Screenshot: James Bendon
Except you’re a card-carrying member of Kotaku Australia, seeing the indie simulation sport Dinkum swimming up the Steam new launch chart perhaps appears weird. However don’t confuse Dinkum, which will get its title from the Australian slang time period “honest dinkum,” which means real (kind of), together with your dinky outdated Converse or my rinky-dink Macbook Air. Dinkum is a cute and compact Animal Crossing re-do, one which emphasizes the hardcore majesty of the Australian outback if it have been made up of Minecraft megapixels.
The sport launched for early entry on July 14 and is getting fairly scorching on Steam, possible due to its proximity to cozy simulation and sandbox classics like Stardew Valley and The Sims. However if you happen to’re nonetheless undecided if that is the sim for you, right here’s a fast truth sheet concerning the preliminary days of Dinkum:
Who made it?
The Australian developer James Bendon self-published the sport after toiling on it for the previous few years.
Who ought to play it?
Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley obsessives, undoubtedly. The sport’s backstory will really feel acquainted to each these camps—your protagonist settles in a brand new, principally empty city and harvests, crops, and catches issues to promote and assist develop the area. Like in Animal Crossing, non-playable characters converse to you in ribbets of unintelligible dialogue and you’ll catch bugs with a web. Like in Stardew Valley, you’ll be able to fake to be a twee farmer. Like in Minecraft, the grass is constructed from a bunch of blocks.
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Dinkum is on no account reinventing the wheel, however if you happen to’re a fan of hottest sims, you can find its gameplay enjoyably repetitive and versatile. You possibly can full every day and long-term duties to earn Allow Factors, which let you earn expertise like logging and excavation, or develop the talents you have already got and acquire objects in trade for money, or “Dinks.” You’re gently inspired to outlive the reddened wilderness—animals and toxic crops can drain your well being bar and make you go out—however except for shedding a few Dinks, the results of creating errors are few. Dinkum is for pleasurable, Australia-seasoned zoning out and catching faux fish.
What does it appear to be?
Shades of sriracha, adobo, and paprika. A number of sunsets reduce with glassy blue water. It seems principally like a smoother Minecraft, one made out of play-dough, or like a much less cutesy however equally bobble-headed Animal Crossing. Like its gameplay, simulation sport vets will discover Dinkum’s visuals peacefully unremarkable.
Screenshot: James Bendon
Can I be eaten by a crocodile?
A crocodile can snap at your bobble head and make an ominous-looking purple mist seem in your display to point harm taken, however the worst that may occur from the encounter is that your well being will fully drain and also you’ll briefly go out. So, sure. However probably the most unique factor about Dinkum is the delight it takes within the wild splendor of its paprika map. You’ll end up questioning if you happen to can eat this factor or be eaten by that factor, and the sport gained’t punish you too harshly in your curiosity. The truth is, it even rewards passing out and harm taken with Allow Factors. BRB whereas I set my protagonist on hearth.
The place can I play it?
The early entry sport is at present out there for PC on Steam and is priced at $19.99. In line with the sport’s press sheet, different appropriate platforms shall be introduced later.
If you happen to’re bought, I want you cheerful farming.
