Three years ago a Kickstarter ended for the promising life-sim adventure My Time at Portia. It did ok for itself, nothing too major, clearing the base funding target and earning a small handful of stretch goals along the way. And then post-Kickstarter it came to life, gaining a good-sized audience who were quite happy to run around a full 3D Harvest Moon-like adventure playing a tinkerer rather than farmer, crafting supplies for the residents or working on giant projects that transformed the town. Or took the day off to go fishing, chase after relics in the mines, explore the landscape, or any number of other diversions. Portia is a lovely town with a vibrant cast living within and outside its walls, but the world is bigger than just the one island. Sandrock is a desert town that’s seen better days, and like its neighbor Portia needs an energetic young builder to help get back on its feet.
My Time at Sandrock was supposed to be an expansion to Portia before ambition sunk that idea. Plans for Sandrock included not just enhanced and revised gameplay but also multiplayer, which is something no realistic amount of poking at the Portia code would allow. The goal is to be bigger, prettier, deeper, basically all the things a good sequel should be, while expanding on the world and its history. Sandrock is a very different environment than Portia, not just because of the desert but also due to being built near the remains of an ancient ruined city, perfect for exploration and scavenging ancient relics. When the work or exploration aren’t too pressing, though, there will be a good number of NPCs walking the town and interacting with each other, and befriending them not only advances the story but also gains unique perks. One of the more interesting changes of the sequel’s social aspect is that the plan is to have fewer romance options, and instead work on deepening the story and interactions for each character.
The Kickstarter for My Time at Sandrock went live earlier today and has the same goal as its prequel My Time at Portia- $100,000. Unlike My Time at Portia, though, at the time of this writing the goal is just about met, and will be easily cleared before hitting the 24-hour mark. Where the stretch goals go from there is still a mystery but worth keeping an eye on, and for now it’s good to know that there’s more on the way. My Time at Portia was an incredibly likable life-sim that overcame being a bit rough around the edges with sheer charm, so there’s plenty of reason to be excited over the prospect of a well-polished sequel. Head on over to the campaign to take a look, or at least give a watch to the announcement trailer below.
