Silly Sims
Wed, Feb 4, 2026 Year 3, Autumn 05Al and Kev talk about the new Tomodachi Life direct, and Al plays the Bubblegum Galaxy demo
Timings
00:00:00: Theme Tune
00:00:30: Intro
00:01:38: What Have We Been Up To
00:13:09: Game News
00:43:10: New Games
00:48:29: Bubblegum Galaxy
00:56:14: Outro
Links
Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream Direct
Japanese Rural Life on Steam
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin: Hinula’s Sprit Journey
Haunted Chocolatier Dev Update
Fossil Quest on Steam
Fossil Quest on itch.io
Contact
Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot
Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/
Transcript
Theme Tune
(0s) Theme Tune:
[Music]
Intro
(30s) Al:
Hello farmers, and welcome to another episode of the harvest season.
(34s)
My name is Al.
(36s) Kevin:
My name is Hugh Morris.
(37s) Al:
And we are here today to talk about cottagecore game.
(40s) Kevin:
How’d it go again?
(42s) Al:
Whoo!
(46s)
Uh, hello.
(48s) Kevin:
Hello, I I get it and I
(50s) Al:
I think it’s one of those episodes.
(52s)
[Laughs]
(52s) Kevin:
It’s it’s one of those episodes. I mean we’ve got stopped to talk about it and
(55s) Al:
Uh…
(58s)
Would you have stuff to talk about?
(1m) Kevin:
And we’re not ready
(1m 1s) Al:
Are we ever ready?
(1m 3s)
I don’t know. Is anyone ever ready
(1m 6s) Kevin:
No, now you’re right about that. Um, I’m less ready. I’m just kind of re watching the direct and oh
(1m 16s)
Yeah, good times
(1m 19s) Al:
Yeah, well we’re gonna talk about that. We’re gonna talk about other stuff as well. I played the bubblegum galaxy demo, so I want to talk about that
(1m 26s) Kevin:
I don’t know what that is
(1m 27s) Al:
Well, we talked about that game like last week
(1m 29s) Kevin:
We probably did I don’t remember
(1m 34s) Al:
So I’m gonna talk about that obviously we have some news
What Have We Been Up To
(1m 38s) Al:
But first of all Kevin what have you been up to?
(1m 40s) Kevin:
Oh, so I hit them them ZA credits. Yeah, the Pokemon. Uh, that ending was okay. It was okay. Kind of weird to highlight your, you know, real-time movement based, you know, fighting system with a completely stationary enemy at the end, but okay.
(1m 48s) Al:
What’s what’s that?
(2m 3s)
hey that’s not true it’s not completely stationary the wiggle about a little bit
(2m 3s) Kevin:
Oh, fine. They hide in the ground.
(2m 11s)
Oh, sure. True. That’s very true. Yeah, the Zygarde stuff was cool. Maybe should have done more of that.
(2m 19s)
So much stuff thought just to the crazy thought. Um, but yeah, I’m still playing. I’m doing post game running around doing the mountain emissions. I’ve got and catching stuff and buying clothes, you know, the real game.
(2m 37s)
I’m- I still have not fun to show any.
(2m 37s) Al:
None at all.
(2m 40s) Kevin:
Says that’s my love. None other than the- the mirrory.
(2m 42s) Al:
How many hours have you gotten this?
(2m 44s) Kevin:
Um, that’s a good question, I have to look it up.
(2m 47s)
I don’t know, but at least 20, 30 probably I would guess.
(2m 50s)
Um, but yeah, my brother, he, you know, we all know common steals all my luck.
(2m 56s)
He’s found four Chinese before he equated, typically.
(2m 58s)
Um, so yeah, that’s me.
(3m 2s)
But one day I may find a shiny, probably not, but we’ll see.
(3m 5s)
Anyways, but, uh, it’s kind of crazy.
(3m 8s)
Uh, well, okay, you know, back.
(3m 10s)
It’s up on second. So poke one does the one thing that you say is all that doesn’t. It’s very true. And you like, and it is cool. The world state changes post games. Yeah, that’s correct. The thing. Zelda doesn’t with the post game world state change.
(3m 18s) Al:
No, so anything that’s elder does.
(3m 26s) Kevin:
And that’s, uh, I do think it’s pretty cool. It’s kind of crazy. You see prism tower looking like that, right? But yeah, it’s what it is. I’m enjoying.
(3m 40s)
I think it was pretty clever to open up three battle zones every night instead of one. That’s a fun little change, but, but yeah. Anyways, I do you poke them on. I liked it. It’s, it’s okay. I give it a thumbs up. Um, yeah, it’s.
(3m 54s) Al:
So will you now accept that this game is not a
(3m 57s) Kevin:
All right. Well, you know, I haven’t put the DLC yet to be seen.
(4m 4s) Al:
The game does not suddenly change it’s been a year nearly I was talking about
(4m 11s) Kevin:
Yeah. Yeah. Oh my goodness.
(4m 11s) Al:
this game and and all the way back a year ago you were like I think it’s a
(4m 16s) Kevin:
Yeah. Well, well, you know that that’s it’s interesting because they framed so much of the marketing and and even in game, right? Like, oh, it’s this big restoration project. It’s literally just green light curtains going up at places. Very bizarre way of marketing it.
(4m 17s) Al:
city builder and I was like nope no way
(4m 39s)
Yeah. I mean, I think I did say that I could see things changing, but it changes as the story goes on.
(4m 40s) Kevin:
Yeah. Yeah.
(4m 45s) Al:
It’s not like you’re going to have a choice in that matter, and that’s pretty much what happened.
(4m 49s)
But yeah, the scale was lower than I was expecting when they highlighted that.
(5m 2s)
Yeah.
(5m 4s)
Well, there we go.
(5m 5s) Kevin:
Yeah, it is what it is, thank her music. I’ll give it then.
(5m 11s)
All right, what about you all? What’s going on over there?
(5m 13s) Al:
I’ve also been playing a little bit asier because I still have some Pokémon to catch the
(5m 18s)
Legendre’s. So I’ve done the final, like, side quest. So now all of the side quests
(5m 27s)
are done. I won’t tell you what that was, obviously. But yeah, the final DLC side quest.
(5m 34s)
And I’ve got another couple of Legendre’s. So I’m now down to four Pokémon left to catch.
(5m 41s)
So 4 Legendre is left to get.
(5m 44s)
We’ll get there eventually.
(5m 44s) Kevin:
oh yeah man it makes sense with such a limited scale game that they had to crank up
(5m 46s) Al:
The RNG is killing.
(5m 54s) Kevin:
the RNG but ooh if it’s brutal it’s brutal yeah
(5m 56s) Al:
But I feel like at the point that I’m that they could just make it guaranteed by this point
(6m)
You’re just like just give me the Pokemon. I’m literally nothing else life to do in this game
(6m 5s)
And I’m just chugging through doing these pointless tasks. I don’t even have any more shinies to get
(6m 9s) Kevin:
bring me from my prison
(6m 11s) Al:
I have all of the shinies. I need from this game. I just want to finish the decks my word
(6m 14s) Kevin:
oh
(6m 18s) Al:
Frustrating anyway, whatever nearly done. We’ll have a new Pokemon game to obsess over soon
(6m 23s)
I’m sure
(6m 24s) Kevin:
I’m so excited for bakovia get hyped well did you had the pre-order in the news
(6m 26s) Al:
Yeah, that too, I guess
(6m 33s) Kevin:
no we gotta get hyped yeah yeah
(6m 35s) Al:
I don’t know the the four leafed plant preorder
(6m 43s)
Weirdest preorder ever like I think the pre-orders for giving to just the items in general is not great
(6m 50s)
But whatever and but yeah, it’s specifically being a four leafed plant a single potted plant. It’s not even an interesting looking plant. It’s a generic potted plant
(6m 56s) Kevin:
Yeah, with no. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it’s a little less than a week or month away, I’m excited.
(7m 5s) Al:
Oh goodness me so stupid
(7m 11s)
Whoo
(7m 12s)
No more than a month away. It’s the fifth March
(7m 15s) Kevin:
Yeah, or sorry, other way, I believe hard enough could be less.
(7m 19s) Al:
Just over a month a month and a
(7m 22s)
60s as we’re recording when this episode comes out it will be a month and one day so
(7m 24s) Kevin:
Yeah
(7m 27s)
There you go. It’s close
(7m 29s) Al:
Let’s just pretend that’s what you were talking about. Okay
(7m 32s)
Well, yeah, so I played the bubblegum that guy
(7m 35s)
see demo, I finished it, I’ll have lots to say, but well, I have some to say about that later on in the episode.
