My Time At Portia's frontier-y sequel My Time At Sandrock has plans for multiplayer
Time to spend My Time somewhere new
Hope you've gotten your fill crafting and battling in My Time At Portia because Pathea Games have plans for you to spend time somewhere new next year. They've announced the sequel My Time At Sandrock which will launch in early access in March 2021. They've kicked up a crowdfunding campaign as well with hopes to develop a multiplayer mode for the sequel.
As with Pathea's former crafting adventure Portia—and oh so many other games like Stardew Valley—you'll arrive in town as a newcomer. Our My Time At Portia review calls it "more like Bob the Builder than Old McDonald" as your main character is entrusted with a workshop where they craft goods rather than managing a full farming operation. Things appear to begin similarly in My Time At Sandrock, although in a new, yellower town.
You can get a gander at Sandrock, which sure is full of both of those things, in the trailer that Pathea have released today.
As for what's new with the sequel, Pathea Games say that a multiplayer mode is one of their targets, and part of the reason they're running a Kickstarter campaign. "We’ve heard you, and we are aiming to have a specific game mode for multiplayer, without interfering with our development of single-player," Pathea say. "Much is still on the drawing board or in the design phase, but the aim is to support at least 4 players in an open world map, separate from the single-player map. Players will be able to work, fight, and dungeon dive together. We’re also looking to create multiplayer specific missions and storylines."
Pathea are planning other improvements for the sequel including a new AI system to make it's NPCs seem more "alive" than the original, they say. As for its action combat, it's "still relatively simple," Pathea say, but players will be able to quickly swap between melee and ranged combat.
In total, Pathea are asking for $100,000 (about £76,826) to help hire more developers to create Sandrock's multiplayer mode and to self-publish the game. They don't appear to have outlined any stretch goals just yet.
They do have the funding to complete the game, Pathea say, though "if the Kickstarter somehow fails, we’ll probably only have a basic version of multiplayer until the sales of the game pick up." For what it's worth, they've raised half their goal in the few hours since the campaign began, so failure seems pretty unlikely.
I had quite a soft spot for My Time At Portia's aesthetic—not just the colors and cartoony characters, but the design of Portia itself. The vertically-inclined island city reminds me of something out of The Legend Of Zelda: The Windwaker or an island you might build in lovely little Townscaper. From what I can spot in the trailer, Sandrock has a similar quality. Its frontier-style buildings are crammed together, climbing nearby cliff faces in stacked terraces. It's my vibe.
My Time At Sandrock will launch in Steam Early Access in March 2021. Pathea are targeting spring 2022 for a full release on Steam, the Epic Game Store, GOG, WeGame, and other PC storefronts. They say console versions are intended for summer 2022.