After indie developer Eerie Bear Games announced its second virtual reality (VR) title in September 2017, Fruit for the Village, the studio went a little quiet. That’s changed this week with a double helping of announcements. The first is a confirmed launch date and the second is that there’s a free demo available.
Set in a future world which has been decimated by climate change and war, Fruit for the Village is a strategy survival videogame of sorts. In this new harsh landscape trying to survive is very hard, with little villages scattered about trying day by day to stay alive. Players live in one of these villages and it’s up to them to keep the inhabitants sustained by growing and supplying food, yes this is a gardening experience.
So players need to build a thriving garden to meet the needs of the village, But it’s not as easy a planting a few seeds, adding water then sitting back and chilling out with a beer. These villagers are hungry, continually decreasing the food supply while prices rise with each purchase. Players will need to use harvested fruit to enhance their gardens bounty by buying larger plots and auto-growers to grow fruit. At the same time learning to optimise the gardens production to be able to continually send more food to refill the villages supply.
Food for the Village will feature two gameplay modes, Story Mode and Survival. Story mode is the main campaign as described above, plus it also includes a NewGame+ mode. Survival is all about perfecting those optimisation skills, sustaining the village for as long as possible.
Today Eerie Bear Games took to Twitter to announce the release date as 22nd May, 2018, on Steam for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets. As an extra bonus there’s a free demo available: “This demo is a sample of gameplay from the story mode with randomized character options,” states the team. “It’s just a taste, and the full game will allow you to experience the whole story of the Village, along with an endless survival mode (if story isn’t your thing and you just want to play around) and additional character options, rather than randomized ones!”
As the launch approaches, VRFocus will bring you further coverage of Fruit for the Village.