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Little Breaks in Littlewood
#298: Lara tells Link and Josué about Littlewood, a soothing game similar to Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, and how the mechanics of these kinds of games help us deal with stress. Josué gushes about Genshin Impact and Link suggests Pokémon Snap as a fun and soothing time.
Transcript
Josué Cardona 0:06
Welcome gt radio on the Geek Therapy network here at Geek Therapy, we believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about, my name is Josué Cardona. And I’m joined by Lara Taylor.
Lara Taylor 0:15
Hey,
Josué Cardona 0:16
and Link Keller.
Link Keller 0:17
Hey,
Josué Cardona 0:18
today we’re talking about little town?
Lara Taylor 0:21
littlewood!
Josué Cardona 0:22
littlewood, littlewood.
Lara Taylor 0:24
It’s a little town called littlewood,
Josué Cardona 0:27
a little town called littlewood. And we’re in Lara has been taking Lara has been taking little breaks in littlewood.
Link Keller 0:34
And yes, longer breaks in littlewood
Josué Cardona 0:39
Okay, so what this game looks, I don’t know. Looks looks uh, looks fantastic to me. But
Link Keller 0:48
tell us a little about littlewood.
Lara Taylor 0:51
Which is so funny. Because every time I tell people about littlewood I say the name, they’re like littlewood, little wood heehee
Link Keller 0:59
hee hee hee
Lara Taylor 1:03
That’s because I surround myself with people who have the sense of humor of a 13 year old but it’s okay. It’s okay. Yeah, yeah, this game is more sophisticated than that. It’s wonderful and beautiful. It’s a little 8bit like, town builder game. A client of mine actually recommended it to me and I’m so appreciative. It is the most like, okay, I would compare it to Stardew Valley, which we’ve talked about how it is sometimes an anxiety provoking game Stardew Valley, but the cool thing about littlewood is the reason I play it so much, is there’s no countdown clock, there’s no timer, like I can just let it be in play. And here’s Josué playing the game. I wish there was a multiplayer option. Ooh, you placed your market in a very interesting place
Josué Cardona 2:00
i played for about 45 minutes, and
Lara Taylor 2:02
this is gonna be so distracting to me.
Josué Cardona 2:04
Yeah, no, I just, you know, if you’re if you’re watching this live, you can see what the game looks like. And yeah, it’s it’s very distracting. I told you not to play.
Lara Taylor 2:14
Very cute little eight bit game. Um, it is a the premise is you were the hero of the big story, like you defeated the dark wizard, you and your friends. And you wake up one day, and you’re in littlewood, and you don’t,
Josué Cardona 2:33
littlewood,
Lara Taylor 2:34
littlewood littlewood, like Hollywood littlewood.
Josué Cardona 2:37
Yeah,
Lara Taylor 2:38
um, you don’t remember any of it, you don’t remember your friends, you don’t remember beating the dark wizard. And over time, you’re learning about your adventures with your friends and building connections and building a community. And you’re building the town literally build your house, you build your friend’s house, you’re collecting resources to do that. But you can romance all the characters, including a duck. It’s really cute. Um, and you get to cook food. And it’s just it’s so relaxing. And I think what gets me is I loved the concept of Stardew Valley. But I would get so anxious when it got close to the end of the day, I have to do all these things by the end of the day. And this game, it’s a stamina bar. So you can only do so much by the end of the day. But it’s not counting it down, like and you go to bed and the next the next days there. It doesn’t feel as stressful to me. I have spent so much time playing this game in the last few weeks.
Josué Cardona 3:48
That’s a good point, everything you do fills up the bar. So you can just kind of hang out and talk to people forever. Without not progress time forward. But when you do things so you know you have a limited number of tasks to do
Lara Taylor 4:02
and building things doesn’t count against your bar. You can do as much like modification and landscaping and all of that so that piece doesn’t get doesn’t cut you out of extra time you get to do it’s mostly the chopping wood. Collecting stone, fishing, cooking, catching bugs, much like Animal Crossing.
Josué Cardona 4:24
It sounds a lot like Animal Crossing, which was the game where you needed this time last year and it came in right just the right time. It sounds
Lara Taylor 4:33
like this is the game that I mean right now. Because Animal Crossing still feels like a chore after playing it for so long. This game it’s like Animal Crossing but it has story right like there’s you wake up some mornings and
Josué Cardona 4:49
wait wait there’s a story in Animal Crossing
Lara Taylor 4:52
you build your own story and but I’m talking like
Josué Cardona 4:55
you gotta get K.K. to come over.
