After creator Rebecca Cordingley took the leap and quit her steady job as a game developer, she and her partner Ben Wasser began working on the concept for Ooblets. In an interview with PC Gamer, Cordingley described the game as “a mash-up of Stardew Valley, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, and Factorio, with the ‘adorable’ knob cranked all the way up to 11.”
Ever since then, the couple has been working extremely hard creating the adorable upcoming indie title known as Ooblets.
Today, we are going to cover everything from the latest news, features, gameplay trailers and even rumours surrounding Ooblets. Once we hear more news about this upcoming indie title, we will be updating this article to keep you in the loop, so make sure to check back sometime in the future.
Ooblets Story
Glumberland, the game studio of Rebecca and Ben, hasn’t given us much information in regards to a story. With that being said, we can currently predict that the story will focus on growing and connecting with your Ooblets, as well as the people around you.
Maybe we’re completely wrong, maybe we’ve hit the nail on the head—we’ll just have to wait until we can finally get our hands on the game sometime this year. Or, until Rebecca and Ben give us more information on Ooblets.
Ooblets Gameplay
In the 9-minutes of Ooblets gameplay trailer showcased at E3 2017, Marty Sliva spoke with the president and CEO at Double Fine, Tim Schafer, about the upcoming game. In the video, Schafer went into detail about how Ooblets works and what you will be able to do in the game.
So, what can you do in Ooblets? As displayed in the gameplay demo, after you choose a starting look, you arrive in a colorful town that’s just asking to be explored.
In the town, you get your own house that can be customized to suit your personal requirements. You can also customize your character’s hairstyle and clothing to suit your needs, a feature we can’t wait to try out for ourselves.
Alongside a house, you’re also assigned an Ooblet that follows you around as you explore the animated world. But how do you obtain an Ooblet in the first place?
The first step to acquiring an Ooblet is to speak to the NPCs from around the village. Once you do, you’ll discover that there are many different Ooblet clubs with different styles. What that means, we don’t entirely know.
The Ooblet you receive will entirely depend on the club you join. Once you receive your own Ooblet, you can then go out into the world and fight with more Ooblets that will inevitably stop you in your path. If you manage to win a fight in Ooblets, you will receive a seed that can be used to grow food and, you guessed it, even more Ooblets.
Farming is a massive part of this upcoming indie title since the food you grow is used to level up your Ooblets and give them new abilities that can be used in battle.
You can also grow, tend to and harvest new Ooblets that can be used in future battles.
This game truly is Harvest Moon meets Pokémon, a dream come true for old school gamers. As explained in the video from E3 2017, you can set up your farm anywhere you please, although placing it right outside your home is likely recommended.
Fishing, or should I say sea dangling, looks like it’s also going to make its way to Ooblets. I mean, this game can really do it all.
Ooblets Release Date
In a recent blog post, Rebecca and Ben mentioned that there may be a secret release date for their upcoming game, Ooblets. Be that as it may, the couple is not ready to share a release date with the public at this very moment. “We feel the same impatience about launching Ooblets as a lot of you are probably feeling,” mentioned Ben in a blog post from July 2019.
One of the main reasons as to why it feels like the game is taking forever is due to the fact that Rebecca is the only programmer. Additionally, she does most of the art, UI and other important things for Ooblets, so it’s no wonder they are taking their time.
As this is the case, we’ll simply have to patiently wait for an official release date for this adorable upcoming indie game. With that being said, we’re hoping to get our hands on the game sometime this year. “We’re not going to be perfectionists about our initial launch, but there’s still a lot of foundational stuff we need to sort out before we’re even ready for an early access launch,” said Ben.
How Much Will Ooblets Cost?
On the frequently asked questions page on the official Ooblets website, Rebecca and Ben mentioned how they have not yet determined how much Ooblets will cost. “We’ll likely announce it along with the official release date when we’ve figured that out, too,” the couple responded to a frequently asked question.
As this is the case, we will simply have to wait for the couple to announce an official release date for Ooblets.
