enough to

(26m 8s)

convince me to

(26m 8s)

go and play

(26m 9s)

the game for

(26m 9s)

a week for

(26m 10s)

an event

(26m 10s)

Animal Crossing

(26m 11s) Chelsea:

no no no exactly I do animal crossing um like i’m on year what six now of new horizon so it’s

(26m 13s) Al:

was

(26m 14s)

Pocopia was

(26m 15s)

you’re not

(26m 25s) Chelsea:

kind of the same stuff every year but just to get this yeah no I agree that stuff like that that’s

(26m 29s)

like a full in-game day is real time I find those i’m more motivated to do the seasonal events

(26m 36s)

compared to like a game like this I don’t know if I would actually if that would be a priority

(26m 41s)

for me like it’s cool that people think that but not everyone is as important as that

Disney Dreamlight Valley

(26m 50s) Al:

Well, speaking of the other game

(26m 52s)

that probably is big enough for that,

(26m 54s)

Disney Dreamlight Valley,

(26m 56s)

they have done their 2026 showcase.

(27m)

So they are talking about the stuff that’s coming soon.

(27m 4s)

So first up, we have a new free update

(27m 5s)

coming on December 9th.

(27m 7s)

This is called Ohana Holidays.

(27m 11s)

And of course, we all know Ohana means…

(27m 14s)

So Lilo and Stitch’s Grand Reunion

(27m 16s)

is sure to bring a healthy dose of warmth

(27m 18s)

and joy to your valley, just

(27m 20s)

in time for the holidays, they say.

(27m 23s)

So

(27m 24s)

they say.

(27m 28s)

They also announced their

(27m 30s)

new expansion,

(27m 32s)

the Keepsake Sea

(27m 34s)

It releases on the

(27m 36s)

18th of November, so this will be the

(27m 38s)

paid DLC,

(27m 40s)

the new paid DLC.

(27m 42s)

It says,

(27m 43s)

in this expansion you’ll transform into a magical

(27m 46s)

merfolk and discover

(27m 48s)

strange echoes of the past, hinting at the

(27m 50s)

Keepsake Sea’s history, which goes back to

(27m 52s)

the very heart of Dreamlight Valley

(27m 54s)

and the start of the forgetting.

(27m 56s)

Your journey to the Keepsake Sea’s

(27m 58s)

begins at Dazzle Beach, where you’ll

(28m)

discover a mysterious statue that

(28m 2s)

contains a message from an old friend that’s

(28m 4s)

lost and stranded. To find them,

(28m 6s)

you’ll need to reach a faraway kingdom across

(28m 8s)

the sea. On your adventure

(28m 10s)

you’ll encounter four guardians that watch over

(28m 12s)

the Keepsake Sea You’ll first need to

(28m 14s)

awaken each of them from their slumber before

(28m 16s)

you can prove you have a childlike spirit.

(28m 20s) Chelsea:

Didn’t they just do a Mermaid one?

(28m 20s) Al:

I think

(28m 22s) Chelsea:

Or am I thinking of something else?

(28m 22s) Al:

they had previously

(28m 24s)

hinted at this, but they hadn’t given any

(28m 26s)

details on what it would be. So we

(28m 28s)

knew it was coming, but not what

(28m 30s)

it was. So they’ve given

(28m 31s)

more details,

(28m 34s)

and if you care a lot about that,

(28m 36s)

the link

(28m 38s)

to the showcase will be in

(28m 40s)

the show notes. It is

(28m 42s)

35 minutes long.

(28m 45s)

I did not

(28m 46s) Chelsea:

thorough no

(28m 46s) Al:

watch it.

(28m 48s) Chelsea:

yes

(28m 50s) Al:

A lot of different

(28m 51s)

designs for the

(28m 51s)

merfolk, I will

(28m 52s)

say.

(28m 53s)

Not just colours,

(28m 54s)

like different

(28m 55s)

shapes of fins and

(28m 56s)

stuff like that as

(28m 57s)

well.

(29m) Chelsea:

I’m sorry, I’m looking at this photo and you have all these wonderful, iconic characters and you just have Dory on the side like, hey, like waving with your character.

(29m 5s) Al:

well she forgot to be in the right place

(29m 9s) Chelsea:

That’s funny.

(29m 12s)

The heart of the story is Dory finding her way.

(29m 17s) Al:

And we also have more details of the PC-specific features of Usagi Shima.

Usagi Shima

(29m 24s) Al:

They’ve released that.

(29m 26s)

So it’s a bunch of keyboard and mouse-based stuff.

(29m 31s) Chelsea:

Okay, I fully unlocked everything on mobile so I don’t know I don’t know like I listened to the episode last week but so it’s not at all related to your current save file like you can’t translate.

(29m 42s) Al:

no so they yeah so they they’ve said that they there’s no transferring from mobile as of yet but

(29m 48s) Chelsea:

okay okay because no i’ll still do it like I bought when I i when I got it on mobile I i did

(29m 48s) Al:

they might they might add that in the future but not yet so does that mean you won’t do it

(29m 53s)

or are you gonna you’re gonna buy it and replay it yeah yeah

(29m 59s) Chelsea:

like upgrade so there’s no ads and it was like ten dollars I think um but I do enjoy it to the

(30m 6s)

point where i’ll probably do it again on october 29th apparently yeah no that’s great that’s cute

(30m 14s)

I always thought it would do well as a computer as well

(30m 18s) Al:

Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.

New Games

(30m 20s) Al:

All right, and we also have one new game to talk about.

(30m 25s)

Have you looked at this one yet?

(30m 27s) Chelsea:

I’ve heard it.

(30m 27s)

No, I haven’t actually looked at it, though.

(30m 27s) Al:

This is called Crop.

Crop

(30m 29s) Chelsea:

OK.

(30m 30s) Al:

A gritty farming thriller where your safety depends on the yield.

(30m 35s)

Bound to a dying farm, you must dig, plant, irrigate,

(30m 38s)

and cut your way through the decay.

(30m 40s)

Uncover buried secrets both in the soil

(30m 42s)

and quietly brewing within the village.

(30m 44s)

The only way out is through the harvest.

(30m 47s) Chelsea:

that is a cool idea but it’s kind of creeping me out i’m looking at the art and i’m like oh

(30m 48s) Al:

You didn’t inherit this land.

(30m 55s)

The land claimed you.

(30m 57s)

Now the farm is your reality,

(30m 59s)

and how you organise it is your only remaining freedom.

(31m 1s)

With a desperate town relying on your yield,

(31m 3s)

you must organise your crops wisely.

(31m 6s)

Dig trenches, install pumps, and repair crumbling equipment

(31m 8s)

to squeeze every drop of lawnmower.

(31m 12s) Chelsea:

all these crazy farming games like elderfield and this is obviously something completely

(31m 17s)

different but I never thought i’d see so many crossovers with farming and like creepy stuff

(31m 21s)

yeah

(31m 22s) Al:

I don’t know, it felt inevitable to me

(31m 25s)

When the star duification

(31m 30s)

Expanded a lot

(31m 32s)

Yeah, it was like

(31m 34s)

Everything, it was going everywhere, clearly

(31m 36s)

And this was always going to be possible

(31m 37s) Chelsea:

yeah that’s cool i’m watching the yeah that’s very interesting actually

(31m 44s)

maybe i’ll see how spooky it gets no that one I may be able to handle but like

(31m 45s) Al:

You’re going to play it?

(31m 48s)

Don’t lie.

(31m 48s)

Don’t lie to me, Chelsea.

