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I'm working on my own indie game that's inspired by Stardew Valley, so I've done a good bit of looking at similar cozy farming games. I also wrote an analysis o

I'm working on my own indie game that's inspired by Stardew Valley, so I've done a good bit of looking at similar cozy farming games. I also wrote an analysis of Stardew's game design that was well-received on Hacker News [1]. Animal Crossing is the granddaddy of cozy games, but the core loop didn't keep me engaged. More "arranging your house and island" than farming. Cozy Grove is Animal Crossing with a far better narrative. Graveyard Keeper, Littlewood, and My Time In Portia are closer to being "Stardew, but X". Your mileage may vary with each, but I enjoyed parts all of them. Spiritfarer is my favorite of the lot. It plays differently enough with your hodgepodge boat-city of ghosts, but it feels the closest in spirit (rimshot) to Stardew. Bring a box of tissues. My own game, Moondrop Mountain, is trying for a roguelike farming experience. It should be coming into Early Access early next year [2]. [1] https://www.pixelatedplaygrounds.com/sidequests/game-design-perspective-stardew-valley https://www.pixelatedplaygrounds.com/sidequests/game-design-... [2] https://store.steampowered.com/app/1417750/Moondrop_Mountain/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1417750/Moondrop_Mountain...

beaconstudios 5y ago
Don't forget that Stardew Valley itself is based on Harvest Moon.
- Karuma 5y ago
  Indeed. It's kind of surprising that this is the only comment mentioning Harvest Moon so far, since SV is so similar... All the games mentioned in these comments are great, anyway. And I found some new ones to try now. :)
  - capitainenemo 5y ago
    Could it be due to HN being more PC than console? I personally have not played Harvest Moon and am only vaguely familiar with the name. Stardew Valley however runs on Linux and has a large mod community (Stardew Valley Expanded for example) which has ensured a lot of replay in our house. It's the preferred family coop.
    - recursive 5y ago
      I think HN is pretty diverse. I, for instance, am a big fan of SDV. I've only ever played it on my android phone though.
thebean11 5y ago
I love the idea of a roguelike farming game. Often I feel bogged down in lategame, and regret early decisions I made. Faster mechanics and restarts would help a ton. Good luck!
- fho 5y ago
  Isn't Dwarf Fortress somewhat of a roguelike farming game? It definitely features farming (and crafting, and raising cattle and ... literally everything else) and has been called a "honorable roguelike" before.
  - myhf 5y ago
    Yeah, for sure. Dwarf Fortress randomizes a lot of environment and climate features but has standard crops. It looks like Moondrop Mountain also randomizes the properties of crops (similar to materials in Big Pharma).
- jgalecki 5y ago
  It's interesting how shorter run-based gameplay impacts every aspect of play. It's like the difference between games with permadeath and games designed around permadeath. The former is a hardcore challenge, and the latter, I would argue, is the core of roguelikes. While there's no "death" in my game (stayin' cozy), the idea that the player needs to go through multiple runs has been really fun to play around with :)
  - samstave 5y ago
    Heh.... my 1987 batch files to save, quit, copy, restart .sav files would like a word. Moria FTW save.bat and load.bat
  - xmprt 5y ago
    Hades is the perfect balance of this. Short runs while still allowing some amount of progression.
  - mywittyname 5y ago
derstander 5y ago
PAX Online this past July had a panel called “ A Case for Cozy: Why We Need Wholesome Games” which may interest you if you haven’t seen it yet. They did give a list of some upcoming games in the genre. I linked the PAX page below. I watched the stream after the fact in the PAX archive on twitch but I needed to scrub through the recording for the whole day and sub-channel to find it so I unfortunately don’t have a link directly to it. [1] https://online.paxsite.com/content/sitebuilder/rna/pax/online/en-us/panels/panel-information.html?gtID=719539&panel-name=A-Case-for-Cozy-Why-We-Need-Wholesome-Games https://online.paxsite.com/content/sitebuilder/rna/pax/onlin...
- CabSauce 5y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN5GXrvUrVA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN5GXrvUrVA
  - roldie 5y ago
    From one of the Youtube comments. Game recommendations on the final slides: Leanne: Parkitecht, Pokemon Go, Banished, Mineko's Night Market, Ooblets, To the Rescue Kels: A Short Hike, Abzu, Animal Crossing, Mineko's Night Market, Skatebird, Ooblets Josh: Yonder, Kind Words, Quench, Tunic, Welcome to Elk, Get In The Car, Loser!
IgorPartola 5y ago
Rougelike farming?! There is dungeon crawling in a tune based game with ASCII UI?! Thanks for the recommendations. I and a few friends are big fans of SV so having more games with that feel will be great. Tried out AC recently and didn’t love the core loop either.

