Dinkum

Received 3 impossible quests (actually undoable because I didn't have the ability to get those items until I progressed further and they were all same-day quests) within the first 30 minutes of the game play, two daily tasks were impossible and one job request. A baffling oversight for what otherwise seems to be a relatively mature game. Makes me question how much attention was paid to the game and leaves me to think I should not invest any more time in the game for fear of lazy design. This game has been in early access for years, and it's alarming such a glaring oversight is present so early in the game. The merchant hasn't even moved in yet. It's a super negative experience when a game immediately sets you up for failure because of design oversights.

Dinkum has its charm and a variety of unique mechanics, but it starts to feel stale after a while.

My recommendation for players is to go to the settings and set the 'Text Speed' to Super, because the dialogue gets lengthy for no apparent reason and almost never adds anything new to the conversation or helps you better understand what you're doing. It's your call whether you find it useful or not.

Right, so Dinkum is more of a sandbox game than anything else. You'll find your entertainment in making your little town a prettier place, placing buildings in nice spots, and creating good-looking farms, orchards, and so on.

It still has life-sim elements similar to games like Stardew Valley, blended with survival crafting mechanics, but those are not the main focus here. The core of the gameplay is the sandbox aspect.

What I like:

You can sleep anywhere with a sleeping bag; you don't have to go home to save the game. You still need to sleep to create a new checkpoint, but at least you can do it anywhere on the map. It is a bit silly, though, how you can wake up in heavy rain or a snowstorm and still act as if it's the most beautiful day imaginable.

There’s no set time to go to bed. It simply gets late, and during that time your stamina is significantly reduced. This makes it the perfect opportunity to take care of tasks like smelting or cooking, which don’t require any stamina.

After NPCs move into your town, new ones start visiting to replace those who were visiting before. This creates a continuous flow of new activities.
And it's pretty fun to befriend people by fulfilling their daily wants.

You can use the torch as a weapon to stun enemies while also serving as a light source, which gives it a dual purpose.

By pressing Escape, you can check the book to see what you've donated to the museum and what you haven't, along with other helpful information, such as what you need to do to improve your relationship with your animals.

It's enjoyable that the game doesn't hold your hand too much. You discover everything on your own through exploration and trial and error, which gives the illusion of greater depth.

Lovely music and atmosphere.

Items remain on the ground and don’t despawn. I find this interesting.

When you release an insect from your inventory, it behaves just like it did before you caught it, as it should.

The helicopter and all the vehicles are nice to use, but they might be too costly. You mostly get to use them only in the late game when there isn’t much else to do.

What I dislike:

The negatives outweigh the positives for me.

There isn't much customization when creating your character, which isn't a big deal for me, but I can see how others might find it lacking in that area.

You have to go through several clicks just to reach the pause button. Simply pressing Escape and expecting the game to pause will not work, as you have to manually click the 'Pause' button for the in-game time to stop.

This is probably because the game was primarily designed with online multiplayer in mind, where pausing is not allowed on servers.

However, this creates another issue. Even being inside a shop does not stop time, so if you plan to go mining, you need to move quickly to save enough time for exploration. In other similar games, time usually pauses when interacting with shops, unless you are playing online.

Only being able to buy a single item per day, such as an axe or a pickaxe, can be tedious, and not having the option to craft them at all is a nuisance.

The beginning of the 'plot' and the reason you move here is as plain as it gets. I don't think it makes much sense. One moment you're in one place, and the next you're suddenly somewhere else.

And why you decide to move in with some random grandma named Fletch is beyond me.

I found no reason to get attached to any of the characters, even after spending over 100 hours in the game, because they are that insipid.

The jokes they make aren't funny, the dialogue is full of meaningless chit-chat, and unless you have the text speed setting on the fastest option, clicking through it becomes a chore.

There’s no marriage system either, but honestly, that’s probably for the best since you don’t really care about them anyway.

Using machines to cut wood, furnaces to get bars, and making cement all take time, and you have to click on each one manually. This is a double-edged sword because you might enjoy the activity at first, but after a while, especially in the late game when you’re still forced to do the same grinding you’ve been doing for a long time, it becomes nothing more than boring.