(31m 53s) Chelsea:

elderfield I wish I could I wish I could can’t do it this one might be a decent in between though

(31m 56s) Al:

oh I don’t know I don’t know

(31m 58s) Chelsea:

how about you

(32m)

okay oh god ignore that sorry

(32m 6s) Al:

yes yes it’s coming 2027 that’s all we know so far

(32m 7s) Chelsea:

yeah it just says 2027 so

(32m 9s)

okay maybe i’ll work up the courage

(32m 13s) Al:

look I just I want them to release it at least a couple of weeks before halloween

(32m 15s) Chelsea:

I’m

(32m 21s) Al:

that’s all that’s all we want

(32m 22s) Chelsea:

Yes, please! Not, not, yeah, not the last week of October.

(32m 26s) Al:

yes uh talking to you village in the shade

(32m 29s)

shocking shocking all right that’s the news

(32m 30s) Chelsea:

Yeah, what the heck? That timing was something.

(32m 38s) Al:

we’re gonna talk about keep watering so i’m gonna try and summarize this game and then you can come

(32m 38s) Chelsea:

Woo!

Keep Watering

(32m 46s) Al:

in and tell me how you want to change what i’m saying so this is uh an iterative roguelite based

(32m 55s)

on

(32m 56s)

timed based

(32m 57s)

farming

(32m 58s)

where you

(32m 59s)

water crops

(33m 1s)

that’s the only

(33m 2s)

thing you get to

(33m 3s)

do is you

(33m 3s)

water crops

(33m 4s)

and then after

(33m 5s)

a certain amount

(33m 6s)

of water crops

(33m 6s)

will harvest

(33m 7s)

you have a

(33m 8s)

certain amount

(33m 9s)

of time

(33m 9s)

for each day

(33m 11s)

and after the

(33m 12s)

day has ended

(33m 12s)

you get money

(33m 13s)

for the crops

(33m 13s)

you did

(33m 13s)

and then you

(33m 14s)

upgrade

(33m 15s)

based on a

(33m 16s)

skill tree

(33m 16s)

which will then

(33m 18s)

allow you to

(33m 19s)

do another day

(33m 19s)

faster

(33m 20s)

and then there’s

(33m 21s)

another loop

(33m 22s)

on top of that

(33m 22s)

where you can

(33m 23s)

reset your farm

(33m 24s)

and gain

(33m 25s)

permanent upgrades

(33m 26s)

to make it

(33m 27s)

all go faster

(33m 27s)

again

(33m 28s)

keep doing that

(33m 29s) Chelsea:

yeah until you’re done and they don’t even tell you when you’re done

(33m 30s) Al:

until you’re

(33m 31s)

done

(33m 31s)

you’re just

(33m 33s) Chelsea:

you don’t even get a pop-up

(33m 35s) Al:

done because

(33m 36s) Chelsea:

you’re just done there’s nothing else to unlock and there’s not even like thanks for playing

(33m 37s) Al:

you’ve unlocked

(33m 37s)

everything

(33m 38s)

let me guess

(33m 42s) Chelsea:

I was like i’m clear I was going through my skill tree like I must be missing something

(33m 47s)

and then I checked my steam achievements i’m at 96 and the only one that’s missing is a secret one

(33m 52s) Al:

let me guess

(33m 53s)

let me guess

(33m 54s)

is that the one

(33m 54s)

where you have to

(33m 56s)

you have to

(33m 57s)

get five

(33m 58s)

diamonds

(33m 58s)

on one run

(33m 59s)

without buying

(34m)

the tractor

(34m 1s)

is that the one

(34m 1s) Chelsea:

Yep. That’s, yep. I, and you know what the stupid thing is? I still started over my freaking file. I still started it over.

(34m 1s) Al:

you don’t have

(34m 2s)

yeah

(34m 2s)

do you know

(34m 4s)

yes

(34m 6s)

yes I know

(34m 7s)

exactly what the

(34m 7s)

stupid thing is

(34m 8s)

oh no

(34m 10s)

so the annoying

(34m 13s)

thing about this

(34m 13s)

is not the

(34m 15s)

achievement

(34m 15s)

the achievement

(34m 15s)

itself isn’t

(34m 16s)

annoying

(34m 16s)

it’s actually

(34m 17s)

quite possible

(34m 18s)

the annoying

(34m 19s)

thing about it

(34m 20s)

is that once

(34m 21s)

you’ve unlocked

(34m 22s)

all the permanent

(34m 22s)

upgrades

(34m 23s)

you no longer

(34m 24s)

get diamonds

(34m 25s)

so

(34m 26s)

so if

(34m 27s)

if you

(34m 28s)

if you got diamonds

(34m 29s)

at the end

(34m 29s)

and you could still

(34m 30s)

do that

(34m 30s)

you would still be able

(34m 31s)

to get that achievement

(34m 32s)

and it wouldn’t be

(34m 33s)

too ridiculous to do

(34m 34s)

I did that

(34m 35s)

I did

(34m 36s)

I unlocked everything

(34m 37s)

in the skill tree

(34m 38s)

except tractors

(34m 39s)

in one run

(34m 40s)

and then I was like

(34m 41s)

I don’t think

(34m 42s)

I’m getting diamonds

(34m 43s)

so I don’t think

(34m 44s)

I can do this

(34m 45s)

so you’d have to

(34m 46s)

reset everything

(34m 47s)

and start again

(34m 48s)

and the thing is

(34m 48s)

that’s like

(34m 50s)

at least five hours

(34m 51s)

of gameplay

(34m 51s)

depending on how fast

(34m 52s)

you do these things

(34m 53s)

it was about

(34m 54s)

it was about six

(34m 56s)

and then

(34m 58s)

I did reset

(34m 59s)

and it took me

(35m)

about two hours

(35m 1s)

to do it all again

(35m 2s)

and get that achievement

(35m 3s)

I’m on 100%

(35m 4s) Chelsea:

you’re at 100% okay fine I’ll just I know you’re right you know I think it’s because I just finished

(35m 6s) Al:

come on

(35m 7s)

it was one achievement

(35m 8s)

of course I was gonna do it

(35m 10s)

you do it

(35m 12s) Chelsea:

the game and like a day and I was like I’m not doing it all over again so I’m just gonna maybe I’ll

(35m 15s) Al:

yeah

(35m 16s)

yeah

(35m 16s)

you do

(35m 17s)

you do do it

(35m 18s)

you do do it all faster

(35m 19s)

because you know

(35m 19s)

what you’re doing

(35m 20s)

and you know

(35m 20s)

how to be efficient

(35m 21s)

at it this time

(35m 22s)

I’m not trying to convince you

(35m 23s)

to do it

(35m 24s)

don’t do it

(35m 24s) Chelsea:

No, you know, I already I already deleted my file, so I might as well get to the 100%.

(35m 26s) Al:

so yeah

(35m 34s)

that is the annoying thing

(35m 35s)

about that achievement

(35m 36s)

it’s not that the achievement exists

(35m 37s)

it’s not that it’s secret

(35m 38s)

although why does it need to be secret

(35m 40s)

I never understood that

(35m 41s)

it’s not that it

(35m 43s)

it’s not that you have to do that thing

(35m 46s)

it’s that you can’t do that thing

(35m 48s)

if you’ve got to the end of the game

(35m 49s)

it’s impossible to do that thing

(35m 51s)

if you’re at the end of the game

(35m 52s)

that’s the annoying thing

(35m 54s)

If you don’t do it on your last time,

(35m 56s)

which if I’d known about, I could have done, right?

