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Farm life sims (also calledfarming sim orfarm sim) are a subgenre oflife simulation games which fusesocial simulation,dating sim and farm simulation elements. The games generally feature a protagonist going out to a rural setting and taking upon a farm, oftentimes because of an inheritance from a deceased relative, or because of urban boredom. The player-character grows crops and raises livestock to make money, and can interact with a wide cast of characters who are inhabitants of the town, and work toward the main plot's objective, if one exists. The game plots often featured dying ghost towns that must be revitalized by the player's actions.[1] The games tend to feature simplified and less realistic farming as opposed to a simulation, such asFarming Simulator.
The genre's origins were in the 1996-2013Harvest Moon series, later renamedStory of Seasons, which, alongside its fantasy spin-off seriesRune Factory, was almost the sole series in its genre up untilStardew Valley, a successfulindie game inspired by it, popularized farm life sims as a distinct genre.[2]
The first example of the genre was the 1996 gameHarvest Moon, which released in the later stages of theSNES console lifespan. Inspired by his childhood in the countryside and the game series Derby Stallion, producerYasuhiro Wada wanted to make a rural setting "role-playing" game without any combat.[3] The game starred Pete as he moves out to the country to take upon a farm he inherited from his grandfather. The player could explore the town and interact with its inhabitants. As a bonus, the player could bond with and marry eligible bachelorettes in town, making it one of the earliest examples of adating sim.[4] A later influential game in the Story of Seasons series was the spinoffRune Factory which married farm life sim games with theJapanese role-playing game (JRPG) genre and featureddungeon crawling. JRPG fusions are now a noted variant of farm life sims.[5]
The series was the only series in its genre until fairly recently, and would often market itself as a role-playing game because of this. The series remained a stable, consistent property but did not sell in great numbers for many years.[6][3] In 2016,Eric Barone released the self-developed gameStardew Valley which exploded in popularity, becoming one of the most successfulindie games ever. The game heavily popularized this type of game, and made it into a genre itself. Use of the phrase "farm life sim" started appearing after this.[2][7]
AfterStardew Valley's success, the genre experienced a massive boom in popularity, and more farm life sims would release, many of which were also indie.[7][1][8]Square Enix would put outHarvestella, a JRPG fusion in the vein ofRune Factory.[9][10][11]
Joining in on the genre's boom, the 2.0 update of popular social simAnimal Crossing: New Horizons was released in November 2021. It added the ability to create a farm and grow produce.[12]
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