(7m 41s)
I also tried another demo, Sky Harvest, and by that, don’t play that game.
(7m 50s)
Well, okay, that’s a bit unfair. I mean, well, there’s not much to talk about with that one,
(7m 53s) Kevin:
Oh, hey, do we want to get into it?
(7m 59s) Al:
so I didn’t really want to talk about it in the main section. I’ll just talk about it here.
(8m 2s) Kevin:
Oh, that’s-
(8m 3s) Al:
The controller didn’t.
(8m 5s)
Like at all.
(8m 6s) Kevin:
Oh, yeah!
(8m 7s) Al:
Like, they don’t have like default settings on the Steam Deck that allow you to play it properly and I tried everything, all sorts of combinations of things and I cannot get the game to work at all, like at all, it doesn’t register any input whatsoever from my controller.
(8m 24s)
Like, even all of the ways that Steam can like force it to, it still doesn’t work, it doesn’t, I cannot get it to work at all.
(8m 35s)
And it’s baffling.
(8m 36s) Kevin:
Their feature is and to I controller support
(8m 41s)
They went through every length to make sure it doesn’t work
(8m 45s) Al:
Yeah, well that’s the thing, it’s like there’s so many different ways you can have controller support and they actively don’t work with any of them, even the ways that work with games that don’t have any thought process put into it.
(8m 46s) Kevin:
Yeah, that’s the one like
(9m)
Yeah, oh, that’s great failing right at the start good times, but
(9m) Al:
Super bad.
(9m 5s)
Yeah.
(9m 7s) Kevin:
Now you don’t get to experience the three different art styles featured in a single game
(9m 11s) Al:
Yeah.
(9m 15s)
I’ve also been playing some more heartopia and I tried to play that on my Steam Deck, that does work back to the Sky Harvest, but it is not got controller support.
(9m 23s)
It’s very much the mobile game, but on our computer, and you can tell, so it’s like you can, you can hack it around and you can
(9m 28s) Kevin:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
(9m 35s) Al:
control everything using controls, but it takes a bit of kind of finiggling around the settings and the, I never got a good, so to, I never got a good two joystick solution working, so I got it working where the left joystick moves your control character around as you would expect, but because of the way that the controls work normally, I couldn’t figure out getting the right joystick to actually control the camera.
(9m 47s) Kevin:
Wow. Right.
(10m 3s) Al:
have to like press another button as well.
(10m 5s)
I don’t know why you have to like press. Like is it not pretty standard that you just use the mouse to move around. You have to like press a button in many games to move the camera.
(10m 6s) Kevin:
Uh huh.
(10m 9s)
Oh.
(10m 12s)
Oh.
(10m 14s)
That’s wild.
(10m 15s)
Oh, that doesn’t sound great.
(10m 28s)
I don’t know. I genuinely do not know, I don’t plan out of my skates.
(10m 33s) Al:
- Well, yeah, me neither.
(10m 35s)
But yeah, so this game is such a weird game.
(10m 41s)
And I don’t enjoy playing on mobile, right?
(10m 44s)
Because I don’t enjoy playing many games like that on mobile.
(10m 47s)
Mobile works best for quick, easy input,
(10m 51s)
not like I’m running around a world playing
(10m 54s)
a cottage core game, right?
(10m 55s)
Like it just does, I don’t like it.
(10m 58s)
But I don’t like playing on my Steam deck either
(11m 1s)
because the controls don’t work well.
(11m 5s)
It’s all to work, but it doesn’t work well.
(11m 7s)
And the other issue is that it’s an always on internet game.
(11m 11s)
So you have to, so like, you’re on your phone, right?
(11m 11s) Kevin:
Oh yeah!
(11m 15s) Al:
Play, play, blah, blah, whatever.
(11m 16s)
Okay, swipe away, I’m going away from the game.
(11m 19s)
I’m going to go do something else.
(11m 21s)
Two minutes later, you come back
(11m 22s)
and you have to reconnect to the server.
(11m 24s)
And it’s like, I just, it doesn’t encourage you
(11m 27s)
to keep playing the game, right?
(11m 29s)
Like it’s meant to be a mobile jump in, jump out game.
(11m 35s)
to the server every time you come to it. I think it’s design. It feels like it’s
(11m 39s) Kevin:
Oh, that’s wild.
(11m 41s) Al:
it feels like it’s designed to be like multiplayer, right? So like it has to refigure out how the world is
(11m 46s)
every time you reconnect. Whereas like, but can you imagine if like you were playing Pokemon Go and
(11m 50s)
you swiped away to go and check a message and you went back into Pokemon Go and it had to relog
(11m 55s)
you in and reconnect to everything. Like it would just it wouldn’t be fun.
(12m) Kevin:
that that sounds good that that reminds me of slight different because it’s the
(12m 7s)
opposite where you know it could be offline but smash bros on 3DS and I think
(12m 12s)
Monster Hunter on the 3DS they would restart the OS every time you started the game
(12m 19s) Al:
So yeah, it’s it’s a weird game heartopia. I I’m not really sure like if you I feel like if you want like an always on internet connected
(12m 28s)
Cartage core game Palia is right there
(12m 32s)
This just feels like a weird
(12m 34s)
Kind of not great version of it. I don’t know maybe I’ll try and put some more time in
(12m 39s)
I’ve not got enough thoughts to do like a proper deep dive into the game at this point like everything is fine
(12m 46s)
but I just don’t enjoy playing it
(12m 49s)
because of all the different control schemes are all not good.
(12m 52s)
But at least I can play it on my steam deck, unlike Sky Harvest.
(12m 52s) Kevin:
Oh, man.
(12m 57s) Al:
Which may as well have just blown my steam deck up.
(13m 2s) Kevin:
Sounds to me like you should have just sat down at your desk and played on your desktop computer.
(13m 6s) Al:
Oh my word, yeah. Yeah. All right. Let’s talk about some news. First up, we have Tom Adachi Life
Game News
Tomodachi Life
(13m 14s) Al:
have announced the game is coming out on the 16th of April and did our 22 minute long direct
(13m 23s)
this week. What do you want to talk about this game? I don’t let me let me give you my first
(13m 30s)
because this is my like first proper impressions of this because like I’ve seen some kind of stuff
(13m 34s)
around the previous games but not
(13m 36s)
really. I finally figured out that it’s it’s just the Sims but silly.
(13m 42s) Kevin:
Yeah, that’s correct. That’s exactly what is I even so for reference
(13m 46s)
I have not played the original Tom about your life Calvin and Melia, but I’m not me
(13m 50s)
But I am aware what it is and yeah, it is just the sims, but silly Nintendo and
(13m 55s) Al:
but like really silly see see when you get the see when you get the overview of the the island
(13m 55s) Kevin:
And and me’s oh, yeah, oh, it’s no holds barred over in Tom Adachi world
(14m 2s)
Your go for whatever
(14m 7s) Al:
about three and a half and nearly four minutes into the gate into the the direct.
(14m 11s)
Just I think that looks a lot like pokopia at that point, that overview. It feels like
(14m 18s)
they’ve got very similar colors and graphics. It doesn’t win you obviously when you zoom in,
(14m 23s)
But just on that overview.
(14m 25s)
of the island view, I looked at it went, oh, it feels like Pocopia, and why is everything
(14m 29s)
an island just now?
(14m 31s) Kevin:
I probably because it’s easier to I don’t know if that’s true at all, but that’s my layman’s guess
(14m 39s)
but but I think it’s because the island is like there’s a lot of square elements. It looks almost
(14m 46s)
pixly just on you know the big overview. That’s probably what it is, but I can see your point
(14m 53s)
but I mean hey that’s only for that moment because you know as it starts filling up it’s clearly
(14m 59s)
Not Tocopia or-
(15m 1s)
Could be, I don’t know, will.
(15m 1s) Al:
Yes, no, no, yeah, no, I get once once you start adding things if he was less like and most of the game
(15m 7s)
You’re not seeing that view, right? You’re not seeing the overview like that
(15m 10s)
It was it was literally just that initial like here’s the island and you’re like, oh goodness that looks like bo-go be alright now
(15m 17s) Kevin:
Yeah
(15m 18s) Al:
Just like a small version of it
(15m 20s) Kevin:
I’ve got to say I think possibly my favorite part of the whole direct is at the start where they have to reintroduce the concept of me’s to the people who don’t know
(15m 31s)
But but yeah, it’s it seems but okay, I’ve never played some either so I can’t make the comparison, but but
(15m 38s)
It how should I put this?