(36m) Chelsea:

right exactly could anything else have been secret like

(36m 3s) Al:

Because, and it’s weird because like at that point,

(36m 5s)

because you no longer get the diamonds

(36m 7s)

and you can’t do that achievement,

(36m 9s)

once you’ve finished unlocking everything,

(36m 11s)

there is no reason to play the game anymore.

(36m 14s) Chelsea:

Nope. Not one thing. Okay. Sorry. Yeah.

(36m 14s) Al:

All right, let’s roll back.

(36m 16s)

Let’s roll back.

(36m 17s)

Let’s get back to the complaining.

(36m 19s)

Let’s roll back and try and explain this game

(36m 21s)

maybe a little bit better.

(36m 22s)

So you are presented with a grid

(36m 24s)

and a

(36m 26s)

little your mouse cursor

(36m 27s)

basically is a little watering

(36m 30s)

can but it drops

(36m 31s)

once every few seconds i’m not sure

(36m 34s)

about what the initial one is it’s

(36m 35s)

maybe once every three or four

(36m 36s)

seconds something like that

(36m 38s)

and wherever you’re hovered over it

(36m 39s)

will water and it starts out with this

(36m 41s)

grid and some of the spot spots have

(36m 44s)

carrot seeds on them and you go and

(36m 46s)

water them and once they have enough

(36m 48s)

water they get harvested and they get

(36m 50s)

counted and then when your timer which

(36m 52s)

I think the first timer is 15 seconds is

(36m 54s)

it

(36m 55s) Chelsea:

15 or 20, yeah.

(36m 56s) Al:

seconds the the top amount was 30 seconds I think it’s 15 to start with after the 15 seconds um

(36m 58s) Chelsea:

Okay.

(37m 3s) Al:

whatever you’ve harvested that becomes your crops and you get that money and then you can use that

(37m 8s)

money to then unlock things for example you can get more seeds at the start you can get um a faster

(37m 13s)

water your water can be more uh you can get different crops stuff like that there’s a whole

(37m 18s)

bunch of things although I will say I call call it a skill tree it’s pretty linear in terms of a

(37m 24s)

skill tree. There’s not a lot of kind of

(37m 26s)

options. You don’t get to go like, oh, I’m going to

(37m 28s)

focus on this. I’m going to focus on that.

(37m 31s)

It’s like, yeah,

(37m 32s)

there’s maybe two things you can do at each

(37m 34s)

point.

(37m 35s) Chelsea:

Yeah, definitely.

(37m 36s) Al:

Unless you decide, I’m not going to

(37m 38s)

focus on those. I’m just going to wait and get the thing that

(37m 40s)

cost me 10 times as much for some reason,

(37m 43s)

ignoring all the other

(37m 44s)

upgrades at the time. But

(37m 46s)

yeah, it’s pretty linear. But

(37m 48s)

the idea is, yeah, you

(37m 50s)

unlock these. And so for your 15

(37m 52s)

to 30 seconds, depending on how long

(37m 54s)

you have

(37m 54s)

you

(37m 56s)

you have to water as many crops as possible and and get them and then at some point you will gain prestige which if you’ve played a game like this before is a thing where you reset your farm and that gives you diamonds and then those diamonds you can use to unlock things for example one that I really liked was one of the upgrades was uh raining so you can set it so it’s raining all the time um and that means that you harvest like some of the crops really fast um

(38m 25s) Chelsea:

And then you don’t even have to do anything.

(38m 26s) Al:

you don’t you don’t although one thing I noted is that it’s if you do at no point until you’ve unlocked absolutely everything in the whole skill tree until that point it is you get more money if you do stuff so you can get passive money but you still make more money if you’re actively playing the game which I think is a nice touch to that

(38m 45s) Chelsea:

Yeah, it gives you a reason to actually move your cursor.

(38m 53s) Al:

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

(38m 55s)

So yeah, there’s lots of things.

(38m 56s)

Things like the permanent upgrades are things like the water.

(38m 59s)

There’s also getting more crops.

(39m 2s)

So I think the default ones, you can only get carrots and potatoes.

(39m 7s)

And then you can unlock tomatoes, cabbage, pumpkin, corn, sunflower seeds.

(39m 15s)

Yeah.

(39m 16s)

And each of them, they require more water as they get worth more money.

(39m 23s)

And yeah, the aim of the game is to unlock

(39m 26s)

everything.

(39m 29s) Chelsea:

Literally, the only instructions you get, it just says water crops with no nothing else.

(39m 31s) Al:

Yeah.

(39m 34s)

Which, to be fair, you pick up

(39m 34s) Chelsea:

That’s it.

(39m 35s)

No explanation.

(39m 36s) Al:

pretty quickly.

(39m 36s) Chelsea:

You don’t need anything else, right?

(39m 37s) Al:

You pick up pretty quickly.

(39m 39s) Chelsea:

Like you’re playing a game called water everything.

(39m 41s) Al:

Yeah.

(39m 41s) Chelsea:

So.

(39m 42s) Al:

Keep watering.

(39m 43s) Chelsea:

Oh, sorry.

(39m 44s)

Keep watering.

(39m 45s)

I don’t know why I can’t.

(39m 46s)

Yeah.

(39m 47s)

Keep watering.

(39m 48s)

So keep doing that.

(39m 48s) Al:

Yeah, I think.

(39m 49s) Chelsea:

I don’t know.

(39m 50s)

I’ve not.

(39m 50s)

I haven’t played a ton of incremental games.

(39m 52s) Al:

Yeah, so I guess the closest thing

(39m 54s)

to this would be something like

(39m 56s)

Cookie Clicker or something like that.

(40m)

If you like this sort of thing,

(40m 3s)

they can be fun.

(40m 4s)

And it was an interesting, different thing

(40m 6s)

of the crops.

(40m 8s)

It does do the scaling

(40m 11s)

that a lot of these games do

(40m 12s)

where you feel really powerful at the end.

(40m 16s)

But it also wasn’t

(40m 17s)

at the point where you were like,

(40m 19s)

if you think about, did you ever play

(40m 20s)

the paperclip game?

(40m 22s)

Like the paperclip game just ended up

(40m 22s) Chelsea:

No.

(40m 24s) Al:

where you consumed all matter in the unit

(40m 26s)

um so it’s like it wasn’t to that level of absurd extreme but it felt to the point where you did get

(40m 35s) Chelsea:

Okay, yeah.

(40m 36s) Al:

like oh yeah there’s there’s a lot happening here and i’m making a lot of money that when you have

(40m 41s)

the entire skill tree unlocked you’re making like 10 12 million a day um and you you know you start

(40m 48s)

off making 40 40 a day so it does upgrade and you feel I am you

(40m 51s) Chelsea:

Yeah, no, that’s a quick

(40m 56s) Al:

you know i’m harvesting everything

(40m 59s) Chelsea:

did you notice on the if you just go on the village you just have like passive incomes

(41m 5s) Al:

so yeah yeah I noticed that um so is that when you’re visiting the villagers that like

(41m 12s) Chelsea:

I think it’s supposed to be like afk like just put yourself on the home screen and go do whatever you’re doing and then it just like it’s like x amount per second.

(41m 15s) Al:

oh interesting

(41m 19s)

I thought what that was telling us was um this is your what you’ll be getting during a day I thought

(41m 28s) Chelsea:

Okay, because I remember I was I sat there and I watched it because it’s like it would like squeeze almost like the farm would squeeze and then it’d be like cha-ching cha-ching and then if you watch after a while your money is just going up so I guess it’s meant to just be like as you put as you walk away kind of thing.

