Indonesian-based developers Stairway Games are announcing a Kickstarter campaign for their new game Coral Island.
Coral Island is a farming sim “inspired by classics”. Not only do you get to grow crop and nuture animals, you’ll also be helping the 50 islanders with their daily life, 16 of which are dateable and can be married.
You can also go into caverns to mine gemstones, but you’ll need to bring a weapon in case monsters attack you.
Sounds familiar? Coral Island definitely evokes the gameplay loop of Harvest Moon (or now, as we know it globally, as Story Of Seasons). Or for a more recent example, like Stardew Valley, which is also inspired by Harvest Moon.
What Coral Island differs is that the game also allows you to dive in the ocean and help restore coral reefs. You can go clean the seabed, help rare fish by making homes and collect kelp.
You can also customise your player character with outfits, accessories and physiques (no hard gender lock), as well chip in community projects in the town to make Coral Island cooler.
Also, there is a scummy corporation trying to exploit the island, and various mythical beings like Merfolk and Giants to meet.
Coral Island is currently seeking funds on Kickstarter, and planned to be released later this year. Console versions are currently explored, but no hard confirmation yet.
It’s great to see farming sims being popular again. We’ve seen Story Of Seasons having remakes, Farming Simulator continues to thrive with an esports scene, and various indie devs making their own takes inspired by classics like we see here with Coral Island, Magnus Studio’s Re:Legend.