Cloudscape is an extremely cute farming-fighting-friendship game in the vein of Littlewood, Stardew Valley, Fantasy Life, and Animal Crossing, with added inspiration from A Link to the Past — and it just hit a total of $208,806 on its completed Kickstarter campaign.
Like Animal Crossing, the island you wash up on at the start of Cloudscape will be procedurally generated with a few hand-crafted presets, making it entirely unique to anyone else's experience. But unlike any of the games that inspired it, Cloudscape doesn't just boot you out of the mines whenever your health bar reaches zero — no, in Cloudscape, you die for reals.
When you're dead, your spirit will be sent to Limbo, where you'll have to win a game about Death itself in order to return to life.
But listen, we know what you're here for — it's because we used the word "farming" in the title, and you want to know what else Cloudscape can offer the hole in your heart where Harvest Moon used to be. Well, we'll keep it simple in the form of a sexy bullet point list of features that are bound to get you interested:
- You can have pets!
- There's fishing!
- Also, woodcutting, excavating, foraging, cooking, and mining!
- Cooking is a minigame!
- You can build your own furniture and decorations!
- Ranching and farming are separate activities with their own skill trees!
- Oh yeah, there's also skill trees!
- You can sleep anywhere in the game!
- You can get upgraded tools for 11 of the game's 12 skills (foraging and socialising don't have tools)!
- Weather and seasonal cycles!
- Terraforming!
- Character customisation!
- A variety of clothing and accessories!
- Date characters of any gender!
What's more, the Kickstarter reached all of its stretch goals with a total of over $200k, which means the following will also be in the game:
- Seasonal outfits
- Two new romance partners
- Children with your partner
- Extra game modes
- Multiplayer
As part of the game's various promises, there will be a physical version of Cloudscape on Switch. Several high-tier backers will also be designing monsters, characters, decorations, and furniture for the game.
We've covered Cloudscape before, because not only is it cute as heck, it's also being made by Chris Gottron, an animator who has worked on Spongebob, Fairly Odd Parents, Kung Fu Panda, Boss Baby, and many more. The music is being done by Samantha Van Der Sluis, whose recent credits include work on The Mandalorian and Avengers: Endgame. You can listen to some of her work from Cloudscape's soundtrack on Soundcloud.
The Kickstarter is over, so there's no more opportunity to back, but it looks like the planned release date is July 2023.
Comments 10
At this point Natsume just needs to retired the Harvest Moon franchise, it seems these indie dev does a better job of making a Harvest Moon game. Definitely a game worth getting the OLED for.
I love they did a physical version for this game, can't wait to play it. I had no idea about the credentials of the creators, amazing.
You caught me with the Fantasy Life comparison, and it looks interesting. I really want another trailer, though. If I can get more of the FL vibe, then I'll be more interested, but right now, it seems a lot more Stardew Valley-y than Fantasy Life-y. That game really had its own vibe, and I'm not feeling it here.
Sucks that dating anyone of any gender is a bullet point still
Wow, this game looks awesome! I'll definitely keep any eye on it.
@Mystique I dunno, I actually think having every character dateable kinda cheapens the believability of each one of the characters as an individual.
Is every single person that lives around you openly bisexual? Statistically speaking, it would seem doubtful. And just how many openly bisexual people do you suppose live in extremely tiny farming villages?
Look, I'm not saying that having same sex partners in games is wrong. I've played gay characters in games before, and if this game gets favorably reviewed, it's very likely I'll get this game. I'm not opposed to LGBT representation in gaming.
But from an entirely objective standpoint, I dunno...I guess it kinda diminishes the immersion for me whenever I can walk around town and just assume that every single unmarried male and female in town would be totally interested in banging me. However, if some characters were straight, and some were gay, and some were bi, would it not add more depth to each character individually?
I mean, I know that the above idea is pretty much impossible now since every company has to do everything they can to pander to folks who get easily upset about certain things, but even still - I think it would be kinda neat.
@Andy_Witmyer I agree I’ve thought that myself with certain games.
@alexybubble I agree — the bit that reminded me of FL was the 12 separate skills that you can level up!
Here's the kicker to kickstarter:
planned release date is July 2023
That's way long....
@Andy_Witmyer I’ve never thought about that, but I’d like t see that in games now that you say it. I guess I was mainly commenting on the fact that same sex relationships as at least an option was still exciting
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