(41m 38s) Al:

Oh, no, I never, I never, I never stayed on that screen long enough. Here’s the problem with the ADHD is I sat there going nothing’s happening and I went out. I never understood what that screen was.

(41m 47s) Chelsea:

Yeah, okay, there you go, you learned.

(41m 53s)

Yeah, no, it definitely put me in a Zen.

(41m 56s) Al:

I think um like okay so let’s talk about it in terms so you’ve not played a huge number of uh

(42m 3s)

idlers you’ve you’ve or incremental games whatever you want to call them um in terms of those types

(42m 10s)

of games I think because i’ve played quite a few I would say it is pretty short um five hours to

(42m 17s) Chelsea:

Okay, that’s the main thing.

(42m 19s) Al:

five hours to do everything is not very long for these sorts of games like I remember playing the

(42m 25s)

cookie

(42m 26s)

clicker

(42m 26s)

is basically

(42m 27s)

infinite

(42m 27s)

and I

(42m 29s) Chelsea:

• Okay.

(42m 29s) Al:

played for

(42m 30s)

weeks when

(42m 30s)

I played

(42m 31s)

that and

(42m 32s)

the paper

(42m 33s)

clip game

(42m 33s)

it did have

(42m 34s)

an end

(42m 34s)

but I feel

(42m 36s)

like it

(42m 36s)

maybe took

(42m 37s)

like a week

(42m 37s)

of a couple

(42m 38s)

hours a day

(42m 39s)

to finish

(42m 39s)

it so

(42m 41s)

it’s reasonably

(42m 43s)

short compared

(42m 43s)

to those

(42m 44s)

kind of

(42m 45s)

behemoths of

(42m 46s)

the industry

(42m 47s)

if you will

(42m 47s)

but one

(42m 50s)

of the things

(42m 51s)

it does have

(42m 51s)

in its

(42m 52s)

advantage is

(42m 52s)

it looks much

(42m 53s)

better than

(42m 53s)

those games

(42m 54s)

right a lot

(42m 55s)

of those games

(42m 56s)

the early

(42m 56s)

ones

(42m 57s)

were like

(42m 59s)

web-based

(43m)

just elements

(43m 2s)

on the page

(43m 3s)

not looking

(43m 3s)

good

(43m 4s)

right

(43m 4s)

they weren’t

(43m 4s)

trying to

(43m 5s)

do that

(43m 5s)

whereas this

(43m 6s)

obviously is

(43m 7s)

trying to

(43m 8s)

look like a

(43m 8s)

proper game

(43m 9s)

it’s got

(43m 10s)

nice graphics

(43m 11s)

or it’s

(43m 11s)

got fine

(43m 12s)

graphics

(43m 12s)

I mean

(43m 13s)

whether it’s

(43m 13s)

nice or not

(43m 14s)

is up to

(43m 14s)

you

(43m 15s)

listener

(43m 16s)

but I

(43m 18s)

thought it

(43m 18s)

was fine

(43m 19s)

but very

(43m 20s) Chelsea:

I liked it.

(43m 22s)

Yeah, I know, like, not that I take Steam discussion too seriously, but the main concern was, like, this is a really short game.

(43m 31s)

Which I didn’t personally mind.

(43m 32s)

It’s, like, a nice palate cleanser between certain games if you want to do it like that.

(43m 35s) Al:

yeah yeah I managed yeah well that’s the thing because I i’ve obviously been like deep in

(43m 39s)

harvest moon and I was like oh no I need to actually play this game before the podcast

(43m 43s)

so on thursday I was like right I need to so I put down harvest moon and I picked this up

(43m 48s)

and then I was done by the end of the day so like it wasn’t super long uh so that in you know from

(43m 56s)

an inside baseball kind of way it’s nice to have a short game because it means you can cover it on

(44m 2s)

a podcast without

(44m 3s)

taking a whole

(44m 3s)

week or multiple

(44m 5s)

weeks to play

(44m 5s)

um but also if

(44m 6s) Chelsea:

There you go. It’s a game event for us.

(44m 7s) Al:

but but also I can

(44m 10s)

understand why

(44m 10s)

people would be

(44m 11s)

frustrated with how

(44m 12s)

short it is if

(44m 13s)

they’ve paid money

(44m 13s)

it’s not hugely

(44m 15s)

expensive I think it

(44m 16s) Chelsea:

No.

(44m 16s) Al:

was maybe let’s

(44m 17s)

say it was six

(44m 18s)

pounds um so

(44m 20s)

that is I although

(44m 22s)

currently it’s eight

(44m 23s)

pounds so I think

(44m 23s)

that’s probably about

(44m 24s)

about 10 us dollars

(44m 26s)

and so about a

(44m 27s)

million canadian

(44m 28s)

dollars something

(44m 29s)

like that

(44m 29s) Chelsea:

pretty much something like that yeah I think I got it on sale for 7.99 canadian so not too

(44m 29s) Al:

so

(44m 30s)

you

(44m 35s)

so it’s not expensive

(44m 38s)

and so I think

(44m 41s)

going into that

(44m 42s)

expecting a stupidly long game is

(44m 44s)

probably a bit unfair

(44m 46s)

but also a lot of

(44m 47s) Chelsea:

but like how much do you want to do like you just want your grid to get bigger like

(44m 48s) Al:

well

(44m 50s)

I think they do yeah I think that’s

(44m 53s)

the thing is a lot of people who play these games they like

(44m 55s)

the absurdity of how

(44m 56s)

big you can get things

(44m 59s) Chelsea:

Well, I sent Kevin a video of like the drones going and everything at the end.

(45m 3s) Al:

yeah

(45m 3s) Chelsea:

He’s like, what the hell is going on?

(45m 5s) Al:

it does look quite silly

(45m 7s)

at that point yeah I agree

(45m 8s) Chelsea:

Yeah.

(45m 9s) Al:

the other negative

(45m 9s) Chelsea:

Yeah.

(45m 11s)

Yeah.

(45m 11s) Al:

stuff I’ve seen on steam is about the achievement

(45m 14s)

well sure but if you’re

(45m 15s) Chelsea:

Yeah, because they act like it’s this hidden thing.

(45m 17s)

It’s like, it’s so hidden because you just have to click one thing to see what it is.

(45m 22s) Al:

I think

(45m 23s)

the thing is there is an

(45m 25s)

like if you’re looking through things

(45m 27s)

generally I will not

(45m 29s)

I will try not to click on hidden achievements

(45m 31s)

because they tend

(45m 33s)

to be like spoilers for

(45m 35s)

things so it’s like oh here’s this story thing that you did and they don’t want to show you that

(45m 41s)

until you’ve done it and so I get that so I try not to do it and so when you get to the end of a

(45m 45s)

game you’re like oh okay what was that hidden achievement you click on you’re like oh here’s

(45m 48s)

this really weird obscure thing I need to do fine let me go do it but the problem is with this one

(45m 52s)

because you’re you’re encouraged not to look at it because it’s a hidden achievement because

(45m 56s)

that’s what hidden achievements are for they’re designed to not make you look at them and then

(46m 3s) Chelsea:

right there’s literally no other option you have to do it so it’s yeah

(46m 3s) Al:

you can’t do it.

(46m 5s)

By the time you look at it,

(46m 6s)

you can’t do it.

(46m 7s)

I think that’s the frustrating thing.

(46m 10s)

Yeah.

(46m 12s)

So it’s then like,

(46m 13s)

oh, you’re going to play

(46m 13s)

the entire game again.

(46m 14s)

And for some people, it’s yes.

