At this year’s Gamescom, I got to talk to a lot of different people, including one of the animators from Italic Pig, the studio behind the charming Farming/Life Sim with dinos, Paleo Pines, and frankly, I had a wonderful time hearing about the game and about how the studio values animation a lot more than other studios… and also, after quoting Mardy Bum by the Arctic Monkeys, we ended up talking about that band a lot which was great.

Either way, Paleo Pines is a farming sim featuring dinosaurs that are way too adorable. The whole game is way too adorable.

You’re setting off onto this island where evolution took a different path and where friendly dinosaurs are roaming the lands and living peacefully alongside humans. Here, you are trying to find your dino pal Lucky’s lost family while you’re foraging for items, creating a cosy Dino Sanctuary, on top of getting to know the farm life and the island’s inhabitants.

Lucky is a Parasaurolophus that you’ve known since she hatched from an egg, and she’s practically always by your side.

The farmhouse that you’re moving into isn’t in the best shape – which is where Lucky comes in and helps you clear debris so that you can get to farming, building enclosures, and exploring the world.

There are quests to complete, quirky characters to meet, dinosaurs to tame, and many more things to do in Paleo Pines… as I realized when I played the demo for about three hours previously and another five this Sunday. Yeah… It’s great.

My favourite part about the game are the many, many, many animations for each and every dinosaur. They’re just way too adorable! Each dino comes in different colours, some rarer than others, adding a bit of a “gotta catch ’em all” type of feel to the game if you’re into that. On top of that, you can also catalogue all the flora, fauna and historic sites in the world while reading up on dinos’ likes and dislikes.

And as you get a feel for things and expand your farm, you can invite more and more of them onto your farm where they can also help you with tasks such as harvesting crops or tilling the soil. A Gallimimus I tamed, for instance, named Galileo, for obvious reasons, ended up helping me water the crops… which is much appreciated since Stamina is quite limited.

Also, the Gallimimus is one of my favourite dinosaurs. I like dinosaurs. I used to have lots of books on them, and this game just kind of gives me a bit of nostalgia for those times, haha.

Either way, I’m really excited about this one’s release on September 26th, so just a bit less than a month, and I highly recommend checking out the expansive demo yourself if you have the time and if you need to experience this game yourself ahead of its release. You won’t regret it.

What’s more is that even if you don’t plan on grabbing it, I’d highly recommend checking out the Steam page for the chance to wishlist the game which helps developers A LOT. Steam’s algorithm really, really cares about wishlists! So, just hit the button. It’s free to click on it.

If you wanna read more on Paleo Pines, Krikket and Jaedia have both also shared a few words on the game, so give that a read!

This post was first published on Indiecator by Dan Indiecator aka MagiWasTaken. If you like what you see here and want to see more, you can check me out on Twitch and YouTube as well.