I don’t understand why there is an infinite number of enemy bats, worms, et cetera, constantly coming toward you. They don’t add much challenge; they’re just a mere inconvenience, like an annoying mosquito buzzing next to your ear.

Why can’t you stack bugs and fish in your inventory, but you can have over 500 fruits in one slot? Does one bug weigh more than a bag full of fruits?

I’m not a fan of the license system. I would have preferred progressing by leveling up activities and unlocking new recipes as you reach higher levels.

Licenses are way too expensive for how little they actually do. I bought them all, which was very time-consuming, in my honest opinion. I don’t mind a grind fest, but it needs to be pleasant enough so it doesn’t feel like a burden.

The energy system feels pretty terrible, but you do get used to it.

Same goes for fishing. I’ve seen better fishing mechanics in other games of the same genre. I will give credit where it’s due. I think it’s more realistic this way, catching fish one by one by hunting them down in the water. But at the same time, since you can’t stack them in your inventory and can’t just relax while fishing because you’re always on the hunt, it once again becomes a chore.

To be honest, there should be a mechanic to catch fish by hand because you see them swimming next to you. It would be impossible not to catch them as you dive near them.

Metal detecting helps a great deal with money early in the game, but it’s pretty uninteresting. You also have to keep most of the items you collect since you need them for crafting or to open treasure chests.

After a full day of metal detecting, all I got was one shiny disk for the Tele Tower construction.

A lot of the recipes don’t even make sense. Why do you need pearls to construct a fountain?

Speaking of which, make sure you don’t break the oysters. Some resources don’t respawn in the world after you destroy them.

I don’t understand why the Bottle Brush bushes don’t respawn like the other plants.

Health kits don’t stack, and you have to use them one by one. They don’t restore much HP either.

The water can doesn’t break, but the other tools do. Why is that?

Sprinklers are not very practical, and it takes a while to get to them.

I wish I could have the map open while running around.

This game needs more random encounters to keep things fresh.

Descriptions for what you're buying can be minimal. Without a wiki, you might not even grasp what some items actually do.

Put Put.' That’s the description you have for the tractor? Sure, it might seem like common sense, but is it really? The tractor is pricey, and if it doesn’t do what you expect, it kind of feels like you got scammed, you know?

[*] There’s no relationship tab when pressing Escape to view points with the NPCs.


It’s not exactly a bad game, but it could have been much better. The reason I give it a positive review is that, I assume, it’s the developer’s first game and it has little to no bugs.
Plus, it’s affordable.

6/10.

This is like animal crossing. Perfect for a handheld like Steam Deck. However, you can't save anywhere as you need to sleep. Other than that, I am really enjoying it... as a full time parent of 3 with 8h work/ day. This has been my go to play before sleep game to help me unwind.

However, there is a catch. Because I play this to make me drowsy, I usually sleep early in-game. Like 7pm just to save the game. I wish there is a save anytime/ anywhere option.

The game is pretty boring. Go and play the demo, that will literally be 80% of the things you will be doing in the game. The world is boring, the fighting is kind of boring, the NPCs have zero personality, farming is kind of useless, building is limited. The bug hunting and fishing are kind of fun at first, but you will be doing mostly that for the entire run of the game. There is really just not a whole lot to do.

My favourite game of its genre, I keep coming back to it. Has controller support, multi-player and endless replayability.

This might just be a me thing, but the energy system in this game is way too punishing, and food barely helps solve the issue... Running out of energy and performing an action makes the entire bar go red and your character remains sluggish until the bar is full. However, the bar also fills extremely slowly when red, as an additional punishment.

Unfortunately, food does not actually directly reward the player with energy. I'm honestly not sure what it does. It doesn't keep your bar from depleting, but it might prevent your bar from going red. Either way it's incredibly tedious to manage, as there's a separate "fullness" bar that you ALSO have to keep track of. Maybe I'm spoiled by games like Minecraft and Stardew Valley, as their energy systems are relatively straightforward. [i.e. Do action -> Action costs energy -> Energy bar depletes to very low -> Become sluggish -> Eat food -> No longer sluggish, gain energy directly from food]

Honestly if the energy mechanic was the only issue I had with this game, I'd be willing to ignore it and just have a good time; unfortunately, I usually just end up stressed out trying to learn how the game functions. But there's a lot of grinding that needs to happen before you can even unlock all of the mechanics, and it's just not fun. Maybe I'll change my mind in the future.

