At the frog refuge. Grow sustainably.

Humble Reeds shows us a calm management game where expansion is not the important thing. It’s the frogs that matter.

It’s time, at least in the northern hemisphere, to break from routine. Heat and longer days invite you to leave work and do activities that are harder to do the rest of the year. Is it the perfect time to get back to the city, reconnect with your inner child and raise frogs? Why not? This is what the French study suggests Humble reeds defraud Kamaeru: a refuge for frogs.

Chloé has just finished a project in town and decides to rest by returning to her childhood town and meeting Axel. The typical friend who, even if they only see each other on vacation, maintains an eternal bond. In the past, they spent hours in the wetlands, enjoying nature and admiring all kinds of frogs. The passage of time and climate change have deteriorated the ecosystem. The wetlands have dried up and the flora and fauna that grew there have disappeared. Axel has a plan: recover this wonderful place and open a shelter for frogs. Chloe decides that her break from work will involve helping him by working hard to keep the frog sanctuary running.

Restores biodiversity

The Sanctuary is the pretext to restore the environment. The real driver is wetlands and collecting it will give us the resources to feed the frogs (insects) and create eco-friendly products to be able to gain reputation and money to repair the biodiversity of the region. In my own flesh I have lived the experience of enjoying a vacation in the countryside and never stopping repairing, planting, investing money, time and sweat to improve my environment. Farm management games have captured this problem of never stopping growing and completing tasks while keeping your eyes on the next in an exceptional way.

Kamaeru: a refuge for frogs far from being so aggressive in terms of growth and advocates sustainable development. A very ecological layout avoiding automatic operating systems. We aspire to recover wetlands. We cannot focus on the production of a resource but rather we need a balance to be able to grow properly. So much so that the terrain we work on is quite limited, forcing us to improve more in the distribution of elements than in growth.

It must be said, the plants we collect are not very diverse and do not leave much freedom. Yes, there is a lot of variety in the manufacturing of raw material products. This gives us either money to farm (little), buy decoration items at the shelter or gain reputation. Reputation is the level system that unlocks new itemscharacters and different biomes in different parts of the planet, making connections with other wetlands, with their own biodiversity and growth. Wetlands grow as they “trap” CO2 of the environment, that’s what attracted developers to create Kamaeru: A Frog Haven.

If you build it, they will come

This is all well and good, but what about frogs? These adorable beings are free to do whatever they want, that’s what a shelter is for. Our interaction with them is minimal, as it should be, by taking photos and feeding them insects that grow in wetlands. By interacting, they enter our Ranadex (collect them all!) and can classify around 500 which will appear as the shelter evolves or the work of community members.

Kamaeru: a refuge for frogs It grows depending on the characters. Chloe and Axel are quickly joined by a scientist who studies frogs, even creating them by mixing different species. This attracts a lot of attention given the aura of environmentalism and sustainability of the entire game. But the character (a retired surgeon who is dedicated to the study of frogs and loves them above all else ) is endearing enough that playing god doesn’t come into conflict. All the characters fit very well into the altruistic and cooperative spirit that the game exudes. Each figure acts as an engine to create a new dynamic at the refuge and only that. You miss another conversation being able to delve into their stories because they all seem wonderful and it would give more depth and that cooperative sense that underpins the game.

Healthy play

Technically, you can see that its development was designed to be used with a mouse since you just need to move the pointer and navigate the menus. But the port to consoles is quite successful using the controller buttons judiciously to create shortcuts, which makes a very fluid game systemconsistent with tone comfortable which transmits everything. Even the mini-games used to create certain products are simple, calm and very cute. The same thing happens with its artistic section, with pastel and watercolor colors they draw up to three biomes well differentiated by their color palette. Although the study is French, the drawing style tends towards manga, with almost non-existent animation, just to emphasize that it is a living world. The only movements you will see are those of the moles and storks that inhabit the wetlands.

Conclusions

It’s like that moment when you sit back with a beer and watch the sun go down after a satisfying day in the field (and there are many that aren’t). Kamaeru: A refuge for frogs It’s not intended to be a game of eternal growth like Stardew Valley can be, nor as deep either. Reject automatisms to create a truly sustainable, peaceful and friendly world.

It was launched at Wholesome Direct this year and made perfect sense. It may seem simple, but its real purpose is not to be aggressive. And while we can quickly reclaim a wetland, there are 3 biomes we can interact with at the same time, traveling to different parts of the world and watching frogs relax in their natural environment. The characters are flat and in my opinion they should give more to give another dimension to the feat we are doing for the planet. Kind This is perhaps the word that most defines this game.