Have you ever harbored the dreams of owning farmland and living in the countryside? Growing crops while taking care of different farm animals? Ah, yes. The farm-life sim. From Farmville to Harvest Moon, these farming simulators are a beloved time sink for a lot of people. Town Star is a play-to-earn farming game that’s similar to Farmville. So let’s see if this game can be something of a staple in our gaming diet.

 DEVELOPMENT HISTORY

Gala Games stands out among the many developers flocking to NFT games and the play-to-earn (P2E) industry in 2022. They’ve made Town Star possible and are co-founders of Zynga Games who founded the popular game, Farmville. Gala Games became more than a game developer, but rather a publisher for other studios too. For example, big names like The Walking Dead: Empires and Peter Molyneux's Legacy.

Town Star is a browser-based game that can be directly played from Chrome. This farming P2E is built on the Ethereum blockchain. Initially released in 2020 but as of July 18, 2022, the TOWN distribution and play-to-earn mechanics have been temporarily disabled as the game enters a phase of large updates to both gameplay and economy. 

GAMEPLAY SUMMARY

Playing Town Star is quite simple, the player first starts by selecting a plot of land from a real map of the world. The location the player chooses will have its own various pros and cons so the player should weigh up the land’s advantage and disadvantage like being near cities to have more advanced waterways or near mountains and pastures for good resources and space.

The goal is for players to build a farm with crops, staff, infrastructure, and buildings from the  small number of assets that the player will start with. You’ll most likely build an unsustainable farm first but trying different tactics and experimenting will be part of the simulation fun. These simple beginnings offer an easy-to-understand gameplay loop. There are also 2 server types:

• Multiple game servers: This is a free server available for trial gameplay. It will be reset after 30 days and no tangible reward is offered.
• Weekly competition server: This is where players can fully monetize their time and participate in game tournaments to earn prizes. This server will be reset weekly.

 EARNING POTENTIAL

Introduced on October 5, 2021 but has since been temporarily disabled as of the time of this writing. TOWN coin is the in-game token that can be obtained from various tasks. It can be cashed out or collected for players to redeem rewards that can be used in the game. Players can also use their NFTs in order to earn TOWN coins faster. 

OVERALL IMPRESSION

Town Star is bright, cheerful, and pleasing to the eye. It has a cute cartoony aesthetic like what we are used to seeing in Farmville. For me, visuals are a huge part of a game since if the goal is for a player to sink hours and hours into it then they should enjoy the atmosphere. For Town Star’s case, the cartoonish vibe makes everything more satisfying.

The gameplay of Town Star has a lot of clicking and clicking games have such a bad reputation since many players think that just because the game can play itself, there’s less substance in it. Well, to be honest I expected this game to be flat and boring but I am impressed by how the developers put an extra yard in adding more depth to the game by adding elements such as over-reliance on industry giving you pollution issues, the shadows from large buildings can impact crop growth, pros and cons of farm location and conserving fuel for delivering crops. All of these create a very intriguing strategic element.

However, there is a daily quest where players need to reach 1000 stars by selling resources, this can be tedious after a while. The game also cannot be run in the background as a tab or offline so players need to be in it actively to obtain progress, like crops to grow or farm hands to move. This I think can break any motivation to play the game since there isn’t much to do while waiting.

Town Star isn’t a complete slam-dunk. In my opinion, this game is not digestible for those who can only spare a few minutes each day for gaming since you need to keep the tab open. On the other hand, yes, it’s a clicker game, but it still managed to distill some complex concepts down into a series of single clicks. So whether you’re a virtual farmer that’s looking to pass the time or you’re in for the long haul, this game may be for you! So, will you be the next to take on the challenge of building the best farm?