Ooblets Platforms
After announcing that Ooblets is an Epic exclusive, Ooblets will only be launching on PC through Epic Games Store. “We won’t be selling the game on other PC stores for a pretty long while (that’s the exclusivity bit),” said Ben in a blog post. While you will only be able to purchase Ooblets on PC via EGS, the game will still be launching on Xbox One.
“I can understand the frustration of having to buy different consoles to play the games you want, but there’s no extra cost to use EGS,” stated Ben in a blog post. As a response, many users have complained that the “EGS doesn’t have as many features as other stores” and that “it’s anti-consumer to have exclusives.”
As for hardware requirements, a sturdy budget gaming PC should be more than enough to run the game on highest quality settings.
We’ll discuss this controversy later on, but for now, let’s lighten things up and take a look at some trailers.
Ooblets Trailers
Programmer and creator, Rebecca Cordingley, has mentioned multiple times how she wanted the concept for Ooblets to look good before she started building the full game. And if you’ve ever watched a trailer for Ooblets, you’ll know that the game certainly looks phenomenal.
It’s clear that Cordingley takes pride in what she does, which will certainly pay off once the game is complete. With all of that being said, here are all of the trailers for Ooblets released at this moment:
Ooblets E3 2018 Trailer
The most recent Ooblets trailer shown at E3 2018 begins with a tense moment between two vivid Ooblets. The tense moment is quickly transformed into a pleasant one after the adorable creature begins dancing. Why? We have no idea. Are we going to question it? Absolutely not! You can watch the latest Ooblets trailer below:
Ooblets E3 2017 Trailer
Shortly after the first trailer was released, a brand new trailer was revealed at E3 2017. In the trailer, Rebecca and Ben show off more lovable Ooblets, brand-new locations, and some sweet character dance moves. If you haven’t seen it already, we highly recommend you go and watch the almost 2-minute video for yourself below:
Ooblets Announcement Trailer
The first trailer for Ooblets was revealed just three years ago back in 2017. In the trailer, we see a charming character exploring the animated world with some equally charming Ooblets. We also get our first look at farming, Ooblet fights, and character customization. You can watch the announcement trailer for yourself by clicking the link below:
Ooblets: News and Features
In this section, we will be covering the latest and greatest Ooblets news. Once we hear more news, we will update this section so that you’re up-to-date with the latest on this upcoming indie title, Ooblets.
Ooblets Epic Store Controversy
After getting a Double Fine publishing deal back in 2017, the creators of Ooblets announced that they would alternatively self-publish the game after the company was bought by Microsoft. Last year in 2019, it was declared that this upcoming indie game would be an Epic Games Store exclusive.
As a consequence, thousands of Patreon backers and other fans have expressed their frustration. More specifically, the couple has received death threats and racial abuse due to such a decision. Ben Wasser responded to the controversy in a blog post made in 2019:
“I can understand the frustration of having to buy different consoles to play the games you want, but there’s no extra cost to use EGS. The store and launcher just require free signup. It’s not like having to pay for HBO and Netflix and Hulu to watch all the shows you want, it’s more like just having to press a button on your remote to change between free TV channels.”
Ben continues, “It’s also really disappointing to see folks threatening to pirate a game just because they can’t get it on the game launcher they’re used to.”
Such a move will inevitably allow the small indie studio to gather resources that will speed up and assist with the development of Ooblets.
Having said that, Rebecca is still the only programmer and therefore things may not speed up as much as we expect it to. “As a user of both Steam and EGS myself, I haven’t had any issues with using EGS to buy and play games personally.
But regarding the features that are still missing, that’s just sorta the way software is developed. Things take a lot longer to develop properly than people tend to realize and nobody comes to market with perfect software,” he wrote.
Conclusion
Ooblets is an adorable indie game that we truly can’t wait to get our hands-on. Despite the recent controversy, we’re still just as excited to grow some Ooblets as we were back in 2017. While we don’t currently have a specific release window for the game, we’re hoping to hear from Rebecca and Ben soon regarding an official release date.
But for now, we’ll just have to sit back and enjoy any upcoming trailers and artwork that the couple may release.
As you wait for an official release date for Ooblets, why not check out our guide to the best indie games on the Nintendo Switch? We’ve included 10 games from various genres so that you can find the perfect indie Switch game(s) for you.