In this post-apocalyptic farming sim, you must grow crops to survive

It’s not all about living up to grandpa’s legacy in this farming simulator. In fact, grandpa’s probably long gone, because in this post-apocalyptic farming sim, your neighbors are the folks who live in the trailers and shipping containers near your tent. This is Doloc Town, a community that’s grown out of necessity during life after the end of the world. Here, your crops are your contribution to the town’s survival — some residents cook, some catch fish, some build new infrastructure. You farm crops and become the town’s source of food, delivered by your drone, of course.

The free demo for Doloc Town, developed by RedSaw Games Studio, is available to play through Steam Next Fest from Feb. 24 to March 3. In the demo, you learn the mechanics of the farming sim with a refreshing sense of trust in the player’s knowledge of the genre — the gameplay is self-explanatory and typical, but the setting and story make it a fresh addition to the genre. There’s a cast of neighbors to meet, all of whom hint at the town’s troubled past surviving a falling society and standing up to an authoritarian regime of some sort. I haven’t quite figured out the plot, but that’s not a bad thing; I just want to play more Doloc Town.

The game doesn’t have a release date yet, but the demo is plenty to enjoy for several hours. While the devs advertise it as a two-hour demo, I easily stretched that by optimizing my farm and upgrading as much as the demo build allowed. Even if only for a few hours of post-apocalyptic coziness, pick up the demo for Doloc Town while it’s still available.