u/ZymartuGames

Hi everyone,

The updated demo is free to play on Steam, and if you're interested in trying out the latest features like digging and irrigation, feel free to check it out and give us feedback! We've just launched a major update in preparation for Next Fest.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4665870/Fields_of_Aaru_Demo/

Note: Old demo saves won't work with this update. You'll need to start a new game!

Here's what's changed since June:

Updated visuals

We've added fluffier foliage, more flowers to the meadows, and adjusted the colors across different areas. Enhanced mode also adds water reflections, improved lighting, and softer shadows!

You can choose Classic or Enhanced in the Graphics settings.

Digging and irrigation

You can now dig channels and reshape the land around your farm. Once you repair the water wheel, Pentu will also ask you to repair the shaduf by your dock so you can use it to water your fields.

Gifts and friendship

You can now give gifts to villagers, each with their own likes and dislikes. By popular request, you can also sit and listen to the music in the village square in the evening!

Six new languages

You can now play in French, German, Spanish (Spain), Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese and Japanese!

End-of-day summary

When you go to bed, you'll see a summary of what you did and earned that day.

We've been hard at work on the Fields of Aaru demo for Next Fest (many long nights over the past few weeks), and we're to hear what you think of the new features and visuals. If you have any questions, I'll be around to answer them below!

Marcel

I'm curious to hear from other cozy gamers how you all feel about light survival mechanics and what specific elements make them either appealing or off-putting.

In Fields of Aaru, you don't have a traditional hunger meter, but when you venture into the desert, you will have to bring water and keep track of your thirst. This makes the area beyond the Nile a little more difficult, and if you want to venture deep into the desert to find oases, ruins, and tombs, you'll need to prepare for the trek. If you run out of water and spend too much time in the direct sun, you'll eventually pass out.

However, we also have a peaceful mode. If that is turned on, the desert will only drain your energy and you'll never pass out, making exploration a little less stressful. Overall, we never want the game to feel punishing or frustrating, but we do still want to have a sense of adventure and make going into the desert feel significant.

There is also wildlife to discover, and sometimes you'll encounter crocodiles, snakes, a not-so-friendly ostrich, etc. But with peaceful mode enabled, the animals won't attack you.

In terms of light survival elements, one of my favorites is probably Dredge. The nighttime and sanity add a ton of atmosphere, but without changing the core experience from being chill / cozy.

If you want to learn more about Fields of Aaru, you can check it out here (there's also a free demo!): https://store.steampowered.com/app/4410710/Fields_of_Aaru/

There's also our most recent demo launch trailer, which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49zOWIAJleM

Thanks!

Fields of Aaru, https://store.steampowered.com/app/4410710/Fields_of_Aaru/, is a cozy life sim where you farm by the Nile and explore the ancient Egyptian afterlife.

• Meet Anubis, your guide in the afterlife
• Plant crops, fish along the Nile, and grow your farm
• Complete quests and repair the village
• Discover and restore shrines to unlock divine Boons

Many people have requested improved controller support, and we've recently added proper controller navigation across all the UI interfaces, along with controller prompts for all input actions, so it should be a much smoother experience overall. Please let us know how it feels, and if anything is confusing, unexpected, or needs improving!

In addition to the major controller update, we've also been hard at work improving the game: the next planned update will focus on base-building and sandbox creativity: irrigation, full terrain modification, and more ways to modify the world: create large farming areas using irrigation, build out bases in the desert, etc. You will even be able to place down soil to gradually change the ground itself, like turning sand into dirt or dirt into grass.

One of our biggest inspirations is Dinkum. We really like how it combines exploration, crafting, NPCs, and progression with a lot of freedom to build and decorate. We want to take that style of game a step further with more involved dialogue, NPC questlines, etc.

I know some people prefer more linear / quest-focused games and aren't super into sandbox systems, and that's totally OK too. If you prefer to focus on the main quests, NPCs, crafting, etc. without doing as much base-building, terrain modification, irrigation, or decorating, that's a perfectly valid way to play the game too. We don't try to force a single way to play the game on anyone, and there are no time limits or anything like that!

Let me know if you have any questions, feedback, etc.

Hey r/BaseBuildingGames! I'm Marcel, and my wife and I have spent the past 3 years making Fields of Aaru, a cozy base-building life sim set in an Ancient Egyptian-inspired afterlife.

One big part of the game is starting with a small (very rundown) home along the Nile and slowly restoring it and scaling up your farm. You can farm, fish, mine, gather resources, build crafting stations, process materials, smoke fish, make fertilizer, etc.

The demo is now live on Steam, and you can try it for free here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4410710/Fields_of_Aaru/

You can also watch the demo launch trailer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fa1IHK7q9ss

In the demo, you'll start along the Nile, plant your first crops, complete tasks for villagers, repair broken parts of the village, and begin building up your home/farm. You can also head beyond the riverbanks into the desert to explore, gather resources (like dates, pomegranates, etc.), and fight off the desert's heat.

One of the things that you'll be able to do in the full game is really customize the world around you with fully modifiable terrain. You'll be able to dig canals, shape the land around your farm, and use irrigation to water your crops and expand your farm for more efficient production. That's not in the demo though, as we need a little bit more time to make sure you can't totally destroy the NPC areas before we let players try it.