If you can get over the cartoony nature of it, you then need to get used to only saving when you sleep. Having some visiting guy steal 60k drinks then disappear. Dying reduces the tool durability but you can only buy tools once a day and if your on multi-player good luck being the one who buys that one tool a day. Exercise in frustration. Not for me.

Dinkum is very heavily inspired by Animal Crossing: New Horizons and it's impressive feat is was developed mostly by a single person. It does a few things that differentiate it from Animal Crossing such has having an Australian outback setting, not having to wait real time to progress days and seasons making it more binge-able, a better and less clunky movement system, has combat and mining system which puts in more in line with Stardew Valley.

I did lose a bit interest in this and do have to put it down as it does a some major short comings.

• Villages and townsfolk are not interesting and don't offer much in personality and dialogue or refer to any events. They are very 1 dimensional, boring and i think this is my biggest gripe with Dinkum.
  
• There are very few recipes and items in the game which leads to little to no variety in your town and clothing options
  
• Very few animals, some glaring omissions are Koalas/Snakes/Platypus/Wombats/Possums/Kookaburras
  
• Not much do in each day
  
[*] Barely any in-game events to do

It is a very polished game and i have not run into any technical difficulties at all, it's main issue is it just needs content. I think tackling 2-3 of my negatives will go a long way.

I do recommend it overall f you are wanting that Animal Crossing itch and I managed to get up to the 3rd season in the first year but in its current state its a maybe. I feel this was released too early from Early Access just to achieve a 1.0 release. Also the Krafton partnership has me concerned as they are known to insert DLC in their games up the wazoo and known for selling data.

If there is significant changes to the above points i will amend my review in the future.

i love this game, my mom even started playing and my sister lol
the game play is fun , lots to do from day to day.

This game is basically a perfect mix of all the genres I love—farming, casual life sim, a bit of survival, and full-on world building. I get to shape the world however I want, build stuff where I want, and just take things at my own pace. The survival elements are there, but not too intense, which is great because I can focus more on creating and customizing my town.

Honestly, this might be one of my favorite games right now. I can easily see myself putting hundreds of hours into it. Only thing I wish was better is the multiplayer. It’d be cool if it had a proper server system to make co-op play smoother. But even with that, it’s still an awesome game to chill with after a long day.

A Frustrating Grind Of A Game, But It Pays Off

Dinkum is basically a better version of Animal Crossing, but also on PC. I tried playing Animal Crossing on the switch and the fact the game forces you to wait real life days for certain progression just made me rip my hair out. I think it's a stupid concept that should at least be allowed to be changed in settings.

Dinkum removes this nonsense and allows you to progress as you wish - for the most part.

The game is still really, really slow paced. Getting a village going is gonna take some time and I just wish some things went a little quicker. Small tasks like picking up shells and catching bugs can earn you a nice amount of dinks (money) and the game will have you going "Hey this is pretty good!" only for you to then realize how expensive things can get.

Combine this with the crappy rate at which your tools keep breaking and you slowly get a feel for how grindy the game is gonna be. You might, like me, resort to doing absurd amounts of fishing in order to pay off deeds simply because it feels like the fastest way to earn dinks in the early game. Fishing is fine at first, but it becomes boring fast since it never really changes.

This is my only gripe with the game. It improves upon Animal Crossing's stupid progression system, but does not make it perfect. Everything else about the game is also better than Animal Crossing is almost every way. The game's art style is awesome, there's a lot more to do, the island is big, you can massively alter the terrain similar to Minecraft and the music is great.

It's a good game that could be better. And it's best enjoyed with some friends in order to make the grinding a little easier. If you're gonna play solo, be prepped for the early game slog. But once you get past the early stages of the game things do get a bit better.

