Len’s Island

This was a pretty close no, but I'm feeling nice today, so it's a yes instead. I would ONLY buy this on sale. One guy - yes, just one singular human - made this game from scratch. For a pet project, it's quite a nice little gem, but take it for what it is - if it weren't for the combat, this would be a cozy game. The combat itself can be quite challenging only given the number of enemies that can sometimes swarm you.
I don't have anything great to say about this, but I don't have anything awful to say about it either. It really left me feeling kinda meh. But given this was one man who made this, I'd say that's an accomplishment in and of itself - and he deserves some monies for his efforts. Keep up the good fight.

No weight limit, no item durability, no timed challanges, just relaxing survival game. Love it!

Borrows a lot of the best parts of Valheim, Minecraft, and Stardew Valley. The dungeons keep the progress of the game moving along. Building is NOT a headache and is fun! Lots of cute furniture to decorate with.

I bought this game because the 1.0 release is coming soon. The feedback in these reviews is mostly outdated, TBH. The mythic chest or whatever is created in the tutorial, so that's just one example of people saying something like "how could the devs make people grind so far into the game for an essential thing..." uh, it's just not true why are you echoing each other?

This game is labeled survival, but it's possible to adjust all the settings regarding hunger, enemy strength, inventory size, like, from the start, you make the conditions and play. I love this. I really want more of a sense that we just assume that I have food and figure that out easier than needed to eat berries each 15min etc. :) The game has sick building mechanics that are very adjustable but snap easily if you just wanna get the basics built and go. You can adjust the settings on tons of stuff. But also, this game is NOT all complicated like most games. It has the right elements of the game to be fun, not tedious. And you can guarantee that with some settings, but the game is well balanced and better each release.

Some may say not enough content yet, but it's almost 1.0. I prefer to focus on the art style here. This game has clearly been thought out with care and detail. When I see a game this uniquely styled, I know that there is a vision through which the future grows. I can build medieval stuff in many games, this is the ONLY game I will be able to make THESE BUILDINGS. They're really unique and I can see how they're planning to expand the game. Not only with the building, but also with the limited dialogue. This is obv an indication that they are going to have lots of dialogue, but RN this is just a placeholder. It's not final, so yeah, I think I'm more happy they worked on art and mechanics before the script I don't like to read....

It may be hard to understand what to do at the start, I do agree that is confusing if you are not familiar with this genre. If you are confused, you can look up videos without spoilers that will show you the starting mechanics. I would not let that stop me from seeing what a game is about, I was frustrated because controller isn't fully worked out. There are bumps in the road here.

HOWEVER, overall, this is a pretty polished product and they're saying: "Here's a discount on a promise of a great game which, you can play a model of that's clearly a working, cool product. We're about to go 1.0. It's a thank you for supporting us." I'm glad I pitched in. Oh and I got a peek at the newest stuff....they are going to keep that promise. This is a team to stick with, that's my review -- I say support things that DON'T LOOK LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE. This is a great game, thanks to the devs and team!

I love the survival/crafting genre. I have spent thousands of hours across a number of titles diving into them. Honestly? I feel like a lot of them are more complex than they need to be because they're trying to prove something. This game is very much a survival/crafter, but without (what I would consider) ridiculous intricacies. The base building is snappy and pretty with several different "skins" to fulfill that diversity requirement. The resource gathering is simple and self explanatory. The recipes are clearly explained and don't involve 17 steps to make something. It's a great time sink without all the unnecessary over-complication, clutter or confusion. I've spent a few dozen hours in it already and can't wait to see what they do for the full release.

I really enjoy this game.
When I first started playing I was on the tail end of a really rough health patch, hadn't been able to sit up at a computer for more than 10-20 minutes at a time and probably hadn't turned my computer ON in a couple of months. I decided to test if I was doing better and didn't feel like trying to get into one of my existing games, so I decided to give this a go. I kind of blinked and 4 hours had passed. Whether or not this game was the cause, that day triggered one of the best months in the past 2 years as I played a couple of hundred hours and 100% the game.
It is just difficult enough to keep me engaged and interested, without being so difficult that my sometimes addled brain substantially struggles. It is easy to pause/save and return after a short or long break. Some of the higher end/"cursed" (added difficulty) dungeons require some planning and skill but I found most of them to be reasonably chill with clearly defined points where you knew to expect a challenge and to make sure you were ready (either bosses or little "zerg" type rooms).
If you are more interested in the "cosy" experience of exploring, base building, farming etc, I can't think of anything important that is "gate-kept" behind the more challenging aspects, just a few armour sets and achievements.
I really like the graphics and feel of the game.
A personal "niggle" is that I would prefer that the armour sets fit together with each other, rather than showing the starting clothes underneath as they do, but that is obviously a dev/artistic choice.
Not a problem for me as I'm M&K til I die, but if you are a controller player, my understanding from the community is that the controller support is not very good/recommended so if that is the only way you want to play games maybe skip this one for now.

It wasn’t love at first sight but after starting over and replaying on steam deck I must say this is a great game. Heads up to the dev to continuously updating and improving the game based on community feedback. This is the way.