Everafter Falls is an indie game focused around life simulation, farming, combat and pet mechanics. It is quintessentially Stardew Valley with vector based graphics and more advanced combat mechanics. The game, according to its Kickstarter page, is a mix between Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing and some Action RPG elements found in the dungeons, all held together with a tightly written story. One of the slight differentiators is that the player has a pet companion that can help with various tasks as well as combat. Like Stardew Valley, it is being developed by a single developer by the name of SquareHusky. Everafter Falls was successfully funded on Kickstarter with 1,347 backers pledging AU$ 52,536 to help bring the project to life.
The player wakes up to discover that the previous life they once had on Earth was a simulation. With no memory of the new world, the player explores and rediscovers how to live again. There is a back story to uncover and the player can complete the game at their own pace with an option to continue indefinitely after the storyline is finished.
At the time of writing, SquareHusky has around 500 followers on Twitter, which suggests that the type of following that supports Everafter Falls is not the same demographic as that of Paralives given the difference in social media conversion rate. Everafter Falls plans to release in 2022, and seems to be a realistic timeline when compared to that of the Stardew Valley and other similar titles such as Littlewood. There is a lot of variance in development time as a solo developer as productivity can be much less consistent when compared to working in a team. The same applies to morale, as being strongly internally motivated in the long term is one of the biggest requirements for a startup indie game.
The low production cost of the game, according to SquareHusky is that although originally raised in Australia, he has chosen to move back to Cambodia looking for a new direction in life. He has managed to work almost full time on the game for around 3 years. With the successful Kickstarter, this would place Everafter Falls with a 4-5 year development cycle. This is actually quite fast for a solo developer for a game of this scope.
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1416960/Everafter_Falls/
Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/squarehusky/everafter-fallsTwitter: https://twitter.com/SquareHusky