#LifeSim

[cattailsgame]

Switch players!! We have big news for you 😸

Cattails: Wildwood Story pounces onto the Nintendo Switch 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟯𝟬!

That's like... later this month! 🙀 eShop preorders begin soon, stay tuned...

[anothershadeofpurple]

WIP - Trying my hand at Swan Mills family in InZOI's character creator - it hard! Download here in case someone else is playing and doesn't want to start from scratch.

[merylodrama]

Number 1 Angel

Charli XCX — 2017

a revisit of Charli XCX's discography on vinyl

★★★★☆

8.5

ranking :

Lipgloss feat. CupcakKe — 9.3

Roll With Me — 9.2

3AM feat. MØ — 9.0

Blame It On U — 8.8

Emotional — 8.7

Drugs feat. Abra — 8.7

Babygirl feat. Uffie — 8.6

Dreamer feat. Starrah & RAYE — 8.1

ILY2 — 8.1

White Roses — 7.0

06.10.2024

[prohader]

Littlewood Review - July 18, 2024

Developer: Sean Young | Publisher: SmashGames

I'm a lover of farm and lifesim games. I first played this a few years ago on Switch in between a move- I was transferring colleges and living with my parents, and had to spend a whole summer living at my older sister's home in the middle of bumfuck nowhere while waiting for our new home to finish being built. I am a completionist at heart, and this game was light enough to complete without wasting my life and chill enough to listen to some video essays or watch some shows while I did it. Now it's 2024, so I decided to give it another go. Let's dive into what Littlewood is about, why I love it, and why I find it underrated... but far from perfect.

What It's About:

This game is an extremely lighthearted, chill, and cozy world directly an apocolyptic scenario where you, the hero of Solemn, have single-handedly defeated an evil dark wizard. The world is saved but fragmented, and everyone knows who you are... except for you. You see, you lost all of your memories of the battle before and you no longer have any of your magical powers or your trusty sword. So what do you do when you no longer have any ultimate goal and the world is broken apart? Well, build a new home, of course! Two of your trusty, ragtag friends and a warm fatherly figure from before your lost your memories are here to help you start your new life as a mayor of sorts for your town in which you will reside, grow, care for, and customize to your heart's content. The Game: I'd say this game is like a lite and easy-to-digest version of games like Animal Crossing (New Leaf and New Horizons, to be specific) and Stardew Valley, but it has its own identity and unique mechanics that stand out from other "cozy family-friendly farmsims" on the market. The main mechanic that I find a breath of fresh air compared to real-time progression and set in-game clocks is Littlewood's time system. All of your choices in the game are revolved around actions that take energy to use, and you have set amount of energy to spend each day. The amount of energy you spend fishing, cooking, gathering, crafting- almost everything in the game, in fact- progresses the time and once you have completely depleted all of your energy in the day, the day ends. As the leader of your town, you are free to do virtually whatever you want and whenever you want, so the player is incentivized make all of their energy spent per day feel worth it. As mentioned, the player can do a myriad of things such as watering and collecting flowers, picking weeds, talking and hanging out with townsfolk, getting closer to them, growing crops, mining ores, chopping wood, creating furniture, catching bugs, upgrading their town amenities, and even (later on) playing a card mini-game that's easy to understand but takes a bit of practice to master. Progression in Littlewood, I'd say, strongly involves growth of the town amenities and making your little villagers happy. By talking to your villagers and making their homes more comfortable, they will incrimentally provide you more blueprints and unlockable tools and items that are critical for you to make money ('dewdrops') and increase you rate and efficiency of the things you produce or catch, such as building materials, crops, fish, and bugs- all that you can use to get even more dewdrops or craft furniture, homes and buildings. As per the nature of these type of cozy games, there isnt a very primary goal that you're encouraged to reach or complete. By naturally engaging with the game you will come across most of the villagers you can unlock eventually. But this game is really great for people that want to catch EVERY bug, breed EVERY variety of flower, and donate EVERYTHING they can to complete their museum for no reason but the satisfaction of seeing a job completed. The Positives: If you want a comfortable game to kill an afternoon or hunker down in bed with every now and then, i'd be hard-pressed to find something as cozy and easy to pick up and put down than Littlewood. The gameplay is stupid simple (did I mention you only really needs three buttons and a d-pad to play this game? So it's extremely accessible), and the collection aspect can get pretty addictive, especially when each day ends with a barrage of exp being gifted to you for all the work you did and all of the affection meters for the villagers you've interacted with that day shooting up.

The setting isnt super unique, but the way in which the world is introduced to you incrementally is something I wish more cozy games did- I love that the world is broken up in such a way that the major mode of transportation is by hot air balloons, I love the quirky characters you can find, I love the lore about the world you can unlock through books and little pieces of conversation, and I just adore the tiny itty bitty sprites. Animals look so tiny and adorable you want to pop them in your mouth like tic-tacs, and the character profile sprites are expressive and a joy to see. Each character also has their own unique 2-frame animation. And like I said, there's plenty of things to upgrade and collect.

