“PuffPals: Island Skies”: A Fluffy Farm Fiasco
With the Squishmallow craze of the last few years, I find myself surprised that the public hasn’t yet latched onto the newest and cutest addition to the plush shelf: PuffPals.
In October of 2020, Lily and David began a Kickstarter campaign to create a series of fluffy friends known as PuffPals, adorably round animals of all colors, sizes, and species. Since the first batch was released at the end of 2020, the PuffPals have seen a plethora of new entries; toucans, deer, crows, bats, and alligators, with more yet to be seen. With the rounding success of these cute critters, how much higher could one team possibly go? In the eyes of Lily and David, the next best step was clear: virtual.
And thus, PuffPals: Island Skies was conceptualized. Adorn the farm life with a slew of animal companions, going on quests and managing minigames in a cozy life-sim. A blurb from the Kickstarter page says it best:
“While living your best life on the Island Skies, you’ll have the opportunity to meet and befriend the PuffPals! Whether its your next-door neighbor, your favorite shopkeeper, or a special guest visiting the island, you’ll have no shortage of friends! You can build friendships with them, do quests and even play mini games with them! Each Pal will interact differently with you, all requiring unique needs to becoming best friends with them!”
At the time of writing, the game’s Kickstarter campaign has raised just under $800,000 — nearly eleven times their funding goal of $75,000 across 12,500 backers. Now you may be wondering…what sets this game apart from life sims of a similar nature, like Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing? See for yourself what awaits you in the Island Skies:
Some of the features we’ve seen across the genre take a new soft polygonal look that truly scales the mountain of “cuteness”.
- Farming & Lifestyle
Pave paths in your farm to plant wheat, corn, sunflowers, tomatoes, strawberries, carrots, and more. Akin to Stardew Valley from an agricultural standpoint, offering a vast variety of ways to live your ideal farm life.
Crossing paths with all new PuffPals is absolutely the highlight of this adventure, so set out to befriend them all!
- A Collector’s Heaven
As an avid Animal Crossing fan, I can make nothing but positive remarks at the amount of creativity put into every item we’ve seen to date from the Island Skies team. Interior and exterior designers who would like a new direction from the Sims and Animal Crossing: New Horizon’s “Happy Home Paradise” DLC will be overjoyed to find decoration is seemingly limitless in this game.
If the trailer itself hasn’t quite swayed you, I heavily implore you give the Kickstarter page a read. At the time of writing, the game is set to have a $20 price tag and will be releasing for PC, Nintendo Switch, and Mobile sometime within the next one to two years. With new goals recently added as they shoot for their grand total of $1 million to unlock online multiplayer, the promise PuffPals: Island Skies holds is something I personally am very, very excited for.