(46m 16s)

And for some people, it’s no.

(46m 17s)

So, yeah.

(46m 18s) Chelsea:

I said yeah reset it and then I said you know what no

(46m 21s)

no I will eventually just go back and like get it because i’m sitting there like there’s

(46m 22s) Al:

Okay, there’s a third type of person.

(46m 23s)

Sorry.

(46m 29s) Chelsea:

one thing missing one freaking thing

(46m 33s) Al:

yeah yeah so I think there is a one of the reviews worded it is this five bucks for a game that has

(46m 40s)

five hours of content really and i’m like I think that sometimes people are a little bit ridiculous

(46m 48s)

in terms of their game cost to our ratio that they do with these things right and actually

(46m 55s) Chelsea:

Like an hour, a dollar an hour.

(46m 56s) Al:

you find me another you find me another entertainment that costs one pound one dollar

(47m 3s)

per hour they don’t exist

(47m 4s) Chelsea:

Well, exactly. Well, yeah, you’re going to complain that your movie was $18. You didn’t get 18 hours of film.

(47m 5s) Al:

well that’s the thing so I don’t I don’t I think that is ridiculous and I and so thinking on a cost

(47m 16s) Chelsea:

• Yeah.

(47m 19s) Al:

to time ratio I think is silly I think but I do understand the this genre of game generally does

(47m 27s)

feel like the sort of thing that people will pour hours and hours and hours into because that’s what

(47m 33s)

like for it um so it’s hard I mean I was fine with it because as we talked about i’m I don’t i’m not

(47m 41s)

in games for being as long as possible i’m in games for an experience and I actually think if it had

(47m 46s)

gone longer I would have got bored of it

(47m 48s) Chelsea:

Yeah, I think it reached the end when I was like, all right, when are we done?

(47m 53s) Al:

yeah okay so yeah so let’s talk about that so it didn’t overstay your it’s welcome except that

(47m 54s) Chelsea:

I didn’t, it didn’t overstay its welcome.

(48m 1s) Al:

achievement um you felt like you were enjoying it that whole I mean how much time did you get in was

(48m 4s) Chelsea:

Yeah, I think mine says seven, but it’s because I left it idle for a little bit to do parent things.

(48m 7s) Al:

it was it about five six hours for you something like that seven hours oh yeah classic classic

(48m 15s)

yeah yeah

(48m 18s) Chelsea:

But yeah, probably like actually playing six or so.

(48m 23s)

Yeah, which I found was fair.

(48m 23s) Al:

yeah well so that’s an interesting thing so that’s I guess that’s a different thing than a

(48m 25s) Chelsea:

Like I didn’t feel rushed because there’s only like, like you said, the max time you can get per day is 30 seconds.

(48m 34s) Al:

lot of idlers i’ve played um i’ve never I don’t think i’ve played an idler which is like that kind

(48m 40s)

of roguelite type thing of like here you’ve got a certain amount of time do what you can and that’s

(48m 46s)

when you restart things often it’s just like you hit a natural progression of like I can’t go any

(48m 51s)

further and that’s when you reset.

(48m 53s)

And so that’s where this game has, it has both of those, it has two loops, which I think

(48m 59s)

is probably to its advantage, because the 15 seconds, especially early game, so before

(49m 7s)

you have a bunch of permanent upgrades, the 15 seconds feels long, because you’re sitting

(49m 12s)

there and it’s like three seconds between drips, and you’re like, okay, great, great,

(49m 17s)

I’ve got one cabbage after, one carrot after nine seconds.

(49m 20s) Chelsea:

Yay.

(49m 23s) Al:

My timing must be off, because I think, I feel like I got four carrots the first time,

(49m 24s) Chelsea:

Yeah.

(49m 26s) Al:

so whatever that is, I don’t care, doesn’t matter.

(49m 28s) Chelsea:

Yeah.

(49m 29s)

No, it doesn’t.

(49m 31s) Al:

But in the later game ones, when you restart your farm, that early game carrots is much

(49m 38s)

quicker, because it’s like you’re suddenly, you’ve got more carrots to do, and they’re

(49m 44s)

worth more money, and so after your first game, you’re suddenly unlocking 10 things on

(49m 49s)

the skill tree instead of one.

(49m 52s) Chelsea:

Yeah. And I found I wasn’t even doing them with any rhyme or reason. I’m like, oh, I have enough for this and this and this and this because it doesn’t matter because you need them all anyway to get.

(49m 53s) Al:

Certainly, yeah, certainly early game, that was the case.

(50m 2s)

Sorry, late, early game.

(50m 4s)

Late in the overall game, early in the run.

(50m 8s)

You were set, you’d get like 5,000, and you’d be like, okay, great, I can buy the next 15

(50m 12s)

things.

(50m 13s)

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, I don’t, I’m

(50m 14s)

not even looking at them.

(50m 15s)

I don’t care which one it is, because I want all of them.

(50m 19s)

So that’s my other question then.

(50m 21s)

So we talked about the fact that the

(50m 23s)

tree is quite linear. It’s a very linear

(50m 25s)

tree. What would be a linear tree?

(50m 28s)

A flower.

(50m 30s) Chelsea:

It’s a skill bamboo.

(50m 30s) Al:

Or what are those really

(50m 31s)

really really tall

(50m 32s)

pine trees?

(50m 35s)

Are they really tall?

(50m 37s)

Oh, bamboo.

(50m 38s)

Skill bamboo.

(50m 40s)

Yeah.

(50m 42s)

Is that, would

(50m 43s)

you have preferred there being

(50m 45s)

more choice at that?

(50m 47s)

Obviously, you would get to the point where you’d

(50m 49s)

unlock everything because it would be unsatisfying

(50m 52s)

not to

(50m 53s)

it be nicer

(50m 53s)

to be like

(50m 54s)

oh I want

(50m 54s)

to I want

(50m 55s)

to focus on

(50m 56s)

having as

(50m 57s)

many crops

(50m 58s)

as possible

(50m 59s)

on the screen

(50m 59s)

at once

(51m) Chelsea:

That’s what I was going to say is I found that the threshold to get new crops was crazy high.

(51m) Al:

early game

(51m 1s)

and it’s

(51m 7s)

weird order

(51m 7s)

of things

(51m 8s)

right like

(51m 9s)

you start off

(51m 9s)

and you’re

(51m 9s)

like okay

(51m 10s)

well I can’t

(51m 11s)

even remember

(51m 11s)

what they were

(51m 11s)

but like the

(51m 12s)

first one is

(51m 12s)

maybe your

(51m 13s)

water is

(51m 15s)

times two

(51m 16s)

or whatever

(51m 17s)

and then the

(51m 18s)

next one is

(51m 19s)

you get more

(51m 20s)

seeds and

(51m 21s)

then the next

(51m 21s)

one and yet

(51m 23s)

