Early code provided with many thanks to The Story Mob.
Loftia is a life simulation game from indie developers Qloud Games. It launches into early access on November 3, 2026, and I was lucky enough to get an early key to explore the floating worlds.
A Deep Dive Into the Floating Islands of Loftia
As a huge fan of the genre, I was happy to see a new Heartopia-style game come around without the problems Heartopia brought along with it. So I immediately got started as soon as my key came around. Since Heartopia is the last big-name MMO life sim like this that I was into, I’ll be doing a lot of comparisons to it in this article.
Loftia is a very cute-looking game. They took the idea of an adorable, lively, and full town and really ran with it. There are tons of NPCs wandering around, some of which do speak to you, loads of buildings with unique characteristics, decorations, and overall good vibes. There is a lot going on here, and while the maps aren’t huge, they feel like full, working, bustling towns.
You begin the game of Loftia by plunging onto the floating island of the main city, accidentally destroying your glider in the process. You are greeted by a talking squirrel mouse named Pebble that tells you that you are finally home; there is a house and a welcoming city here to get you back on your feet.
You need to collect crafting materials by salvaging and harvesting plants, growing seeds of your own, and manufacturing them. After that, you can build furniture, make yourself new clothing, make tools, cook food, and do other things to make money, fulfill quests, and decorate your house. You get a tiny little island with a house on it to put together how you like that is separate from Loftia itself, and you can decorate it how you like.
And that’s basically it. There is some impetus to interact with other players, but it is not required. You mostly spend all your time in Loftia attempting to unlock all the pretty furnishings, outfits, and collecting pets for yourself. There is no combat, and the vibes are fantastic. The music and sound effects are fine, and the graphics are cute. A lot of work went into the way the areas are decorated, and it’s overall a very pretty game.
These Are A Few of My Favorite Things…
Loftia has a lot of good things going for it, so let’s dive into everything I liked about it. The game is adorable; it’s bright, colorful, and has a lot of things to do in it. I can see dumping days into this game upon release, unlocking all the furnishings, playing dress-up, and completing all the story quests.
The tutorial is pretty well done in Loftia. It teaches you everything you need to know without bogging you down all at once or holding your hand too much; it’s just the right amount considering I assume a portion of those playing the game will be children and teens.
Loftia has a lot of quality-of-life things in it that make it fantastic to play. For example, items in your inventory and in your storage boxes are available when you are crafting, which is one of my biggest complaints in survival sims and life sims alike. It’s easy to move around, and each location is well documented on the map, showing you where to find items you might need, where to find people to talk to, and which NPCs have quests for you.
The menus are easy to navigate, which is a huge boon since you end up spending a lot of time menuing around for inventory, quick tools, levelling up your tech tree, changing your clothes, and even changing your appearance.
Speaking of appearance, there are tons of options for all sorts of hair types. Unlike Heartopia, which didn’t have any hair choices for Black hairstyles, like braids, natural curls, or things like that, there are a lot more options for the way your character looks in Loftia.
Not All Sunny Skies
While Loftia is incredibly fun and scratches the itch that Heartopia left behind, it wasn’t flawless. One complaint I have is that the movement is very floaty. It took a long time for me to get used to it; you will slide around a lot, especially when you are airborne, jumping or gliding. I still find myself falling off bridges into the open sky or tumbling into water and instantly drowning. Thankfully, you respawn quickly.
My biggest complaint with Loftia has to be the energy system. In order to craft, upgrade your crafting stations, cook, or upgrade your materials, you have to use energy from a battery you carry around with you. This limits the number of processed materials you can make at a time, and slows down your ability to make money pretty severely. The battery is refilled with solar-powered stations you can put on your island, but you are limited in the number you can have at a time (you start with one and have to pay quite a bit of in-game money to upgrade to two, and even more to three, etc.).
The energy system doesn’t add anything interesting to the Loftia, but just slows you down because the developers wanted to slow you down arbitrarily. It’s not a fun mechanic, and I found it to be irritating any time I was trying to make a whole new outfit or redecorate my house. I find limiters on my ability to make things, run, or jump in life simulators to do nothing by limit my fun.
Things I Am Interested in Knowing
One of the biggest complaints of mine and a lot of the Heartopia community was about the predatory monetization system. Since Loftia isn’t currently out, I can’t say what that system will look like in it. I hope it will be a much nicer one.
I am also interested to know how the developers of Loftia are going to keep the group projects fresh and interesting. Right now, there are a couple of projects all the players can collectively donate to: building a dome in the center of town is one of the big ones. I can see these types of projects getting boring quickly if there isn’t much to do other than donate. I hope Loftia does a much better job of this than Heartopia did.
I didn’t experience any bugs, but there are a pretty limited number of people currently on the servers. I know that around 450,000 people have wishlisted Loftia on Steam and the Epic Games Store, so I’m a little worried about the servers not being able to keep up with Early Access Launch Day crowds.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I enjoyed my time in Loftia. I am looking forward to seeing how well Qloud Games pulls off the launch and what the monetization looks like. I am also hopeful that we don’t see any racist characters in Loftia as we did in Heartopia, because my heart can’t stand losing another cute life sim that I love to that kind of nonsense. This is definitely a game to keep an eye on if you are a fan of the genre!
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