Farming simulator games, or games that include some kind of farming mechanic, have become increasingly popular in the last few years. Players yearn for the simple life that they cannot obtain in big cities and a high-tech world.
Many of these games are grounded in some understanding of the natural world and how farms operate, even if they don't take themselves entirely seriously. After all, no plant can grow as quickly as the ones in Minecraft, and real-life flowers don't reproduce more if more than one person waters them, as in Animal Crossing. Could players learn real skills to work on a farm by playing video games? These ten will give you a leg up, at least!
10 Animal Crossing – Flower Breeding
Screenshot upload by u/aconsideredlife on Reddit.
Many people will recall how the punnet squares they drew in high school biology class. They're the grids – usually with four or more quadrants – showing how genes could combine when two living beings reproduce.
In Animal Crossing, breeding flowers to create new colors works in much the same way! Some colors are harder to come by than others because the necessary genes are rare. In real life, scientists will breed certain plants and flowers together to create new combinations all the time. It even happens naturally; in those cases, bees and other insects can do the necessary pollinating.
9 Don't Starve – Pros And Cons Of Preserving Food
Don't Starve has a unique take on the survival genre. Some things are entirely unrealistic, like the magical pan flute and other items one can make or discover, while other aspects are entirely too realistic, such as your food rotting if you leave it for too long unattended. This is something that has to be taken for granted in the real world too: how long will this food last and in what conditions?
In Don't Starve, as in the real world, the player must make a variety of complex choices about their meals. Meat can be dried to make long-lasting items, but it might be harder to come by than fruits and vegetables. Or if the player has corn, they could choose to turn it into popcorn, which means it only restores half the amount of health as regular corn but lasts five days longer. What food items should they leave in the Ice Box for the day, and what should they take with them?
8 Dragon Quest Builders 2 – Each Plant Is Unique
Dragon Quest Builders 2 allows the players to create fields and have the local villagers help them with their crops. However, this can't just be done on a whim since several of the plants in the game require specific conditions to thrive.
The sugar cane crops need to be planted under water. Tomato crops need to be supported by a planting pole. Farmers in real life will echo the sentiment that crops need to be chosen with purpose and tended to in particular ways, with particular supports or fertilizers, to get the best results.
7 Stardew Valley – Maximizing Profit
Lots of farming games have a community dedicated to earning as much money as fast as possible, and Stardew Valley does not disappoint.
Of course, this is a crucial skill for farmers to have in real life, ensuring that their crops will net them a larger profit than their yearly expenses for seeds, fertilizers, etc. Reddit, the Stardew Valley wiki, and countless other sites are full of advice on what plants sell for the most money, what the best layouts for your farm are, and more.
6 Twilight Princess – Goat Herding
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is not a farming game or anything like it, but the introduction involves a segment where Link must herd goats on horseback. It's just a way to hide the tutorial for horse riding behind a fun mini-game, but goat herders did and do exist in the real world.
Not all of them would do it on horseback, of course, but goats and horses are very commonly found in the same pastures together. Goats eat what the horses won't, and vice versa.
5 Among Trees – Managing Health, Hunger, Warmth, And Exhaustion
Among Trees is an atmospheric survival sandbox game where the player lives in a cabin in the middle of the woods. They can explore the nearby rivers, forests, and valleys, grow their own plants for food, and craft knickknacks to decorate their home.
Throughout this, they must manage four stats: warmth (which goes down at night, in snowy areas, or in water), health (which is affected by poisonous foods or attacking animals), hunger (which slowly depletes throughout the day and must be maintained by eating), and exhaustion (which slowly depletes but runs out quicker the more tiring work you do).
4 Minecraft – Irrigation Systems
Minecraft is an occasionally polarizing game these days but dedicated fans never stop working out new solutions to old problems. If the player in Minecraft opts to grow plants, like wheat, they'll need to make sure their land is properly watered.
As in real life, there are numerous solutions to this problem. One can simply plant all their crops beside a body of water, ensuring the land stays moist. Or, they could develop an irrigation system (like the one in the photo above) to have the work mechanized. The player's choice will depend on their available land and resources.
3 Harvest Moon – Protecting Your Plants From The Elements
The Harvest Moon franchise is one of the most widely known farming simulators in gaming. As a result, there are lots of lessons to learn from the various games and activities therein. One of these is the importance of greenhouses. B
y planting crops in a greenhouse, the player doesn't have to fret about the weather ruining their hard work. Especially difficult crops – like Golden Crops – are better planted inside a greenhouse, lest they crumble at the whim of the outdoor elements.
2 Pokemon – Berry Care
Berries have existed in just about every piece of Pokemon content since they were introduced in the second generation. They are treated differently depending on the game one is playing, but many encourage the player to care for the berry plants.
Berries in the games bloom after a particular amount of time has passed. This is something that farmers keep track of as well, to ensure their harvest doesn't go bad on the trees. In some games, like Pokemon X and Y, the player also needed to really tend to their berry crop by watering, weeding, and removing pests.
1 Skyrim – Flour Making
For gamers who live in big cities, Skyrim might have been the first time they ever saw a flour mill. These contraptions, powered by wind, water, or man-power, are used to grind grains into flour and middlings (the leftover stuff that can't be flour, but is used in porridge and breakfast cereal).
Unfortunately, the flour mills aren't functional in vanilla Skyrim. The Dragonborn can enter one and start pushing, but it doesn't yield any product. Of course, as with everything in Skyrim, a mod can fix that problem and allow you to turn your wheat into flour.