(15m 40s)
I like to really zoomed in moments direct interactions between people. I don’t know if sims is that detailed
(15m 47s) Al:
It is certainly, yeah, I think even in the Sims 2 had some interactions between the characters.
(15m 54s)
I don’t know back then whether you could, like, whether they would happen naturally,
(16m)
you could definitely make it happen. I can’t remember whether the Sims 2 had, like,
(16m 5s)
automatic ones or not, but it certainly does in Sims 3 and 4 they certainly do. They live their whole
(16m 12s)
lives and you can just like direct.
(16m 14s) Kevin:
- Okay.
(16m 18s)
Yeah.
(16m 18s)
Well, I mean, hey, like,
(16m 20s)
I don’t know if I’m gonna get this.
(16m 22s)
It looks good.
(16m 22s)
I’ll say that.
(16m 23s)
Like, it’s bringing all that chaotic energy.
(16m 27s)
And, you know, people who I taught at Shefans,
(16m 29s)
I’m sure you’re eating well,
(16m 30s)
‘cause this is exactly what you want.
(16m 33s)
It’s, you know, add your strong,
(16m 35s)
make me of all your friends and random celebrities
(16m 38s)
and random animal creatures
(16m 40s)
and just have added going chaotic in the world.
(16m 44s)
I like the level of customization.
(16m 46s)
Well, or, you know, variety and stuff like in,
(16m 49s)
so up at least, yeah.
(16m 51s) Al:
Should we talk about gender?
(16m 53s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(16m 54s)
Well, what is there, are we gonna go, whoa.
(16m 56s) Al:
No.
(16m 57s) Kevin:
- Wow.
(16m 58s) Al:
I mean, if people don’t already realize this podcast is woke then I don’t know what to do.
(17m 3s)
I’m obviously not doing my job well enough, but you can be mail, female, or non-binary and then you can choose your dating preferences as any or all or none.
(17m 14s)
This is good.
(17m 14s) Kevin:
it’s, you know what, I think it is the first time in Nintendo history they’ve ever explicitly made those, or at least not binary for sure that’s the first time I believe we’ve ever seen that option, whether or not, ooh me, you know, there’s been a few cases where they’ve dealt with some of the relationships stuff, excuse me, like in Fire Emblem and what, but.
(17m 42s)
But they it’s you know
(17m 44s)
clear steps so that you’ve been for them.
(17m 44s) Al:
But it’s like in in many of those cases. It’s just like you don’t really notice it unless you’re actively trying to do these things, right?
(17m 52s) Kevin:
front den center. It’s the starting options, yep. Yeah, so yeah, it’s pretty cool. I like the
(17m 52s) Al:
Whereas this is like it’s very clearly like hey, this is a thing
(17m 57s)
You know
(18m 3s) Kevin:
elements of like where you can sketch stuff in. The dog, the sketched in dog is really good,
(18m 9s)
just completely flat, always from one camera angle. I like that and you know little elements
(18m 16s)
like putting what’s on the TV or unclothing. Um, I think it’s pretty fun. Yeah.
(18m 22s)
I don’t know. Hugh Morris says taking the internet by storm. Sure. He’s a clown man, I guess.
(18m 29s)
But, uh, but yeah, I don’t know. Looks good. Again, I’m not having played the first one. I can’t get too
(18m 34s)
detailed in thoughts other than it looks good. It looks wild, chaotic, where hot dog costume. There you go.
(18m 41s) Al:
Yeah. All right. Yeah. I mean, I feel like I need to try this.
(18m 49s) Kevin:
Yeah, is there a demo?
(18m 50s) Al:
I’m very glad. Oh, good question.
(18m 53s) Kevin:
Because I believe the original one actually did on 3DS.
(18m 59s) Al:
I can’t see anything any confirmation of a demo,
(19m 5s)
but there are rumors that there might be a demo.
(19m 7s) Kevin:
Yeah, that seems appropriate, expected, hopefully.
(19m 11s) Al:
There’s an image claiming to be a screenshot of the demo.
(19m 17s)
So we will see, I guess.
(19m 19s)
I’m very glad there’s a month and a half
(19m 21s)
between Pocopey are coming out and this coming out.
(19m 24s) Kevin:
Ha ha ha! Well, I’ll still be on PCOP, I’m gonna be PCOP for life, but good for all of you and other people who want to move on and play other games.
(19m 36s) Al:
never said I’m moving on. We can play multiple games. It just gives me a month and a half
(19m 42s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah, you know, I guess so.
(19m 45s) Al:
to hyper focus on book up here. Okay, cool. I think that we could have hyper focused on all
(19m 47s) Kevin:
Ah, there you go.
(19m 56s) Al:
of the details in the trailer, but as neither of us have played the older ones, that feels
(19m 58s) Kevin:
Yeah. Yeah, as, oh, you know what, one, one’s funny.
(20m 1s) Al:
unnecessary and we can just see how the game is once
(20m 8s) Kevin:
I like the buildings, like, you know, the grocery store, the library.
(20m 12s)
I don’t know, just just lots of little details that I like.
(20m 15s)
But anyways, but yeah, again, this is basically an outsider’s perspective.
(20m 19s)
Look, school, thumbs up.
(20m 20s) Al:
Yeah it feels it does feel quite detailed everything right like there’s there’s there’s a lot of different things
(20m 24s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(20m 28s)
Yes, shops and buildings, library with the magic broom, and, and, yeah, yeah, no, I’m, I’m, and yeah, very excited to see our
(20m 31s) Al:
Yeah and decorations and other items and stuff like that
(20m 44s) Kevin:
friends come up with the nonsense and the stories that will, in good, come out of that.
(20m 49s)
Which one of my me’s world romance, who in, in what island I don’t know, we’ll see?
(20m 52s) Al:
Oh yes, we should talk about the weirdness of them disabling, sharing screenshots and screen
(21m 1s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah
(21m 2s) Al:
video from this game, it’s super weird.
(21m 4s) Kevin:
Yeah, that is weird right because me especially are the kind of content you want to share and designs I guess right like
(21m 14s)
Yeah, like share your creations like that’s a very basic common function and it’s a lot of games right Kirby air writers and animal crossing
(21m 23s) Al:
And you want it because it gets people more interested in the game, right?
(21m 26s)
Like, think about how long Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom just stayed in people’s thoughts
(21m 33s)
because they kept seeing these weird videos of people doing nonsense in them.
(21m 34s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(21m 37s)
That’s true.
(21m 38s) Al:
And they’re like, “Oh, we don’t want these things to be shown out of context. Why not?”
(21m 44s)
I don’t understand what you’re expecting here. Like, “Oh no, we don’t want people to think that
(21m 45s) Kevin:
Yeah, I’m pretty sure
(21m 49s) Al:
weird things can happen and weird
(21m 53s)
if you don’t want people to share something that might be a little bit rude
(21m 54s) Kevin:
I was about to say I i don’t think.
(21m 59s)
I don’t think the context helps the situation at all.
(22m 10s) Al:
you’re like people are going to share it if they really want people to see it they’re going to do it
(22m 14s)
they’re just gonna have to do it in a different way like you disable the button in the game
(22m 16s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah
(22m 18s) Al:
it doesn’t stop people from sharing things
(22m 21s) Kevin:
Yeah, oh
(22m 23s)
On the other hand, it’s gonna give a boost to the the YouTube me tutorial panels again. Yeah
(22m 31s) Al:
[laughing]
(22m 35s)
- All right, cool.
(22m 36s) Kevin:
But oh, oh, oh, but would you say that this is perhaps by Nintendo once again making a baffling decision?
(22m 44s) Al:
baffling, baffling decisions. Classic Nintendo, let’s not even talk about dispatch, which may or may not
(22m 47s) Kevin:
Yes
(22m 49s)
We set the clock
(22m 51s) Al:
be Nintendo, we’d still don’t know. All right, next up we have Japanese Ruderal Life, which is a
Japanese Rural Life
(23m) Al:
game that was previously, or still is currently exclusive to Apple Arcade, but there are
(23m 6s)
nights a couple months ago and I missed it at the time that it is going to come to Switch and
(23m 10s)
steam this year. So that’s cool.