The Fun-der from Down Under

This review is long overdue, but with the game finally in full release. It's time

Start with the endless creativity and imagination sparked in anyone who's ever built anything with LEGOs. Season it with a a healthy dose of Aussie flavor and dress it up in cute Animal Crossing like graphics and you've got Dinkum

Disillutioned with life in the dystopic "South City", your character jump on the offer to follow and old woman called Fletch back to her homeland of , but really.....you might as well call it Australia. Because you'll be struggling with Croccos, 'Roos, violent 'Mus and suspicious sandwich spreads soon enough.

The full game comes with two modes, either you struggle and grind for resources in vanilla mode or if you just want to build pretty things there's also a creative mode.

The progression is very statisfying, from starting out in a couple of tents you'll eventually after many hours of hard work develop a nice frontier town with stores, a bank and even a musuem as you convice visitors to join your settlement permanently

If the top world isn't challenging enough, you'll eventually be given access to three procedurally generated mine leves of increasing difficulty and reward.

So if cozy sandbox games are your thing, Dinkum is an excellent purchase.

pros:
-animal crossing
-austrailian
-energy system is based
-you can die
-doggo
-no furries
-not nintendo

cons:
-running out of energy is a pain
-walking 5000 miles for a bug for a quest
-tools durability is trash


8/10 game

I was surprised how well this game plays on my laptop that has a bad graphics card (its an Intel UHD 620). It runs smoothly with very little lag, which makes me so happy.

But the first time I played this game I immediately loved it. There's hardly any glitches and the gameplay is fun. I love being able to customize my island, even though terraforming can be a bit of a pain. But I love this game a lot, I think its one of my most favorite games.

I've been really into this game a lot- its like a mix of animal crossing and stardew valley but its fun to play just by yourself or with the help of other friends :3

Overall, it's like Minecraft and Animal Crossing had a child. Cute and very fun. My one BIG caveat is that you can't just save whenever! Especially since there are time-sensitive tasks, I don't want to have to go do something and need to "sleep" and lose the rest of my day! I have kids, I have pets, I have a lot of things I need to do, and it's extremely frustrating that you can only save the game by sleeping.

Wonderful mix of cozy and adventure. As an animal crossing / stardew player - this game hits all the right spots. It is fun to build out your town and interact with NPCs. It's also thrilling to mine and hunt animals. This is a nice slow burn, it takes time and effort to move forward but that's what makes it so fun. Immediate addict.

this is a fun little game. huge animal crossing vibes, with a pinch of harvest moon as well. its an added bonus to have dangerous wildlife, something you dont have to deal with in either of the above mentioned games. it adds a nice element. the fishing is fun, not too simple, not too complicated. just right, if you ask me. i love that you can make a boat and sail all over the island. and each island seem to be randomly generated, as the few games ive started have all been different. ill be playing this one for some time i think

I just love it. I see some changes in updates, some I like, some I don't. But it's fun to play and pretty chill (until some alpha species doesn't track down you like they have their own vindeta with you).
I just wish they had added a manual or wiki in the game so I don't have to switch windows to read&learn some info from the internet. There are very few tips in the game itself.

Farm, Fish, Catch Bugs, Pet and grow livestock. Its lovely and relaxing!

I love this game. Been playing since early access and the game just keeps getting better. It's very relaxing and you can loose track of time while playing. There's lots of things to do like farming, taking care of animals, mining, terraforming and building, collecting, etc. The developer really makes an effort to add new content and keeps things interesting. I believe the multiplayer aspect needs more work. But overall the game experience is great.

I'm torn between wanting to do a more comprehensive review when I've "finished" the game and doing one now to potentially get others onboard sooner.

But I am absolutely loving this so far. I waited until it was out of early access and I was hesitant because of the graphics/art style, but when you're playing it, it clicks visually. On the whole so far it is an amazing combination of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. It has precisely which elements from both that I'd pick, choose and use myself were I to make a game in this style. The day and season cycle and general progression from Stardew but the kind of sandboxy open endedness, NPC interactions and behaviour of Animal Crossing. All of this packaged up in an Aussie dressing which is endearing and familiar as a native. Plus it's got a lot of things extra that I wish those games had too. So many quality of life things that came long down the line or had to be modded in as similar games this one has already packaged in. And I'm only scratching the surface myself but I am loving every moment in this game.

