2023 is jam-packed with new life and farming sims, and even for an avid fan of the genre, it can be a lot to keep up with. However, one particular title that has caught my eye is Fae Farm, which the team hopes will offer a unique appeal to players with its magical fairy theme.
“Fae Farm has several unique traits that make it stand out from the crowd,” game director Isaac Epp says. “We imbued everything in the game with magic, so whether players are using a magic spell to quickly snatch up a number of crops or using their wand to fight off jumbles — the mischievous enemies in Fae Farm — we want players to feel that magic is at the core of the Fae Farm experience.
“We’re fans of countless games in the space, from new classics like Animal Crossing: New Horizons to progenitors of the genre like Harvest Moon. We’re also inspired by games that give players a strong sense of adventure, like Link’s Awakening, and we set out to infuse Fae Farm with that same feeling of wonder.”
The team wanted to reduce the typical pain points players usually experience with the genre. A great example of this, and one I was very grateful for in my hands-on preview, is that farming equipment only exists in one inventory slot and switches automatically depending on the type of resource the player interacts with. It’s such a simple solution, but it works particularly well.
Fae Farm bills itself as a ‘cosy’ RPG and farm-sim hybrid, and it’s not far-fetched to think many players will interpret that to mean the game isn’t very complicated. Keeping things simple can encourage more casual fans of the genre to play. Yet, simultaneously it can risk the game being underwhelming for players hoping to involve enough game mechanics to keep them interested.
“I don’t think that cosy necessarily has to mean simple,” Epp says. “I think players will be pleasantly surprised with the amount of depth to each of the myriad systems they’ll interact with over the course of their adventure. On top of that, many of the crafting elements interact with other elements, so there’s an intuitive interplay in the mechanics.”
Epp gives me an example of this, explaining that players can use the food prep table to transform raw ingredients into a state ready for cooking, then they use the cooking hearth to create recipes. These food items can then replenish health or mana, or even boost abilities, such as mining. With over 20 crafting stations in the game, there are plenty of interconnected elements for players to get to grips with.
Epp’s experience working as the UX director on The Sims 4 was invaluable in helping the Fae Farm team create a cosy game that carefully balances the depth of features to ensure nothing feels overwhelming for players. “There were lots of amazing learnings to be had on that project. One of which was how to try and make a game with lots of interconnected systems and deep complexity not feel heavy or too dense, and have everything be appealing to a very broad audience. The Sims 4 team, as is the case with the Fae Farm team, are both full of incredibly passionate game developers that care deeply about the player experience, and I think it shows.
“Fae Farm is a game with lots of interconnected systems and a surprising amount of depth, so working with the team to help ensure all of that feels good and isn’t overwhelming was a priority. A question you would frequently hear on the Fae Farm team when we’d be playtesting a feature is ‘Does that feel cosy enough?’, and we’d just iterate and polish until it felt right to us.”
When introducing players to the core elements of Fae Farm, they wanted to ensure it wasn’t too much to handle and could be appealing to casual players who want a more cosy jaunt and those who want to deep dive into all it has to offer. Players get taught the basics of the homestead at the beginning — crafting, cooking, planting crops, and fishing — but after that, the world of Azoria opens up. Players can then choose how they wish to live their new magical lives, whether looking after animals, completing quests, or wooing whichever NPC takes their fancy.
“It was important for us to strike a balance for gamers of all types, and we designed systems in the game that provide players with different avenues for how they want to tackle things,” Epp tells me. “Not all players may want to engage with combat, as it’s not a pillar of the genre, so we designed a potion system to mitigate these challenges. Players can even craft an invisibility potion and ignore combat altogether.”
Epp tells me the team used a similarly balanced approach when including the four-player co-op in Fae Farm, “Multiplayer is baked in the DNA of Phoenix Labs, and we believe that being able to share gaming experiences with others makes for great and lasting memories. We are also mindful that not everyone prefers to play cooperatively, so we had to strike the right balance and ensure the game is just as enjoyable solo as it is with friends.”
Fae Farm will launch on September 8 for Nintendo Switch and PC.