Farm Fresh
Wind Story
I've become the resident farming sim expert, a title that I am happy to hold. It means I've seen a lot of different approaches to the genre: a farming sim but you're a fairy and use magic, a farming sim where you also raise dinosaurs, a farming sim that's also bitcoin for some reason. Wind Story has a compelling 'farming sim but it's also…' premise; it promises that you can make additions to your ranch like 'accommodations, windmills, power houses, and restaurants' and ultimately expand it into an amusement park.
Read more »Dinkum
Farming simulators are, in many ways, colonisation simulators. You show up to an empty overgrown location, you cut down trees and mine for minerals, and you set up agriculture and infrastructure. Progress in a farming simulator is not based on protecting the natural environment—it's based on manipulating it to your own ends. This isn't inherently a criticism: it's a videogame, not reality, and we can enjoy ourselves while recognising that turning overgrown environments into tidy rows of crops is not something we should necessarily aspire to in our daily lives.
Read more »Tiny Garden
In many ways, Tiny Garden is exactly what you'd expect from a farming sim: you grow crops and other plants and use the profits to customise your garden and adjoining home. What sets this game apart is that the garden exists within a tiny magical toy reminiscent of the Polly Pocket trend of the 1990s.
Read more »Wanderstop
Davey Wreden's The Beginner's Guide deeply affected me, and has influenced the way I approach game development and other creative pursuits for the last decade. When I learned that Wreden is the creative director of a studio that was working on a game in my favourite genre—farming sims—I knew I was in for both a treat and an existential crisis. Wanderstop did not disappoint.
Read more »Everholm
I sat down to play Everholm at the end of a long day, expecting a classic farming sim where I'd be able to potter around an abandoned plot of land left to me by a long lost family member. Instead, I was immediately thrust into a dark wood filled with demonic entities. I slowly walked between the trees while glowing eyes peered out at me threateningly. So relaxing!
Read more »