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09.01.2024 - 01:14 / pcgamer.com / And It / Life Sim
While the list of games like Stardew Valley just keeps growing, the list of games made by Stardew's creator is still percolating. Eric «ConcernedApe» Barone's own next game Haunted Chocolatier is still deep in development, but it turns out that a former Stardew contributor is also working on a new life sim that may even arrive this year. The as-yet-untitled game definitely looks like a Stardew descendant, but this one's set in a city and has a lot of its own neat ideas on expanding the typical life sim script.
As spotted by RockPaperShotgun, freelance game developer Arthur Lee (who's credited as part of the Stardew Valley team during development of the 1.5 update) is working on an untitled new life sim and sharing weekly details about development on X. Though it remains untitled at the moment, he's expecting it to involve the name «Apollo City» after the game's main setting.
A throwback to Harvest Moon, the Animal Bell lets you gather your animals in once place. It's useful if you want to keep your animals and your feeding lots separate (or if you need to gather your livestock to groom/harvest them)! pic.twitter.com/0LUixWYkrmNovember 26, 2023
Though it's definitely set in a city, with a ramen shop and city blocks and so on, it's still very much a farm sim where you're tending your own rural-looking property adjacent to the downtown hustle. There also appears to be usable farm space in a downtown dirt lot and rooftop gardens above an apartment building. Don't worry about the urban planning of it all; just believe.
From what Lee has shown off on social media, Apollo City appears to be hitting the farmlife sim highlights: crops, livestock, fishing, home customization, and lots of skills to level. It will also be multiplayer at launch, a feature Lee finds important after doing lots of work contributing to local multiplayer in the Stardew Valley 1.5 update. The one thing I'm not seeing concrete reference to is romance or marriage, though Lee may be keeping those elements under wraps.
Beyond the technical stuff from earlier this week, I also added various flavors of pickling jars/pots, paddy field crops (which when watered, also water any connected paddy crops), rice and soybeans, and millers. All because my girlfriend insisted I add Miso Soup as a recipe… pic.twitter.com/ouMFdDCNq4September 8, 2023
What I'm actually psyched about is just how many weird and interesting other systems Lee's teased for Apollo City. The apple really doesn't fall far from the Harvest Moon tree with most modern farmlife sims but Apollo City has a lot of elements I've not really seen elsewhere. Here are a few fun tidbits that Lee has shared in the last couple months:
There's quite a lengthy skill list including eating,
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A former Stardew Valley developer known as Arthur «Mr. Podunkian» Lee announced his new game, Sunkissed City, is officially coming later this year. The self-developed game combines many well-loved features from Stardew Valleywith the thrills of city living, giving fans of the farming sim an experience with a new twist but a similar feel.
Arthur Lee (AKA Mr. Podunkian), a game developer who previously worked on the 1.4 and 1.5 updates for ConcernedApe’s farming sim Stardew Valley, has unveiled the title and planned release window of his own urban life sim game.
Developer Arthur 'Mr. Podunkian' Lee, who worked with ConcernedApe on Stardew Valley, has announced the release window for his own forthcoming life sim.
This upcoming life sim from a former Stardew Valley dev finally has a name and a release window, and we couldn't be more up for it.
What do you do after running away from the big city to start a new life in the country? You run away from the country to start a new life in the big city, obviously. Former Stardew Valley developer Arthur "Mr. Podunkian" Lee has announced Sunkissed City, a life simulation game set in a delightful coastal burb that's reportedly "pumping with funky vibes and quirky characters", together with migraines, stretches of dead water and horrible sewer monsters.
Arthur “Mr. Podunkian” Lee, who previously worked on Stardew Valley at ConcernedApe, has announced Sunkissed City, a new life simulation game set in the city. It will launch for PC via Steam in Q4 2024, followed by consoles at a later date.
The Pokemon franchise has never really been known for coming anywhere close to pushing the envelope with its technical accomplishments, but recent years in particular have seen a number of the series’ mainline instalments being let down by the poor technical state they have launched in, from Pokmon Sword and Shield to Pokemon Legends: Arceus to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. The latter in particular launched in such poor condition that Nintendo was forced to issue a public apology.
A Stardew Valley fan created a comprehensive guide of the game’s essentials so his mom could learn to play. After his mom posted the printed guide to Reddit, the Stardew Valleycommunity wanted their own copies to help prevent mistakes and remember helpful tips while playing the game. With a game so packed with content, many players said they still forget things from the guide even after playing for hundreds of hours.
Stardew Valley has made its way pretty much everywhere around the world, but a fan was still taken by surprise when they found a playable version of the game on a test computer at Walmart. When Stardew Valley launched, it was only available on PC. As time went by, ConcernedApe continued to work on the game and eventually got it to become available on nearly every platform. Nowadays, gamers can enjoy the game on PC, Xbox, Playstation, Switch, and mobile devices.
A new farming game is planting the seeds of recent PC hits like Stardew Valley, Human: Fall Flat, Satisfactory and, yes, Minecraft and hoping to have them grow into an entertaining co-op offering that’s as cozy as it is chaotic.
The developers of an upcoming Stardew Valley-style League of Legends spin-off have said they know what life sim fans' expectations are, so they made sure to include the staples of the genre - farming and fishing.