(23m 13s) Kevin:
That’s cool. What is the game on looking at it? It looks like Japanese rule Stardew. It’s a farming it
(23m 14s) Al:
It’s a farming game. Japanese is Japanese star. Yeah, pretty much.
(23m 21s) Kevin:
It’s Stardew, but Japan look at those cherry blossoms. That’s it. That’s all I see
(23m 28s) Al:
So yeah, I think we talked about it when it came out on Apple Arcade, but as usual, people don’t play games when they’re on Apple Arcade.
(23m 28s) Kevin:
But we’re weeps
(23m 36s)
Oh, well, yeah, look, I’m not an Apple person. I’ll just leave it at that for and it’s those machines are expensive. That’s that’s that’s my point.
(23m 49s) Al:
Yeah. Yeah. The problem is it is like, do you want to play a subscription for your games?
(23m 49s) Kevin:
That’s that’s that’s that
(23m 56s) Al:
I mean, I guess that’s the whole point of game pass, but for some reason it doesn’t work when Apple
(23m 57s) Kevin:
a lot. I’m a PC and he’s a Mac.
(24m) Al:
do it. I don’t know.
(24m 6s)
I think there’s something specific to cottagecore games that makes me not want to get them
(24m 6s) Kevin:
What’s next?
(24m 11s) Al:
on a subscription because I have bought a game pass three
(24m 19s)
on subscription. I’m going to use it some point this year. And I do like the idea because it’s like, oh,
(24m 21s) Kevin:
Yeah. Yeah.
(24m 24s) Al:
here’s a bunch of games that are on game pass. Let me spend three months playing them all.
(24m 28s)
But the problem is the cottagecore games are designed to put like hundreds of hours over months.
(24m 33s)
I don’t want to keep paying for that. I want to pay once and be done with it and play the game
(24m 38s)
forever, whereas other games like like dispatch that we were talking about, like you could see that
(24m 43s)
sort of thing being on a subscription really good because it’s like, oh, let’s play through the game.
(24m 47s) Kevin:
Yeah. Yep. Yeah. That’s a good point.
(24m 47s) Al:
And then we’re done. We’re done, play, we’re done.
(24m 49s)
I’m finished. Finished with that game and you put it down. And you don’t worry about the fact that you’re never going to be able to play a game without paying more money because well, I’m done with it.
(24m 59s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(24m 59s) Al:
So yeah, super fun. But anyway, yeah, coming to Steam and Switch sometime this year. So we’ll keep you up to date on that.
(25m 4s) Kevin:
All right.
(25m 9s)
(25m 11s) Al:
All right, next we have some secret news that I have not told what Kevin is happening about. So okay.
Sakuna: Of Rice And Ruin: Hinuka’s Spirit Journey
(25m 14s) Kevin:
Secret news.
(25m 17s)
I can’t know about it.
(25m 19s) Al:
Kevin, do you remember, I feel like it was earlier this year, maybe it was late last year. We were given news of a mobile sock in a game.
(25m 20s) Kevin:
Yeah. Yeah.
(25m 27s)
Oh.
(25m 29s)
Yeah. No. No.
(25m 33s)
All right.
(25m 34s) Al:
And at the time, we had no indication as to whether it was going to be coming out outside of Japan.
(25m 41s) Kevin:
Yeah, I like it this time!
(25m 42s) Al:
They’ve announced the release date for the game is next week, fifth of February. And.
(25m 49s)
we still don’t have confirmation as to whether it’s coming outside of Japan. However, the app store entry for the game lists two languages, Japan and English Japanese and English.
(26m 2s) Kevin:
Okay. That is…
(26m 2s) Al:
So there is a distinct possibility that the day after this episode comes out, the new sack in a game comes out and is available in a game.
(26m 11s) Kevin:
Well, think at least it is possible for me to play
(26m 16s) Al:
This is the mobile one. I will now share with you the link to the Play Store for the game.
(26m 16s) Kevin:
We’re talking about the mobile one, right?
(26m 20s)
Yes
(26m 25s) Al:
The Play Store one doesn’t mention English, but presumably if it’s in English,
(26m 30s)
App Store is on Play Store as well, but I don’t think they just don’t have the thing for sharing language on that.
(26m 40s)
I’m presumably that’s because it’s not released yet or something. I don’t know.
(26m 44s)
Wherever it doesn’t say
(26m 46s)
but yeah, that’s a thing the about the game is also has English language in it
(26m 48s) Kevin:
Okay. Oh, man. Oh, man. I’m, uh, well, I’m double excited because well, one, even if I doesn’t get a proper
(26m 54s) Al:
So we there you go
(27m 2s) Kevin:
English release, um, uh, it’s, uh, you know, it’ll be English, it’ll be somewhat accessible. Right.
(27m 10s) Al:
You could do that thing where you’re playing and you have like, was it Google Live Translate
(27m 17s)
on another device and you’re seeing the translations, I’ve done that before.
(27m 17s) Kevin:
Yeah
(27m 21s) Al:
It’s a very awkward way to play, but…
(27m 21s) Kevin:
Yeah, we got that we got that
(27m 26s)
Or or are we past the age where there’s the the game facts translation
(27m 33s)
Where somebody posts the whole game translation on the game facts. We I think we are but anyways
(27m 40s)
Look, there’s there’s there’s war. There’s hope. There’s a sliver of hope
(27m 47s)
Anyways, yeah Wilson
(27m 48s) Al:
But also means we’ve got some screenshots of the game now as well.
(27m 50s) Kevin:
Yeah, it’s it says chibi looking QTR. I don’t know what’s going on. It looks honestly. I’ll know joke
(27m 56s) Al:
[laughing]
(27m 59s) Kevin:
I think it might be a roguelike
(28m 3s)
Because you got a party
(28m 3s) Al:
Well, it’s alright, I wasn’t gonna play it anyway, because it’s not like I enjoyed the first game.
(28m 5s) Kevin:
Yeah, fine fine fair, but there’s a lot of numbers. There’s a party
(28m 7s) Al:
[laughing]
(28m 11s)
It’s like, “Oh, no, they took a game I didn’t like and made it more than I didn’t like!”
(28m 17s) Kevin:
Let’s just tell if I work and on this that’s interesting
(28m 21s)
That there’s a non-zero chance Godzilla will show up
(28m 27s) Al:
They also I don’t know whether this is just like a translation thing, but they appear to have renamed to it was Henuka’s pilgrimage.
(28m 35s)
I know it seems to be Henuka’s spirit journey, but that might just be a weird translation issue and it actually is pilgrimage because a spirit journey is a pilgrimage, like that’s what it is.
(28m 39s) Kevin:
That sounds
(28m 43s)
Yeah, that’s what it sounds like translation labels
(28m 45s) Al:
So yeah, if they do, if they do release it in English presumably will have a properly translated name on the actual store at some point.
(28m 52s) Kevin:
Yeah
(28m 56s)
So I’m double excited because obviously yeah, this is cool and thrilling. There might be a chance
(29m 2s)
But also because I was just Google trying to find the news as we brought it up
(29m 6s)
I forgot they’re also working on on the
(29m 9s)
another game on Coca-Cola, marvelous. I don’t remember that, but I just saw that and like, oh, I forgot about that. I’m excited.
(29m 18s) Al:
And there was also one other thing is that they’ve said this, there is a steam version of the game coming at some point in the future as well.
(29m 24s) Kevin:
Ooh! All right, I probably will play this at some point. To tune in for the full Let’s Play, where I I rope Liam into translate for me live as I blame. I love sucking. All right. Next up, water is wet. It’s cold outside in the US.
Haunted Chocolatier
(29m 43s) Al:
all right yeah yeah so so okay so uh it looks like concern tape got fed up of
(29m 55s)
people talking about the game and he’s like I want to chocolates here that is
(29m 59s)
and says right I’m gonna give you some more information so I’m just gonna read
(30m 4s)
a bunch of stuff from this blog post um the title is update I’m still
(30m 9s)
working like always.
(30m 10s) Kevin:
there it is water is what what
(30m 13s) Al:
Hey, everyone. Good news. I’ve been very productive lately on Honda Chocolate here. Here’s a screenshot of what looks like a fishing shop of some kind or something like that. Maybe not fishing. It’s got a workbench and we’ve got some stuff on the wall, but there’s a Marlin on the wall.
