As much as I love games with evocative narratives, moreish gameplay, or challenges that push me to the point of frustration, sometimes I just want something a little more mellow. A game that’s so laid back that you can pickౠ it up and play whenever the feeling takes you without worrying about where you were or what you were doing.
When I recently visited indie game event WASD, I found that Townseek by Whales and Games fit the bill perfectly.. It seems like the perfect choice for whiling away the hours all cosied up on the sofa with a warm cup꧅ of tea. You find yourself in the role of captain of your very ow💛n blimp boat as you travel around the adorable pastel-coloured world of Explora. The quirky hand-drawn graphics are particularly charming, and as you turn your blimp around, it flips as though it’s just a 2D sticker over the world.
There&rsquo🥂;s a loose narrative that has you following in the footsteps of famous explorer Sir Reginald Sharkingston and collecting his journal pages, but the real aim is to😼 discover new locales where you can trade and take on quests. Each town you visit is unique, with its own environment and culture, weird and wonderful characters to meet, landmarks to discover, and items to barter with.
As you travel around, you’ll find that each town has different supplies and demands too. For example, Burrowburg is a carrot-themed town with rabbit characters, so you’ll find carrot and bඣunny items here. There’s no point selling them their own wares as they are readily available, and you won’t make a profit. Instead, you’ll be looking at what rare and exotic items they’re after from other distant lands. Perhaps they’d prefer something from the cat-themed town, or that strange town where people are made o⭕f goo?
There’s no need for math wizardry or Excel spreadsheets. A green selling price is above average, while a red price is below average. Stick to that, and you can’t go wrong. O꧅f course, if you play the field a bit, you can finetune your money making skills by remembering which towns pay top dollar for specific wares and hone in on ꦕthose.
You don’t have to worry about running out of cash, as it’s easy enough to find items for free. You’ll be able to pick up floating crates that contain items — generally items native to wherever the crate is found — and as you progress, you’ll unlock fishing and mining, too. As you complete quests and trade with towns, you’ll improve your reputation, which opens up new tasks and upgrades. You can also customise your blimp, changing up the hull, balloon, and more. One thing I liked the most൲ about this is that Townseek pays homage to other indies by including the likes of Rain on Your Parade and A Short Hike-themed cosmetics for your ship.
Townseek keeps things simple, but that’s what makes it work well. It’s ꦿnot aiming to be on par with the biggest game of the year, it’s just a chill little indie game that looks cute and doesn’t feel too taxing to playඣ, meaning you can spend countless hours exploring the world to your heart’s content when you want nothing more than a game you can relax with.