Super easy reccomend for anyone curious. I am gushing over it hard.

I play this game excessively (for a parent...) on Steam Deck and they are a match made in heaven.

It runs so well on Steam Deck and the controls work great, its just perfect for it.

The Gameplay is the perfect mix of cozy and not too easy. Decoration but enough to do, that its not only decorating and talking to the Villagers every day. Farming, but the right amount of QoL so it does not get tedious. Its the least stressfull game I ever played. Even Stardew Valley is more stress. But it has yet to get boring.

I am playing with a few QoL mods (auto pickup, light in the mines) and it works like a charm even on Steam Deck.

I still have to see the end of things to do and build and I am actually getting into decorating which is normally not my thing.

Its just a really great game for me to play on my Deck.

nice cozy game
wish we could save at anytime tho sometimes life gets in the way atleast there is a way to pause the game

Honestly the game has not that much content, and tries to hide that fact behind A LOT of grinding and slow unlocks. As a completionist I still had urge to do this but I didn't enjoy it like in the most similar games. And you deliberately cannot automate most of the things - most activities like cooking and refining are still done by hand, farming is the only thing that can be kinda automated.

Dinkum is a cozy, charming blend of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley, and it pulls off the combo really well. It’s got the laid-back life sim vibes of AC with the farming and crafting depth you'd expect from Stardew, plus a bit of light combat thrown in. The world is super satisfying to progress through, and I really appreciate how long the days are — unlike Stardew, you’re not constantly racing the clock, which makes it easier to enjoy each season.

Villagers each have distinct personalities that feel straight out of Animal Crossing, and it’s genuinely fun interacting with them. Combat isn’t the main focus, but it adds a little extra spice — especially when you're up against the Alpha animals (basically mini-bosses that’ll definitely knock you out if you’re not prepared).

I do have some issues, though. The digging system is super annoying — you have to dig up a square of dirt, then place it somewhere else before you can dig again. It’s tedious, and honestly, I just want to get on with it. The deep mines could use more variety, and I wish there were more house customization options (like extra rooms). Oh, and no romance?! That’s a bummer. I really miss having romance options to spice things up.

Despite those annoyances, Dinkum is a fun, cozy grind — especially if you’ve got friends to play with. If you're into life sims but miss the romance, it’s still worth checking out.

having been waiting for it's release and finally getting here i've given dinkum a true go at it... and i gotta say, well the game has a lot going for it, it falls short.

The ability to effectively level an area comes far too late in the game, using a shovel and wheel barrow is far far too much work to move things around.

the lack of a gender / body type is infuriating, i wanna be a girl, or boy, not... swap genders based on if i'm wearing a dress or a T-shirt (even if it's a girly t-shirt).

The Stamina is ridiculous that you actually have to get food to keep it up to do anything at all. ((i modded this to not be needed to even do the time i did play. mods should imrpove the game, not make it playable in the first place.))

The game has soooooo many gates to slow down you progression, needing to get achievements to get point to unlock new things makes getting newer and better stuff, hella slow.

and when you do unlock some of the later tier things expect to spend long hours in the mines, decent content but you'll spend so much time in them you'll learn to hate it.

I feel like the combat system could do with a Dodge, right now swords, mostly due to speed feel the really only decent answer for combat, you CAN make the others work, they're not total shit, but they're a lot more work with little payoff comapred to swords later game.

The game tried to be some sort of minecraft/animal crossing mix, i feel like it did the animal crossing part decently well, kinda.... but it failed hard on the minecraft part. where trying to make and modify the map was just too tedious and slow for building up a town... least in animal crossing most everything was already flat, you have to make it flat here.

Very invasive privacy agreement. They say they will collect and use your personally identifiable information for their own marketing, and also give it to affiliates or anyone who asks as long as the transaction is "lawful".

No.

Krafton data collection and data mining added to EULA. Won't sign it so can't play, requesting refund, disappointed I supported this developer from early access release.

This kind of bait and switch from early access to a full release that requires us to accept a new EULA is not cool. Not recommended, stay away. Read the full EULA if you don't think it's a big deal.

