On June 14, Freedom Games debuted the Stardew Valley-inspired One Lonely Outpost teaser and stated that early access will be available on PC in 2022, with the company aiming for a first-quarter release. One Lonely Outpost began as a Kickstarter campaign in late August 2020, and at the end of the campaign, it had received over 147 percent funding from over 2,000 supporters. Aurorian Studios (the creators of One Lonely Outpost’s Kickstarter campaign and the game’s developers) announced in March that the title will be released by Freedom Games. The Airborne Kingdom and Jetboard Joust are two more games produced by Freedom Games.
One Lonely Outpost is a farming simulator game similar to Stardew Valley set on a desert alien planet in space. The player’s purpose is to develop a community, colony, and a new life on the planet by farming, either synthetically or naturally. Although natural farming may provide more money, players will have to care for livestock and hand-tend crops. Farming synthetically will allow players the capacity to gene-spliced produce and raise robot cows, but strange results, such as glowing cabbages or other unusual physical traits, may occur as a consequence. There’s more to the game than farming; exploration and socializing are also important aspects. To learn about the planet’s past, players will be able to mine, connect with colonists who have settled in their settlement, find a love interest, visit alien ruins, and complete the unique tasks devised by the ruin-guarding robots.
The trailer begins with a live-action rendition of a lone explorer attempting to start farming and construct an outpost, but things aren’t going so well (via One Lonely Outpost’s E3 trailer). This opening scene is evocative of The Martian, in which Mark Watney must find out how to effectively farm on Mars in order to survive. Despite the fact that early access will only be available to PC/Steam users, Freedom Games stated in its showcase press release that One Lonely Outpost will “sprout up on Steam Early Access in Q1 2022 ahead of the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S releases.”
In the second part of the teaser, gamers get a glimpse of One Lonely Outpost’s gameplay and aesthetics. The visuals are a seamless combination of pixel and 8-bit imagery, giving the game a modern but nostalgic vibe with a healthy dose of nostalgia. The gameplay focuses not just on farming, but also on community development, similar to Stardew Valley. It is crucial to Freedom Games that players be allowed to play whatever they see fit; if gamers want to focus on farming synthetically, they may do so and earn all the rewards without deviating to another emphasis.
One Lonely Outpost may also be played in co-op mode, which allows players to play with up to three other people and establish new outposts, play mini-games, or just join each other’s outposts and continue to build them.
One Lonely Outpost appears to take the best parts of agricultural games and mix them with space exploration, riddles, and choice. Many games are centered around constructing or assisting outposts on a planet in space so that more people may call it home and develop society. One Lonely Outpost allows players to build an outpost from the ground up without having to deal with the revolt, battles, or power struggles. This game has a lot of promise.
