Code provided thanks to Two Frogs.
Good Heavens! – Familiar Feelings
When I first booted up Good Heavens!, I wasn’t entirely convinced it was going to be my sort of game.
On paper, it looked like another survival-crafting adventure, a genre that is hardly short on competition these days. Between gathering wood, building workbenches, crafting tools and slowly expanding your capabilities, there’s a familiar formula that many games follow. Looking at the screenshots and the slightly unusual art style, I wasn’t sure whether this one would stand out from the crowd. After spending time with the demo though, I came away surprised.
While Good Heavens! certainly borrows plenty of ideas from other crafting games, it also brings enough personality and quality-of-life features to make me interested in seeing where the project goes next.
Becoming the Latest “Chosen One”
The story starts in a fairly amusing way. Your character appears to be living a perfectly ordinary life, sitting around at home, watching television, playing games, and generally minding their own business. Then a mysterious job advertisement catches their attention. Before long, they’re whisked away to the floating world of Xant-Rar, a fantasy realm in desperate need of help. The twist is that the locals don’t seem particularly impressed by your arrival.
Apparently, you’re just the latest in a very long line of “Chosen Ones” who have been summoned to solve the world’s problems. Some of the residents even joke about how many attempts have already come before you. From there, your role is simple: help the citizens, rebuild communities, explore the world, and hopefully succeed where countless chosen heroes have apparently failed before. It’s a fun premise that gives the game a bit more personality than the average crafting sandbox.
Familiar Foundations Done Well
The opening hours of the demo are very much focused on teaching the basics. You’ll gather grass, collect stone, pick up sticks, craft an axe, chop down trees, build a workbench, and slowly establish your first base of operations. None of this is particularly revolutionary, but the game introduces each mechanic through an excellent checklist-style tutorial system. This was probably one of my favourite parts of the demo. Every objective is clearly explained without overwhelming the player. The game introduces new mechanics gradually and constantly provides useful prompts and guidance. It does a great job of easing players into what could otherwise become quite a complex crafting system. Even when I found myself running back and forth gathering resources, I never felt lost or confused about what I should be doing next.
Building Towards Something Bigger
One mechanic I particularly enjoyed was the progression system. As you perform different activities, you earn two separate currencies. Red orbs are generally gained through combat, while blue orbs come from crafting, gathering and various non-combat activities. These currencies feed into several skill trees that unlock new features and specialisations. Before long, you’re unlocking armour crafting, fishing, farming, furniture construction, cooking, smelting, clothing creation and various combat upgrades.
The crafting-focused progression felt especially rewarding because the blue currency accumulates quite quickly. New unlocks arrive at a satisfying pace, making it feel like you’re constantly working towards something useful.
I also really liked the building template system. Rather than needing every required material before placing a structure, you can place a blueprint first and contribute resources later. If you know where you want your workshop, storage area or crafting station to go, you can plan everything out in advance and fill in the materials whenever you’re ready. It’s a simple feature, but it makes organising your base far more enjoyable.
More Than Just Survival
What helped Good Heavens! stand out for me was its focus on helping local communities. The game isn’t purely about surviving in the wilderness. Instead, much of your adventure revolves around assisting townsfolk, rebuilding settlements and completing quests for residents scattered throughout the world. The demo’s world feels surprisingly large, and I enjoyed wandering off to discover new characters and side objectives.
Again, the checklist system deserves praise. Quests clearly outline what resources are needed and what steps need to be completed, making objectives easy to follow without excessive hand-holding. There’s something quite relaxing about gathering materials, helping villagers with their problems, and slowly watching the world improve around you.
A World Full of Potential
Visually, Good Heavens! took a little while to grow on me. The game uses a rough, sketchbook-inspired art style that initially didn’t click with me. After spending more time in the world, however, I found myself appreciating its charm. In some ways it reminded me a little of classic quirky adventures like Toejam & Earl, with its unusual character designs and playful atmosphere.
The opening cutscene leans heavily into humour. Most of the jokes didn’t quite land for me personally, but thankfully the game doesn’t rely on constant comedy afterwards. The tone settles into something much more relaxed and welcoming once you begin exploring. The overall atmosphere is colourful, light-hearted and easy to spend time in.
A Few Early Access Style Rough Edges
The demo isn’t perfect. Combat currently feels a little stiff compared to the crafting and exploration systems. It’s functional and easy enough to understand, but it lacks some of the fluidity I’d like to see in the final release. Gathering resources can also feel a bit grindy when playing solo. There were moments where I found myself making repeated trips for a handful of missing materials. That said, this feels like the sort of game that would become significantly more enjoyable in co-op. The prospect of dividing tasks between multiple players while building up a shared settlement feels like a natural fit for the systems on display.
Final Thoughts
As demos go, Good Heavens! provides a generous slice of what the full game is aiming to achieve. The crafting systems are solid, progression feels rewarding, the quest structure is easy to follow, and the town-building elements give the experience a nice sense of purpose beyond simply gathering resources for the sake of it.
While some aspects still feel a little rough around the edges, particularly combat, the foundations are strong, and the world itself is surprisingly charming. Most importantly, I found myself wanting to keep playing after the demo ended, which is usually the best compliment I can give a game at this stage.
If you enjoy crafting adventures, cooperative sandbox games, or simply like the idea of helping rebuild a slightly broken fantasy world full of eccentric characters, Good Heavens! is definitely worth keeping an eye on. The demo offers a promising glimpse at what could become a very enjoyable adventure when it finally arrives.
Do you like our content?
Support LadiesGamers as a member on Patreon!
Or buy us a cup of coffee or tea on Ko-Fi!