Lara Taylor 4:56
Once you’re done once K.K. is there, the story is done this game, you get bits each day. Exactly. Roll credits, and it’s done. Yeah, I beat that game over a year ago.
Josué Cardona 5:13
I was rereading reality is broken recently. And you know, I think I think Jane explains so well, the, the gamer enjoyment cycle where you’re like, Oh, it’s like shiny new learning new things, flow mastery. And then you can only do that for so long. And then what you do is you just get off of that one. And then you start the whole cycle again with another one, right? So for some there, there have been many times where I’ve thought, Oh, I really want that Animal Crossing experience. But I can’t get it from Animal Crossing anymore. Does like, the only in some games, I would have just deleted my island and started over for that feeling. But I haven’t felt like doing that. Because it’s been too much of an investment to get the things that I have. And I don’t want to do that. So I yeah, so I needed something else. I just, I just got littlewood today. And I’m
Lara Taylor 6:15
are you are you invested?
Josué Cardona 6:18
well it was all the things you said, right. It’s like it’s all the same. It’s very similar elements. It’s even, it’s a different art style. It’s different than Stardew Valley. It does many of the similar things, the things that I already like, but it does things in a slightly different way. A lot of the objectives are similar. Um, but so far, I like to I like the system i like i like that. And it’s just like it feels it has that aesthetic. And that I don’t like energy level, right? That is just very,
Lara Taylor 6:49
it’s a mellow energy level, and the music is so soothing. And I can just leave it on and walk around and then come back and be like, Oh, yeah, I was trying to pick my carrots out of the garden today or whatever.
Josué Cardona 7:04
Yeah, yeah. I yeah, I’m glad I probably won’t play it now. Because I there’s another game that I’ve been playing a lot. And this I didn’t expect, I’ve been playing genshin impact a lot for the past few months. And that game basically just had an update that added animal crossing into it. So I’ve built an island and landscaping and I’m like, I have pets now. And I’m building furniture and I’m cutting you know, I’m getting material and cutting down trees and building fabric and doing all these same things that for some reason, just it’s a low cognitive load, n...
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By Geek Therapy Network#298: Lara tells Link and Josué about Littlewood, a soothing game similar to Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, and how the mechanics of these kinds of games help us deal with stress. Josué gushes about Genshin Impact and Link suggests Pokémon Snap as a fun and soothing time.
Transcript
Josué Cardona 0:06
Welcome gt radio on the Geek Therapy network here at Geek Therapy, we believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about, my name is Josué Cardona. And I’m joined by Lara Taylor.
Lara Taylor 0:15
Hey,
Josué Cardona 0:16
and Link Keller.
Link Keller 0:17
Hey,
Josué Cardona 0:18
today we’re talking about little town?
Lara Taylor 0:21
littlewood!
Josué Cardona 0:22
littlewood, littlewood.
Lara Taylor 0:24
It’s a little town called littlewood,
Josué Cardona 0:27
a little town called littlewood. And we’re in Lara has been taking Lara has been taking little breaks in littlewood.
Link Keller 0:34
And yes, longer breaks in littlewood
Josué Cardona 0:39
Okay, so what this game looks, I don’t know. Looks looks uh, looks fantastic to me. But
Link Keller 0:48
tell us a little about littlewood.
Lara Taylor 0:51
Which is so funny. Because every time I tell people about littlewood I say the name, they’re like littlewood, little wood heehee
Link Keller 0:59
hee hee hee
Lara Taylor 1:03
That’s because I surround myself with people who have the sense of humor of a 13 year old but it’s okay. It’s okay. Yeah, yeah, this game is more sophisticated than that. It’s wonderful and beautiful. It’s a little 8bit like, town builder game. A client of mine actually recommended it to me and I’m so appreciative. It is the most like, okay, I would compare it to Stardew Valley, which we’ve talked about how it is sometimes an anxiety provoking game Stardew Valley, but the cool thing about littlewood is the reason I play it so much, is there’s no countdown clock, there’s no timer, like I can just let it be in play. And here’s Josué playing the game. I wish there was a multiplayer option. Ooh, you placed your market in a very interesting place
Josué Cardona 2:00
i played for about 45 minutes, and
Lara Taylor 2:02
this is gonna be so distracting to me.