The Negatives: The game doesnt really give you much reason to pay attention to what the characters are saying to you. My biggest problems with this era of "cozy" games is that I feel like sometimes writing and character development is left to die in a ditch, and you can sort of feel that in Littlewood. Yes, each villager is charming and cute and have their own quirks and personalities, but theyre all so extremely 2 dimensional that it's hard to really feel anything for most of them. But this is kind of a big deal when you're playing this game blind for the first time- because the characters actually occasionally tell you very important information! In my first playthrough, I got several hours into the game (almost giving up) before getting some really helpful tools that are intrinsically tied with building a desk in your villagers' houses and accommodating their home requests- especially the beginning handfuls of characters you recruit to your town. I feel like if the tools are going to be tied to making your villagers furniture, it should be made way more clear, and the things the characters say to you should be more engaging so you're not just mashing through everything they say. Additionally, due to the lackluster writing combined the entire setup of the game- you being the Solemn's savior- leads everyone to just put you on a pedestal and stroke your ego all the time for something you never did (in game). You can never do anything wrong and you're automatically cool and attractive and amazing to everyone, no matter what. It kind of makes romancing characters feel extremely forced and imbalanced, like many characters are only interested in you because you're the Hero of Solemn. One really important aspect of this I want to discuss is with one NPC in particular that sours the whole game for me SO much that i will actually mash through their dialogue or intentionally ignore them outside of completing tasks... maybe I should say her. It's Willow, I'm talking about Willow. Now, im sorry for all of those out there that may actually really like Willow. But the game strongly communicates that the player and Willow were in love before the game began. It makes talking to her when you're not particularly interested in her in the first place really awkward, and even moreso when you're much more interested in ANY of the other characters over her. It'd be one thing if it was just coming from her, but Dalton and Dudley also frequently bring it up and it's really distracting and uncomfortable. And even though i'm bisexual, i (usually) tend to favor bachelors in games whenever there's any sort of romancing element, so it adds another layer of uncomfortability in an otherwise cutesy-cozy-soft-power-fantasy game. I wish that the developer instead just made it so she had a crush on the hero before losing their memories or something, because my mind cannot help but think about how devastating it would be if my partner were to lose all of their memories and wake up one day with them marrying someone else and forgetting everything about me and the things we did together. It's not that I absolutely hate the idea, but with a game of this tone, it really puts an awkward damper on what is normally a fun self-indulgent mechanic. Willow having had a romantic history with the main character prior to the game up until the moment they lost their powers makes the player feel guilty for not choosing her, and makes the player's choice to marry anyone but her feel less "meaningful" as a result. Maybe that’s just me, but it really feels mismatched with the purpose of the game. Additional Thoughts: I really think this game would benefit significantly from even a minor update or DLC. There are a couple tiny graphical bugs on Switch (doors open for some reason, and you can really easily go OOB in the town hall) but there's honestly a lot more that can be added to add in more customizeability to the player and the town, but I can make a whole separate post on what I think would make for GREAT Littlewood DLC (and I probably will)! Personal Rating: B

💚 Unique time-progression system

💚 Chill, cozy collectible game.

🚫 Interesting lore, but too little of it shared or explored

🚫 Villagers are pretty one-note, any depth they have is left unexplored, and they all put the player on the pedestal so it makes interacting with them sometimes uncomfortable if you think about it for a little too long.

🚫 Important Tools and QOL features should be tied to other systems, not how comfy or aesthetically pleasing your villagers's homes are.

[simstantastic]

Life Sim/Cozy games

https://youtu.be/zrcGY211xko?si=b3_KJnHdBmi86ziZ

GamerZakh

GamerZakh gives a rundown of cozy/life sim games that offer:

Farming crops, building homes, and living cozy! These upcoming 2024 life sim games could be your new obsession or maybe just a chill escape for you to sink into but do you think any of these cosy games could take on giants like The Sims? Let’s find out and welcome to what’s growing in 2024!

Mention & tag any small indie game creators to show your support :)

[maxkirin]

My life/farming sim add-on for Starforged is starting to look like an actual game! I can't wait to play-test this tomorrow on the stream~ 👩‍🌾🌽🍅✨✨

[buff-borf-bork]

infinite nikki?

magical girl?

puzzle solving?

open world?

life sim?

different outfit and hair for every ability?

sounds too good to be true so a tentative 👀👀👀

[choolantanavt]

i stream now

stream now! i am doing it!

see! look there's a picture and everything!

you better come and watch! the game is a cute little life sim thing, I think

[lazyajju]

The Witch of Fern Island is a game about a young girl who wants to become a real witch. Immerse yourself in the history of the island and get to know its inhabitants. It's time to find your place in the world.