The full game will also have much more crafting and production, including furnaces, kilns, pottery, jewelry, and many other ways to process resources and scale up what you can make. There's also lots more exploration and areas you'll uncover, like the Pyramids across the Nile, boats to craft to cross the Nile, and tombs and oases to explore and discover.

The demo is roughly 1-2 hours (if you follow the main quest), but you can spend longer fishing, farming, completing smaller tasks, restoring Hapi's shrine, unlocking Boons, and expanding your farm. There's no time limit, so you can keep playing as long as you want.

Cheers! And let me know if you have any questions or feedback. We're always looking for ways to improve the game.

I'm Marcel, and my wife and I have spent the past 3 years making Fields of Aaru, a cozy life sim set in an Ancient Egyptian-inspired afterlife.

The demo is now live on Steam, and you can try it for free here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4410710/Fields_of_Aaru/

The game is set along the Nile, where you build your home, farm, fish, craft, help restore a village, and get to know the other residents of Aaru. You can also head beyond the riverbanks into the desert to explore and fight off the desert's heat.

In the demo, you'll start along the Nile, plant your first crops, fish, gather resources, complete tasks for villagers, repair what has been left broken, and begin building up your home. You'll also meet Anubis, who helps guide you through the early parts of the game.

You can also discover and restore shrines, which unlock divine Boons that improve things like farming, fishing, and other parts of the game. The full game will expand much further on exploration, crafting, building, and quests.

The demo is roughly 1-2 hours if you follow the main quest, but you can spend longer fishing, farming, completing smaller tasks, restoring Hapi's shrine, unlocking Boons, and expanding your farm. There's no time limit, so you can keep playing as long as you want.

One of the things we're really excited about for the full game is the modifiable terrain. You'll be able to dig canals, shape the land around your farm, and use irrigation to water your crops. That's not in the demo though, as we need a little bit more time to cook and make sure you can't totally destroy the NPC areas before we ship it.

For other developers who are curious, the project is written in Rust using Bevy, and we built it without a traditional game editor like Unity or Unreal.

Let me know if you have any questions or feedback! I hope you enjoy the demo. And if you made it this far, thanks so much for reading!

You can try the demo for free here!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4410710/Fields_of_Aaru/

My wife and I have been working on Fields of Aaru for over 3 years, and our first public demo is finally live on Steam. We're super nervous, but really excited to share it with players for the first time.

Fields of Aaru is a cozy life sim, or well an afterlife sim technically, set in an ancient Egyptian-inspired afterlife. You wake up in Aaru, settle along the Nile, meet a small cast of villagers, and begin restoring a broken town that has been waiting for someone to care for it again.

A big thing we wanted was for the world to feel warm, handmade, and a little different from the usual farm sim setting. The game is set around the Nile, with bright colors, ambient water, music, stylized characters, and a slower pace where you can just walk around, take in the scenery, fish by the river, pet animals, and get to know the people living there.

The game is not huge, but it should feel unique and charming: a smaller village, distinct character designs, little bits of humor, gods with personalities, and a setting that feels unique. Anubis is your early guide, and you can restore shrines like Hapi's to unlock divine Boons that help with things like farming, fishing, harvests, and seeds.

The demo also has a bit of adventure beyond the cozy village life. You can head out past the riverbanks, explore the nearby desert, find wildlife, gather resources, and start uncovering more of the world. The full game will go further with shrines, gods, building, crafting, irrigation, tombs, ruins, and restoring new parts of Aaru.

The demo is roughly 1-2 hours, depending on how you play. If you follow the main quest, it will probably take around an hour. If you take your time fishing, farming, completing smaller tasks, restoring Hapi's shrine, unlocking Boons, and expanding your farm, you could spend 2-3 or more hours exploring. There is no time limit, so you can stay in Aaru as long as you want.

If you like cozy games with a strong atmosphere, a small handcrafted world, character-focused village life, light exploration, and a setting that feels a little unusual for the genre, Fields of Aaru might be something you like!

The core team is just my wife and me, and we're always looking for ways to improve the game. If you try the demo, we'd love to hear what you think, and we're happy to answer any questions about the game, the demo, or the development process.

My wife and I are making a cozy life sim called Fields of Aaru. If the game sounds interesting, you can learn more & Wishlist it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4410710/Fields_of_Aaru/

In Fields of Aaru, a small number of villagers live in a village along the Nile. A lot of the game is about helping the villagers and getting to know them over time (although there is also crafting, farming, tons of resources to gather, desert environments to explore, wildlife to encounter, etc.).

For the NPCs, we don't want them to feel like just fetch quests. We want them to have their own friendships, grudges, habits, history with each other, etc.

Although the setting is mythological, but we still want the characters to feel familiar and human. They're in the afterlife, but to them this is just life now. Someone still has to fix their house, make food, complain about a neighbor, etc.

This is our first time developing a cast of characters and it would be great for us to know what makes you care about villagers in your favorite cozy games.

Do you like slower friendships that build over time? Quick punchy / funny dialogue? Personal quests? NPCs talking to each other instead of only existing for the player?

What makes you actually want to go check in on someone again, or makes you feel emotionally connected to a character?

Thanks!!