Are you a failure Wanderstop can be a “cozy” game for you

Before you can control your character in WanderstopYou have already fucked up. Alta lost in the arena, defeating her a quick and ignored end to three years as an invincible master. It is, in words, a ruining “failure”. To cross and return, he faded than ever, he falls into the forest, looking for a legendary trainer, but to wake up exhausted in front of a picturesque tea store. . Steam demo It will happen that you collect plants, making tea and conflict a lot with the owner of the store, a gentle giant who thinks that maybe what Alta really needs is some time to rest. After all, you can’t fail to drink CUPPA.

Demo (published as part Steam Next Fest) Basically, it is an opening of the game, a hard story and depicting our hero Hamstrung and her new friend Boro, an optimist who owns a tea store, but in principle he is a gigantic therapist. I want to talk about history based on the characters more than games that you will do day by day in the tea room. But I think it is helpful to know what kind of coziness you are, so let’s summarize the basics quickly.

You make tea, but this includes all agriculture associated before the first rinse. A small field outside the store is arranged in a hexagonal pattern and the seeds can be sown into specific patterns to immediately flourish various types of plants. SWAJ in a line to get a small hybrid plant with blue seeds. Sij the same seeds in a three -point star pattern to create a large hybrid that offers tea fruit.

Dry the tea leader in a box with a timer, collect the resulting balls of tea and climbing the giant central machine for infusion tea, sliding down the ladders, pulling the ropes and blowing the city, and digging the lever to flow hot water. Tea spills a spiral funnel at the bottom with a pleasant flow of the chemistry set that you got at Christmas. Something is Very Dick van Dyke About the internal design of the house. Small toy trains enter and leave the waterfalls and radiators – a washing machine for cups of tea. Automatic salad doors open from room to room with a satisfying horsetail. You can tune the knobs to change the music playing in the store. The radio has three stations: “horse”, “dog” and “cow”.

It is all very cozy and pink, but what does it have to do with failure and how do we deal with this idea? Well, most of what she shows does not sell the game itself, but the hero and her problems. Alta was pushing next to a terrible burning point. Time and time he runs to the forest to escape from the tea store, using anger and fear as a source of fuel, not understanding that such fuel burns hotly and quickly and pumps poison like any gasoline combustion engine. Finally, it falls every time you leave a quiet glade in tea room.

Game co -authors, Davey Wreden (Z Stanley parable AND A guide for beginners) and Karl Zimonja (of Tacoma AND I went home) I talked about the game Personal Burnout Historyand the regenerative power of “daily rituals that will anchor us in our lives.” And playing this openly, I see what they mean. The main fights that Alta faces are difficulties that many of us can relate to. At one point he talks about the previous dream – to Smithy her own sword. But she gave up this idea, because being “great” in blacksmithing would take life in itself and nothing but the best -made sword. In Alta’s mind, she had enough life for one goal: to be the greatest warrior of the arena.

It is a kind of thinking about everyone or nothing that will recognize every perfectionist, and one that can lead to despair as easily as it leads to success. Putting all life of all life on one ship at the expense of all others comes naturally for those who want to specialize and stand out. Many of us (including me here) gave life and identity to mental coffee, which accompanies us everyday work. But when something goes wrong, and this cup of career crashes, for any reason, cold caffeine spots of “failures” penetrate everything around you. Suddenly, after years of excessive achievement, you are fucking. There are two reactions: double and try or give up completely. Everything or nothing.

As you can see, there is a lot of emotional luggage in Wanderstop, even in this short demo. When it ended after about an hour, I remained thirsty for more. I want to see how Alta becomes better because I know the value of rebuilding a cool size of horses and learning to sit down and only breathe air for an hour. I learned that there was something – many things – between “everyone” and “nothing”. And I would feel warm and blurred if this extremely angry Stabber also see it.

I am looking forward to how the game interrogates the “cozy” agricultural genre, which is traditionally full of craft teeth and seasonal terms, which easily turn relaxing games into even more based on ticking performance. If the goal here is to show Alta that he does not always have to push, it does not have to be “productive” all the time, I will gladly see how the game design strengthens this idea. Stardew Valley And his ilk is great dispersion, an ecological escape from everyday fears. But there has been a place for a long time to play and think deeper about why these games are so popular. Exactly what are we trying to escape when we plant another row of shepherds? I hope Wanderstop has an interesting answer. This will happen on March 11.