Rusty’s Retirement
Farming and automation feel like a perfect fit for the idle genre, I am surprised I haven’t played this mixture before but I am glad that this one was my first. Growing crops in this game is simultaneously faster and slower than in a regular farming sim. Faster in the sense that you don’t have to wait for in-game days to pass, but slower in the sense that all you have to do is wait, at least early on. As you progress though you can turn your attention to other things such as upgrading your machines for better productivity and decorating your little slice of agricultural heaven.
I had the game running in the background for quite a lot of time during the Steam Next Fest. It is very refreshing to have it sat at the bottom of a second monitor, just checking in every now and again to plant new seeds and checking what I needed to produce in order to unlock the next type of vegetable. The progression doesn’t require a lot of focus but I personally found it nice to take a minute whenever there was a halt in my work and be distracted, ready to focus again once I had planted my seeds.
One thing to note – I wouldn’t really recommend Rusty’s Retirement as a first Idle Game, or at least the version of the demo that I played. This is simply due to the lack of tutorial. I have played a couple of idle games and various automation games but I still wasn’t 100% certain what to do at first glance. Of course, some of the fun for some folk may be figuring that out, but I feel previous familiarity would be very beneficial.
Overall, I honestly think Mister Morris Games are onto something here. I would not at all be surprised to see this concept take off with all sorts of other ideas that I can’t even imagine yet. It is a companion game that doesn’t demand your constant attention all of the time, just being there for you when you have a moment. The way that the larger games industry leans more and more towards live service and monetization every passing year, demanding full attention, daily logins or thousands of hours, Rusty’s Retirement feels humble, elegant and for the player. I wish them all of the success.
More from Steam Next Fest – February 2024
More from previous Festivals
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