One thing I’ve often bemoaned in the indie gaming space, is how titles that have great successes tend to trigger a glut of imitators for years to come afterwards. Among the most copied of the bunch is the iconic Stardew Valley, which still remains as the bar that pretty well all farming life sims are measured against. Having played so many games over the years who’ve effectively played out as Stardew with some variation in theme or focus added to the formula, excuse me when I get excited about those projects that may look like they’d be yet another clone, but take a hard turn and do things their own way instead.

Farming Camp, on the surface, has many elements that are obviously in the same general vein. Among  your activities at camp you’ll be engaged in growing and cultivating crops, fishing, animal care, and even some cooking. That said, given that this is in a camp setting, you won’t have an indefinite amount of time to explore whatever aspects you’re most interested in, and the structure of your daily activities is more geared to playing a variety of mini games, so once you begin playing you’ll clearly see this is a wholly different experience. Since you’re working on a clock of only a few weeks, and rather than working solo you’ll be designated as the leader of a small team, in the end this actually plays out more like a time management game than a life sim, and it’s important to understand that fact before diving in, or you could end up very disappointed.

The positive is that some of the mini games, at least for a while, feel different and can still offer some of the same satisfaction of returning to an understood task. The caveat to that is that mechanically I do wish that everything was implemented a little more smoothly. Whether you’re trying to water crops, pick up food for the animals, or engage in some activity in the kitchen, there are times where executing your tasks isn’t as smooth as it should be, struggling to find just the right spot for your actions to get registered. In a similar vein, if you enjoy getting wrapped up in the characters and understanding them better, the time management aspect that will demand that you choose between completing key activities or taking a moment to get to know people better, could prove to be frustrating. I do think that by choosing to put the entire experience on a maximum timeline of only a few hours there’s missed potential here, but at the same time I can see where the limited nature of the mini game structure they’ve opted for, would feel more tedious the longer it was drawn out. Still, as someone who appreciates projects that take some risks and dare to be different, this wins some points in those regards.