Why is this game so successful?

[Stevepunk]

It's basically a skinner box with bad controls..

I found the mouse targeting to be terrible even with the red target turned on.
Sometimes it would target diagonally for no reason.
Sometimes it would target the adjacent tile but when you click it hits the next one over (that's not highlighted).
Sometimes you will attack towards the mouse/ other times just in the direction you're facing.
Even in the promo video where the guy from chucklefish plays the game he has trouble targeting when watering and clicks on people to interact with them for no effect 50% of the time, and he tried to do things which should be possible only to be told he's playing the game wrong.

Your character freezes when performing every action so fluid combat is not possible and just results in cornering mobs and spamming attack, while you are both frozen on the spot.
Mobs don't have different abilities that force the player to think of different strategies when they appear in different combinations or how to use the terrain to their advantage.
Attack spam wins for every combat.
And combat is completely useless outside the mines/dungeon anyway.
In fact, many of the separate systems don't link together well.
There are few places in the game where you can use a combination of skills.
Skills don't seem to relate to each other all that much - they seem to be mostly separate entities except for mining and combat which seem exclusive to each other.

I'd love a procedurally generated wilderness on the outskirts of town where you could combine all of your skills together to survive. A bit of foraging, fishing, combat, planting the seeds you found after eating the fruit, chopping trees to build a shelter, setting traps for wildlife, taking a party member with you who you have a good relationship with, all with their different skills and bonuses. It could even be a date if you like..
It could get progressively harder the more you venture out and of course would have adventurer's guild rewards for exploring further and further..
Of course that's just one example, but there are many others.

The very first problem I encountered that was glaringly obvious was the mouse lag and this made the rest of the game feel unresponsive and the awkward fishing minigame became especially difficult.
I found that some of the graphics are good while some are incredibly awful (like the intro video with green santa on a wonky bed flicking you a letter).
I liked being a part of the town but people didn't react to your presence unless you talked to them and you were always looking for people and gifting to them - they never visited your house - it was a bit one sided so I guess they really don't consider you a part of their town anyway.
The events were nice but have no challenges and don't reward higher skills.

Most importantly, I actually found the game a chore to play with the poor mouse targeting (imo the mouse targeting should be removed and the player should simply target the tile in front of him/her), slow movement and constant character freezing.
And what's the point of having mouse targeting when you can't strafe or even target anything outside of melee range???

Farming seems to be the core mechanic but is quite lacking; there is no strategy in farming. No companion planting. Plants don't affect other plants or the soil quality. The layout doesn't matter. There are no more or less efficient layouts. There is no fluctuating market value based upon other events that can be anticipated or affected. Most crops seem to be a reskin of the other crops with a different maturity value and an on/off option to keep producing.

In the whole game there appears to be no strategy or actual gameplay - you know, the stuff that reacts to what you do and gives you different options to try next time, or rewards knowledge gained, or player control skill; rather than just clicking on stuff to progress to the next level of character skill, relationship, season, collection of items; and even then the clicking doesn't work most of the time.


There seems to be a lot of progression/collection systems in the game which we know can be addictive, but is this the extent of why this game is popular?
Is this just another clicker game?

I'm looking for genuine feedback or opinions here as what I've seen so far is quite average (with a few highlights and a lot of negatives).

[poinie's poin]

Ever heard of Harvest Moon?

[sdarkpaladin]

Not everyone wants to play games your way bub. If you don't understand why the game is good, maybe it is just not for you.

[EvilBudgie]

I guess it's just not for you. Have you tried Don't Starve?

[robruckus65]

it is the first harvest moon type game on pc... it has filled a void that has always existed... and it shows with how succesful it has been... and its a very well done harvest moon type game at that mechanics wise and gameplayw ise... I think the marriage and children are still lacking but still an amzing job done by a single dev...

[Hammertone]

Granted. That's some of the negative things about it. Ok this is my thought.

1. This game is a rare sight. You don't get many farming games on pc, let alone the decent one.
2. While this game have some negative, it have some positive aspect as well, such as building, skill based progress, etc.
3. There's no competitors around, so this one definitely won all the market.
4. This one is among the first game that have meaningful farming, not just some random "farming sims"
5. There's not much dev that cared about farming type game. Harvest moon didn't have any PC version, while the rune factory dev goes bankrupt.
6. It's cheap, well it's indie with a single person studio anyways.

Conclusion: if only there's enough dev and they care to put in on pc, we might got something better. Let just hope this game gonna open new opportunities for other farming type games.

[Cincada]

It doesn't say he even owns the game, that's probably the first clue. 2/10 good effort, but too many "Try-hard" complaints. You can do better.

[Flip]

For me the game is just fun! A lot of the technical issues (mouse targeting, lag etc) I agree with but that doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the game.

It's hard to put a finger on why I have now invested 50+ hours into it, I think it is the fact that the game is very good at having tasks to accomplish / work torwards, things I decide myself for example, first I work towards getting a bit of money, then buying crops, then increasing my fishing, then maybe gathering funds / resources to build a silo, then hunting for gifts for people, then planning of building a coop etc etc, simply I constantly have several objectives (I have placed on myself, not game quests) that I am trying to achieve and this in turn keeps me engaged and enjoying myself.

Also the pace of the game is very laid back, I am busy without every being stressed. My main "constructive feedback" on what could be improved would be

End game Objectives: I am in Spring Y2 and I now have nothing to spend money on. I have all the buildings (minus slime one because I fail to see the point in this) so all that I need to work on now is maximising my revenue stream even though I have no need for money anymore. So right now I am just working on getting ppls hearts up while I wait for summer so I can finish the community centre. It would be nice to have more things to build / work towards at this point (examples like fishing boat or additional farm buildings etc)

[Lep]

If you dont like it dont play it, nobody in this community will miss you.

