Due to the sheer amount of content and progression in Dinkum, it feels necessary to write up a 'continuing impressions' after my initial first impressions of this wonderful Animal Crossing-esque game. You can read my very first impressions behind this link!
Normally, when I deign to bother with an early access game, I'm done after my first impressions until the game finally releases. But because my first impressions only touched a very small amount of the game I thought it best to keep playing to see what else was in store.
My first impressions touched on the very beginning of the game, this post will touch on a little bit further in.
To start with, I made a new character. The main purpose with making a new character was to see what the map looked like on another person; if it was the same map or generated each time a new character is made. Turns out it's a fresh generation each time!
My new map looks so much better than my first map... when the game actually releases, I'll probably end up making a few different characters at first and choose the best-looking map out of all of them. This new map has a nice little billabong on it! I was going to start up my new settlement there, but I got bitten on the butt by a crocodile. Ah well.
I'm pleased to announce that I also worked out the fishing. It's easier than I was making out in my first impressions; just needed to get the hang of it.
When the fish is pulling away — don't click. When the fish stops pulling — click rapidly, but don't hold down until it's almost caught.
Easy peasy.
I didn't get up to this bit in my very first impressions — starting to build up the town.
You get the deeds to build proper buildings — tents no more!! — from the little old lady. I'm beginning to think this whole town idea is the little old lady's way of becoming a millionaire — getting money and livin' life through all of my hard work.
Once you get the deed from the little old lady, you need to pay the money owing into a collection box in the base tent. Until it's paid off, you can't buy any more deeds or town-related things.
With the deed, you place the construction site where you would like the new building and work begins the next day.
This is where I discovered that digging isn't really that fun. You can get a wheelbarrow which helps immensely, but my experience at the moment with digging............
.........I'm literally moving dirt from where I don't want it, to a pile nearby. Back and forth. Dig, walk somewhere else, place dirt, walk back; dig, walk back to the pile, place dirt, walk back.
And, I'm probably going to have to move that same dirt again as I expand my village, since I'm too lazy to walk a decent distance away to dump my unwanted dirt.
The wheelbarrow costs a whopping $30,000, which was all of my money, but I wanted to make tidying my town easier.
The wheelbarrow enables me to put several chunks of dirt into it, and when I have a substantial amount I have to wheel it away somewhere else and dump it. So still slightly time consuming, but a better form of time consuming.
Now that things are starting to move along a tiny bit in my burgeoning village, in the base tent I can see some interesting statistics for my town.
Mostly I see that my town barely rates a quarter of a star, no one is happy, no one can shower or poo anywhere, it's ugly, the economy is trash, there's no museum, but licences are going up, up, up!
I guess that's a good start. To be expected for the very initial days of a brand new village.
It wasn't immediately clear how to plant trees and things.
The tooltip tells you to 'bury' your seeds or fruits, but doesn't really go into what to do. Unlike other games with a similar nature that I've tried, I couldn't just place the seed on the ground, and I couldn't plant it in a crop field.
Turns out I literally had to dig a hole, Q-to-drop the seed into the hole, then replace the dirt on top.
I feel as though this game needs to instruct people a little more. I am by no means a player who enjoys being hand-held, but a few helpful hints wouldn't go astray.
When I start my "proper" game when Dinkum emerges from early access, I'll probably start my settlement in a greener region simply for aesthetics. There are a few different biomes in the game like the desert, pine forests, swampish areas filled with mangroves, tropical areas, beaches. Might even settle on the beach. Hmmm.
There are towers around the map that you can repair and when you repair them they act as fast travel points, so that'll be handy too, regardless of settlement position.
My initial impressions of this are still favourable: it feels polished; I haven't experienced any bugs or glitches yet; it's enjoyable... except for that digging, dayum. And it really needs a pause.
From what I can see in the Steam Discussions and in the dev's notes, most of the glitches and bugs are located much further into the game; further than I'm willing to go during early access. There are three types of early access players: the one who wants to beta test, the one who wants to simply support the game, and the one who doesn't understand it's in the testing phase and bitches about alpha/beta games being unplayable. 😂 If you're the third type of person, rest assured that this title is currently playable!
After 7 hours, I'm shelving it for the time being. I'm pleased with my purchase, with my support, and am looking forward to seeing how this game continues to grow over the coming months until it eventually launches into a finished title.
You can find it on the Steam Store behind this link!
Until next time! :)
Posted from Kaelci Games with Exxp : https://kaelci.games/2022/07/18/dinkum-an-aussie-animal-crossing-continuing-impressions/