A New Wave of Games is Set to Rival Stardew Valley’s Charm

Stardew Valley didn’t just breathe new life into a genre; it sparked a whole movement centered around cozy gaming. For over a decade, cheerful games about small-town farming have become a staple in the gaming landscape. This trend has evolved to the point where we’re now seeing a counterculture emerge within this happy genre. Enter Crop, the latest title from Carbonara Games, which aims to take the lead in this new direction.

At the Game Developers Conference earlier this year, we got a glimpse of Crop during a hands-off demo. The team from Carbonara Games, a trio of seasoned developers from Norway known for their work on indie hits, showcased a 20-minute alpha version of the game.

In Crop, players start their journey waking up naked in a mysterious forest, completely unaware of how they ended up there. The atmosphere is anything but whimsical, with heavy rain and howling winds creating a tense soundscape. Your first task is clear: find some clothes and shelter.

This initial push for safety sets the tone for the entire gameplay experience. The familiar actions of farming—tilling, watering, sowing—will resonate with anyone who’s dabbled in farming sims recently. While Crop retains some classic genre elements, like homestead repairs and energy management, the context is strikingly different. Instead of inheriting a farm, you stumble upon an abandoned ranch, compelled to care for it despite it not being yours. Basic tasks, like digging, are learned in unsettling ways, such as unearthing a grave.

Gabriella Siemienkowicz, communications lead at 11 Bit Studios, notes, “There is a familiarity here for this gameplay loop, and it gives you this sense of comfort and safety almost. But we really shouldn’t forget how we ended up on this farm.”

Like many farming sims, Crop demands patience. Building a bridge to access new areas takes time and effort. However, Crop’s pacing is notably slower and more deliberate. For instance, fertilizing soil isn’t a quick button press; you must wait days for the nutrients to take effect.

While I didn’t experience enough of the game to gauge its overall reward system, it felt like immediate gratification wasn’t the main focus. Selling your produce might bring a sense of accomplishment, but the more fitting term here is relief—you’ve managed to survive the challenges.

In this respect, Crop also shares traits with survival games. Players must be more conscious of their character’s well-being than in typical cozy titles. Neglecting to wear a raincoat in a downpour can lead to illness. During the demo, a representative showed the character visiting a supply store for medicine, hinting at how these status effects could impact gameplay. If your character falls ill, their capabilities will likely diminish.

Similarly, if you fail to protect your crops from pests like slugs, they can become ‘lousy’ and lose value. As you progress, you can unlock tools like a water pump for automatic irrigation, but the game doesn’t necessarily become easier; it simply grows in complexity. Even enhancements like irrigation can fail, and weather conditions such as flooding or drought can affect your harvest.

So, if Crop isn’t about power fantasies and many mechanics seem challenging, what drives players to engage with it? On one level, Crop offers a more realistic portrayal of farm life, appealing to those who may have grown weary of the traditional cozy genre. However, the game’s most intriguing aspect is its psychological horror narrative.

“What begins as a routine cycle of growth and upkeep gradually twists into something far more ominous, pulling players into an eerie mix of investigation, time and inventory management, and slow-burning tension,” a press release for Crop states.

Players can interact with villagers through a spooky mechanic called Mind Roots, with some story elements being time-sensitive, adding urgency to the experience. There’s an underlying Lovecraftian theme, with hints of something sinister lurking beneath the surface. One villager, a no-nonsense cop named Astrid, reveals that the previous tenant of the farm was eaten, while another, Greta, acknowledges the paranormal. When faced with a vehicle submerged in a pool of blood, as Astrid witnessed, it’s hard to ignore the strange happenings. Yet, even as players confront the bizarre, they are grounded by limitations—like needing to equip boots to navigate the muddy area around the car.

Crop doesn’t have a release date yet, but Carbonara Games is aiming for a launch on Steam. Even ten years after its early access debut, Stardew Valley continues to thrive, making it unlikely that any game, including Crop, will diminish the farming phenomenon that sparked an entire subgenre. However, when Crop finally arrives, it will join a growing wave of darker life-sims, like Neverway and Grave Seasons, that aim to flip the cozy gaming genre on its head.