I've played slightly more than the refund limit but will request a refund from Steam with the EULA coming into effect post-early access as the reason.

The most egregious part:

"We will collect the following categories of information that may directly or indirectly identify or describe you or your device or information that may be reasonably capable of being associated with or reasonably linked to you or your device. The information you provide to us may differ depending on the circumstances. For example, these include:
1) Identifiers such as, SteamID64, nickname, IP address, email address, language, nationality, etc.;
2) Device or Network Information such as, OS version, etc.;
3) Game information, such as information about crash report and system activity details(game setting, play date/time, etc.); and
4) Purchase information, such as purchase date, items, etc."

Selling thousands of copies of a game to people only to turn around and require us to literally sell our identity in order to play it is beyond unethical. I had a lot of fun playing Dinkum in early access, and was highly anticipating the full release. However, this new EULA by Krafton is unacceptable in every aspect. There is no reason I should have to sign away my identity and my rights to my personal information to this degree just to play a non-competitive single player game. If this was an MMO or competitive game, I could understand the amount of data collection and monitoring of player activity, but as it stands, there is no reason the company should even have access to a lot of this information, let alone be saving it or selling it for any reason. I understand that data collection is a normal part of gaming and service agreements, and that a certain amount of data selling is par for the course these days. However, this EULA does not align with what the Krafton representatives are claiming is in the agreement.

KRAFTON inc. is EULA roofying customers. See Reasondefies' review for more information on their underganded tactics and Louis Rossmann for more info on what EULA roofying means.

Steam really should allow returns on games/publishers who pull this anti-consumer crap. (I'll just spend the money on other, more consumer friendly devs' games)

P.s. You can ignore creators ao you don't even have to see their games in Steam.

I bought Dinkum years ago and had a blast playing it. I wanted to revisit it recently, so I started it up on my Steam Deck, only to be presented with a new EULA.

I began reading the Terms of Service in this new EULA, and they lost me at the section on forced arbitration. Let me quote directly from the ToS (all caps was their choice, not mine): “ARBITRATION ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS MEANS THAT YOU WILL NOT HAVE, AND YOU HEREBY WAIVE, THE RIGHT FOR A JUDGE OR JURY TO DECIDE YOUR CLAIMS, AND THAT YOU MAY NOT PROCEED IN A CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE CAPACITY.”

That, on its own, is bad enough. But it’s followed a couple sections later by this: “This agreement to arbitrate disputes is intended to encompass all disputes or claims arising out of your relationship with Company, including our respective subsidiaries, affiliates, predecessors in interest, successors, licensors, and assigns, arising out of or relating to the Game, the Documentation or Services (whether based in contract, tort, statute, fraud, misrepresentation, or any other legal or equitable theory).”

What this appears to mean is that accepting the EULA automatically waives your right to have any future claims decided upon by a judge or jury. The kicker is that by their own admission, it is not only specifically related to Dinkum or KRAFTON themselves, but also related to any entity the company owns or has a significant relationship with— past, present, or future.

Gross.

Do I have any intention of bringing a court case against a company over a video game? No. Could I possibly have reason in the future to avail myself of the court system to resolve a dispute with companies or entities that are “respective subsidiaries, affiliates, predecessors in interest, successors, licensors, and assigns” of KRAFTON or Dinkum? No clue, because I cannot see the future, and they have declined to list specific entities that this applies to. So for now (and probably forever), it’s a big “NOPE” to the new EULA and Dinkum.

And that’s truly a shame, because I really did love this game.

So I haven't actually played since week one Early Access in 2022. I told myself I'd come back to something a little more finished and play when 1.0 drops. Now tell me why 1.0 drops with no steam achievements for a start?

And WHY does KRAFTON reserve the right to collect and SELL your user data to third parties? you literally don't need to know anything about me in order for me to play pretend as an Australian farmer. This is a singleplayer sim with peer-to-peer co-op. Nothing in the game is hosted through KRAFTON. These personal identifiers are sent to the US and South Korea for god knows what reason.

I should not have to email them to opt-out, thus revoking my access to play the game. It's an anti-consumer privacy nightmare.

