Forager

Forager (2019) is an open-world adventure where you manage resources in a simple pixel world. The collecting, crafting and consuming requires you to tap buttons. It soon becomes apparent that you need to automate your work if you are to progress effectively. What starts as a simple game expands into an interrelated ecosystem.

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The simple button tapping (commonly seen in idle games) is combined with a Zelda-like adventure. Everything you do, even chopping down a tree earns level points. As you automate your collection and consumption ecosystem you level up to gain a large grid of unlockable abilities - new tools, craftable objects and skills.

This opens new ways to progress through tasks including cooking, economics, engineering, farming, fishing, hunting, magic, manufacturing and mining. Eventually, you can visit other islands and discover underground dungeons. These offer puzzle and battle elements and break up the monotony of the overland collection.

The simple visuals and tap-to-progress style belie a deep and complex world. By earning money through crafting, skills, looting, and economic tasks you can purchase more lands to expand your base, explore new areas, and obtain new classes of resources or encounter new enemies and other characters.

It's a game that invites you to make and discover your own fun. It offers an intricate blank canvas in which you can explore and create adventures. This means that for some it can feel a little empty. But this missed the joy of Forager, a world that doesn't force you to play in a particular way but lets you make your own path.

The game is the creation of a single developer and since it launched in 2019, the game has been enhanced to include new biomes, gear, and items. A weather system has been improved as has the combat and boss fights. You can now have pets and discover secret traders.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Forager 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 6 months ago.