beaconstudios 5y ago

Don't forget that Stardew Valley itself is based on Harvest Moon.

Karuma 5y ago
Indeed. It's kind of surprising that this is the only comment mentioning Harvest Moon so far, since SV is so similar... All the games mentioned in these comments are great, anyway. And I found some new ones to try now. :)
- capitainenemo 5y ago
  Could it be due to HN being more PC than console? I personally have not played Harvest Moon and am only vaguely familiar with the name. Stardew Valley however runs on Linux and has a large mod community (Stardew Valley Expanded for example) which has ensured a lot of replay in our house. It's the preferred family coop.
  - recursive 5y ago
    I think HN is pretty diverse. I, for instance, am a big fan of SDV. I've only ever played it on my android phone though.

thebean11 5y ago

I love the idea of a roguelike farming game. Often I feel bogged down in lategame, and regret early decisions I made. Faster mechanics and restarts would help a ton. Good luck!

fho 5y ago
Isn't Dwarf Fortress somewhat of a roguelike farming game? It definitely features farming (and crafting, and raising cattle and ... literally everything else) and has been called a "honorable roguelike" before.
- myhf 5y ago
  Yeah, for sure. Dwarf Fortress randomizes a lot of environment and climate features but has standard crops. It looks like Moondrop Mountain also randomizes the properties of crops (similar to materials in Big Pharma).
jgalecki 5y ago
It's interesting how shorter run-based gameplay impacts every aspect of play. It's like the difference between games with permadeath and games designed around permadeath. The former is a hardcore challenge, and the latter, I would argue, is the core of roguelikes. While there's no "death" in my game (stayin' cozy), the idea that the player needs to go through multiple runs has been really fun to play around with :)
- samstave 5y ago
  Heh.... my 1987 batch files to save, quit, copy, restart .sav files would like a word. Moria FTW save.bat and load.bat
- xmprt 5y ago
  Hades is the perfect balance of this. Short runs while still allowing some amount of progression.
- mywittyname 5y ago

derstander 5y ago

PAX Online this past July had a panel called “ A Case for Cozy: Why We Need Wholesome Games” which may interest you if you haven’t seen it yet. They did give a list of some upcoming games in the genre. I linked the PAX page below. I watched the stream after the fact in the PAX archive on twitch but I needed to scrub through the recording for the whole day and sub-channel to find it so I unfortunately don’t have a link directly to it. [1] https://online.paxsite.com/content/sitebuilder/rna/pax/online/en-us/panels/panel-information.html?gtID=719539&panel-name=A-Case-for-Cozy-Why-We-Need-Wholesome-Games https://online.paxsite.com/content/sitebuilder/rna/pax/onlin...

CabSauce 5y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN5GXrvUrVA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN5GXrvUrVA
- roldie 5y ago
  From one of the Youtube comments. Game recommendations on the final slides: Leanne: Parkitecht, Pokemon Go, Banished, Mineko's Night Market, Ooblets, To the Rescue Kels: A Short Hike, Abzu, Animal Crossing, Mineko's Night Market, Skatebird, Ooblets Josh: Yonder, Kind Words, Quench, Tunic, Welcome to Elk, Get In The Car, Loser!

IgorPartola 5y ago

Rougelike farming?! There is dungeon crawling in a tune based game with ASCII UI?! Thanks for the recommendations. I and a few friends are big fans of SV so having more games with that feel will be great. Tried out AC recently and didn’t love the core loop either.