Animal Crossing for dinosaur nerds: Goodlands demo on Steam now
Don't miss one of Steam Next Fest's hidden gems: Goodlands. Create a cute dinosaur character and search for fossils in a badlands-inspired open world.
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Restore the Goodlands Natural History Museum to its former glory in this quirky open world game about dinosaur paleontologists. Create your own character based on various prehistoric creatures and prospect around the Badlands, sorry, the Goodlands, a desert landscape full of unique rock formations and local residents who always have something to say. Like Animal Crossing but for dinosaur nerds, Goodlands is being developed by solo-developer thegeolojosh and there’s a free demo available now on Steam as part of this week’s Next Fest.
Like Animal Crossing for dinosaur nerds, Goodlands has a free demo on Steam
Over the last few days, I’ve spent some time exploring the various free demos available during this week’s Steam Next Fest. There’s so much to choose from, it can be hard to narrow it down (unless you have a helpful guide). But one demo stood out to me: Goodlands. Described on the Steam page as “a game about dinos digging up dinos,” it couldn’t be more accurate. Your character is a paleontologist on a mission to fill the natural history museum with impressive finds. Wander around, drive a truck, and look for fossils sticking up out of the dirt.
The Goodlands has a thriving community of locals. There’s the town center where you’ll find the Town Hall, the Elementary School, a grocery store, a hardware store, and of course, the Museum. This world is full of unique NPCs that I have found are almost always worth going out of my way to talk to. Not just because many of them will give you tips about where to find fossils, but they are some genuinely humorous interactions. For example, I found a rancher with a cow, though the cow was obviously 2D in a generally 3D environment. When confronted about it, Randy the Rancher told me “you need to learn some manners” before ultimately itting that “the three-dimensionality of my cow has been a source of insecurity for me for a while now.” Another character I ran into at the department store was trying to decide between buying a shovel and a sledgehammer and asked for my opinion. When I said to get a shovel, they responded with: “your terrible choice has given me true clarity about what I want.” Not only does this dialogue feel clever and unexpected, but later on, I found this same NPC out in the world with his newfound sledgehammer. Goodlands goes the extra mile, even in a demo, to make the world feel lived in.
As the resident lead paleontologist, your job is to explore. Talk to people, find tips about fossils they’ve spotted, or just wander the landscape until something pops up. When you do find something, your team will arrive to help excavate it. They might need to send you on a quest to get them a sandwich or to refuel the jackhammer, but by the morning the fossil will be ready for transportation. You must carefully load the box into the bed of your pickup truck and drive it to the museum. This box will move, shift, and bounce around in the back if you’re not careful, and if it falls out completely you will have to wait until the next day to try again. This process is a great balance of silly physics and quests with what feels like an accurate paleontology simulator.
If the fossil makes it to the museum safely, you can get to work cleaning off the bones. Use two tools, the strong but destructive hammer or the more precise dremel to clear rock and dirt and prepare the fossil for display. To find smaller fossils, which are often hidden at the top of rock formations, you’ll need to do some platforming. There’s no shortage of things to do in Goodlands. The moment you set off in any direction you’ll find something worthwhile to pull over for. The demo for Goodlands is available now as part of Steam Next Fest. Currently, there is no release date for the full game, but the demo feels so complete and full of tasks to complete and areas to explore, I’m happy being patient.
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