(30m 32s)
A guy that looks like he could be the, or what’s his name, the guy who runs the monster thing in Stardew.
(30m 40s) Kevin:
Oh, yeah, he’s got an eye patch. I forget the the guy outside the mines. I forget his name
(30m 44s) Al:
Adventurers Guild.
(30m 46s) Kevin:
Yeah, that’s the one
(30m 49s)
But he has a hoodie now, um, I don’t remember those that is name
(30m 51s) Al:
Marlon. Apparently that’s his name. So is that just, I don’t know, because it’s not just
(30m 55s) Kevin:
Yeah, so is it that guy is he connected universe?
(30m 59s) Al:
the eye patch. It’s also, it’s also he’s got the same facial hair. And the eye, yeah,
(31m 2s) Kevin:
It does and the eye patch that is pretty specific
(31m 5s) Al:
he could, and there’s a Marlon above him. So it’s not a hint that this is actually Marlon.
(31m 11s) Kevin:
Huh? That’d be fun. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! (laughs) That’s what we do?
(31m 16s) Al:
Am I reading too much into this? Probably. Then he says, yep, it’s take.
(31m 21s)
it’s taking a while to finish the game. That’s okay. Spelt incorrectly. Then we have another screenshot
(31m 28s)
of the player character at a little pond with a waterfall going into it. And it looks like we’re
(31m 35s)
being attacked by a bear.
(31m 38s) Kevin:
Okay, to be clear this is not a big giant grizzly bear. It looks like a small round thing
(31m 46s)
But does look like a bit technically it’s from behind it could be a different animal front who knows, but it is bear as those bear ears
(31m 52s)
They’re oh wait. No, they have the animation underneath. That’s
(31m 56s)
It’s a it’s
(31m 58s)
What’s a it’s a chunk but bear. That’s what it is. It’s a round thing with legs and ears. That’s what it is. There’s no neck
(32m 2s) Al:
Yes. Yeah. Yeah, we got a little 3D version.
(32m 6s) Kevin:
It’s the head body thing
(32m 8s)
It’s what it looks like a bare thing right
(32m 9s) Al:
It’s a bare head with a tail and legs.
(32m 12s) Kevin:
Yeah, that’s what it looked that that’s what it is. You’re being attacked by that you’re holding up a stick
(32m 17s)
I don’t know what that’s doing in this situation, but
(32m 20s) Al:
It looks like you’ve been like taken you’ve been shocked by this like you’ve got like oh no
(32m 24s) Kevin:
Yeah, or you’re telling it to go to the left you’re trying to direct the bears and it is a work shake take your pig
(32m 32s) Al:
Then he says I know I know I shouldn’t have announced the game so early, but I had my reasons I
(32m 37s) Kevin:
Yeah, he was excited
(32m 37s) Al:
Suspect those reasons are well. Yeah, so the reasons one is excited and two because if we know about the game
(32m 43s)
It makes them work quicker theoretically, but who knows
(32m 46s) Kevin:
Nah
(32m 47s) Al:
And then we have some portrait
(32m 48s) Kevin:
Game the greatest motivator of all
(32m 50s) Al:
and sprites of the three characters, including the one in the shop that we saw before, which the beard is more fuller than this than Marlon’s one. So maybe it’s not Marlon, but he does look very similar.
(33m 8s)
Like I just I feel like it is too similar not to be related in some way. He just literally just like Marlon with more beard and a hood-up.
(33m 20s)
But no, I don’t think it is because the hood would do that to the hair. He just looks so, he also looks very suspicious. We then have a blonde-haired lady with a green dress on, who I mean, will be the, you know, archetype of a specific kind of person in the town.
(33m 20s) Kevin:
And that the hair is slightly different, but I can’t be art related, I don’t know, but it’s like it.
(33m 28s)
I guess so, it does feel a lot like Marlin.
(33m 32s)
It’s his brother, Marlin, with an eye.
(33m 50s) Al:
You know, presumably some, she’ll be somebody’s daughter, and then we have a judge or, I don’t know, he’s waiting judge here.
(33m 50s) Kevin:
Yeah, we’ll see well, she made a dateable. I don’t know
(33m 55s)
Yep
(33m 57s)
Yeah, I
(34m)
Thought it was like a botler
(34m 3s)
He looks he’s he looks like a party at judge hair powdered wig with the curls on the side
(34m 8s) Al:
Yeah. I mean, maybe, maybe like Thomas Jefferson.
(34m 8s) Kevin:
I don’t know somebody, you know, not pompous, but
(34m 14s)
Yeah, something like that. Yeah, it does look like it could be Thomas Jefferson in the game
(34m 20s) Al:
I would not, I would not vote again, then I would not bet against that.
(34m 21s) Kevin:
Oh
(34m 25s)
Yeah, yeah, no, I wouldn’t either. Yeah, no, all right
(34m 29s) Al:
And then he says to debunk a few myths and false assumptions I’ve seen, quote, haunted chocolate here will be abandoned and the content will be added to Stardew Valley instead. No, first, first, I am not going to abandon haunted chocolate here, but even if I did, I’m not going to add it to Stardew Valley, Stardew Valley and haunted chocolate here separate games.
(34m 47s)
It doesn’t even make, this is such a developer way of saying.
(34m 47s) Kevin:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
(34m 50s) Al:
It doesn’t even make sense from a technical perspective as something to talk with here is written from scratch.
(34m 54s)
It’s not the same engine as Stardew Valley, you can’t just copy and paste onto chocolate ear into Stardew Valley.
(34m 58s) Kevin:
That’s a lie. We all know that’s a lie.
(35m 1s) Al:
I just, I just love that he’s like, I couldn’t even do it if I wanted to.
(35m 7s)
I’m not, I’m not going to, I don’t want to, but even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.
(35m 13s) Kevin:
I love all these. Love all these questions.
(35m 14s) Al:
Quote, the Stardew Valley updates are being used to test out ideas for haunted chocolate ear. Nope.
(35m 20s)
When, when working, I just love that he’s just like, all I, I’m just going to, I’m just going to call you all out here.
(35m 25s)
Nope, when working on Stardew Valley, I’m not thinking about haunted chocolate ear and vice versa.
(35m 29s)
I wouldn’t test something out in Stardew Valley because that would be unfair to Stardew Valley.
(35m 33s)
And also, I don’t want to spoil ideas for haunted chocolate ear, but adding them first to Stardew Valley.
(35m 39s)
Also, Stardew Valley is a different game. So you can’t really test something for a haunted chocolate ear in an accurate way.
(35m 45s)
accurate weight. This makes it sound like it’s going to be more significantly different
(35m 50s)
from starchy than people might have been expecting.
(35m 52s) Kevin:
Well, I mean, here’s the thing in on all reality. Like in all honesty. So I mean, no, he’s dedicated his life to start you or whatever
(35m 59s)
But this is his first second game. So what that means we don’t actually know. So
(36m 5s)
Mm-hmm. Also, Stardew has so much like, you know, that could mean anything for a sequel, you know
(36m 6s) Al:
can set quote concern yeah yeah well true quote concern tape is working on a new
(36m 15s)
starchy valley update because he’s burnt out and haunted chocolate here no I’m
(36m 19s)
working on a new starchy valley update because it’s a very popular game with a
(36m 23s)
large ever-growing playerbase and I still have additional ideas under for how to
(36m 26s)
improve it and quote concern tape says it’s not coming out until 2030 I didn’t
(36m 31s)
say that I was asked in 2025 if it would come out within the next five
(36m 36s)
said I hope so this is very different than saying it’s coming out in 2030
(36m 40s)
the bottom line is I don’t want to give a release date the game will come out
(36m 43s)
when it’s done anyway the only thing that really matters is that I keep
(36m 48s)
making progress on the game and release so I’m going to get back to doing that now
(36m 52s)
thank you ape TLDR I’m alive the game is still in development and it will come
(36m 57s)
out when it’s ready thank you for your patience which it definitely feels
(37m 1s) Kevin:
And search.
(37m 2s) Al:
passive aggressive there. The whole post is the whole post is
(37m 5s) Kevin:
And certain day versus the internet, it’s incredible.
(37m 6s) Al:
shot up and let me make the game and then he says thank you for your patience.
(37m 15s) Kevin:
Okay, so again, in the big scheme of things, we’ve gotten almost nothing still in terms of information on the game.
(37m 23s)
Just a few more screenshots and peaks and stuff.