Animal Crossing had a child but doesnt know if the father is Stardew Valley or Minecraft. This is the product.

Naaaaaah, for a game I already bought and played and the brand-new and (in my personal opinion) pretty invasive EULA I refuse to agree to it. So this means I will not be playing the game further (and can't play it), as I do not agree to this new contract. So the game itself is a no from me. Shame too as it was pretty fun with friends at one point a long time back, but... no thanks

I'd love to recommend this game - however, since Krafton has taken over, the new EULA is absurd, invasive, and contradicts statements made by the dev and by Krafton themselves. The restrictions included, and the data collected, do not mesh with what this game is. Krafton is being decidedly vague and shady about the whole thing, and until an official statement or change to the EULA is made, I don't recommend buying it.

Otherwise? The game is fun. Getting money is a bit grindy, but it's fun to explore and the game lacks a lot of my issues with other farm sim / town builder kind of games. I like the gameplay loop - it reminds me a lot of Animal Crossing. The game is very charming, and would definitely be fun with in multiplayer. If the EULA issues are fixed, I'd happily change this to a recommendation.

Since they changed the EULA mid development, after selling the game as Early Access to thousands of players, I can only downvote this.
Steam should protect players against these practices.

Love animal crossing, figured i'd love this too, i bought it on EA the moment i saw it, waited nearly 3 years to give it a proper go an well, it's just not enjoyable

it's way too grindy, tool durability is abysmal, the stamina nonsense when mining/cutting trees down is too much even with food, friendship decay is terrible design in any game like this, enough with that already i mean i do the little task for visiting towns folk to get them to join they leave town the next day an when they come back their hearts have gone down a big chunk

combat is not fun in any way, recipes are too expensive material wise and the shovel only being able to pick up one block at a time unlike other games where it adds the block into your inventory who thought that was a good idea?

licenses, licenses, licenses....

I've had this game since the 1st month of the Early Access release and I can tell you that I had tons and tons of fun. The sort of fun where you can turn off your brain and just mindlessly wander, cut woods, break rocks/ore nodes, kill Jackaroos and Crocos and get killed by a Shark for trying to kill it. I've never played Animal Crossing before so this is my first time playing this type of game. I only play ti'll I get bored then come back later after 6 months to enjoy the new contents then quit then come back again and finally, they have released 1.0. Even after their final patch notes, I believe that I will always come back to this game and I think 10 years from now(hoping that nothing bad will happen to Steam in general) I'll still come back and play for a couple of months more. This is the kind of game that you'll never get tired of playing. I may have found another home and its truly comforting. I just wish there is a physical copy of this game that I can just display in my room, that would be incredibly cool. Thank you James Bendon!

Great game, but grind is the main mechanic

I think I rather liked this game at the beginning, but the progression is bad. While you are seeing new content it is fun, but at some point you have to grind to see just a bit of something new. Later the ratio of repetition vs new content becomes unbearable.

I am sad because there is a huge ton of content that I am missing out. I saw great community creations and beautiful cities, but I just could not force myself to unlock it. Spending weeks of game time on catching animals & fish without no end in sight is not for me.

Maybe there are much more activities later on, but before I got to discover those - I already started HATING the activities that brought me pleasure during early hours of the game.

The co-op part is also does not feel great. There is a primary player with more access to everything, and everyone else would be lacking progression. The host and the other players are not equal, and if you are not the host, you have to spend time on playing in your own world for a bit. Remember I told you that the beginning of the game is fun? Well, even that thing you have to do twice, which is too much.


Some positive things to say: the style and atmosphere is great, the Australian vibes are quite unique and integrated in the game with a lot of attention to details. This does not feel just like Stardew Valley, it has own charm. Somewhere, in the depth of useless time-wasting grind.

I cannot recommend this game at the moment and am seeking a refund due to the EULA changes. I have two major reasons. Update: Sadly Steam will not grant me a refund. I understand that I was not likely to get one, but by no means should anyone else not try on their own to refund.

No game should be able to change their terms post you buying something in a single player or player-to-player co-op non-MMO game. I should be able to do whatever I want with a game that only I or people who choose, specifically, to interact with me in.

