Stardew Valley In Space Game One Lonely Outpost Hits Early Access In 2022

During the Freedom Games E3 showcase on June 14, Freedom Games premiered the Stardew Valley-esque One Lonely Outpost trailer and announced that early access will be coming to PC in 2022, with the team aiming for a first-quarter release. One Lonely Outpost started as a Kickstarter in late August 2020 and, by the time its fundraising period was over it was over 147% funded with over 2,000 backers. This past March, Aurorian Studios (the creator of the Kickstarter for One Lonely Outpost, and the game’s developers) announced the title would be published by Freedom Games. Freedom Games has also published other games like Airborne Kingdom and Jetboard Joust.

One Lonely Outpost is a farming simulator game like Stardew Valley that takes place on a barren alien planet in space. The goal of the player is to grow a community, colony, and a new life on the planet by farming, either synthetically or naturalistically. Although natural farming may bring in more money, players will need to tend to livestock and hand-tend crops. Farming synthetically will give players the ability to gene-splice produce and raise robo-cows, but there could be weird effects as a result, such as glowing cabbages or other interesting physical features. There is more to do than farm; exploring and socializing are also big features of the game. Players will be able to mine, socialize with colonists that settle in their community, find a love interest, explore alien ruins, and solve the unique tests from the ruin-guarding robots to discover the planet’s history.

The trailer starts as a live-action interpretation of a solo explorer trying to start farming and establish an outpost, though it isn’t going so well (via One Lonely Outpost’s E3 trailer). This introduction is reminiscent of Martian, where Mark Watney has to figure out a way to successfully farm on Mars to survive. Though the early access will only be available to PC/Steam players, Freedom Games announced in their showcase press release that One Lonely Outpost will be “sprouting up on Steam Early Access in Q1 2022 ahead of the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S launches.”

In the second half of the trailer, gamers get a view of what One Lonely Outpost’s gameplay and graphics will look like. The graphics are a smooth blend of pixel and 8-bit art, making the game feel sort of modern but retro with a balanced touch of nostalgia. The gameplay does not just focus on farming, but, like Stardew Valley, also focuses on the community building aspect as well. Players being able to play however they see fit is important to Freedom Games; if gamers want to focus on farming synthetically, they can do so and unlock all the perks without diverging to another focus. One Lonely Outpost can also be co-op, where gamers can play with up to three other friends and can create new outpost together, play mini-games, or simply join each other’s outpost and continue to grow it with them.

One Lonely Outpost seems to call out positive aspects of farming games and combines them with space exploration, puzzles and choice. A lot of games are focusing on establishing or helping outposts on a planet in space so more people can call it their home and form a community. One Lonely Outpost gives players the opportunity to grow an outpost from the very start without worrying about rebellion, fights or power-control issues. The potential of this game is exciting.

Source: One Lonely Outpost/YouTube

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