(37m 27s)
But you know what? You know what I find really, but it’s still like the most he’s ever said on the
(37m 31s)
game it feels like, um, and you know what’s really funny and all this, not a
(37m 37s)
crop of crocklet to be seen. Not a drop!
(37m 40s) Al:
Hmm. Interesting. I suspect that’s deliberate. It doesn’t want to give away how the chocolate
(37m 46s) Kevin:
Does it want to give away the in-depth chocolate making mechanics, which
(37m 46s) Al:
stuff works. Like, these screenshots are very, very particular and chosen to not give
(37m 50s) Kevin:
probably actually is very true. I say that snarkly, but
(37m 59s) Al:
anything away while also giving you something. So yeah, I, I
(38m 1s) Kevin:
I don’t see ghosts either unless it’s the gross of Thomas Jefferson
(38m 10s) Al:
I mean, I don’t think we’ve got any new information here, except from the screenshots
(38m 15s)
because we were all just assuming that anyway, right? Sensible people were just assuming
(38m 20s)
all of this stuff that he can’t stop doing stardew because he just can’t stop himself,
(38m 22s) Kevin:
Yes. Oh, yeah.
(38m 25s) Al:
that he clearly just wants to make the game. He announced it too early, but that’s just
(38m 31s)
what he does, right? Like, he announced stardew 1.7 and we know it’s not coming out this
(38m 33s) Kevin:
This is yeah, yeah
(38m 37s) Al:
here, right? Like he just announces things to
(38m 40s)
us. And then he says, “Hey, I’m going to go to the
(38m 44s) Kevin:
And the funny thing is unlike say the the silk song people which were you know different story begin part because money had been given to them up front
(38m 54s)
you know and Sunday delivers like clearly he delivers consistently and constantly like you know you and I
(39m 3s)
being reasonable level headed like we know he’s gonna deliver and we’re not doubting any of this but it is just it’s funny to see. It’s funny to see people screaming crying the internet and he’s just so fed up be responding. Oh
(39m 14s) Al:
Yeah, I love that this has it’s been five years now since he announced it right and he’s and he’s finally got to the point when he can’t deal with people anymore
(39m 23s)
And he’s just like oh my word would you just let me play the game?
(39m 27s) Kevin:
You know, oh
(39m 29s) Al:
Sorry four and a half
(39m 31s) Kevin:
Okay, you know what here’s
(39m 34s)
This just makes me think of random question. We probably discussed it before, but you know looking at it now where we are
(39m 40s)
five years in
(39m 41s)
How big do you think this game is like is it gonna be start-to-base or is it gonna be start-to-base plus a couple of updates?
(39m 47s) Al:
ooh, that’s a good question. So obviously, as he says, they are not the same game and so therefore trying to be like, oh, it’ll have this feature or whatever doesn’t make any sense, right?
(39m 54s) Kevin:
Yeah
(39m 58s)
Yeah, yeah
(39m 59s) Al:
But based on the fact that they’ll presumably both be life sims of some kind and obviously systems will be different, but also can kind of be the same in some way.
(40m 5s) Kevin:
Yeah
(40m 10s) Al:
I, I suspect there are a lot of like quality of life features that might be the same.
(40m 10s) Kevin:
It’s actually a rhythm game
(40m 17s) Al:
It might exist in Stardew that I don’t think he could realistically feel like he could release the game without them because they’re something that you would expect.
(40m 19s) Kevin:
Sure
(40m 27s) Al:
However, in terms of like, obviously most of the like story and stuff is specific to Stardew, so it wouldn’t make any sense to be like, oh, well, it has this much.
(40m 37s)
I feel like map wise, it’s got to be at least as big as Stardew because of how he’s kind of expected.
(40m 47s)
Yeah, I don’t know. That’s a good question.
(40m 47s) Kevin:
Mm-hmm. Sounds to me like he lied and he’s just using Stardew to test for schmuck. (laughs)
(40m 54s)
[laughs]
(40m 56s)
Yeah. I’m curious, ‘cause I, when did he start working on Stardew? I don’t do we know that? I don’t know.
(41m 5s) Al:
2014 I think is what he said is written here. He did right. Give me two seconds. It is on Wikipedia with like a.
(41m 12s) Kevin:
Yeah, because at the very least, it feels like a shorter gap between starting and starting
(41m 19s)
to its release, you know?
(41m 20s) Al:
Yeah, so might be 20 or 11 no 20 he’s so he publicly announced it in 2012 and then first version came out in 2016, right? So that’s four years
(41m 33s) Kevin:
Yeah. Yeah. Which, yeah. So, so, so I make you wonder like.
(41m 37s) Al:
But he so 2012 was when he announced it, but he
(41m 42s)
graduated from University in 2011 and wasn’t able to get a job so presumably in 2011 at some point as
(41m 50s)
when he started if he announced it in 2012, so we’re talking five years from starting to release and
(41m 53s) Kevin:
Yeah, so.
(41m 59s)
Okay, so.
(42m) Al:
we’re near we’re a four and a half years from announcement at this point and obviously he was
(42m 5s)
working on it before announcement. So it’s definitely be in development longer, much longer than
(42m 8s) Kevin:
yeah so when it when it releases in 2030 like you said um it’s going to be three times as much
(42m 12s) Al:
starchy. I do.
(42m 18s) Kevin:
development so it has to be at least three times as big of that logic
(42m 21s) Al:
I just feel like if you’re going to if you’re going to go if you’re going to go for 2030 just wait an extra year and have it on the 10th anniversary of the announcement, right? Like at that point.
(42m 31s) Kevin:
Oh, dude. You know, it was the worst one of those ever. Final fantasy 15 came out in 2016, if I recall correctly, which was right in between the year, you know, 2015, which would have been appropriate, right?
(42m 49s)
And 2017, which was the 30th anniversary of Final Fantasy. It’s just an original, I think it was originally meant for 2015, but to get the land, but it.
(43m 1s)
was really funny. They don’t miss both. Anyways, anyways, yeah. Oh, soccer.
(43m 4s) Al:
Anyway, yeah, haunted chocolate here. Still in development. Not abandoned.
New Games
(43m 11s) Al:
We also have one new game to talk about. This is called fossil quest. You have always dreamt
Fossil Quest
(43m 17s) Kevin:
This is my apico!
(43m 20s) Al:
of creating your own dinosaur museum. I’m just talking to Kevin here, right?
(43m 24s) Kevin:
I have!
(43m 25s)
Yes, I have!
(43m 27s) Al:
And now you finally have the space to do it. That’s not true. Dig for fossils,
(43m 30s) Kevin:
Finally!
(43m 32s) Al:
Assemble your exhibits and create.
(43m 34s)
The museum of your dreams in this relaxing wholesome life set.
(43m 39s) Kevin:
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!
(43m 41s)
That is very exciting!
(43m 43s) Al:
It’s basically the, it’s the museum from Animal Crossing. The game.
(43m 43s) Kevin:
So, I was…
(43m 47s)
Yeah, yeah, and I’m down for…
(43m 49s) Al:
But, but you get, but the digging mechanic looks quite, kind of, how do I describe this? It looks
(43m 56s)
kind of like, what was that game? What was the digging game? Like, old arcade digging game?
(44m 2s) Kevin:
I’m getting dog, guys, but say, yeah, that’s what I’m playing to go, to be honest. But I have played special. There’s a deep butt. Are you familiar with Spectro’s out? Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh my gosh, we’re gonna get a minute. So I got Spectros. Okay. Originally, first one, I think was. No, Spectro’s it’s a game.
(44m 3s) Al:
It’s another one I’m talking about. Dig-Dog.
(44m 6s)
It looks like dig-dog.
(44m 25s)
How’s that? Is that spec-trass? Is that what you’re saying?
(44m 30s)
Spell it for me?
(44m 32s) Kevin:
P, E, C, E, R, O, B, E, let’s expect. And then, yeah, yeah, there was a game made by Disney. It’s a Disney IP of all things back when they were trying to do video games.
(44m 36s) Al:
Oh, spec-trubs, right? Okay, cool. Got you. Got you.
(44m 46s) Kevin:
And it was a monster collector, but you got the monsters by digging up fossils.
(44m 51s)
And the fossil mechanic, very similar to this, because you, you know, you rotate the cameras like 3D and you’re digging off the bits and dirt and the rock off the actual fossil part.