10 different

(51m 23s)

ways of adding

(51m 24s)

more seeds

(51m 26s)

to the farm

(51m 27s)

but they are

(51m 28s)

not in an

(51m 29s)

order it’s not

(51m 29s)

like here is

(51m 31s)

the crops

(51m 31s)

branch off the

(51m 33s)

tree and you

(51m 34s)

just as you can

(51m 34s)

afford them you

(51m 35s)

can build up

(51m 35s)

that it was

(51m 36s)

like you had

(51m 37s)

to unlock

(51m 38s)

pumpkins to get

(51m 39s)

one of them

(51m 39s)

and you had

(51m 40s)

to unlock

(51m 40s)

tidal wave to

(51m 41s)

get one of

(51m 42s)

them and you

(51m 43s)

had to unlock

(51m 43s)

and now there’s

(51m 44s)

a second version

(51m 45s)

of tidal wave

(51m 45s)

and both tidal

(51m 46s)

waves are about

(51m 47s)

your water being

(51m 48s)

more efficient

(51m 48s)

but there’s

(51m 49s)

seven different

(51m 50s)

other water

(51m 52s)

efficiency ones

(51m 53s)

all of other

(51m 54s)

places and one

(51m 54s)

of them requires

(51m 55s)

you to unlock

(51m 56s)

tomatoes and

(51m 57s)

one of them

(51m 57s)

requires you to

(51m 59s)

make your ring

(51m 59s)

bigger and it’s

(52m 1s)

just I don’t

(52m 1s)

understand what

(52m 2s)

the ordering for

(52m 3s)

was any of that

(52m 4s)

because you can’t

(52m 5s)

you can’t

(52m 6s)

prioritize things

(52m 7s)

with that tree

(52m 8s)

and would that

(52m 9s)

have made it

(52m 9s)

more fun I

(52m 10s)

don’t know the

(52m 12s) Chelsea:

I personally think yes because I was like what do you mean like how the heck do I unlock like the corn or the sunflowers and I was going through like with the prestige and I’m like oh I have to unlock this farm to get this crop like I maybe that was just me I think that was just maybe me not understanding but like yeah I found

(52m 23s) Al:

yeah I think that’s a different issue

(52m 25s)

no it definitely wasn’t it definitely wasn’t because I was like that at first as well I was

(52m 34s)

like I do not understand how i’m meant to do these and I and I realized because I was trying

(52m 38s)

to unlock the ones on the medium farm because I was like oh great i’ve got the small farm

(52m 43s)

I can’t click on any I can’t unlock the medium farm I don’t understand and I didn’t realize you

(52m 48s)

had to unlock all of the things on the small farm before the medium farm unlocked.

(52m 53s)

And then you can, it was just, that was confusing to me.

(52m 58s)

But certainly to start with as well, though, I was confused about like, oh, I can’t unlock

(53m 3s)

the tomatoes yet.

(53m 3s)

How do I do that?

(53m 5s)

But then after your diamonds appeared and you clicked on the prestige, then it made it

(53m 9s)

very clear.

(53m 9s)

You’re like, oh, I see now these diamonds are for the permanent upgrades, which is unlocking

(53m 14s)

certain aspects of the tree.

(53m 17s)

But I just don’t understand the, I didn’t understand the organization of the

(53m 22s) Chelsea:

Yeah, that kind of confused me, too. I thought I was playing in a really weird way. But I was like, as long as I get everything unlocked at some point, it doesn’t matter. Because, yeah, I found like the little skills, they don’t really do much for prestige. But the like the tractor or the irrigator, those things, the expensive things really added up into your diamonds.

(53m 40s) Al:

Yeah, I think that’s because the diamonds are based on how much money you’ve made.

(53m 46s)

And so the more expensive things make you more money as well.

(53m 49s) Chelsea:

Yeah, yeah, no.

(53m 50s) Al:

But it was very, I found, I don’t know how you thought about this.

(53m 53s)

I found that it took ages to even start filling in the diamonds.

(53m 58s)

And then I did a little bit and I wasn’t really paying attention to the diamonds.

(54m 2s)

And then suddenly the diamonds were full.

(54m 4s) Chelsea:

that’s the same as me yeah

(54m 4s) Al:

Like it went from zero to 60 suddenly, not fast, just suddenly.

(54m 5s) Chelsea:

no it was like I have none

(54m 9s) Al:

It would take ages

(54m 10s)

For them to start

(54m 11s)

And then suddenly

(54m 12s)

They were there

(54m 12s)

And I’m like

(54m 13s)

Oh okay

(54m 13s)

And I suspect

(54m 14s)

That’s because

(54m 15s)

Because of the

(54m 17s)

The curve

(54m 18s)

Of how you make money

(54m 19s)

Right

(54m 19s)

Like the first time

(54m 21s)

You’ve made 40

(54m 21s)

The second time

(54m 22s)

You’ve made 80

(54m 23s)

The third time

(54m 24s)

You’ve made 200

(54m 26s)

The fifth time

(54m 27s)

You’ve made a thousand

(54m 27s)

You know

(54m 28s)

So the increases

(54m 29s)

Not quite exponentially

(54m 31s)

But in that sort of idea

(54m 32s)

And so that

(54m 33s)

When you get to like

(54m 34s)

Oh you’ve made

(54m 35s)

Half a million

(54m 36s)

That’s what you needed

(54m 37s)

And you’ve made

(54m 38s)

Half a million

(54m 39s)

in this run

(54m 40s)

but also in your entire run

(54m 42s)

you’ve made 600,000

(54m 44s)

and then your next one

(54m 45s)

you’re making another half a million

(54m 47s)

so you’re nearly doubling

(54m 48s)

what you’ve already made

(54m 49s)

in the entire thing

(54m 50s)

so it just because

(54m 51s) Chelsea:

Yeah.

(54m 53s) Al:

it was showing the diamonds linearly

(54m 57s)

but you made money exponentially

(54m 59s)

it made them fill in all of a sudden

(55m 3s)

and so I feel like maybe a little bit of work

(55m 6s)

in terms of actually filling up the diamonds

(55m 10s)

logarithmically

(55m 12s)

might have made that feel a bit

(55m 14s)

I think I’m using that right

(55m 17s)

it might have made it feel a bit better

(55m 19s)

because although it’s technically lying

(55m 22s)

it makes it feel more linear to us

(55m 23s) Chelsea:

that’s fair

(55m 26s) Al:

because of how the maths works

(55m 26s) Chelsea:

okay no it makes sense

(55m 28s) Al:

I think

(55m 29s)

but yeah doing something like that

(55m 30s)

might be nicer I felt

(55m 30s) Chelsea:

yeah see I could have gone I could have done the thing without the tractor

(55m 36s)

like I didn’t care about the tractor I was like you know what

(55m 38s) Al:

Yeah.

(55m 38s) Chelsea:

whatever but then I realized oh I have to do the tractor

(55m 42s) Al:

Yeah, yeah, I don’t, yeah.

(55m 46s)

Don’t get me started on that achievement again.

(55m 49s) Chelsea:

Okay, no, I’ve been getting all worked up about it.

(55m 51s) Al:

It’s so stupid.

(55m 52s)

Don’t have an achievement

(55m 53s)

that requires you to do something

(55m 55s)

at a specific point in the save.

(55m 57s)

It’s really bad.

(55m 59s)

Don’t make things impossible to do.

(56m 2s) Chelsea:

Yeah, it could have been like, earn a hundred, like, because a lot of the achievements were

(56m 5s)

like crop or harvest X amount of crops per day or earn this amount in a single run kind

(56m 9s) Al:

Yeah, which you can just do at the end.

(56m 10s) Chelsea:

of thing.

(56m 10s)

It’s like, okay, just make it a super high number then.

(56m 14s)

Make it like 10 million in one run kind of thing.

(56m 17s) Al:

or or no the solution is easy they just let you generate diamonds once you’ve finished everything

(56m 17s) Chelsea:

Yeah, that’s okay.

(56m 23s)

Well.

(56m 23s) Al:

because then you could have just done it i’m fine with playing the game because the thing is i

(56m 25s) Chelsea:

That’s true.

(56m 27s)

Could have just done it.

