This is a manifesto made for Manifesto Jam 2026. I highly recommend you check out the playable version here!
Part 1
The genre known as “farming games” has never existed.
Yasuhiro Wada, one of the developers behind the original Harvest Moon, has stated:
- “My original idea was to create not a farming game, but a game that’s different from other games.” [5]
- “The original working title was "Life Story" (Jinsei Monogatari) rather than "Farm Story" (Bokujou Monogatari). The focus of A Wonderful Life is leading a full and happy existence from beginning to end, so in essence, it's what I always intended Harvest Moon to be." [3]
The core gameplay of early builds consisted mainly of herding cows and talking to villagers, with farming being added later on [3].
This disregard for the mechanics of farming was not simply due to Wada’s lack of experience with farming in real life [6], but a purposeful design decision.
Wada took inspiration from the horse racing game Derby Stallion [3], with two elements in particular being noted:
- It rewards hard work that does not otherwise sound appealing, i.e. raising horses;
- However, the large amount of statistics made players feel disconnected from their horses.
These two elements, the need for a satisfying payoff and an abstraction of the complexities of real-life labor, have carried on to games inspired by Harvest Moon.
Games once branded themselves as “farming games” simply because they borrowed from Harvest Moon, which was never intended to be a farming game in the first place.
This copy-of-a-copy effect means the mechanics of farming in games have gone virtually unchanged for almost thirty years now.
And I believe that this has led to results ranging from bland to actively harmful.
Part 2
The genre known as “farming games” has never existed.
Some of the labels attributed to them over the years:
- The Simulation subgenre (life, social, sometimes farming);
- Casual games;
- RPGs.
Most recently, they have been absorbed by the “cozy games” label.
I do not like “cozy games”.
But I do agree that it is an appropriate label for these kinds of games.
Because they are never truly about farming, but rather the aesthetics of life in the countryside.
A vehicle to spread propaganda for colonialist behaviors and “traditional values”, much like trends such as cottagecore [10].
In the most egregious cases, they present the narrative of “an untouched wild land” that you must claim as your own [8].
These games often present the fantasy of being “in touch with nature”, and yet:
- Trees are cut down without a care, because regrowing them is presented as simply planting a sapling that will regrow in a few days;
- Resources are extracted with no care for the environment, because they always respawn;
- Bodies of water are presented as having an unlimited supply of fish, a puny second income.
The gameplay emerging from the farming itself reinforces prime capitalist ideas around growing food:
- It is done exclusively for money; the player can eat, but does not need to, and NPCs get their food from The Store;
- Yield must be maximized, and so the selection of crops the player will effectively use is lowered, incentivizing monoculture;
- There is often little consideration for the health of the soil; the same “tile” can be used repeatedly with no lasting consequences.
By no means am I claiming that this is all some grand conspiracy, but rather a series of subconscious biases that have gone unchallenged for almost thirty years.
Wada’s intention was never to glorify the past, but to put in contrast the urban and the rural [2].
As opposed to the frictionless environments “cozy games” often present, Wada considers conflict and hardship essential for an entertaining game [1].
This genre can be used for so much more.
It can depict real growth, community, sustainability, environmentalism, a closer connection to land and food.
It is time for farming games to actually be about farming.
Part 3
The genre known as “farming games” has never existed.
In part because farming is labor; farming with real, non-magicked hand tools is intense physical labor.
[3] states that one of the questions surrounding the creation of Harvest Moon was: “Why would people want to play a game that simulates doing work?”
The answer at the time was to downplay the complexity of the work and increase the reward.
However, in recent years, there have been a myriad of games that present labor as-is, and players still find themselves satisfied.
Therefore, since there no longer needs to be a justification as to why players would play a farming game, we can start thinking of how a true farming game could be played.
I have three proposals:
Farming Simulator
In real life, there are a series of environmental factors that influence how successful a harvest is.
Controlling these variables can make for a complex and engaging experience, turning the farming into a sort of puzzle, closer to a strategy game.
Some tasks that can make for interesting gameplay scenarios:
- Protecting your crops from weather: wind, excess sun and monsoons;
- A more in-depth exploration of weeds and pests;
- Soil quality, degradation and restoration.
If farming becomes more difficult, less time is spent focusing on maximizing yield, and more time making sure there is any yield at all.
This would also be a great opportunity to spotlight sustainable practices and traditional indigenous techniques:
- Polyculture and crop rotations;
- Controlled burns and soil resting;
- Planting different crops that work well together, such as the Three Sisters [7].
