We’ve found a new game you might be interested in playing!
The subject line of the unread email caught Randall’s attention as he set the brown bag of takeout food on his desk next to his computer. Water dripped from the sleeve of his jacket, barely missing the sensitive electronics. He cursed and pulled his hand away, removing his windbreaker and going back out to the foyer to hang it on one of the pegs by the front door. The weather had said only a twenty percent chance of rain when he went out to grab something to eat, but living close to the mountains meant conditions could change drastically in a matter of minutes.
He glanced out the window as he walked back into the room. What had started as a small sprinkle two minutes ago when he got out of his car had turned into a sizable storm. Dark clouds covered the sky directly above, and tree branches creaked ominously in the heavy wind. He hoped there wouldn’t be hail this time. The last thing he wanted to do was climb up on the roof again to replace torn shingles.
Back at his desk, he pulled a container of chicken with broccoli and fried rice out of the bag and removed the plastic cover. He scooped a big bite into his mouth, chewing contentedly, before opening the email.
We here at good.games wanted to let you know a new game was released today that might be of interest to you based on titles you’ve played previously. If you’d like to learn more, please click on the image below to be taken to the good.games portal where you can watch the trailer, read reviews, and learn more about the game. We hope you enjoy playing good games™.
Beneath the short text advertisement was an image with the name Bit Farmer in bold letters across a wooden sign board. In the foreground on either side were two characters from the game. On the left was a young woman in a light blue dress with red hair in a braid that disappeared behind her shoulder. She held a wicker basket in front of her filled with various vegetables. Across from her stood a young man with short, brown hair. He leaned a bit to the side, propping himself up with the handle of a hoe he held in both hands. The spout of a watering can jutted up from the bottom of the image at his feet.
A pastoral scene filled the background behind the two characters. A fence ran beside a road to the side of a barn slightly out of focus in the distance. A cow looked out with its head over the rail, and a couple sheep grazed in the pasture nearby. The roof of a farmhouse rose up over the woman’s head, and the background in the middle of the image showed a field with half a dozen different plants lined up in neat rows.
Something about the name Bit Farmer pulled at Randall’s thoughts, but he couldn’t remember where he’d heard it before. Judging from the image, he thought the game must be some type of farming simulator, part of a genre he’d sometimes played in the past. He clicked on the image to figure out where he’d heard the name before, and a browser window opened to the good.games site.
Thunder crashed outside, causing Randall to jump so hard he nearly knocked the container of fried rice into his lap. “That sounded close,” he said as he stood to look out the window.
“After an almost twenty-year hiatus,” boomed a voice from the computer’s speakers, “Bit Farmer is back.”
The browser had started playing a trailer for the game when the page loaded, and Randall sat back down to watch. A sense of nostalgia filled him at the scene being shown of a pixelated man swinging a hoe at a patch of ground in an empty field. The spot where the hoe hit turned from green grass into brown dirt, and the character stepped back to till the next bit. The graphics were severely dated, a clump of blue pixels for his pants, red pixels for his shirt, and white and brown spots for his face and hair. Two black pixels marked the eyes. The cartoon avatar of the farmer looked almost like a flip book as he switched back and forth between five or six different poses to show the action of striking the ground with the hoe.
A label in the corner of the video listed the title 8-bit Farmer. After five seconds, the image flashed, and refocused on the same man, except the scene was crisper. The title changed to 16-bit Farmer, and the man grew more distinct. More variety of colors filled in his overalls and gave detail to the face. The screen flashed again, this time identifying the game as 32-bit Farmer and then again for 64-bit Farmer. Each iteration became more detailed as the graphics quality improved. The character still looked cartoony by the end, but there was real animation in the motions he was making.
Watching the video brought back memories for Randall of spending hours playing these games when he was a kid. He’d guided his character around his field, collecting fallen branches and rocks, tilling the soil, planting vegetables, and cultivating them until they were ready to be picked. For some reason, the company who produced the game had stopped making sequels, and in the intervening time he’d forgotten the series even existed.
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“Over the years, millions of players have enjoyed growing crops, raising livestock, and running their own farms,” continued the voiceover. “And now with the advent of neural interface technology, you can experience it all for real.”
The screen flashed again and was replaced by new footage of a game whose graphics were so lifelike, the video didn’t look like a game at all. Rather than the old top-down view from the previous clips, this section was in first person. The character held a hoe, which reached down to break up the earth. The soil shifted naturally and fanned out in a V shape before a hand reached out and dropped a seed into the opening. The hoe then pushed the soil back into place and moved a couple feet down the line to repeat the process.