Josué Cardona 2:04
Yeah, no, I just, you know, if you’re if you’re watching this live, you can see what the game looks like. And yeah, it’s it’s very distracting. I told you not to play.
Lara Taylor 2:14
Very cute little eight bit game. Um, it is a the premise is you were the hero of the big story, like you defeated the dark wizard, you and your friends. And you wake up one day, and you’re in littlewood, and you don’t,
Josué Cardona 2:33
littlewood,
Lara Taylor 2:34
littlewood littlewood, like Hollywood littlewood.
Josué Cardona 2:37
Yeah,
Lara Taylor 2:38
um, you don’t remember any of it, you don’t remember your friends, you don’t remember beating the dark wizard. And over time, you’re learning about your adventures with your friends and building connections and building a community. And you’re building the town literally build your house, you build your friend’s house, you’re collecting resources to do that. But you can romance all the characters, including a duck. It’s really cute. Um, and you get to cook food. And it’s just it’s so relaxing. And I think what gets me is I loved the concept of Stardew Valley. But I would get so anxious when it got close to the end of the day, I have to do all these things by the end of the day. And this game, it’s a stamina bar. So you can only do so much by the end of the day. But it’s not counting it down, like and you go to bed and the next the next days there. It doesn’t feel as stressful to me. I have spent so much time playing this game in the last few weeks.
Josué Cardona 3:48
That’s a good point, everything you do fills up the bar. So you can just kind of hang out and talk to people forever. Without not progress time forward. But when you do things so you know you have a limited number of tasks to do
Lara Taylor 4:02
and building things doesn’t count against your bar. You can do as much like modification and landscaping and all of that so that piece doesn’t get doesn’t cut you out of extra time you get to do it’s mostly the chopping wood. Collecting stone, fishing, cooking, catching bugs, much like Animal Crossing.
Josué Cardona 4:24
It sounds a lot like Animal Crossing, which was the game where you needed this time last year and it came in right just the right time. It sounds
Lara Taylor 4:33
like this is the game that I mean right now. Because Animal Crossing still feels like a chore after playing it for so long. This game it’s like Animal Crossing but it has story right like there’s you wake up some mornings and
Josué Cardona 4:49
wait wait there’s a story in Animal Crossing
Lara Taylor 4:52
you build your own story and but I’m talking like
Josué Cardona 4:55
you gotta get K.K. to come over.
Lara Taylor 4:56
Once you’re done once K.K. is there, the story is done this game, you get bits each day. Exactly. Roll credits, and it’s done. Yeah, I beat that game over a year ago.
Josué Cardona 5:13
I was rereading reality is broken recently. And you know, I think I think Jane explains so well, the, the gamer enjoyment cycle where you’re like, Oh, it’s like shiny new learning new things, flow mastery. And then you can only do that for so long. And then what you do is you just get off of that one. And then you start the whole cycle again with another one, right? So for some there, there have been many times where I’ve thought, Oh, I really want that Animal Crossing experience. But I can’t get it from Animal Crossing anymore. Does like, the only in some games, I would have just deleted my island and started over for that feeling. But I haven’t felt like doing that. Because it’s been too much of an investment to get the things that I have. And I don’t want to do that. So I yeah, so I needed something else. I just, I just got littlewood today. And I’m
Lara Taylor 6:15
are you are you invested?
Josué Cardona 6:18
well it was all the things you said, right. It’s like it’s all the same. It’s very similar elements. It’s even, it’s a different art style. It’s different than Stardew Valley. It does many of the similar things, the things that I already like, but it does things in a slightly different way. A lot of the objectives are similar. Um, but so far, I like to I like the system i like i like that. And it’s just like it feels it has that aesthetic. And that I don’t like energy level, right? That is just very,
Lara Taylor 6:49
it’s a mellow energy level, and the music is so soothing. And I can just leave it on and walk around and then come back and be like, Oh, yeah, I was trying to pick my carrots out of the garden today or whatever.
Josué Cardona 7:04
Yeah, yeah. I yeah, I’m glad I probably won’t play it now. Because I there’s another game that I’ve been playing a lot. And this I didn’t expect, I’ve been playing genshin impact a lot for the past few months. And that game basically just had an update that added animal crossing into it. So I’ve built an island and landscaping and I’m like, I have pets now. And I’m building furniture and I’m cutting you know, I’m getting material and cutting down trees and building fabric and doing all these same things that for some reason, just it’s a low cognitive load, n...