Players would have to form a real connection with their simulated environment, and in turn, begin to see our real world with new eyes.
The way to put players in touch with nature is not to boil nature down to a few simple elements that are easy to understand.
But by teaching players that our world is complex, and beautiful, and worth living in.
Nature and Nurture
I do believe farming can still be portrayed as “cozy” in a meaningful way.
Though I suppose it would be less “farming” and more “gardening”; the kind you do in your yard or scattered across pots in your apartment.
For there to be a real sense of coziness, the moneymaking aspect of farming games needs to be eliminated entirely.
In urban environments, people do not keep plants because they want to eventually sell the produce.
They grow herbs, garlic and vegetables to add to their meals and share them with their peers.
And for decorative plants, it is the act of adding a touch of color to their homes or simply the fulfillment of taking care of a living being.
There are a series of low-complexity activities that can be turned into gameplay elements:
- Maintaining an adequate watering schedule;
- Trimming and repotting plants as they grow;
- Finding the spot in your home where sunlight hits just right.
It would be interesting to elaborate on not just how people take care of plants in urban environments, but why.
It is a very human feeling to want to take care of something, be it animal, vegetal or even fictional.
As Wada states:
“The joy of growing things is the same across the world.” [2]
The Game Where You Let People Starve
One thing I used to hear a lot when I brought up my opinion on farming games was:
“So you want them to have serious stakes? You want the risk of NPCs starving?”
My response has always been something along the lines of “not necessarily”, because as I have stated previously, there are meaningful ways of keeping farming low-stakes.
But every time I see a brand new milquetoast Stardew Valley clone hit stores, it shifts towards “yes”.
I do want to play a game where you let people starve.
We farm to eat. We farm to feed. We farm to live.
How long does it take for wheat to grow? How many stalks are needed for a single loaf of bread? How many loaves to feed an entire community?
What happens when a garden isn’t enough? When you’re indebted to give all your produce to someone else? When your entire continent is colonized in order to feed a single nation?
I have talked about making farming in games more meaningful before [9], and these were some of the small-scale ideas I proposed:
- Your crops actually showing up in stores, or having the NPCs show up at the store less when you ship crops;
- NPCs thanking you for growing seasonal crops because they’re tired of eating the same all-year crops from the store;
- Handing crops to a chef helps you unlock new recipes for the town’s restaurant.
And I still believe these are fine ideas to juice up a game, but I think it’s time to start thinking up games that fully lean into the nutritional and cultural complexities of farming.
You can still inherit a farm from your dead grandfather, but you need to fully lean into your whole as the one person standing between a whole town and starvation.
What if you had to balance out an entire town’s macronutrient intake? Make sure everyone gets enough carbs, protein and fats.
Once you’re done making sure you and your fellow villagers are fed, you can go further and make sure they’re well-fed.
Growing different greens, fruits and spices to maintain different vitamins keeps the game interesting once the stakes are long past.
I am aware that having an explicit fail state on a game you’re meant to sink a few fictional years into might not be the best game design, before you bring that up.
Perhaps the threat isn’t so much as you letting them starve, but letting them be dependent on someone else who would gladly do so.
I’ve had this idea floating in my head for a while now:
A typical medieval europe-ish RPG world where you’re sent into a village belonging to the Evil Empire with the objective of restoring their farms so they’re no longer indebted.
In a scenario like this, people wouldn’t starve if you didn’t meet the food requirements, but they would be in further debt and using their resources to fund the Evil Empire.
Sort of like Animal Crossing but the debt counter can also go up. And with a heavier tone, of course.
Regardless of how fleshed out my own ideas are, there are countless ways for these cultural and political topics to make their way into farming games.
And I think the genre would be better for it.
The genre known as “farming games”, which has never existed.
And yet, it should.
A manifesto by Mei Cheesecake.
This is the gotcha section because I know someone's gonna try to bring these up:
"Rune Factory 4 and 5 have soil degradation mechanics!"
It's a raw number on the screen.
"Roots of Pacha has meaningful farming!"
I do like the farming in Roots of Pacha a lot actually!
I'm especially a fan of the irrigation system and the ollas.
That game is soaked in Cozy Stardew toxins however so it sucks.
"What about that farming simulator game with the hyper realistic tractor on the cover?"
I don't know... that's scary...
"[Your favorite game here] isn't white supremacist what are you talking about!"
👍