Fandom: My Time at Sandrock Media: Video Games Genre: Cozy game - generally in the same genre as Stardew Valley
Premise/summary: You have answered the call to be a Builder for the slowly dying town of Sandrock! In this game, set in the same post-apocalyptic universe as its predecessor My Time at Portia, Sandrock is a desert town, hurting for both water and hope. But you as a builder grow in a never-ending set of challenges - from building a crane so that the local salvagers can do their trade, to rooting out an unexpected conspiracy and finally finding a way to bring Sandrock back to its former glory.
Trigger warnings: The game does warn for flashing lights; one of the side quests currently involves bullying an individual with mental health issues "for his own good" (the devs have promised to change this in final release).
Review/Promo: My Time at Sandrock is a game that is a bit flawed (right now it's a bit buggy, to put it politely, especially in late game as the devs are trying to optimize it), but I love very much. I bought it as soon as it was available in early access, just like I bought its predecessor in very early access, and I have yet to regret that choice.
This game has a simple, yet addictive cycle. You have a main series of quests that you follow that give you access to more areas and resources but you also need to build more complex machines and tools to compensate. There are also sidequests that give you access to more things, as well as gaining friendship with the locals - which might also lead to a romance. You can also take on commissions from the townsfolk, which will also build up friendships as well as make you money.
You start as a humble workshop owner with nothing but a pair of building areas and a tiny shack to sleep in, and by the time the story ends, the whole known world will know your name. Or, if you wish, you can play the multiplayer version with up to 3 of your friends where you build up the town of Sandrock to what it should be. You can build, you can garden (not quite at the start, but you can pick up gardening quite early in the storyline), there's plenty of combat if that's your thing. There are rarely time limits and you can pretty much do what you want. It's easy to sink hours and hours into this game - my last playthrough with a complete game ended at 200+ hours!
Sandrock's ecological plotline appeals to me as well, and it might appeal to you too - unlike its predecessor, you are encouraged to recycle from scrap, and cutting down trees (at least in the main area) is very much discouraged. You must have water as well as fuel to run your workshop, and you can't draw water from the oasis willy-nilly - you have to either craft your own or buy it.
(If you have played My Time at Portia, you will find that this game has several UI improvements, mostly relating to your assembly, cooking station, and quest turn-ins - you no longer have to have an item for the assembly station on your quickbar, the cooking station now works like the rest of the machines, and you can draw quest items from your chests as well as from your carried items. (You still have to have items on you if you're gifting someone, and there are a couple of other exceptions, like the food donation table in early game.) Turning in data discs for new diagrams is the same as Portia, but now you can select what to research instead of hoping that Petra and Merlin choose to research the diagram you want!)
My Time at Sandrock Mini-Promo/Review
Media: Video Games
Genre: Cozy game - generally in the same genre as Stardew Valley
Premise/summary: You have answered the call to be a Builder for the slowly dying town of Sandrock! In this game, set in the same post-apocalyptic universe as its predecessor My Time at Portia, Sandrock is a desert town, hurting for both water and hope. But you as a builder grow in a never-ending set of challenges - from building a crane so that the local salvagers can do their trade, to rooting out an unexpected conspiracy and finally finding a way to bring Sandrock back to its former glory.
Trigger warnings: The game does warn for flashing lights; one of the side quests currently involves bullying an individual with mental health issues "for his own good" (the devs have promised to change this in final release).
Review/Promo: My Time at Sandrock is a game that is a bit flawed (right now it's a bit buggy, to put it politely, especially in late game as the devs are trying to optimize it), but I love very much. I bought it as soon as it was available in early access, just like I bought its predecessor in very early access, and I have yet to regret that choice.
This game has a simple, yet addictive cycle. You have a main series of quests that you follow that give you access to more areas and resources but you also need to build more complex machines and tools to compensate. There are also sidequests that give you access to more things, as well as gaining friendship with the locals - which might also lead to a romance. You can also take on commissions from the townsfolk, which will also build up friendships as well as make you money.
You start as a humble workshop owner with nothing but a pair of building areas and a tiny shack to sleep in, and by the time the story ends, the whole known world will know your name. Or, if you wish, you can play the multiplayer version with up to 3 of your friends where you build up the town of Sandrock to what it should be. You can build, you can garden (not quite at the start, but you can pick up gardening quite early in the storyline), there's plenty of combat if that's your thing. There are rarely time limits and you can pretty much do what you want. It's easy to sink hours and hours into this game - my last playthrough with a complete game ended at 200+ hours!
Sandrock's ecological plotline appeals to me as well, and it might appeal to you too - unlike its predecessor, you are encouraged to recycle from scrap, and cutting down trees (at least in the main area) is very much discouraged. You must have water as well as fuel to run your workshop, and you can't draw water from the oasis willy-nilly - you have to either craft your own or buy it.
(If you have played My Time at Portia, you will find that this game has several UI improvements, mostly relating to your assembly, cooking station, and quest turn-ins - you no longer have to have an item for the assembly station on your quickbar, the cooking station now works like the rest of the machines, and you can draw quest items from your chests as well as from your carried items. (You still have to have items on you if you're gifting someone, and there are a couple of other exceptions, like the food donation table in early game.) Turning in data discs for new diagrams is the same as Portia, but now you can select what to research instead of hoping that Petra and Merlin choose to research the diagram you want!)