Adorable critter-collector Ooblets is now out in early access

After three years of us cooing over it, Ooblets today launched in early access. To be crudely reductive: it's a bit 'Stardew Valley meets Pokémon, but cutesy'. There we are, growing crops on our little farm and befriending folks in the local town. We're also growing little critters named ooblets, who we raise and train to compete - though rather than bite, claw, electrocute, and drown each other, they bust moves in dance-offs. Adorable.

The question I now have is: what separates an Ooblet you grow to love and cherish from a crop you grow to cook and eat? Are all crops ooblets, just some are deemed insufficiently sentient? I don't like this line of thought. Thankfully there's none of my edgy trash in ooblets. Grow ooblets, level 'em up, dress 'em up, dance 'em off, collect new seeds and ooblets, help folks, renovate your house... just nice things.

Our Sin has been playing a bit of Ooblets and been won over, despite her initial hesitance about the cutesy-wutesy tone. "It's tricky to get across just how gentle and pleasant Ooblets is without it sounding saccharine and insubstantial, like a sack of candyfloss," she said. "But it's more of a sponge cake. It's light and fluffy, but tasty and filling nonetheless."

The developers, Glumberland expect they'll work on Ooblets in early access for one year before the full launch - though of course that could change. They plan to add new regions to visit every few months in major updates, with other new content and fixes along the way.

Ooblets is available now on the Epic Games Store, where a 20% launch discount brings it down to £16/$20 until July 23rd. It's on Xbone too.