Saving the Coral Reefs

Both real and virtual reefs too!

I've been playing Coral Island recently, it's an Early Access game on Steam, from a little indie dev. The titular island is where you are going back to after an unspecified time away, to take over a rather derelict farm and farmhouse.

In between raising crops and scraping together the funds for a barn and some livestock, you can help replenish the exhibits in the town museum (after they had to sell everything to pay for an oil spill clean-up), solve the mysteries of the local mine and help regenerate the island's coral reefs by clearing out the undersea rubbish piles.

Plus, the devs have currently got a limited-time DLC for a chest, outfit and a scarecrow item where 100% of the proceeds go to the Ocean Guardians charity to help clean up and protect our real-world coral reef systems too!

I had to get that, it's a great cause and also I wish more places did that kind of fundraising for charities. A few DLC cosmetics costs the devs relatively little in time/effort but can raise quite a bit for charity! I'll happily donate for the digital equivalent of a gold star sticker that makes my farm look a little bit nicer :p

(Shallow, me? Yes.)

Anyway, other than the underlying themes around eco-friendliness, the game is fantastic. It draws heavily from classics like Harvest Moon and Rune Factory and also from Stardew Valley, but with some lovely 3D graphics in a cute art style, a great setting and a very varied cast of NPCs - even the non-romanceable townies are worth getting to know.

I'm currently playing through my first winter season in-game, which is the end of my first year. I've got one good field up and running, an upgraded barn with three animals pottering around looking adorable, plus a coop (I named my chicken Chuck because original names are overrated), silo and a large selection of processing equipment.

My biggest victory currently is having finished up the set of offerings at the island temple to earn a free Slime of Replication - finally I can duplicate my gold kelp. That stuff is too expensive to buy and until the next patch I can't gather it from the sea so I was holding out on a Slime to let me earn my next crop upgrades!

I've not got much history of playing farming games, or even any slow life genres like this (except for the odd period of manic Sims gaming) so I'm having fun figuring out how this all works and exploring the island and stuff. It's very relaxing and I'm loving every second.

Even though the game is still in EA, it's very well polished for the most part. A few closed shops, the odd menu or interaction that gives you a little TBD or 'please come back another time' but no massive bugs, or gaping holes in the gameplay or anything that feels sloppy or half-done. The only times you really feel the EA status is the seasonal festivals - none of them have their complete roster of activities yet and the harvest festival has incomplete text for the harvest competition - but that's it. Otherwise, I'm having a great time and eagerly awaiting the August patch so I can meet the merfolk!

I'll do my best to add some pics to this or another post soon, it really is a pretty game.