Most definitely should not be allowed to track data you did not originally sign up for and have no actual recourse to remove or opt-out of said collections. There are tons of games made in Unity that have a checkbox to tick for this instead of a contact them and get no response or feedback.

----- Game Review ----

1.0 is not much different than when I bought it with a single season. It really didn't go anywhere, but that is the risk of purchasing Early Access. From a person with Godus sitting in the Library.

Fighting is janky and feels far too hard with too high a resource cost of both weapons/heals.

Having to still click every single item to pick up, click to process each item one by one, and then pick up processed items one by one again is terrible. The fact that their are mods to do this means that this was a choice against having pleasant gameplay.

With James february partnership with Krafton and their vague QA on forced data collection/mining i cannot recommend this title anymore.

Krafton is accused of legal issues of selling personal data to 3 parties with no consent. That alone is a turnoff. I bought the game from indie dev and supported it, not some shady mega corp.

The gameplay is a little bit of Stardew Valley and a little bit of Animal Crossing put on top of a whole lotta Marmite. It's got your usual cozy game aesthetic, but beyond the change of the four seasons affecting what crops and wildlife grow, the only real pressure to turbonerd out and get stuff done around the island is what you impose upon yourself.

There is a little spice mixed in, because the game takes place in definitely-not Australia. So you'll have to worry about crocodiles, cassowary, and other baddies that want to give you some thunder from down under. The combat's got some nice light complexity in that regard. You won't be dodge rolling, but you can get tacticool with it. If it's dark out, you can use your flashlight to blind your target to get free hits in. Hammerblows to the head will stun your target, Spears have extra reach, and your cricket bat can get a fire upgrade that doubles as a light source and has a burn damage effect.

Farming is likewise simplistic but competently done, with little tricks you can employ for example, like intentionally leaving gaps in your crop fence where you can plant cage traps. It'll snap up the pests and you can sell them off for big dinks. Or digging water channels through your crops, not only for watercan refilling, but also to plant rice in the water channels, which will never need maintaining as well as rice being a year-round crop. The water will also act as a barricade to keep plant offshoots from spreading out and wasting space. Lots of little details like that.

It's been a great cozy game experience tied together with some Aussie humor that you rarely get to see. The progression has a lot of that stardew valley feel to it, and I wouldn't be surprised if you see Nintendo lifting ideas from Dinkum, especially the scientist villager's QoL features and Dinkum's terrain manipulation ones.

Absolutely love this game, still a bit rough around the edges, but nothing that disrupts game flow or my enjoyment of it. VERY ADDICTING

Ive been using the DevCommand "save" feature because of the unpredictable disconnect issues Multiplayer has in this game. Only the host retains progress and every guests will get all their progress for that day WIPED back to the start of their day like it never happened. All items they had before Back at them that means DUPING can be a problem. Thats why i usually Manually save my progress in case i get disconnected my items will be saved and plus we dont always have the time to finish off a while day and sleep just to save. Wtih the Dev mode completely exclusive to creative mode which disables achievements in the future. Atleast give us the option to manually save anytime so we dont lose progress from disconnection.

I currently have 740 hours under my belt and I'm STILL DISCOVERING NEW STUFF.

There are so many fun things to do in this game!!! From collecting hilarious outfits, to designing a zoo, to building a volcano, to diving for pearls, to beating up crocodiles... you'll never run out of things to do on your island!!

This is my favorite game - which is high praise from a former-hardcore gamer. I work a super stressful job and at night, no matter how late, I hop on to spend a day decorating, hunting magpie, farming, petting my animals, and get those kinky freaks flys late at night.

Thank you to the developer.

I never like to leave negative comments for a hardworking developer, but selling your player base out to a company that uses GenAI and has legal issues revolving around some heinous stuff is where I draw the line. I bought this game to support a developer, not your bad choice in a publisher actively harming developers and artist rights.

Changed EULA AFTER purchase and steams refund time elapsed, and to even READ the EULA you get redirected out of steam to a website that forces cookies if you want to even READ the EULA your signing up to.

That's unethical and a whole lot of nope to me.