Before The Green Moon

MUCH prefer this to Stardew. The best possible version of a much more realistic depiction of what a farming town is like. Was that a real orchestra the end screen? I do not expect that from a small indie title and you got me.

unlike every life sim game since acpg, this game doesn't rely on cheap gimmicks to encourage players to chill the ♥♥♥♥ out, stop grinding, and respect/appreciate the world and the neighbors you share it with. beautiful game built with a respectable game design philosophy and philosophy philosophy give it a shot, it's well worth the price. steam tracks gametime on steamdeck in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ way, i've happily put 20+ hrs on this game. this my #1 rainy-day game. fresh, charming, and genuinely relaxing. please please please don't let this be the last we see of this world yall built turnfollow!

This game is truly an experience. The aesthetic evokes a major sense of nostalgia for older polygonal games, and although the town is small there is always something to do. The goal of this game is really whatever you make of it. Do you want to immediately ditch the planet? Or do you want to stay and chat with the small town community (population 6.5 including you)? Or do you just want to sit in a chair and absorb the atmosphere? There are no achievements, no overarching to-do quests, only you and the townsfolk and the giant elevator looming in the background. For those looking for a slow yet deeply-feeling farming sim this is for you. Also, the 'dogs' are amazing.

The Green Moon is kind of an anti-game, it has no goal or meaning, your actions don't matter but there's a lot of mechanics you can just do if you want to. You can grow crops, you can fish, you can gather stuff that is just lying around, you can buy some accessories that barely do anything, you can talk to dwellers, you can clear weed from everywhere, you can pick up litter. None of this is needed to win. Well, you can't even "win", actually. But what I mean is the game doesn't have any achievements or even no hidden stuff that rewards you for doing things. Nobody will bring you "the best farmer award". No one will ever mention that you keep the city clean. You just... do it to do it. I could say "like in real life", but even in real life you do stuff for money or for social strokes. Here its just for the sake of it, for your own sanity or insanity. And all that while trying to dissolve in your routine enough to make you forget about your ambitions. This is the point of the game, by the way. Your life sucks, but it's comforting and mind-numbing enough to stop trying to follow your dream. Instead of rushing towards your goal (going to the Green Moon), you start distracting yourse…

I've come to realize, through current political climates and having played Citizen Sleeper before this, I'm a down-with-the-ship type. If the world is burning, I want to stay. If people are suffering, I want to be beside them. Before the Green Moon registers your role and gives you one objective, one ending: leave. To leave is to succeed, to win the game, to have earned status. Take the corporate elevator to live on the Moon, where all of humanity is flourishing, all of life is happening. Getting FOMO by now, right? Crawl under the corporate thumb for warmth. Besides, the earth is flooded! Nature is reclaiming all, leaving only stripped-wire junk hamlets. Hitch a ride on the connective elevator that we built for resource extraction and tourism for only 110,000 of set-aside funds one-way! Don't be left behind working tirelessly for seemingly no other end. Before the Green Moon is the first farming sim I've seen not only to be effectively anti-capitalist, but also avoid fetishizing rural communities as an escape from such systems (a pairing as rare as an anti-war war film). Please don't give me a "Stardew's opening and Joja stuff is anti-corporate", because this feels explicitly lik…

A beautiful little, sweet, melancholy farming sim. Shares a lot with Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Dispossessed" while absolutely being its own story. The farming was a little awkward at first, but I ended up enjoying how imprecise that loop is -- I feel like it put me in the right mindset to appreciate the organic, human parts of this game. Pony, my beloved, I'll miss you. <3