Coming to PC in Q1 2023 - Add to wishlist on Steam. Note:- Back this project on Kickstarter until Dec 8, 2022

ABOUT GAME:- Welcome to the magical and mysterious world of Fern Island.

[inzoiresource]

inZOI Bliss Bay

Welcome to Bliss Bay in the inZOI game! This vibrant city, modeled after the iconic Los Angeles, captures the essence of American culture with its sunny beaches, bustling streets, and diverse communities. #inZOI #inZOIWorlds

[clearwritings]

The Sims 4 - Completing the Grilled Cheese Aspiration - cloudyapricots

[cattailsgame]

📣 Cattails: Wildwood Story is 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 on Steam!

🎮Steam (get it here!): https://store.steampowered.com/app/1882500/Cattails_Wildwood_Story/ 🎥Launch trailer: https://youtu.be/8FQ2eGjcjBo

Reblogs & likes much appreciated❤️❤️❤️

[commanderaqwahstrainingoutpost]

Having kids is messy.

[merylodrama]

Pop 2

Charli XCX — 2017

a revisit of Charli XCX's discography on vinyl

★★★★★

9.0

ranking :

Track 10 — 10

Backseat feat. Carly Rae Jepsen — 9.7

Lucky — 9.6

Unlock It — 9.5

Delicious — 9.3

Out Of My Head feat. Tove Lo & ALMA — 9.1

I Got It feat. Brooke Candy, CupcakKe & Pabllo Vittar — 9.0

Femmebot feat. Dorian Electra & Mykki Blanco — 8.7

Porsche feat. MØ — 8.7

Tears — 6.7

07.10.2024

[lizz-revs]

A Story Beside

This is a RPG, but rather that slaying monsters and saving NPC’s, you will be making everyday choices. Realizing along the way that those kinds of choices can have as much of an impact as slaying monsters or saving kingdoms.

Story

The main character is called Lyric. An average girl living in an average village on the mountainside. Every day is nice and blissful for her – surrounded by family and friends. The player has a vast amount of possibilities how to change her life for the worse or the better by influencing the choices that she does. While the choices do seem random and insignificant sometimes, you never know how much impact they can have on the future.

Characters

Lyric

I will only talk about Lyric because everything else seems like a spoiler to me. Lyric’s personality is heavily influenced by your choices. It’s really as simple as that. In my playthrough she was a very honest, hard-working, amazing and courageous girl, who was willing to put her life at stake to protect and save the things and the people she loved and succeeded in doing so. She was a hero. More than those heroes the game mentions. Because fighting your fate takes a lot more courage than fighting a monster.

My opinion

I was really shocked to see how unknown this game actually is. Having played “World’s Dawn” I just saw a notification in Steam that this game came out about a year ago. Long story short, I had put it on my Wishlist thinking it was another farming game and now bought it in this summer sale. Oh, how I had been wrong.

This game is like listening to a life story of a stranger and feeling more and more attached to them as you listen. Not only that – you can even influence the decisions of that stranger. It’s similar to being reincarnated into another person and making their choices for them. However, this game doesn’t really feel like a story. It feels too realistic to be a story.

There are happy things and sad things – just like in life. You learn to appreciate the small kindnesses life gives you in the darkest hour. You try your best to survive, to make meaningful choices, to make the right choices. To love and be loved. To save people in the hope that this small act of kindness can change the future for the better. Although you don’t know. You never know. Even when you’re older and look back at the things you did, you will never know, if they were the right choices. You will never know, if you could’ve done things better.

However, you will know that you did what you could. Even, if nothing seems to work at the moment and everything seems like a never-ending winter, you should always try your best to survive today, to survive tomorrow. And then slowly the darkness might fade. Slowly you might get the things back you cherished and loved.

The small things that you took for granted all these years. The friendship with your best friend maybe. The relationship with your partner, which might be sweet but lacks the fire and drama you’re used to from novels. The love from your pets. Your friends and family that surround you.

After playing this game, you might reflect on your life and see that this game is not so different from your own life. As for me, I did experience moments in my life that were actually similar to this game. Moments, where I instinctively knew that my choice had a big impact on the future of a person. Might it be friends, might it be family, might it be the love of my life. I instinctively knew that the things I’m choosing won’t be ever changeable in this timeline. And it’s a scary feeling. You sit there and wonder, whether you could’ve done things differently. How your life would have been, if you did things differently. If you had missed something, if you had neglected something. It just makes me emotional. This is the kind of game it is – it stirs something within you. Makes you understand something about yourself you chose to ignore all these years. And hopefully teaches you to cherish the things that you have and be careful with the choices you make.

Because everyone of us can be a hero or a villain, if we want to.

Everyone of us can change the world for the better or worse.

So, what will you choose?

[moe-broey]

I think Veronica Fire Emblem would thoroughly enjoy Shadow the Hedgehog (2005). In fact I think she would be a huge Shadow fan in general