Early access life sim Palia has become my Stardew-style game of choice

polygon.com:

I’ve been spending a good amount of my free time lately in early-access life sim Palia. Since its early access launch, I’ve found myself returning to my human’s comfortable home to garden, hunt, and hang out with friends. Palia has become my Stardew Valley-esque chill game of choice.

The idea of a cozy MMO was a little barebones at the start of the game’s life — but developer Singularity 6 is supporting the title with regular updates, so the concept is much clearer now. I’ve started to not just encourage my friends to play Palia with me, I’ve started making new friends in the game.

As a rule, I tend to play most games solo unless I have my pals around to join me. After playing a whole smorgasbord of online titles, I’ve learned that most communities are full of rude dudes who will drop some slurs on you for the slightest of infractions. Palia, on the other hand, has a delightful community.

During the past few days, I’ve noticed some encounters that warmed my tired, pessimistic heart. A bunch of players were in Kilima Village, jumping in a circle, complimenting each other’s outfits. People call out resource drops and put on fireworks shows as they wait for people to show up and get the special ore or wood. Players will glibly chat about romances and share their favorite villagers in chat. Chefs plan cooking parties, inviting people without well-equipped kitchens or scores of supplies to come on over to their place and make some delicious fare.

At launch, and for most of the game’s lifespan so far, Palia worked best as a solo player — with only a few exceptions. Cooking, for instance, has always been a social mechanic that worked well. Flow groves — magical trees that spawn at night in Bahari Bay and require multiple players to cut — were a later addition that forced people to work together. But for the bulk of the day, I would be alone — it simply worked best that way. If I had friends online, we’d chat on Discord as we did our own things in-game and occasionally