Ushi No Tane Forum

Ever since Stardew Valley, I've seen several HM-esque games pop up. That's pretty nice, but it only makes me notice more than no one has tried to budge in on The Sims' or Animal Crossing's business. The Sims clones are few and far between despite it being one of the most popular PC series out there. Animal Crossing had My Sims, Magican's Quest, and (to a very small extent) HM: Magical Melody, but that's about it.

I'd wager it's because farming sims have a large fanbase that is easy to cater to if the games are done properly. Back in the day, we'd have to wait a year or two to get a new farming simulation game as Harvest Moon was really all we had (and Shepherd's Crossing too?). Now with indie games becoming a mainstream thing and some people growing up HM wanting to try their hand at the genre, we now have move of a pool of farming sims to dive into instead of just relying on HM/SoS to fill it up.

In regards to other simulation game genres, there are a lot of games that are trying to do the same thing, trying to capture the charm and addictiveness of Sims or Animal Crossing, but we don't necessarily get them localized. There have been several other Magician's Quest games we never saw here (including a 3DS title). There's also games that just try to mush the simulation genre together with others to appeal to other audiences as well. The currently in development Re:Legend is a great example of this.

Farming sims are easy to pick up and play and don't require a lot of attention in many people's busy lives, which is probably why they're so enticing to people who even haven't picked up the genre before. And as they sell pretty well now, there's going to be more on the horizon until they fade out / people lose interest.

That's just my thoughts on the matter.

The farming craze is fairly recent.

Give it time and we will have 50000 animal crossings too.

You missed the most shameless Animal Crossing clone, Castaway Paradise!

Most of the people making these games are indie devs and making a game close enough to The Sims probably isn't feasible with a small team and budget. Inspired by the series is as close as you're going to get unless a company willing to take risks and with lots of money to throw at a game decides to make a full on life simulator.

Panda Parfait wrote:You missed the most shameless Animal Crossing clone, Castaway Paradise!

Most of the people making these games are indie devs and making a game close enough to The Sims probably isn't feasible with a small team and budget. Inspired by the series is as close as you're going to get unless a company willing to take risks and with lots of money to throw at a game decides to make a full on life simulator.

This. Sims is far more mainstream and a real power house and to create something even s smidgen close to the sims would cost a ton of resources and one helluva gamble.

Tbh I wish some would take the chance tho. The sims series really could use some healthy competition. They monopolize that genre for far too long.

I also really wish The Sims had true competition. I love that series, even played it this morning, but I'd really love to see a totally different team's take on the genre. Because the sims definitely has a consistent style/tone (even though it fluctuates with each game) and there are so many other ways to go with the genre. (ie something more gritty, for example)

Well, tomodachi life is basically a sims game? It just has the animal crossing feel to it. Which reminds me I should actually check on my Mineral Town island lol.

I wouldn't say those three games are all that similar.

The sims is pretty much a straight up sub-urban human life simulator and house designing game.

Animal Crossing doesn't really have life sims aspect to it, beyond the basic theme surrounding it. You simply maybe try to keep your town happy and beautiful by doing little things every now and then.

Tomodachi Life is kind of... A thing. The focus here is the characters and the "lOl raNdoM" things they say. With very light sim aspects to it, more like those of a tamagotchi than the sims, really.

Getaris wrote:I wouldn't say those three games are all that similar.

The sims is pretty much a straight up sub-urban human life simulator and house designing game.

Animal Crossing doesn't really have life sims aspect to it, beyond the basic theme surrounding it. You simply maybe try to keep your town happy and beautiful by doing little things every now and then.

Tomodachi Life is kind of... A thing. The focus here is the characters and the "lOl raNdoM" things they say. With very light sim aspects to it, more like those of a tamagotchi than the sims, really.

And yet I'm amused.