(56m 29s) Al:

actually needed to play more after i’d gotten all of the unlocks because I had another achievement

(56m 33s)

which was the getting to day 100 I hadn’t got to day 100 yet in any of the runs so I was going to

(56m 39s)

play for that one anyway but no it wouldn’t let me do the two of them at the same time

(56m 43s)

Sigh.

(56m 44s) Chelsea:

why would they adopt that no I yeah I enjoyed it for what it was for sure um I yeah like I don’t

(56m 51s)

have a lot of experience with incremental games because I find that there it’s just like you’re

(56m 56s)

just automating things right which is kind of the point you want to build into something but I have

(56m 57s) Al:

Yeah, yeah.

(57m 1s) Chelsea:

to laugh I have to post that video in slack of what I sent kevin i’m like what is going on

(57m 6s)

because I guess the point you can’t even see your crops it’s just water and drones and tractors and

(57m 7s) Al:

Yeah, they are about, I think the satisfaction is about the number go up big, fast.

(57m 11s) Chelsea:

moles and you can’t see anything.

(57m 14s)

number go up number go up yeah it does

(57m 20s) Al:

And it does do that, and it does that again and again and again.

(57m 23s) Chelsea:

the thing for me though is like it doesn’t say that you’re done like I was kind of like okay

(57m 25s) Al:

So, yeah.

(57m 30s)

Yes.

(57m 31s) Chelsea:

maybe i’m missing something because I didn’t get a thanks for playing no credits give me like a

(57m 32s) Al:

Give us some fireworks.

(57m 35s) Chelsea:

or like anything give me some sort of notion

(57m 37s) Al:

I think that’s the thing, because the aim of the game is to complete, to unlock everything.

(57m 39s) Chelsea:

yeah

(57m 43s) Al:

The funny thing is, the last thing you unlock, theoretically, you would never use if it weren’t for achievements.

(57m 50s)

Because then there’s nothing to do in the game at that point.

(57m 53s)

You’re like, well, what am I doing now?

(57m 55s)

I’m just making big number.

(57m 56s)

And especially as once you’ve unlocked all of the tree in a run, there’s nothing to do there either.

(58m 1s)

Because literally the only thing to do then would be to make…

(58m 7s)

Your overall earnings higher.

(58m 9s) Chelsea:

Number go up.

(58m 9s) Al:

Which would just be linear at that point.

(58m 12s) Chelsea:

Yeah.

(58m 12s) Al:

So, number don’t go up big, quick.

(58m 16s)

Number go big, same.

(58m 18s) Chelsea:

Same.

(58m 19s)

Number go big, same.

(58m 20s) Al:

Right?

(58m 21s)

Once you hit 10 million in a day, you’re never going to get higher than 10 million in a day.

(58m 24s) Chelsea:

No, because you can’t optimize anything else.

(58m 25s) Al:

It’s impossible.

(58m 27s)

Exactly.

(58m 28s)

So, you’re done at that point.

(58m 30s)

You’re like, okay, well, am I going to keep just adding 10 to this number every 30 seconds?

(58m 35s)

Is that fun?

(58m 37s)

So, yeah, there’s, I think, I don’t know what the solution there is.

(58m 41s)

And maybe that’s what the achievement says.

(58m 43s)

Maybe the achievement is the solution.

(58m 45s)

And that once you’ve done the last unlock, you’re going to play it again to get to day 100.

(58m 50s)

But you’re not going to do that because you’re going to realize that you haven’t got the secret one that you have to reset for.

(58m 56s)

So, you’re going to reset and do it then.

(58m 58s)

So, you’re still never going to play the final thing because there’s nothing to do then.

(59m 3s) Chelsea:

No.

(59m 5s) Al:

So like, yeah.

(59m 7s)

It’s just, it’s like, when you’ve unlocked everything,

(59m 10s)

you’ve unlocked everything.

(59m 11s)

Great.

(59m 12s)

What do I do with everything I’ve unlocked now?

(59m 14s)

And the answer is nothing.

(59m 15s)

You’re going to do nothing with it.

(59m 16s) Chelsea:

• You look at your shiny

(59m 19s) Al:

Which is, but that’s the thing.

(59m 20s)

I think it’s fine if it weren’t for the fact that like,

(59m 23s)

why would you play it again once you’ve got to that point?

(59m 27s)

Because you can just, you’d reset your game

(59m 29s)

to get the final achievement.

(59m 30s) Chelsea:

Yep, because I know once I do that, I’m not ever looking at this game again.

(59m 31s) Al:

It just, well, yeah, obviously.

(59m 37s)

But that was going to be the case wherever the ending was.

(59m 40s)

I just find it weird that the ending is,

(59m 43s)

now you’ve got all of the, you’ve got all of the unlocks.

(59m 48s)

Why would I use them?

(59m 49s)

Because I can’t finish the achievements with them.

(59m 52s)

That’s the weird thing for me is that,

(59m 55s)

yes, there are still achievements to do.

(59m 56s)

Everyone will have at least one achievement by that point still,

(59m 59s)

but I’m not going to do the achievement with that, right?

(59m 59s) Chelsea:

Yeah, exactly.

(1h 2s) Al:

Like if you could get the diamonds,

(1h 4s)

then it would all make sense

(1h 7s)

you would play a final run with all of these upgrades

(1h 10s)

to get that final achievement.

(1h 12s)

But you can’t do that.

(1h 13s) Chelsea:

Yep. Nope. Yeah. No.

(1h 15s) Al:

It’s that final connection that doesn’t make any sense.

(1h 18s)

And then once you,

(1h 19s)

and then it could give us some fireworks

(1h 21s)

once we got the final achievement.

(1h 22s) Chelsea:

Give me a little like do-do-do-do. I’m gonna look after. Where my fireworks at?

(1h 24s) Al:

Where are my fireworks?

(1h 30s) Chelsea:

I’m gonna look um on Steam and see how many people actually have that achievement.

(1h 35s) Al:

surprisingly high it’s 47 percent I was not expect and that’s that’s the lowest achievement

(1h 41s)

at 47 I am incredibly surprised although am I actually that surprised because the point is

(1h 48s)

that people who play these games think that five hours is not a long time to play in a game

(1h 52s) Chelsea:

no and they they finish it right like the completionists like me oh 47 so i’m just that

(1h 52s) Al:

exactly

(1h 55s)

yeah

(1h 59s)

I know right

(1h 1m 2s) Chelsea:

blows my mind wow

(1h 1m 5s) Al:

I don’t think i’ve ever seen a game where the lowest achievement is 47 percent completion rate

(1h 1m 10s)

nearly half of people have done every single achievement in this game

(1h 1m 15s)

okay that’s fine yeah that’s always the problem with idle time right

(1h 1m 16s) Chelsea:

Wow.

(1h 1m 16s)

Oh, sorry.

(1h 1m 17s)

For me, it says nine hours.

(1h 1m 19s)

So I was not playing this game for nine hours.

(1h 1m 23s)

Yeah.

(1h 1m 25s) Al:

all right anything else you want to bring up about this game

(1h 1m 25s) Chelsea:

Yeah.

(1h 1m 26s)

Oh, my God.

(1h 1m 30s) Al:

Um, you want, you actually want more?

(1h 1m 30s) Chelsea:

Give us more.

(1h 1m 33s)

Maybe.

(1h 1m 35s)

Or give me my fireworks.

(1h 1m 35s) Al:

Okay.

(1h 1m 35s)

Well, well, that, that leads, well, that leads, would you download this game?

(1h 1m 40s)

If you opened it once, it gave you fireworks and then you’d uninstall it again.