[Pebbles]

Because of the background? Duh? If you want realistic survival than just don't play this. If you want super-complex economy/trading system then don't play this. If you want exciting fantasy battle than don't play this. If you want constantly-hyped fast-paced gameplay than don't play this.

This is supposed to be a relaxing, slow, second-life like game where you just be a random farmboy/girl. This game does not aim to be hardcore in anyway. It appeals to people that just want to forget themselves for a while. Just go in, kick back and relax.

People love this because it gives us a sense of escape. The characters in the game all have depths and interesting personalities. The progress story is fun. You have two festivals every season, which are beautiful and fun. You can bring the town back to its former glory and become a hero of the town. No brain power is needed for this game. No need to be even focused or paying attention.

All in all, this game is successful because it's easy to play, fun to play, and it helps easing your stress from real life. Many of us have dreams like this, farming in a remote village, but that is almost impossible nowadays. This game merely provides us with a "virtual" world so we can get a taste of our dreams.

[Elegant Caveman]

Originally posted by ⎝Stevepunk⎠:

Why is this game so successful?

Because it's the first time we get a Harvest Moon/Rune Factory-like game on PC.

A lot of people are a fan of that genre, and until now, it's been relegated to console IPs only.

It's also been in development for years, so a lot of people have been waiting for it for a long time.

These two factors explain the initial success.

After this, it's pretty much all hype train. Because of that initial success, a lot of people who didn't know about the game before and/or didn't know about the genre before decided to try it out, and a lot of people liked it.

The gameplay is not perfect, but it's forgiving and there's something there for a wide variety of tastes, so the game appeals to a wide variety of different players/playstyles, from the casual to the more hardcore.

The fact that this game is a labor of love made by a single/solo dev also impresses people and makes it easier to forgive its faults; everybody loves an underdog.

Originally posted by Cincada:

It doesn't say he even owns the game, that's probably the first clue. 2/10 good effort, but too many "Try-hard" complaints. You can do better.

He might have bought it, tried it, then refunded it. Or he might have it on GOG. Or he might have a pirated version.

There are many explanations.

Just because he doesn't presently have it on Steam doesn't invalidate his question.

[Scynix]

I was going to explain a lot of the basic reasons why, but I checked your profile, Stevepunk, and this is straight from your profile:

"Games I don't like so much:
I used to like turn-based games but they can get tedious easily.
RPGs with walls upon walls of text or lengthy cutscenes that aren't skippable.
Basically anything that gets in the way of my fun.. "

Given the givens, it wouldn't be possible to explain to you why this game is fun or succesful, because it runs contrary to what you enjoy. From what I can tell, it and all games like it won't be fun for you. The farming/life simulation genre is very, very popular. From your perspective I'm sure Animal Crossing, Rune Factory and its ilk are boring, but they're VERY VERY successful.

It's successful because it appeals to a larger number of people than what appeals to you.

[Stevepunk]

Originally posted by sdarkpaladin:

Not everyone wants to play games your way bub. If you don't understand why the game is good, maybe it is just not for you.

If I don't understand why the game is good maybe I can ask "Why is the game good" and get a response stating "This is why the game is good" ?

[Stevepunk]

Originally posted by Sir Nevan III Esq.:

For me the game is just fun! A lot of the technical issues (mouse targeting, lag etc) I agree with but that doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the game.

It's hard to put a finger on why I have now invested 50+ hours into it, I think it is the fact that the game is very good at having tasks to accomplish / work torwards, things I decide myself for example, first I work towards getting a bit of money, then buying crops, then increasing my fishing, then maybe gathering funds / resources to build a silo, then hunting for gifts for people, then planning of building a coop etc etc, simply I constantly have several objectives (I have placed on myself, not game quests) that I am trying to achieve and this in turn keeps me engaged and enjoying myself.

Also the pace of the game is very laid back, I am busy without every being stressed. My main "constructive feedback" on what could be improved would be

End game Objectives: I am in Spring Y2 and I now have nothing to spend money on. I have all the buildings (minus slime one because I fail to see the point in this) so all that I need to work on now is maximising my revenue stream even though I have no need for money anymore. So right now I am just working on getting ppls hearts up while I wait for summer so I can finish the community centre. It would be nice to have more things to build / work towards at this point (examples like fishing boat or additional farm buildings etc)

Thanks for your response. I kinda figured that the progression systems were the main driver here and once they were exhausted, there is no real gameplay left.

[Stevepunk]

Originally posted by Scynix:

I was going to explain a lot of the basic reasons why, but I checked your profile, Stevepunk, and this is straight from your profile:

"Games I don't like so much:
I used to like turn-based games but they can get tedious easily.
RPGs with walls upon walls of text or lengthy cutscenes that aren't skippable.
Basically anything that gets in the way of my fun.. "

Given the givens, it wouldn't be possible to explain to you why this game is fun or succesful, because it runs contrary to what you enjoy. From what I can tell, it and all games like it won't be fun for you. The farming/life simulation genre is very, very popular. From your perspective I'm sure Animal Crossing, Rune Factory and its ilk are boring, but they're VERY VERY successful.

It's successful because it appeals to a larger number of people than what appeals to you.

Minecraft has farming. Also without strategy. Just plant and collect later. But the controls are wonderful in minecraft, whereas here they seem to hinder you at every turn.

Minecraft also has strategy further in automating things.
SV has sprinklers but these are just set and forget.

So based on that I don't like tedious games you say it's impossible for this game to be fun.
Thus what you're really saying is this game is tedious?

[Soy]

I have a better question: where did this meme of sticking huge parabolic lines on each side of your Steam name come from? I'm seeing this on multiple boards now.