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Arthur ‘Mr. Podunkian’ Lee, one-time contributor to the megalithic Stardew Valley, is now working on a life sim of his own. It’s currently unnamed, but it’s set in a city, it’s got bikes, and it’s got a tentative intention to release in 2024.
Although there’s no name yet, it doesn’t seem quite right to say that it’s early days for the game – at least if judging by Lee’s X account, which has been pumping out varied, enticing little videos for the past year.
For example, you can get a tour of some of the world in this video designed to introduce bikes:
Although it’s set in a city, you’ll still seemingly be able to run a farm, including keeping adorable chickens:
You can also level up your Reading skill to “earn the ability to read in bed”, which definitely is simming my life:
All of these tweets are just from the past month and there are many, many more if you scroll back through Podunkian’s timeline. Lee has also confirmed that the game will support local split-screen co-op and online multiplayer.
A lot of games have tried in recent years to follow in Stardew Valley’s profitable footsteps, but few interest me. This unnamed game does just because of the seeming scope of the thing – but also because of its creator. Mr. Podunkian is, I assume, best known for working on Stardew Valley, but I remember his work with Jonatan “Cactus” Söderström on games like Mystery Of Dungeon and Wasted: A Post-Apocalyptic Pub Crawler and solo-developed parody games like Merry Gear Solid: Secret Santa. I’m always excited to re-stumble across an old name from the late-’00s freeware scene.