(45m 2s)
Anyways, I’m, I’m madly in love with this. So I have a deep, like, we all know Spencer’s is the dinosaur kaiju man, but like, I don’t talk about it that much, but I still have deep, deep passion for dinosaurs and fossils and dinosaurs. I said it twice, but I don’t care.
(45m 21s)
I’m so excited by this. This, this genuinely excited of organizing fossils, like, they show that like, organize as, as you know, the highlight and like, yeah, yeah, I don’t want to organize.
(45m 32s)
It’s a fun fact. One of, I would say one of my most prized material possessions. I actually have a triceratops room before triceratops room fossil. Yeah, good, good stuff. I’m excited.
(45m 46s) Al:
Cool. I have one of those, um, uh, obviously fake ones that you got, like, like a, like a
(45m 55s)
thing is, um, I can’t even remember what it’s called. It’s like the little, kind of fan-shaped
(46m 1s)
fossil, I can’t remember, but it’s, it’s like clearly a mass-produced fake version of it,
(46m 6s) Kevin:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’m excited though. Like, the game looks relatively small and
(46m 6s) Al:
rather than an agile, because you’re like, you have like a hundred of them sitting in a box at a
(46m 11s)
Museum tape.
(46m 19s) Kevin:
scale or whatever, but I don’t care. Like, I will say the fossil parts look very detailed. Like,
(46m 24s)
you know, they’re going all in on descriptions and when you get up close, it looks very detailed
(46m 29s)
visually. Um, as opposed to like the more, you know, QT zoomed out the posy life symbol.
(46m 36s)
Part where you’re running the museum. But, um, yeah, this looks like a game made by people who
(46m 40s)
will care about fossils. And you know what? That’s red. Let’s do it. When’s it coming out? Do we have a date?
(46m 45s) Al:
We do not. Oh, yes, that’s what I meant to say about this this in at
(46m 51s)
What they say in the description. Let me find it for you. This game
(46m 56s) Kevin:
early stages of the battle.
(46m 57s) Al:
There’s fossil quest is in his early stages of development
(47m)
We currently have a public free prototype on itch where you can play and send us feedback
(47m 3s)
We’ll be updating the prototype when you content
(47m 6s)
Periodically the game is being made by a small husband and wife team
(47m 9s)
Which I can’t get over the idea of it being a team of small of a small husband and wife
(47m 16s)
And it’s completely independent and self-funded
(47m 16s) Kevin:
There’s a post of the large teams of husbands.
(47m 20s)
You’ll go, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, that part, too, or just the husband is small.
(47m 21s) Al:
No, no, no, not the not large team large not small team small husband and small wife in a team
(47m 29s)
I just couldn’t get over the idea that’s what they were saying like oh, we’re the team of a small husband and a small wife
(47m 35s)
So I will I will include
(47m 38s) Kevin:
It’s a good sport, J. It’s actually what you’re referring to.
(47m 41s) Al:
A small husband and a large wife I
(47m 45s)
Will include the link to the itch page as well if anybody wants to try out the demo
(47m 47s) Kevin:
Good, because I am very me, that is actually probably going to be me.
(47m 55s)
Oh, yeah.
(47m 57s)
Oh, look, I know game dev is hard.
(48m)
I want you guys to do well, but I’m going to be, you know, holding it.
(48m 5s)
I’m going to be pressuring them.
(48m 6s)
This one can’t die.
(48m 6s) Al:
[laughs]
(48m 7s) Kevin:
No, not this one.
(48m 9s)
This is my haunted chocolate here.
(48m 10s) Al:
Oh, righty.
(48m 12s)
That’s– well, that’s the news.
(48m 12s) Kevin:
[laughs]
(48m 15s) Al:
Woo.
(48m 16s) Kevin:
Woo-hoo, we did it.
(48m 18s) Al:
I think Hunter Chocolate here is only taking as long
(48m 18s) Kevin:
Yeah, I don’t see it.
(48m 20s) Al:
as it does because Stardew made him so much money.
(48m 23s)
Right, like Stardew had to be made quicker
(48m 23s) Kevin:
Yeah.
(48m 25s) Al:
because he needed money.
(48m 26s)
[laughs]
(48m 27s) Kevin:
[laughs]
Bubblegum Galaxy
(48m 30s) Al:
All right, I’m going to talk about the Bubblegum Galaxy demo.
(48m 34s)
We talked about this couple of times here.
(48m 36s)
The game is coming out on the 12th of March in which we talked about the last episode, but they do have a demo available now, and it’s it’s a pretty contained demo, and maybe spent about an hour, an hour and a half and completed the content on the demo.
(48m 44s) Kevin:
Oh, this one!
(48m 58s) Al:
It is got two parts to it as we know there’s the like kind of puzzle game with the hexagons that you’re putting together.
(49m 6s)
And then there’s the you are a person in a world going around an office and basically the concept is that this is your job your job is to make these planets with these hexagons on your computer.
(49m 22s)
The actual there’s much more of the actual puzzle gameplay than there is the rest of the game in the demo, and the demo basically starts off with you getting.
(49m 36s)
The tutorial and then at the end of the tutorial your gate your computer crashes and that’s the kind of majority of the story outside of the puzzles is you’re like, oh no, the computer’s crash you have to go and talk to people in the office and then you can then start like someone resets the system and you can start doing the puzzle the get the planets again.
(50m)
There’s not a huge amount to that the rest of that story in the demo, but I’m guessing there’s more.
(50m 6s)
To that in the actual game like it feels like it’s set up to actually have some sort of story.
(50m 13s)
But I’m not really sure why it feels almost like, so do you remember my complaints about Mario Rabbid’s games.
(50m 22s) Kevin:
the movement felt weird, didn’t it, very far?
(50m 24s) Al:
Well, so basically I loved the actual like X-Con battle style battles that you did right they were really fun, but then you had to between all of those levels you had to like do this.
(50m 30s) Kevin:
Yeah. Oh, the puzzle part, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, yes.
(50m 36s) Al:
another version of the game which is where you’re traveling through this world and bad platforming and weird puzzles just to get to the next part of the game that I actually enjoyed and I really kind of feels like that.
(50m 38s) Kevin:
Bad platforming. Yeah.
(50m 44s)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, remember that.
(50m 48s) Al:
Well, you’re just like here’s a here’s a list of puzzles that you can do and then after you’ve done one you get to run around an office for a while before you do the next one and it just it seems a little bit disconnected.
(51m 2s)
But it’s possibly very little of it was
(51m 6s)
required, right? Like after the tutorial, you’re required to go and talk to a bunch of people before you can do any more, but the rest of them
(51m 13s)
I generally could just jump into the next level straight away. So maybe it’s not really the same the same
(51m 20s)
The I don’t know it’s hard to know without playing the full game. I did enjoy the puzzles
(51m 25s)
and I do feel like it’s probably not something that could grab me for an entire game
(51m 32s)
but the puzzles are, the idea behind it is.
(51m 36s)
You have these tiles, you get like three at a time and you have to decide where to put them on your board and
(51m 43s)
There’s like a limited number of puzzles of tiles you get throughout your whole puzzle
(51m 48s)
But you only have three at a time, right? And you go, this is the one I’m gonna put down and
(51m 53s)
Then you have you have to get specific achievements, right? You have to have like
(52m)
certain number of
(52m 2s)
flowers or a certain size of grid or you have to
(52m 6s)
feel like connect to points or some tiles are glitched and you can fix them by
(52m 11s)
completely surrounding them so you have to like fix three glitches or there’s a
(52m 15s)
whole bunch of like possible things that you can do and to complete the
(52m 19s)
puzzle you have to do them all without running out of tiles and then obviously
(52m 23s)
your score is based on how many tiles you have left at the end and also every
(52m 27s)
tile you put down has a certain amount of score based on like connecting similar
(52m 31s)
things right so if you got flowers on one tile you want to have another tile
(52m 35s)
next to it that also has
(52m 36s)
the sun. So you can get the idea of what the puzzle.
(52m 40s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah, I imagine so something like that right clever lay out basically the puzzle of game
(52m 50s)
Which I’m I’m down for that sense
(52m 53s)
That sounds fun
(52m 56s)
Like overall like I this is the thing we’re just talking about it demo, right?
