My Time at Portia or How I Accidently Started Playing an Early Access Game

I hate early access.

A long time I ago I used to play in any beta that I could get access to. I played in a mess of MMO betas specifically, including World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot, and even the Sims Online.

Don't...don't judge me.

I eventually stopped registering for them however, for the same two reasons I don't like early access.

Firstly, they ruined the games for me. Except for the Sims Online, that ruined itself.

When you play in a beta or early access (more so in early access) you see the game half formed. There are broken quests and incomplete content, features not fully implemented. It means you are getting an incomplete picture of the game.

What is complete already in most cases though is the core loop of the game, or what you actually do when you play. For a game like World of Warcraft that means getting and completing quests, or killing x polka bears and bringing back y claws, tiny hats, or tuba cases.

Crafty foes indeed. Honestly, I came up with them before I found the image. Just wish they had a tuba.

That means that by the time the game releases and there is a full experience, I'm almost always burned out and simply move on to something else, never to experience the full game.

Secondly, I don't like giving a company free QA testing. I have a lot of sympathy for people who work that job. It's not easy, and they are already poorly paid. I'm under no illusion that me personally avoiding betas or early access will somehow directly benefit those people, but I don't like to be a part of the problem when I can avoid it.

So, all that said, I saw a great deal on My Time at Portia on Humble Bundle and went for it.

On Steam, games in early access are marked as such on their storefront, but not on Humble Bundle. The game seemed a bit rough but I didn't really catch on until I found placeholders when trying to read the paper.

Suddenly it all made sense. I'd been duped. That thing happened where my face stays the same size but background zooms out somehow.

(pretend this is that gif of Roy Scheider in Jaws, it was the only free Gif I could find)

But, even so, it's a solid game, and they already got my money. So I've been playing it. It's kinda a weird combo of Minecraft, Harvest Moon, and Ni No Kuni.

Portia is a town and you kinda just show up in it from across the sea because your dad left you his piece of crap workshop. I'm assuming he dead but I don't know for sure.

Not house, workshop. It happens to have a bed in it, which is lucky, but there's no kitchen or bathrooms. I mean you don't have to eat or eliminate waste anyway but hey I got standards.

Pretty much immediately the head of builder guild thing starts doling out jobs, and the mayor starts laying orders on you. One moment you're walking through the lovely countryside admiring the fauna the next you're stabbing it through the neck for the worn fur you need to build a canopy for the bus stop the mayor wants yesterday.

I am still very sad for the complete version of My Time at Portia that I'll never play, but I have to admit the game pulled me in and has kept my attention regardless. I suggest politely that you should probably wait until it's a full game, but there's already so much here to do that I can't be that upset.

P.S. I know I'm posting this on a website that's in beta. I get it. The irony! But what you don't seem to appreciate, what you really don't get, is that, I, um...

Pbbbbbbbbt

P.P.S. Sorry, upon review that image is considerably more disturbing than I thought. You may want to not look at it again if you have a weakened immune system. I know I don't. To make up for it here is a kitten screaming at a flower.

PULL IT TOGETHER MAGGOT!