(1h 1m 44s) Chelsea:

probably just let me see let me see what’s going on

(1h 1m 47s) Al:

Okay.

(1h 1m 48s)

So, okay.

(1h 1m 48s) Chelsea:

to people who like incremental games yes to people that are like casual not saying this

(1h 1m 49s) Al:

So my final question then is, would you recommend the game?

(1h 1m 56s) Chelsea:

game is a hardcore dedication game but people that think of when they think of games they think mario

(1h 2m 1s)

that kind of stuff no but for people that like sorting games or like afk things like that then

(1h 2m 9s) Al:

I think certainly if what you like out of Farming Games is the chill monotony of it,

(1h 2m 16s) Chelsea:

Yeah, and that’s the thing, though.

(1h 2m 16s) Al:

you get the monotony, but you don’t get the chill.

(1h 2m 20s) Chelsea:

You get to reset so often, right?

(1h 2m 21s)

So you’re not optimizing anything.

(1h 2m 24s) Al:

Yes, that’s true.

(1h 2m 24s) Chelsea:

You’re not like, holy crap, my day is almost over.

(1h 2m 26s)

It’s like, oh no, I have to just hit start day again.

(1h 2m 31s)

So there’s no time limit per se.

(1h 2m 34s)

There’s no time crunch.

(1h 2m 35s)

When you think of for Moonlight Peaks and other games like that,

(1h 2m 38s)

like, okay, I only have this much time,

(1h 2m 41s)

and then I’m forced to go to bed and start the next day.

(1h 2m 43s)

There’s no time delay like that.

(1h 2m 44s) Al:

yeah yeah yeah yeah fair enough all right well thank

(1h 2m 46s) Chelsea:

Yeah.

(1h 2m 48s)

What about, do you know anyone who you’d recommend this to?

(1h 2m 49s) Al:

yeah I think just agree with you

(1h 2m 52s) Chelsea:

Or kind of the same thing as what I said?

(1h 2m 55s) Al:

that’s why I was building on what you were saying I think yeah

(1h 2m 55s) Chelsea:

Yeah.

(1h 2m 56s)

Yes.

(1h 2m 59s)

Okay, fair enough.

(1h 2m 59s) Al:

it’s pretty pretty similar I think um it was fun

(1h 3m 2s)

but now it’s done all right well thank you for joining me to talk about keep

Outro

(1h 3m 8s) Al:

watering um is there anything you would like to share with the audience

(1h 3m 14s) Chelsea:

thanks for having me and I was gonna say happy Halloween yeah oh yeah this is the last episode

(1h 3m 19s)

for Halloween happy Halloween everybody have fun stay safe eat lots of candy

(1h 3m 20s) Al:

Yes. Yes, it is.

(1h 3m 24s) Chelsea:

not too well or November 1st wait till all the candy is 50% off that’s when you get your candy

(1h 3m 24s) Al:

Not too much.

(1h 3m 32s)

All right.

(1h 3m 33s)

You can find the podcast on Tumblr and on Blue Sky at THSPod.

(1h 3m 37s)

You can send us feedback from our website, HarvestSeason.club,

(1h 3m 40s)

where you can get links to everything to do with the podcast,

(1h 3m 42s)

including our Patreon, patreon.com slash THSPod,

(1h 3m 45s)

where you can get into our Slack,

(1h 3m 48s)

where I post

(1h 3m 50s)

occasional outtakes

(1h 3m 52s)

that I can’t post

(1h 3m 53s)

on the podcast.

(1h 3m 54s) Chelsea:

it’s worth it just for that

(1h 3m 57s)

alternate titles

(1h 3m 58s) Al:

You also get

(1h 3m 59s)

sometimes, yeah, yeah.

(1h 4m 3s)

You also get bonus episodes

(1h 4m 5s)

of the podcast.

(1h 4m 6s)

We literally just,

(1h 4m 8s)

as we were recording

(1h 4m 9s)

this podcast,

(1h 4m 10s)

posted an episode

(1h 4m 11s)

of me and Kevin

(1h 4m 12s)

talking about

(1h 4m 12s)

the DC Lanterns show.

(1h 4m 15s) Chelsea:

I had to laugh because we’re recording this, and I’m like, hold up.

(1h 4m 18s)

Okay, multitasker.

(1h 4m 20s) Al:

It was scheduled.

(1h 4m 23s) Chelsea:

Okay, okay.

(1h 4m 25s) Al:

You think I’m doing it

(1h 4m 27s)

while recording?

(1h 4m 28s)

No, no, no.

(1h 4m 28s) Chelsea:

I don’t know.

(1h 4m 28s) Al:

I edited it

(1h 4m 30s)

and scheduled it

(1h 4m 31s)

on Tuesday

(1h 4m 31s)

and then forgot

(1h 4m 32s)

all about it

(1h 4m 33s)

until I noticed

(1h 4m 34s)

that it had been done.

(1h 4m 35s)

I got a notification

(1h 4m 36s)

saying it had happened.

(1h 4m 38s) Chelsea:

Oh, okay.

(1h 4m 41s) Al:

I do sometimes do stuff

(1h 4m 42s)

that I shouldn’t be doing

(1h 4m 43s)

while I’m podcasting.

(1h 4m 45s)

Mainly when I’m

(1h 4m 46s)

really deep into a game,

(1h 4m 47s)

I’ll be like playing

(1h 4m 48s)

the game on the side

(1h 4m 50s)

but you can always hear it.

(1h 4m 50s) Chelsea:

yeah it’s okay actually me and kevin right now are planning a greenhouse episode

(1h 4m 51s) Al:

You can always hear

(1h 4m 51s)

when I’m distracted.

(1h 4m 56s) Chelsea:

we don’t know yet uh maybe he was tcg well we’re saying he’s saying I don’t know do you like to

(1h 4m 56s) Al:

Which one?

(1h 4m 58s)

Oh.

(1h 4m 59s)

Not much planning

(1h 5m)

happened then.

(1h 5m 4s) Chelsea:

play tcgs i’m like well yeah like pokemon and magic and he says he wants to do yugioh and i’m

(1h 5m 9s)

like all right we’ll just pick one and we’ll just do it or yeah yeah for sure it’s literally

(1h 5m 12s) Al:

Or all of them.

(1h 5m 16s)

Okay, well, I guess we’ll see what comes out of that.

(1h 5m 17s) Chelsea:

Okay.

(1h 5m 20s) Al:

All right.

(1h 5m 20s) Chelsea:

We’ve manifested it.

(1h 5m 22s) Al:

Thank you again for joining me, Chelsea.

(1h 5m 24s) Chelsea:

Thank you for having me.

(1h 5m 26s) Al:

Thank you, listeners, for listening.

(1h 5m 27s)

And until next time, have a good harvest.

(1h 5m 29s) Theme Tune:

the harvest season is created by al mckinley with support from our patrons

(1h 5m 29s) Chelsea:

Have a good harvest.

(1h 5m 38s) Theme Tune:

including our pro farmers kevin stewart and elisa our art is done by micah the brave

(1h 5m 44s)

and our music is done by nick burgess feel free to visit our website harvestseason.club

(1h 5m 50s)

for show notes and links to things we discussed in this episode

(1h 6m 4s) Al:

All right, anything else you want to bring up about this game?

(1h 6m 7s)

Would you, wait, no, answer that question first,

(1h 6m 11s) Chelsea:

um like it’s it’s what you would think right so I would recommend this to people who like number go

(1h 6m 16s) Al:

I know but that’s not that’s not the question I asked chelsea is there anything else you want

(1h 6m 17s) Chelsea:

up okay okay

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