Demo code provided with thanks to BlueSpruce Interactive.
Cave Oasis at Shylake is inspired by games such as Stardew Valley, Eco and My Time in Portia / Sandrock. I love a good simulation game, and this one has an ecological twist, looking at hydroponic farming in a hopeful, futuristic life sim on a moon.
The Backstory of Cave Oasis at Shylake
Cave Oasis has beautiful elements of a cosy farming sim, along with a life sim, by getting to know the townsfolk and contributing to the ecological community as the neighbourhood’s newest farmer.
The game’s main focus appears to be looking for a better future on a moon using environmental sustainability and having an inclusive community, including humans and extraterrestrials.
The story starts with you arriving at Adekua Moon and getting on board a regional moon rail transport link to arrive at Shylake. You are to become the town’s new greenhouse farmer, using hydroponic farming, biomass crafting and sustainable foraging to create unique and wonderful offerings to Shylake’s fascinating community.
You get to meet new NPCs who are excited at your arrival, and all suddenly have jobs or things for you to do. Conversations with the NPCs are choice-based via your universal translator, helping you translate the conversations with other species on the moon.
The Gameplay of Cave Oasis at Shylake
Cave Oasis at Shylake is a very simple and colourful game with unique characters and a peaceful setting.
On arriving at the town, you are notified that there is a town app. This app allows you to have access to a whole bunch of things, including your map, translator (very much needed for communicating with extra terrestrials), your standard inventory, quests and statistics from a bunch of activities, including foraging, crafting and more.
The controls for the game and UI navigation are all extremely simple to use, and make it easy to slide into the game and get into the thick of it quite quickly.
Once you have spoken to the townsfolk, you can find your home and settle into your new life as a farmer. Your home is a simple one with everything you need from a bed, storage and of course, some crates. Crates, I hear you ask, well yes, the crates are used to fill up with food, flowers and other amenities in order to provide them to NPCs and shops who have some very specific requests.
Your greenhouse is placed on top of your home, which you can access via some side stairs. My first thought when walking into the greenhouse was how big it was, especially when the planters are so small, but I imagine after a while, this can fill very quickly, so the space is well designed. When placing the planters, my main worry was does the game has a snap to grid feature, and to my wonderful surprise, it does and makes life in the greenhouse all the easier.
The first crops to plant take almost 2 days, so if you are keen to progress the game, then setting the day length to 12 minutes may help this, but if you are playing with children or family, this could be fun to have it set to 45 minutes and spend the time exploring and enjoying the colourful town, and it’s unique inhabitants.
There are also some unique and lovely shops and places to visit at Shylake, but make sure to arrive on time, they are only open during working hours and believe me, time flies when you are having so much fun foraging and looking around Shylake.
In addition to the storyline, you can also join in on social activities with the townsfolk by attending the community centre, or if you have had a particularly stressful day farming, you can also go down to the meditation centre and sit/meditate your stresses and woes away. Although I find it very hard to be stressed within Shylake with its beamingly positive characters and peaceful sounds.
Developer Background
BlueSpruce Interactive is a studio run by a solo female developer who has created a game inspired by other games which they played as a gamer. They have a background in Computational Social Science and care a lot about developing experiences that contribute to collective efforts for a better future. This is shown very well throughout Cave Oasis at Shylake through the unique origin and gameplay.
Final Thoughts
At some points within the game, it can be a little too quiet as the audio appears to dip in and out, which at points left me wondering if I had clicked something or muted my headphones but other than that Cave Oasis at Shylake is definitely a game with potential and there are so many more things to come as told by the developer. Therefore, I am excited to see how the game progresses. Cave Oasis at Shylake is due for release in 2026, but the demo is available to play now on Steam.
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