This game is as COZY as cozy games get. No threats, no timers, no "exhaustion", just places to explore, charming characters to meet, and that sweet sweet feeling of starting with nothing and building (and decorating) it into something you're proud of. In this case, that's expanding a place for your little bug friends to live, kind of like a zoo or aquarium, where townspeople come and pay to see your growing collection. It's a fun core loop.

It's a little like Pokemon, but without the combat. So, you've got almost 200 bugs to collect in a hand full of environments with day/night cycles and seasons influencing what bugs you might find. Also, this is NOT an asset flip. These are all unique handcrafted pixel art bugs, most of which I've never heard of before. It's a genuinely hard decision to pick which ones to sell to earn the money to get more tanks for the others because I don't want to let go of a beautiful bug not knowing if I'll find another one like it again soon.

There's inevitably a comparison with Stardew Valley and other farm/town sims, so if you want to balance lots of complex systems, manage energy, production pipelines, and that nagging feeling like you didn't quite get enough done in the day... this game may not be for you. 😜 However, if your favorite part of Stardew was getting to add on to your house, and explore the town and surrounding areas, Bug & Seek does that really well with some peppered in quippy comments from NPCs that give me a chuckle.

The graphics appear to be simple pixel art at first glance, but there's a lot of life and polish in there when you're in-game. The trees wiggle like you tickled them when you're looking for bugs, the flowers and tall grass dance when you wander through (which, btw, is a great way farm bugs quickly with so many checks in a row), and there are little flourishes all over. Little fireflies zipping around, pleasant animations on transitions. It feels nice and polished, but will still run on your potato of a PC if that's all you've got to work with.

Finally, this is a labor of love from a husband and wife team with help from their kids. It's not just a beautiful thing to support indie dev like this, but several of my favorite indie games have turned out to be from couples making games together. There's just some special secret sauce that gets added to the mix.

This game is as COZY as cozy games get. No threats, no timers, no "exhaustion", just places to explore, charming characters to meet, and that sweet sweet feeling of starting with nothing and building (and decorating) it into something you're proud of. In this case, that's expanding a place for your little bug friends to live, kind of like a zoo or aquarium, where townspeople come and pay to see your growing collection. It's a fun core loop. It's a little like Pokemon, but without the combat. So, you've got almost 200 bugs to collect in a hand full of environments with day/night cycles and seasons influencing what bugs you might find. Also, this is NOT an asset flip. These are all unique handcrafted pixel art bugs, most of which I've never heard of before. It's a genuinely hard decision to pick which ones to sell to earn the money to get more tanks for the others because I don't want to let go of a beautiful bug not knowing if I'll find another one like it again soon. There's inevitably a comparison with Stardew Valley and other farm/town sims, so if you want to balance lots of complex systems, manage energy, production pipelines, and that nagging feeling like you didn't quite get enough done in the day... this game may not be for you. 😜 However, if your favorite part of Stardew was getting to add on to your house, and explore the town and surrounding areas, Bug & Seek does that really well with some peppered in quippy comments from NPCs that give me a chuckle. The graphics appear to be simple pixel art at first glance, but there's a lot of life and polish in there when you're in-game. The trees wiggle like you tickled them when you're looking for bugs, the flowers and tall grass dance when you wander through (which, btw, is a great way farm bugs quickly with so many checks in a row), and there are little flourishes all over. Little fireflies zipping around, pleasant animations on transitions. It feels nice and polished, but will still run on your potato of a PC if that's all you've got to work with. Finally, this is a labor of love from a husband and wife team with help from their kids. It's not just a beautiful thing to support indie dev like this, but several of my favorite indie games have turned out to be from couples making games together. There's just some special secret sauce that gets added to the mix.