“With a neural interface,” continued the narrator, “not only will you feel the tools in your hand. You’ll be able to smell the flowers as they grow in your garden, hear the animals as they call to you from their pens, and even taste the fruits and vegetables you grow.”
Randall scratched absentmindedly at the port installed behind his right ear. He’d gotten a neural interface while studying for his Master’s in computer science. They were making some bold claims as to how realistic the game was, since as far as he knew nobody had been able to replicate taste or smell in a virtual environment yet. He assumed the narrator was using artistic license in order to sell the game, but he had to admit he was intrigued. He was so interested in fact, he paused the trailer and clicked the button to purchase the game. He let it install in the background and pressed the resume button on the video.
“Do all your favorite activities from previous games and more. Grow crops…”
The camera zoomed out to a third person view of the field and hovered in the air as time sped up. The farmer finished his work and walked off, while over the course of thirty seconds, small shoots grew out of the ground, rose taller, became full-sized plants, and sprouted tomatoes. The farmer came back, pulling the tomatoes off one by one and placing them into a basket.
“Take care of livestock…”
The scene shifted closer to a barn that had been at the edge of the screen. Chickens scratched in the dirt outside, while the farmer walked into the building, sat down on a stool next to a cow, and began milking her. Various tools hung on hooks on the wall behind him, including a hoe, pickaxe, brushes, shears, files, and hammers. The handle of a pitchfork poked up from a pile of hay on the floor nearby.
“Collect materials to upgrade your tools and equipment…”
The camera zoomed in on the display of farming implements and went into another time-lapse. Tools would disappear at random and be replaced with another version made of shinier metal or more elaborate craftsmanship. The shot pulled back and widened to show the outside of the barn as new systems popped up around the farm. A windmill assembled itself from planks of wood and began turning in the breeze. A cistern filled with water that flowed out through pipes to sprinklers in the field, and a fine mist sprayed out over the crops.
“Outside your farm, there is an entire town with people to meet.”
The camera rose up, centering its view on a road leading away from the farmhouse. It flew down a country lane that widened until it became a two-way street passing through the middle of a small town. Villagers walked about, talking to each other and carrying on chores of their own.
“As you get to know your neighbors, you’ll develop friendships, and maybe even find someone to join you on your farm.”
Images of the villagers’ faces appeared, each one staying for a few seconds before being replaced by a new picture. They showed other farmers, shopkeepers, a person fishing, and a blacksmith working at a forge. The last part cycled through a lineup of characters with a young woman on the left side and a young man on the right, each pair fading out so another couple could be shown. They each had unique costumes, hair styles, and props to go along with them. One woman smiled as she bit into a ripe peach. One of the men held up a mug of cider in celebration. The last pair consisted of the red-haired woman in the blue dress and the man leaning on his hoe from the image he’d seen earlier.
“Get married, have children, and when you’ve saved up enough money, retire and pass on the farm to the next generation.”
The scene switched to a bedroom with a crib and proceeded into another montage, this time of a baby who crawled about, stood up and walked, played with toys on the floor, and pretended to be riding a wooden horse around the room. When the child became old enough, the camera pulled out to show the front of the house, where the farmer handed over a set of keys with a hug before walking to a vehicle parked by the road. The screen faded to black.
“And with a neural interface, you won’t just play the game, you’ll be the farmer.”
Credits for the various development houses and technologies used in development flashed across the screen, which finally ended with a list of places where the game could be purchased. Randall stopped the video and checked the install progress. Ninety percent had already been downloaded, so he wouldn’t have to wait long. He took another bite of rice and glanced out the window while he waited.
Although the sky was still dark, a break was forming in the clouds to the west. A ray of sunshine even peeked through in the distance. Rain continued to pelt the window, but he assumed the worst was over. A ding issued from his speakers, announcing that the download had completed and the game was ready to play. He picked up the cable to plug into his neural interface, pausing briefly to glance outside again. The rain was slacking off, and the darkest clouds were already past. He plugged the cable into the slot behind his ear and instructed the computer to launch Bit Farmer.
The neural interface took over, transitioning from his mundane senses to the input being created by his computer. But before his sight completely faded out, light flashed all around him and his eyes snapped to the view outside his window. A bolt of crackling energy shot down out of the sky, striking the power line and overloading the junction that led to Randall’s house. Having already relinquished his senses to the neural interface, he only halfway felt the jolt as a surge of power coursed into his brain and everything went black.