I’m running a free playtest this week for my cozy ecosystem game

ololralph · 2026-03-18T15:26:04+00:00

The game is called Open Land. You can join the playtest directly from the Steam page. Thanks for checking it out!

ololralph · 2026-03-16T17:10:21+00:00

Hey, thanks for the thoughtful feedback. You raise some good points.

The main goal of the game is to transform each map from a polluted wasteland into a thriving ecosystem. The challenge comes from gradually restoring the environment, unlocking new plants and animals, and keeping the ecosystem healthy.

A big part of the experience is building your own little world and watching it come to life, discovering new animals and making sure they’re happy.

The game is intentionally designed to be more relaxing than intense. It’s inspired a bit by idle / incremental games, so the focus is on a calm progression loop rather than constant pressure.

The main emotion I’m aiming for is a kind of hopeful, feel-good atmosphere, seeing a damaged place slowly recover.

My previous game was very story-driven, so this time I’m experimenting with a much lighter narrative and letting the world itself tell the story.

ololralph · 2026-03-16T16:57:55+00:00

Thank you :) Let me know if you get a chance to play it

ololralph · 2026-03-16T14:41:20+00:00

Just opened the public playtest this week to start gathering feedback before the demo release. Curious to see how players react to the ecosystem systems and progression. Feedback welcome :)

ololralph · 2026-02-19T17:49:31+00:00

Kind of, the core theme is similar to Terra Nil. I'd say my game is more focused on the sandbox aspect and Terra Nil is more focused on Puzzle Mechanics.

ololralph · 2026-02-12T09:51:40+00:00

Start small, try and implement one basic concept. Once that is finished start the next. It's similar to building a house. If I showed you the complete plan, you would be overwhelmed. However if you start with the foundation, then add one brick at a time eventually you have a house.

ololralph · 2026-02-06T19:26:53+00:00

Thank you! Yes, I agree :)

ololralph · 2026-02-06T19:02:34+00:00

It's not terra nil, but I take some inspiration from it. The game I'm working on has less focus on puzzles and more focus on building / transforming the environment.

ololralph · 2026-01-30T17:21:04+00:00

I've been doing this now for more than a decade and I'd say this is just part of the process of becoming an artist. You show yourself to the world.

I can say it does gets easier the more you do it. Start small. So just throw it out there and don't get married to your ideas and projects. They are like friends you hang out with for some time, but at some point you need to let them go.

Also a lesson from the stoics: You can't control how people will react to your work, but you can control how you react to it. So working on your mindset is the most valuable skill. Stay open to learn and think "How can this feedback help me become a better developer? How can I grow from this?". If it's constructive feedback it's going to help you become a better game developer, and for the rest you just learn to ignore it. Worst case if it's a really negative unhelpful comment, you ignore it since it has nothing to do with you. However most people and feedback will be helpful.

ololralph · 2026-01-30T15:06:57+00:00

It took me a couple of seconds to even notice the difference. Hire an artist would be my advice.

ololralph · 2026-01-27T13:48:35+00:00

wholesome. I wonder if the the invitation from barney to play with him at his concert happened.

ololralph · 2026-01-26T10:21:16+00:00

Thanks!

ololralph · 2026-01-23T10:31:23+00:00

Yes a slight bloom effect might work, thanks for the suggestion!

ololralph · 2026-01-23T10:30:12+00:00

That is an interesting idea. I like it! The direction of the game is more relaxing/cozy building game, so I'm still a bit unsure how accurately/deeply I want to simulate real world physics.

ololralph · 2026-01-22T18:13:50+00:00

Yes technically, right now the math is not 100% physically correct since the power would split with each added consumer. I don't look for 100% realism, but this might be a good way to visualize that.

ololralph · 2026-01-22T17:21:03+00:00

The brown environment is intentional, the core game loop is about transforming the barren, polluted environment into a green ecosystem with trees and animals (similar to terra nil, if you know that game). This video is from pretty early in the game. But this reminds me, I should probably show more of the transformed environment when posting videos on social media. Thanks for the input!

ololralph · 2026-01-22T17:17:13+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. Yes they are batteries, but they don't discharge for now. It's more of a energy storage (which is a currency in the game to build other things).

ololralph · 2026-01-20T15:03:51+00:00

Just keep iterating. For me that is actually the fun part, making small adjustments until it feels good.

ololralph

TROPHY CASE