(53m)
It’s hard to to fully gauge with the full-scale the ink because I still think there’s a lot of
(53m 7s)
Just from the visual like the trailer, I still think the
(53m 10s)
almost 3DS looking visuals of the the you know office part is charming and that being
(53m 16s)
engaging sure probably could be a good character writing but I don’t know if that’s going to be
(53m 20s)
the case so I don’t know it’s hard to say and I imagine how I can feel very disgoing to it right because
(53m 27s)
you know you’re not seeing like the puzzle parts just a completely different screen everything else is
(53m 32s)
gone so I get how that can feel disjointed and it’s it’s totally tricky to make you know balance it
(53m 38s)
that make it feel, you know.
(53m 41s)
integrated well or whatever, so that’s that’s a tough ask, but
(53m 44s)
But again, it’s just just to them all right. So fingers still crossed. Um, I mean at least it works, right?
(53m 54s)
We’re really certain some bass line benchmarks here. Um, I’d be curious on my one try the puzzle enough says me send
(54m 3s) Al:
it’s it’s it’s definitely a fun enough demo to play I think it’s if it makes you think at all
(54m 12s)
like this then you know would be would be good and it’s kind of self-contained enough that you’re
(54m 20s)
not going to feel like you have to put in hours and hours to get an idea of what it is like
(54m 26s)
it’s you’ve not got much more than an hour in in the game in the demo to complete all
(54m 33s)
the content you can I think then you can replay the levels and try and get higher scores and
(54m 39s)
stuff like that so you could put in more hours into it if you wanted but
(54m 42s) Kevin:
Sure sure. Yeah, I will see I guess the hope is
(54m 47s)
Like and the puzzles are good enough. It sounds like they’re solid enough like I
(54m 50s)
Just hope that it doesn’t feel like it should have just been a list of puzzles, you know
(54m 55s)
The other parts good enough
(54m 57s)
The office part
(54m 58s)
Why are you cat with the house on your head? Is that explaining that demo?
(55m 2s) Al:
No.
(55m 2s) Kevin:
Start probably will never be explained. That’s fine, but I was curious
(55m 7s) Al:
Yeah, it’s fun.
(55m 10s)
I do, as I say, I’m unsure as to whether I would be wanting to play a full version of this game.
(55m 19s)
But I guess that’s always my problem with puzzle games, right?
(55m 23s)
I start puzzle games and I do a bunch of them and then I’m like, okay, I get the concept done now.
(55m 29s)
- You know.
(55m 30s) Kevin:
Yeah sure fair enough. I saw.
(55m 33s) Al:
But if you like puzzle games, it seems like if you like puzzle games,
(55m 37s)
download the demo, see if it’s enough puzzle-y for you, I think.
(55m 41s) Kevin:
Yeah, all right.
(55m 43s) Al:
Alright, I think that’s everything to say about it, because it’s just a demo, as you see.
(55m 46s) Kevin:
Oh, it’s just a demo.
(55m 48s) Al:
But fun to get an idea.
(55m 48s) Kevin:
That’s, that’s the thing, the big asterisk on the whole situation.
(55m 52s) Al:
I’m trying to play more demos, because I feel like if you play a demo, it feels like you get an idea of the game without…
(55m 59s)
I’m more likely to buy a game and not play it.
(56m 2s)
Where is I? I’m more likely to actually play a demo, so we’re going to try and play more demos this year.
(56m 3s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah, that’s that’s a good point. That’s great. We look at it. Yeah, demos are good. That’s off to the people who make
Outro
(56m 14s) Al:
- Agreed.
(56m 15s)
Kevin, thank you for joining me for this podcast.
(56m 17s)
Is there anything you would like to share with the audience?
(56m 20s) Kevin:
I’d like to share that. I downloaded also Quest demo on it or whatever. That’s already done.
(56m 28s) Al:
Nice, nice. So we’re going to get information from you on that next week, then.
(56m 31s) Kevin:
Oh, wait, 20 minutes. I have information.
(56m 35s) Al:
I want to go to bed, I’ll be honest with you.
(56m 37s) Kevin:
No, no, that’s fine. That’s fine. Um, but yeah, I’m Cooper is at whatever. I’m out there.
(56m 42s)
Oh, but that’s all I got. Oh, I also like to share. I got the one guess word on yesterday. Look at
(56m 49s)
Look out.
(56m 50s) Al:
Whoo, what was it?
(56m 50s) Kevin:
I am a completely lucky.
(56m 55s)
The word was jumbo.
(56m 56s) Al:
What was the word?
(56m 59s)
Jumbo!
(57m) Kevin:
What about you?
(57m 2s)
What are people to look at your things?
(57m 3s) Al:
Well, you can find the podcast on Tumblr and on blue sky at THS pod. You can send us feedback from our website
(57m 11s)
Harvestseason.club
(57m 12s) Kevin:
Do it, it’s exciting.
(57m 13s) Al:
We love it when we get feedback.
(57m 16s)
Tell us what damma was you’ve been playing for games. It doesn’t have to
(57m 20s)
be called to score again, you can tell there’s any demos you’ve been playing. You can also on the website find links to everything to do with the podcast, including a link to our patreon where you can get access to our slack. What have we been talking about? Oh yeah, we were talking about a burns night Stuart was sharing their pick
(57m 40s) Kevin:
I’ll be honest. I’ll be honest. I don’t know what it is. I didn’t look it up.
(57m 45s) Al:
It’s just a Scottish holiday.
(57m 46s) Kevin:
Yeah, that’s what I gathered, but I didn’t
(57m 49s)
didn’t do it. Yeah, all right. All right. Well, in the food.
(57m 53s) Al:
And then we got, we got pictures of cats as well from Johnny.
(57m 57s) Kevin:
Yeah, oh, yeah, Johnny is pets.
(57m 59s)
Two of them. That’s that’s really go to patreon.com. So let’s teach us what whatever he just said to go see what kind of cats. They are. I will not reveal it.
(58m 10s)
There’s your incentive alone. Join the slack. Find out the cat mystery. Solve it. You’ll, you’ll only be better for it. I promise.
(58m 19s) Al:
You can also get access to our bonus episodes of the podcast.
(58m 21s)
We should have one coming up soon, predicting,
(58m 23s) Kevin:
Oh, I mean, we have to.
(58m 24s) Al:
predicting what’s happening for Pokemon.
(58m 28s) Kevin:
Oh, man. I mean, yeah, I’m excited. Those are always fun because we get ridiculous.
(58m 36s) Al:
That’s that’s the fun. I think that’s everything then. Thank you Kevin for joining me
(58m 41s) Kevin:
Thank you all for having me on.
(58m 42s) Al:
Thank you listeners for listening and until next time have a good harvest
(58m 45s) Kevin:
Good harvest, woo!
(58m 48s) Theme Tune:
The Harvest Season is created by Alma Henry with support from our patrons, including our
(58m 57s)
pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart, and Alisa.
(59m 1s)
Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Brutus.
(59m 6s)
Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club for show notes and links to things we
(59m 11s)
discussed in this episode.
(59m 18s)
[Music]
(59m 21s) Al:
I’m just like I’m constantly thinking about book Monday because we’re now less than month away.
(59m 27s) Kevin:
Yeah
(59m 27s) Al:
And I remember many have been big disappointments and many have been not big disappointments
(59m 32s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah
(59m 34s) Al:
and I wonder which this will be and I feel like it needs to be not a big disappointment because
(59m 36s) Kevin:
So here’s a fit
(59m 39s) Al:
it’s 30th anniversary.
(59m 39s) Kevin:
It’s it’s Pokemon 30
(59m 40s) Al:
They’re going to make like half of their money this year.
(59m 42s) Kevin:
Yeah, yeah, that’s the thing, right? Like
(59m 43s) Al:
Like if they play their cards right, they could make all of the money.
(59m 49s) Kevin:
And here’s the thing I think Pokemon 20 like you remember that Pokemon day when they revealed Sun and Moon and a whole bunch of other stuff
(59m 57s)
Like that was Pokemon go that year to have
(59m 59s) Al:
year of legendary. That’s what they called it. Was it mythical?
(1h) Kevin:
The year of no mythicals mythicals
(1h 4s)
Yeah, I was mythicals
(1h 5s)
Like that was a banger year and I think that’s kind of what really kick started a whole Pokemon day thing because they were kind of doing before
(1h 12s)
But that’s when they’re like no, we’re locking in so yeah expectations are gonna be big so here. Here’s my guess
(1h 18s)
I think the expert
(1h 20s)
Because the expectations are so big it’s gonna be a let them
(1h 24s) Al:
Possibly possible
(1h 28s) Kevin:
Unless they are now Pokemon separate or not tuning for the episode
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