After a successful 2020 Kickstarter campaign, Len’s Island has an Early Access release date of November 5, 2021.
Coming from the Australia-based Flow Studio, Len’s Island is a farming/crafting game with adventure game elements. While the farming-sim-meets-adventure-game combo is certainly not new, Len’s Island does have quite a few features that make it stand out in this bustling genre.
The most immediately noticeable thing is the gorgeous art style and fixed camera style. The colors are bright and vibrant, and the textures have a painted-on look that makes the whole world feel a little bit like a playset. The camera has that overhead fixed viewpoint, similar to Diablo III and similar games.
The thing that really excites me, though, is the flexibility in the building system. If you’ve played Stardew Valley or Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town, you’re probably used to having a preset house layout that can be expanded via a series of predetermined upgrades. Len’s Island instead opts for something closer to Valheim, where you build your own house from an array of smaller pieces. According to the game’s Kickstarter page:
Build wherever you want, make it as big as you want, paint the walls, add some decorations, make it your own.
I look forward to this amount of freedom (though, if I’m being honest with myself, all of my hand-made buildings tend to look the same, whether I’m making them in Minecraft or No Man’s Sky, so I’ll probably just build the same house that I always do).
Whether my lack of architectural creativity gets in my way or not, this is an exciting project. I can’t wait to try it out.
You can wishlist the game on Steam, and check out the gameplay trailer for Len’s Island below.
