Haven Park is here today and we’re happy to have it. Where to start? Let’s start with adorable cute animal heads making friends in the woods. I’m drawn to them the moment I glimpse at them, and my heart gets their attention quickly. Haven Park is a three-dimensional open world that expands on the social crafting genre. And it’s a cool option that addresses the demand for games of this nature.
In Haven Park, you play a little yellow bird who essentially inherits a whole park from its grandmother, You are tasked to maintain the park, draw visitors in, and explore. With crafting, an in-game market, and skill trees, this is a pretty feature-abundant game! Let’s take a look.
Once again, this showcase is made possible thanks to the collaboration with Indie Game Collective and MoonEye Studios.
A Little Bird in Haven Park
My first observation about Haven Park is this is a very easy game to get drawn into. I enjoy the cheerful graphics and the intro story with grandmother. I draw immediately upon reflections of what are now essentially the pre-eminent games in their genre like A Short Hike and Animal Crossing.
It is never wrong to draw upon such sources of potential inspiration for a new game because it happens all the time, and the developer Fabien Weibel actually says in the press kit that A Short Hike is a major inspiration for Haven Park. I have fond memories of just sitting down with these games on my Nintendo Switch to pass the time, and I totally see the vision of games like this because of it. Haven Park is also a Switch release in addition to Steam and Itch.IO.
Features of Haven Park
Here is a list of features from Haven Park’s press kit:
- An open world to explore at your own rhythm
- Many camping grounds to find and set up
- Many quests & sides quests
- 30+ campers to meet and talk to
- Skills to unlock with experience points
- 2-4 hours of gameplay
- Full day/night cycles
- Keyboard & gamepad support
- Available in 10 different languages
Find stuff, Make Stuff, Discover Friends
After the intro, I wander around the park. Plenty of smooth textures, a pleasant control scheme that works with my controller, and a very casual introduction of features. Like its predecessors of this niche genre, wandering is key. The park is humongous, and the only thing that’s going to explain it is walking around, looking at stuff, taking things, and then making other things out of the ones you find.
The primary quest initially is to discover all the camps in the park. After I find the first couple of camps plus some adventuresome exploring, I retreat back to one of the two camps I found and happen upon a crafting stump. Using the materials I found in the woods like wood, mushrooms, fabric, and even metal, I create a tent. It works, sort of, but nothing happens. So, I sort of figured maybe I need to explore more, which I do. This is fine, I’m totally patient with this game because it is so pleasant.
Bugle Horn
I head over to my other camp and craft a little campfire on its own stump. Then something happens! A camper appears, rejoice! They give me hints on what might improve the camp and I do what I can to accommodate them. One character is a sheep who requests vegan sandwiches even. There are several patterns from which to create objects for the campsites. You can create, tents and teepees, activities, decorations, resting areas, and food.
This is a snippet of how simple things in this game can actually be quite detailed. Based on what I discover wandering, this game, while quite reliant upon the solo dev work of Fabien Weibel, the game is pretty massive with plenty to see. And as you progress a quite expansive skill tree gives you many options to customize your gameplay. These are created through the leveling system in the game, which is not heavily expanded upon but is a good measure of progress.
Final Thoughts on Haven Park
Indie games are less expensive, generally. It’s not a denominator, it’s just a natural aspect of efficient development. If you want to try something new, but jibes with the A Short Hike fan in you, I recommend it. This game is perfect for a Twitch stream too or gaming sessions where you just want to explore. It actually has some versatile mechanics and an expansive world. So, check it out, here’s a steam link below, there’s currently a sale for the release today. I wish you the best in your journey with Haven Park.
Thanks so much for reading Mr. Dave Pizza. I talk about all sorts of games here, but most of them are ones I adore. And thanks to Indie Game Collective, many of them are first looks! So, be sure to check back soon, and do have a look around because I’ve talked about many games and there will surely be more. Until next time!
