What makes this game different?
Harvest Moon invented the sub-genre of farming/life simulation / role playing games. Later examples include: Rune Factory, Story of Seasons, Fantasy Life, Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Graveyard Keeper, My Time At Portia, Hokko Life, Garden Story, Moonglow Bay.
Animal Crossing is by far the best selling of all these games. Stardew Valley is much more popular than any of the Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons - games which it is based on. A key reason for this is that the Harvest Moon games are only available on Nintendo.
What really differentiates Stardew Valley from the Harvest Moon series is the Americanization. It takes a Japanese game and replaces the characters and stories with quintessentially American themes. It also simplifies the game for a western audience; there’s far less dialogue to tap through.
We want to expand on this approach and broaden the appeal by drawing from other cultures around the world.
In order to keep players engaged and happy there should ideally be a steady supply of new content, a mix of items, maps and particularly story themed content, kind of like a soap opera. This is something that only becomes practical by changing the business model due to the on-going development costs involved. Blockchain games have the potential to offer a new way to fund content creation, one that isn’t necessarily viewed in the same (negative) light as free-to-play games are by indie gamers.
Cross platform - designing the game from the bottom up to run on mobile, PC and consoles, and allow cross platform play with your friend. None of the reference games attempted this and we think it's something players want.
Animal Rescue / Charity - we want to give players the opportunity to do good in the real world. For example they might be able to buy a tree in the game, it won’t be free, they will have to make a donation to a tree planting charity which goes toward planting trees somewhere in the world. That tree in-game will take on meaning because they know it represents one that’s real.
Similarly with animals, players will be able to buy animals to rescue them. This money goes to animal rescue sanctuaries in real life and in return they will get a virtual representation of the animal they have saved as a unique NFT which must be taken care of. This is very powerful because it adds meaning to a digital pet.
Mobile first - the majority of gamers are playing games on smartphones. This genre of game has typically been made for Nintendo and/or PC. It seems like a missed opportunity. We believe a free to play version that’s designed from the start to be played on smartphones has the potential to reach a much bigger audience.
Last modified 1yr ago