BonfireSimulator

[i]BonfireSimulator[/i] is actually a game with a surprising amount of complexity. Your core goal is to start and maintain a bonfire at your campsite. But you also have to manage hunger and I think fatigue as well. I'm not totally sure. I died during my second attempt (or at least, I think I died) pretty randomly while adding logs to the fire. Not really sure what happened, but my game ended. My first go at it, I simply had to leave and shut it down myself. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3694495172 Prior to my dying though, I cooked and ate some sweet potato; unlocked flashlights and lanterns, which was super useful as without them, the game is unnecessarily dark; collected embers floating about in order to purchase said items; unlocked a treasure chest which gave me a buff and earned another one by accomplishing a camping goal. You unlock radio very quickly which has three tunes available (at least at the first campsite). https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3694495129 In order to keep the fire going, you will need to chop down trees, and you can unlock better axes to help that go more smoothly. You have a couple crates which can hold logs, some sticks, pinecones, etc... As you progress, you will unlock new buffs by, as mentioned before, completing tasks or finding keys to unlock the few chests that are lying around. Embers collected function as your money to buy new equipment. And achieving certain benchmarks while camping also unlock new foods, furniture, and better gear (such as the aforementioned axe upgrades). I guess you have to survive a certain amount of time to unlock the next camping location, rinse and repeat. I wasn't clear as far as how to use your camp chair to restore your energy/fatigue, and based on the animations, I was sitting all along, so that was a mystery to me, but I'm pretty sure that's why my session ended. You will retain your embers if you reach some threshold, to use on your next attempt. I'm also not super clear on what those conditions are, but I did note that this was available to me for my next attempt. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3694495105 And I see from the cheevos that you unlock a gun and other activities as you progress as well. There is also a leaderboard for survival times in each level for people interested in such. I felt like the controls were a little bit fickle and wonky, but overall functioned fine. And as I said earlier, the game was way too dark even with the lighting slider all the way up. It's a moonlit night over the first campsite, but the ambient lighting doesn't really reflect this fact. The menu has at least one spelling error. "Creadit" instead of "Credits". Also, the default settings are pretty much for old old old CRT TVs or monitors. The devs should probably set defaults to medium settings. That's all the negatives I experienced. This didn't feel like a relaxing game and IDK about the life sim part either as far as the game's tags go. What I do know is that if you are looking for a camping sim with evolving gameplay mechanics and some complexity, this can be that. And it is a nice-looking game. The setting itself without the constant need to manage different aspect of camping would probably fit the relaxing description. Anyway, it wasn't the game for me, but perhaps it might be something worthwhile for you. Absent a neutral rating option, I'm giving this a positive rating due to the reasonably well thought out gameplay. [b]I received this license via our IndieGems Curator program.[/b] [code]If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32549618/]Robilar's Reviews[/url], it would be appreciated. Cheers.[/code] [code]Also follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems[/url] for more reviews like this one.[/code]