Moneyless Harvest Moon-type game?
from friendly_ghost@beehaw.org to gaming@beehaw.org on 07 Sep 00:49
https://beehaw.org/post/15922665

I have such a love/hate relationship with Stardew Valley, slightly less so with My Time At Portia (the developers seem to have at least considered wrist strain in the button layout and mechanics). I long for a moneyless, classless game in this genre where the incentives are community thriving, trust, pleasure, and all the other aspects that make life worth worth living outside of capitalism. Does that game exist?

#gaming

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MechKit@beehaw.org on 07 Sep 01:14 next collapse

There is even a Star Trek-ish game where you have to produce to earn money to upgrade the ship for your crew. I get that it is a game mechanic, but seems like a perfect setting to not have money, and just concentrate on the people.

muhyb@programming.dev on 07 Sep 01:34 next collapse

Not exactly moneyless but imagine quality of life improvements for Stardew Valley. That’s “Fields of Mistria”.

Kolanaki@yiffit.net on 07 Sep 01:36 next collapse

I feel like the best you could possibly find is a game that uses a resource as payment that isn’t called “money,” but mechanically it would be the same.

But there is Minecraft. You can farm in that and you don’t need money (even though it exists in the form mentioned above). Or Project Zomboid which money exists as money but is only useful as toilet paper.

Dhs92@programming.dev on 07 Sep 02:04 collapse

There are farming-focused mod packs for Minecraft too

navi@lemmy.tespia.org on 07 Sep 02:55 next collapse

Papers Please

friendly_ghost@beehaw.org on 07 Sep 03:13 next collapse

This is a tankie nightmare. I’m a border control agent? And if I fuck up my wages are reduced? Seems like you answered the opposite of my question

vithigar@lemmy.ca on 07 Sep 11:36 collapse

It’s an extremely bizarre suggestion given your request. I do want to defend the game (though not the suggestion) a little though.

It initially presents as you say, but offers you opportunities to fight back in your capacity as border control. Letting in the right people can help the resistance and incite a coup, or enable you and your families escape from the country. It isn’t just Be A Good Tankie Simulator 2013, though you can play it that way too.

azerial@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 07 Sep 12:17 collapse

I also love this game. It’s just fun to play.

Empricorn@feddit.nl on 07 Sep 13:23 collapse

Great game, but what a wild recommendation for this specific request…

Chozo@fedia.io on 07 Sep 03:23 next collapse

I long for a moneyless, classless game in this genre where the incentives are community thriving, trust, pleasure, and all the other aspects that make life worth worth living outside of capitalism.

I think Sim Ant technically meets these conditions.

friendly_ghost@beehaw.org on 07 Sep 03:53 next collapse

Amazing, I’ll check it out

Edit: Oh wow 1991! Won some awards back then, too 🐜

storksforlegs@beehaw.org on 07 Sep 12:54 collapse

Whats the best way to play Sim Ant these days? Ive always wanted to try it

friendly_ghost@beehaw.org on 07 Sep 16:24 collapse

You can download it here: abandonia.com/…/SimAnt+-+The+Electronic+Ant+Colon… You’ll need DosBox or some other emulator to run it

storksforlegs@beehaw.org on 07 Sep 16:36 collapse

thank you very much!! 👏

Malix@sopuli.xyz on 07 Sep 06:29 next collapse

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles … but with the caveats that a) it’s only PARTLY like stardew/portia/harvestmoon and b) For the life of me I can’t remember if the game had money or not.

The game is partly farm-life-sim, but the other part is “zelda-like” adventuring and getting rid of “dark smoke thing” that does bad things to the world.

seaweedsheep@literature.cafe on 07 Sep 12:16 collapse

It has a barter system, but you don’t need to use it if you don’t want to. Nearly everything you need in the game can be harvested or made.

Their other game, Grow: Song of the Evertree, is pretty fun too. It’s partly a city builder, partly exploring new worlds that you create. It’s been a while since I played it, so I remember some sort of currency, but I don’t really remember having to work that hard for it. Mostly, I just focused on creating worlds with crazy elements.

blindsight@beehaw.org on 09 Sep 07:21 collapse

Grow: Song of the Evertree has lots of crafting materials, but no money. I haven’t played it much, but it mostly seems to be about gathering daily to grow the Evertree, then using the resources to expand the town.

match@pawb.social on 07 Sep 08:11 next collapse

you might like Moonglow Bay! it’s not moneyless but the rest is all that

(also it’s a fishing game with boss battles)

LogicalDrivel@sopuli.xyz on 07 Sep 11:33 next collapse

The first games that popped into my head were Forager and Outpath, though these arent so much community building type games. They are more just something cute to relax to. They have farming and resource collecting and honestly play more like an active idler game than anything. Another game ive sunk tons of time into that kinda meets your requirements is Banished. Its just a medieval city builder game but it is deceptively hard to get a good balanced town going which can be pretty rewarding in itself. Theres no money per se but you do have to manage resources. Theres bartering in the game but you use your resources like crops and stone and stuff.

TexMexBazooka@lemm.ee on 07 Sep 12:20 collapse

Seconding banished, it’s great with mods

DdCno1@beehaw.org on 08 Sep 23:28 collapse

It’s also great without mods. During my first playthrough, a tornado destroyed most of the village, including the school with every child in it. Up until that point, nobody had died. All livestock, all crops, every single house was gone. The only thing that saved the survivors just before the next winter was some fruit I had stored in the dock for future trade. I managed to get them through the following winter and they all lived to die from old age, but the village never recovered from losing the entire next generation. I was only able to stabilize the population; growth ended up being impossible after this disaster.

I love games that are able to organically create stories like this one.

runner_g@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 07 Sep 13:24 next collapse

You may be interested in Aska. It asks the question “what if valheim was also a colony sim?”. It’s a bit less chill then Stardew/Portia, but it is a classless, moneyless community building game.

teawrecks@sopuli.xyz on 07 Sep 16:14 next collapse

the incentives are community thriving, trust, pleasure, and all the other aspects that make life worth worth living outside of capitalism

I think technically Frostpunk is this, but it’s probably not what you mean.

t3rmit3@beehaw.org on 07 Sep 18:05 collapse

I think you want Roots of Pacha.

Contribution is a currency used in Roots of Pacha. When the player donates food or supplies to the clan, contribution points are awarded as acknowledgement of their efforts.

Contribution points must be expended to develop ideas. Certain clan members have items for trade in exchange for points, as well.

Items are donated by placing them in the contribution bin, found just north of the bonfire. Donated items may be viewed and retrieved until the end of the day. The value of the contributions is tallied overnight and the bin is emptied for the next day.

It’s not just a rename of money, it’s more like your social renown in the village, like how much people respect you because of your contributions, and you use it mostly to choose what improvement project you want to build next in the village.