Happy Farm'n Friday! Another round of kitchen scraps went into the front yard garden box. A few more weeks' worth of veggie bits, tea grounds, and uneaten leftovers to go before the whole area has had stuff buried under the soil. I'm still digging up the small roots that Big Doug, the douglas fir tree, spread into the boxes. I should have put a barrier between the clay dirt and garden soil when the garden boxes were put together a few years ago, but I decided not to because nothing grew there anyway. Or so I incorrectly assumed. Ha!

Been also looking at getting another delivery of garden soil to place over the top of some clay dirt. That worked well for the rebuild of the iris bed two years ago. Mr.Fogu's mom gifted me a bag of wildflower seeds that I'm looking forward to spreading, but I need something other than our native clay to grow it in.

Steam Next Fest

Celebrating the latest Steam Next Fest starting Monday (February 5 through 12), several independent farm'n games in development are showcased. Some have free demos for download from their Steam store pages. Check out these games, wishlist the ones you are interested in, and feel free to give devs feedback on what you liked (or did not like) about their games. There may be more games announced on Monday; these are the ones I know are participating in Next Fest as of today:

Colorful and quirky crop farming game Cirrus Business has players growing magical crops to help restore their world of Cloudi, which has been covered by slobsters in a coating of sticky gunk. Protagonist Cirrus will work with local residents to clean their world in this story-driven farming game.

• Cirrus Business | Steam Store (Demo available now)

While promoted as a farming game, Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge has some plant growth and frogie livestock (of sorts) but with a different goal than a typical farming game. The objective here is to place things and plants to restore the local wetlands, enticing a variety of frogs to visit based on the objects placed in the play area. There are over 500 frogs to document in the game's frogdex.

• Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge | Steam Store (Demo available now)

The mech alien-world farming game Lightyear Frontier will enter early access on March 19 on Steam and XBox, including GamePass subscribers. A free demo is now available for Steam Next Fest and is also now available on Xbox. In Lightyear Frontier, players (and up to 3 friends) will grow a new homestead on an alien world, growing strange plants and weird livestock.

• Lightyear Frontier | Steam Store (Demo available now)

The on-screen idle PC farming game Rusty's Retirement runs in the foreground. At the same time, you do other tasks like watch movies, browse the internet, or write farming game guide content (I'm close to finishing that cultural level page for Anthos!). Rusty's is planned for a Quarter 1 (February/March) release.

• Rusty's Retirement | Steam store (Demo available now)

Southfield is a sandbox farming adventure game for up to 4 players. Grow crops that, when combined, have strange and wacky effects like bouncing and exploding. Complete the in-game crop almanac, goof around with your friends, and help the local residents by completing their quests.

• Southfield | Steam store (Demo will be available during Next Fest)

Other in-development farming games have free demos available that aren't part of this latest Next Fest, such as Cornucopia, Critter Crops, and Orange Season.

Octopia Released

The farming expansion for Eastward called Eastward: Octopia is now available on Nintendo Switch and Steam for $5.99 / £4.99 / €5.89. Though you do need to own a copy of the base game, the Octopia DLC is a stand-alone adventure that can be accessed from the Eastward menu screen.

Eastward: Octopia Features:

• The return of Sam and John in a new adventure in the land of Octopia. Far away from the hardships of Eastward, this parallel universe encourages rest and relaxation.
• A fresh start in a pixel-crafted world. Revive an old, neglected farmstead, and breathe life into the town through community upgrades and work projects, encouraging new neighbors to move in.
• A world of culinary delights fresh from soil to table. Grow produce and harvest crops to whip up delicious meals that become saved recipes in John's Cookbook.
• A new setting to enjoy. Away from daily life on the farm, spend time catching fish, talking to ghosts, and exploring the secrets hidden in Octopia.
• A multilingual experience with support for French, German, Spanish, Japanese, or Chinese (Simplified or Traditional) language

There is now an Eastward: Beyond Two World Bundle available on the Nintendo eShop that includes both the base game and the Octopia expansion. This special package is $27.29 / €27.79 and is 35% off ($18.06 / €18.06) until February 14. The base game is also on sale for 40% off in North America until February 14, while the 40% discount in Europe ends on February 5 because Eastward was recently featured as a free demo for Nintendo Online members.

The Two Words bundle is also on Steam, discounted down to $18.07 / €19.41 until the 14th.

Until next time!

-Cher
(Yaay, sunny weather! Hurry up, springtime!)

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