Rose: For someone who has never heard of your game, how would you describe it without using the usual genre labels?
I'd describe it as a little island that you can make your own, where there's always something going on if you want to explore it.
You arrive on the island and gradually become part of the local community, doing quests, getting to know the villagers and eventually earning your own home. From there, you can spend your time however you like - decorating and upgrading your house, exploring the island, playing arcade games and trying to beat the leaderboards, going into the caves to search for gold, solving riddles and mazes, or just hanging out with the locals.
We also wanted the island to feel like a place with its own personality. The village has a recycling centre at its heart, and rather than chopping down trees for materials, you find things like driftwood, plastic bottles, old fabric and tin cans washed up on the beach and recycle them to repair and improve the village. You can even use a metal detector to find things like wires and springs, which Dr Crabbin turns into things such as robot pets.
There's a lot of freedom to just follow whatever catches your interest. You might spend one day decorating your house, another trying to get a high score in the arcade, and another taking a robot dog for a walk on the beach. We really wanted it to feel like a place you could settle into and discover at your own pace.
Rose: Where did the idea for this game come from?
It really started quite simply. We all love this type of game, and we'd always wanted to make one ourselves, so we decided to give it a go.
The original idea was actually much more basic than what the game has become. We spent a lot of time talking about what we'd enjoy having in our ideal game, and every time we had an idea we liked, we'd ask ourselves, “What if we added this?” Some things changed completely, some ideas were dropped, and other ideas led to even more ideas.
That's really how the game grew. Rather than having everything planned from the beginning, it evolved through lots of discussions and us figuring out what we actually wanted the game to be. Eventually we reached a point where we looked at it and thought, “Yes, this is the game we wanted to make.”
It's definitely become much bigger and more ambitious than that original idea, but that's been one of the most enjoyable parts of making it.
Rose: What makes your game different from other games in the same space?
I think one of the biggest differences is that we wanted to give players lots of different things to do, rather than making them feel like they have to play the game in one particular way.
For example, there's no traditional farming system and you don't have to spend your time chopping down trees. If you want a vegetable patch in your garden, you can grow some crops, but it's completely optional. Instead, a lot of the materials you need come from exploring the island, including things that wash up on the beach and can be recycled at the village recycling centre.
We also wanted the way you interact with the natural world to fit the personality of the game. When you catch animals or bugs, they aren't harmed. They're sold to Clemmie and sent to a conservation centre instead. When we eventually add cooking recipes after Early Access, those will be vegetarian too.
There's also quite a lot going on away from the usual home and village activities. You can play actual arcade games and compete for high scores, explore the caves and their different challenges, solve riddles and mazes, use a metal detector to find useful parts, or train a robot dog to play fetch.
We like the idea that you can just ignore some of those things if they're not for you. You can spend your time decorating your house, getting to know the villagers and improving the village, or you can go exploring and see what you find. We wanted to make a world where there are lots of little distractions and surprises, rather than one specific way you're supposed to play.
Rose: Was there anything you had to cut that you still secretly wish you could put back?
Honestly, not really! We've had plenty of ideas that we've discussed and decided weren't right for the game, but there isn't one particular feature that we had to cut that we're secretly heartbroken about.
If anything, our problem has been the opposite - we keep coming up with more things we'd like to add! The game has grown so much from the original idea through all our discussions that we've had to learn to say, “Okay, that's enough for now.”
That's actually one of the reasons we're bringing the game to Early Access. We have loads more ideas we'd love to explore, and we want to be able to develop the game alongside the community and see what players enjoy. If we tried to put absolutely everything we have in our heads into the game before releasing it, we'd probably never finish it!
Rose: What is something players probably won't realize took an absurd amount of work?
The character portraits are probably a good example of something players won't realise took an absurd amount of work!
We've actually remade them three times now. We kept looking at them and thinking they weren't quite right for the game, so we'd go back and change the style until we finally reached a version we were happy with.
We currently have 27 NPCs, and every one of them needs their own portrait, with different expressions to match what's happening in the game. So it isn't just 27 drawings - it's 27 characters multiplied across all those different expressions.
It's one of those things that, as a player, you might see for a few seconds when you're talking to someone and not think much about it. But behind that little portrait is a surprising amount of work! We've definitely learned that when you're an indie team, even something that looks like a small part of the game can turn into a huge job.
Rose: What is the weirdest bug you've encountered that you almost wanted to keep?
Definitely the robot dog!
When we were testing the dog following the player around, it had a bit of trouble navigating through the forest. Instead of calmly finding his way around the trees, it would get stuck trying to work out how to reach me and then suddenly take off at ridiculous speed to catch up.
Watching this little robot dog absolutely sprinting through the forest towards me was hilarious.
We obviously had to fix the navigation because we couldn't have our robot dogs constantly running around at super speed.
Rose: Is there a particular emotion you wanted players to walk away with from your game?
I think more than anything, we want players to come away feeling calm and happy.
We wanted to create a world that feels kind. A place where you can take your time, look after the environment, help the people around you and generally just feel like you're doing something positive.
There's no pressure to rush through the game. You can spend an afternoon decorating your house, chatting to the villagers, looking after your garden, taking your robot dog for a walk or simply exploring the island. We want those little moments to be what players remember.
If someone finishes playing and thinks, “That was really relaxing. I just enjoyed being there,” then we'd be very happy with that.
Rose: What's one piece of advice you wish you'd had before starting?
That it's going to take much, much longer than you think!
When we started, we genuinely thought we could make the game in about a year. Two years later, we're now hoping to launch into Early Access by the end of the year - and we still have loads more we want to do.
I think one of the biggest surprises has been how quickly a small idea can grow once you start developing it. Every time we added something, there were new things that needed to be created, tested or connected to everything else. And, of course, we've also come up with plenty of new ideas along the way!
So if I could go back and give ourselves one piece of advice, it would probably be: give yourself a lot more time than you think you need, because everything takes longer than you expect. And then add a bit more time on top of that!
Rose: Five years from now, what do you hope people remember about this game?
Hopefully, we'll still be adding things to the game five years from now because we have so many ideas that we don't think we'll ever run out!
But more than anything, I'd love for people to remember it as a game they genuinely enjoyed spending time in. A game they could come back to for hours, get lost in, and just switch off from everything else for a while.
If someone tells us that the game gave them a sense of peace and calm, or that it became somewhere they could go when they wanted to relax, that would mean a lot to us.
Ultimately, I think we'd be happiest knowing that we made a little world that people really enjoyed being part of.
Rose: Why should someone reading/watching this go play your game today?
If you're looking for a game where you can slow down, explore, meet some interesting characters and just make your own little life, we'd love you to give it a try.
There's a lot to discover on the island. You can make your house your own, explore the caves, play arcade games and chase high scores, meet the villagers, look after your garden, search the beaches with a metal detector, train a robot dog, solve riddles and mazes - or completely ignore all of that and just wander around and see what you find.
We're an indie team and this game has grown out of something we genuinely wanted to play ourselves. There's still a lot we want to add, but we've put a huge amount of love into making this little world.
So if you fancy somewhere peaceful to escape to, with a few strange surprises along the way, we'd love for you to come and visit the island.
Rose: Finally, the question we ask every developer: After everything you’ve told us, can you officially confirm that your game is, in fact, probably a game? Why should we believe you?
I think we can officially confirm that it is probably a game!
We've put a huge amount of time, thought and love into making it, and after everything we've told you about it, we'd certainly like to think we've provided enough evidence.
Ultimately, though, I think the best way for us to prove it is to let people play it for themselves. Hopefully they'll find a game they enjoy, and perhaps somewhere they can spend a few relaxing hours.