I played the demo for My Heaven’s Dale by Dreaming Cat. I played on a PC with a controller.
Another Farming Sim: My Heaven’s Dale
Do you know why game developers keep creating new farming sims? Because we love farming sims!! As long as the gameplay is fun and it’s a bit different from the others we’ve played, I believe we cozy gamers are always happy to have a new farming sim to enjoy!
My Heaven’s Dale is similar enough to most other farm sims that it feels familiar. But it also has some great QOL differences that were obvious to me in the demo. It has all the features we’ve come to love, like farming, mining, fishing and crafting. This is the first game created by this solo developer, and its planned full release date is July 2026.
The Backstory
According to the dev, “The story is still being developed, but the main character is a reborn ‘spirit’ sent by the Moon Goddess to Heaven’s Dale. His/Her goal is to help the residents with their requests, and special events happen once you reach a certain number. 40 help-quests are planned so far. Helping Nancy with her fishing shop, finding Lucas’s old bandana, helping a giant bee with the request of the former farm owner who disappeared somehow, these are all help-quests so far, will have some mysteries to be discovered in the story too.”
The Gameplay of My Heaven’s Dale Demo
As usual in this type of game, you are introduced to some NPCs, given tools and tasks. One key difference in this game is that there is no hot bar to cycle through. When you are in the right position to use a tool, you just use it! An example is when you are standing in a pre-tilled planting bed, you just select your seeds and plant them. No hoeing or digging for you.
When you want to water the plants, you just stand over them and press the appropriate action button. No need to select the watering can or even to keep it filled. When you are in position by a piece of wood, you again just press the appropriate button and the wood is chopped. I really like this!!
The fishing is especially easy and satisfying. Some fishing games can be so hard… you know who you are!!
The Atmosphere of the Game
My Heaven’s Dale is a pixel game with lots of paths and NPCs. The soundtrack in the demo was light and cheerful. The Steam page says that the soundtrack changes daily to give some variety. I didn’t play long enough to notice that. The Steam page also says that the game offers simple gameplay, and that’s 100% true! The world is bright and colorful with water features, mines, forests and farms. The gameplay starts with a nice tutorial and an introduction to some of the key NPCs. After that, I was encouraged to explore the world on my own.
I did just that and found it was much larger than I expected! The paths are twisty and turny, and sometimes are dead ends. At first, I wished there was a map in the game, but soon I figured out where I was in relation to other areas. It’s a large world, but not too large.
An in-game day lasts between 20-30 minutes, which lets you explore at a relaxed pace. But in the settings, you have the option to always run, which I definitely turned on
Other Things of Note
My Heaven’s Dale has chickens, cows, pigs, goats and ducks, as well as more than 7 unique pets that can live with you. There are 30 unique NPCs to build relationships with and over 90 types of fish to catch. There are 12 male or female characters to marry and have children with, and community festivals.
There are trees with fruit that I think you can pick later in the game, and flowers on the ground that you can pick right now. As usual, you can keep or sell your items. It’s all very familiar, which I think is a good thing. There’s no steep learning curve.
Some Unusual Things
As I was wandering around in the demo, I found 2 mysterious floating objects. When I got near each of them, the screen turned a little red and flashed. After that, I received a message saying that they gave me a little extra energy. At the time, I didn’t understand what had happened, but the game dev filled me in! Turns out they are lunar fragments, and you need to collect 8 of them to unlock a feature in the Moon World. This is a feature the demo had not introduced to me yet – something to look forward to! Best of all, I got a message saying, “You’re not sure what it is, but you feel your heart fill with Hope.” I loved that! Such an optimistic message.
Also, within my demo play, I ran into an interesting plant in a path. When I picked it up, I was told it was a magic sprout, and it gave me coins. Neato!
Who knows how many new and unusual elements this game has in store for us?
Final Thoughts
I experienced a couple of “new demo” bugs in My Heaven’s Dale. I reached out to the developer, who promptly fixed them. I always appreciate it when that happens because to me it shows commitment to the quality of the final product.
There are secrets all over Heaven’s Dale. I encourage you to try the demo and see for yourself. I played the My Heaven’s Dale demo for a little less than an hour, and I know there’s more of the demo that I didn’t get to yet. There were also lots of areas that were either blocked off or simply not accessible to me in the demo. I believe this game has a lot to offer. It’s familiar and yet different.
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