What’s the deal with tomatoes (An essay about the state of tomatoes)

For 4 years of my life Stardew Valley was the only game I was playing.

4 Years later and the entire farming sim genre is basically like a dead zombie meat goop clone of what Stardew stands for. Kinda fucked up.

The Middle Bit

Okey so to start this of let’s begin with what drove me to my boiling point.
I was watching the Latin American Games Showcase and a little game called :FOURLEAF FIELDS: caught my attention. Immediately after the showcase ended and I went on to wishlist all the games that stood out to me; my little eye glimpsed that there was a playtest available for this game. Of course I applied.

THE END

Here are my entire unfiltered thoughts on this game, in the same format as I sent them into their Feedback Form (No need to read it as I will go over most of the important points later anyway):

I genuinely think your progression right now is broken from the ground up, there is no reason to farm or to keep animals, the entire gameplay loop can be avoided and optimized by just selling as much iron ingots early on as possible. I got access to iron ingots on day 2 and by day 4 I got the max town level and around 10K coins, just by selling nails. And I don’t think just decreasing the price of ingots is the solution, I think this speaks to a deeper flaw that the entire game is built on. Also the stamina bar might as well not exist because of how many fruits there are just everywhere to regain stamina almost immediately. And it’s clear to me that Stardew Valley very much was an inspiration for this, as it is for most modern farming games, but then I don’t understand why there isn’t more of an effort to distinguish your game from the countless other games in that genre, the moment I saw the broken down building in town I knew the main story would revolve around repairing it in the process. And with such a unique and cool setting there surely have to be other ways to keep the player engaged with the farming mechanics while also using your world to the fullest. I do see that there is passion for this game, I was really surprised by a lot of the art and also the gossip mechanic between characters seem like a fun way to freshen up the usual friendship mechanics in these games. But on the other hand I also feel like this game could have been literally set in any other world and nothing changed and this is really sad to me. Lastly I also do not understand why you want your game to be as seamless and smooth of an experience as possible, if we take Stardew Valley as an example there are constant places where you gonna be confused or the mechanics stifle your progress, but thats how the game keeps you engaged and willing to progress. I want to play a fun cozy farming game, but that doesn’t mean I want to play a game for 3 year olds.

The Beginning

2017 I bought Stardew on my Switch literally having no fucking idea what that game even was at all, I just had exactly 15 bucks to spare and honestly it was quite the rough start. I really didn’t enjoy the first month it felt so repetitive and small there really wasn’t much to it. I think pretty much in summer is when the game picked up for me, the mine gameplay is getting more tense you unlock a little new part and slight spoilers for the game btw. From there the progression only ever picks up and every update this game received only made it feel more tight.

I am so tired of farming games yall

I really don’t understand how shit hit the fan so quickly. After my Stardew phase slowly dwindled and 1.5 gave me the chance to actually 100% the game. I played countless other farming games. Some 2D, some 3D, some bad, some pixel art, some horrible, some boring, very few which innovated. Cozy gaming has an awesome community, but to me it seems like cozy gaming and farming games in particular just exist as a way for some people to grift of the want people have for another “Stardew”. IT CANNOT BE THAT HARD TO MAKE A GOOD UNIQUE FARMING GAME. All of these games tried to follow Stardews formula they even have you repair some sort of old Building in almost all of them. They also all miss use the word cozy so much, most of these games genuinely have no edge to them and I do get there is a portion of gamers who seek that out, but I think the majority of people who fell in love with Stardew originally DO NOT. Stardew is so great because it has limits, it’s energy system is strict, days are always too short, but it gives you a good progression. And newer farming games cannot even make the farming interesting, they always give you 3 random crops or something per season without though. If I wanted to play a bad Stardew I would play modded. Actually I do love me some mods also this is the end.