My Time At Portia - Released

The open world RPG My Time At Portia has been released:

My Time At Portia

Start a new life in the enchanting town of Portia! Restore your Pa's neglected workshop to its former glory, grow crops, raise animals, befriend the towns quirky inhabitants and uncover the mysteries this charming post-apocalyptic land has forgotten!

Armed with your Pa's workshop handbook and old workbench, you must gather, mine and craft your way to being crowned the number one workshop in the whole of Portia. Be prepared though…it won't be easy!

Inspired by the magic of Studio Ghibli, My Time at Portia whisks you away to a world of wonder that you won't forget. How will you spend your time at Portia?

The town of Portia is full of unique characters for you to get to know. They will go to school, do their jobs, workout, and have fun. They also have unique stories for the player to experience. The player will be able to get into relationships with other townsfolk; whether they are looking for friendships, romances or even marriage.

Each player is free to make their own mark on Portia and immerse themselves in a warm, welcoming little town full of experiences.

Key Features:

BUILD YOUR WORKSHOP: Build your Pa's derelict workshop into the best in Portia! Gather resources and craft your way into the hearts of the local community, as you work through daily commissions and villager requests.

RUN YOUR OWN FARM: Grow and nurture your own crops, as you convert the empty woodland surrounding your home into a quaint little farm! My Time at Portia offers an innovative approach to farming, allowing you to take advantage of planter boxes and semi-automatic irrigation systems.

GET CREATIVE: Make your house a home! Apply your personal touch with an exciting range of craftable furniture, decorations and room upgrades!

JOIN THE COMMUNITY: Become a part of Portia's extraordinary community! Filled with a vibrant cast of unforgettable faces all with exciting stories to share, energetic personalities and individual behaviors. Make sure you take the time to get to know them all - who knows, maybe romance could be in the air?

EXPLORE AND BATTLE: Delve deep into the ancient ruins and dungeons of Portia. Mine for resources and uncover what lurks beneath the seemingly peaceful land. It's dangerous to go unprepared… Make sure you're equipped to face fearsome monsters and deadly bosses that stand between you and the secrets of Portia.

SKILL UP: Level up your character with a variety of skills to aid you in your adventures, in true RPG fashion!

AND THEN THE REST: Portia is an enriching and vivid experience, jam-packed with activities for your enjoyment! How will you spend your time? Fancy trying your hand at cooking? You could challenge your new friends to Rock-Paper-Scissors, or for the more daring how about a little bit of sparring? Take your pick! There's also tonnes of mini-games, animal riding, and festivals to enjoy. Or maybe you just want to kick-back and spend the afternoon fishing? Its up to you how you spend your time at Portia!

More information.

From what I read, this is essentially Stardew Valley. Does it really differ significantly?

It's not although uses similar systems. Stardew Valley starts as farming sim then quickly turns into doing tons of activities that ain't farming. You don't even start Portia as farmer.

There is a playable demo of Portia on Steam, so do try before buy.

Originally Posted by joxer
It's not although uses similar systems. Stardew Valley starts as farming sim then quickly turns into doing tons of activities that ain't farming. You don't even start Portia as farmer.

There is a playable demo of Portia on Steam, so do try before buy.

Thanks, I'm installing the demo as we speak. I never cared for SV's visuals though I liked the concept. Hopefully MTaP will be nicer to look at

I'll be interested to see what people here think of it, personally it looks like a rather simple simulation, but I could be wrong on that.

Yeah, interested to hear people's impression on this.

Just watched the trailer. Looks like Stardew but more expanded. I think combat element will be definitely more interesting than Stardew but I prefer the Stardew graphics - I was never a fan of 3D graphics, especially giant character head.

Looks delightful. My kids love Stardew Valley, so they went ga-ga when they saw the trailer for this.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
I was never a fan of 3D graphics, especially giant character head.

Chibi sells.

Originally Posted by Shagnak
My kids love Stardew Valley, so they went ga-ga when they saw the trailer for this.

Wait so… Ga-ga… Wasn't only me?

I think Stardew is more chibi… but people seem to think Stardew = childish, giant character head = chibi lol

Meh graphics are a huge turn-off to me. Plus the developer failed to deliver on a past game. For reference sake once again that game was called Planet Explorers.

They hired cheap Chinese contact workers and left the game a buggy mess.

Oh what the heck, I'm downloading the demo

EDIT: Played for about 30mins… hmm can't say I'm impressed at this point although probably too early to tell. The control is a bit.. off. When I press E, sometimes my character picks up item straight away, sometimes I have to stand directly on top of the item then look down on it. Not a big fan of running around with items in my quick slot (look like a mass murderer running around with an axe in my hand or look silly carrying around giant furnace on top of my head). Nitpicking, yes, but it's irritating. Will put in more hours and see how I feel.

Ahhh, Planet Explorers, that's where I know these names from!! One of those kick starters that I actually regret having sponsored, and if they have this new game to deal with now, I'm assuming we'll not see much more effort on their last project. Quite a shame too, the premise was solid.

Could somebody who has played the demo tell me what the controls are like? Cause I have a hand injury which means I can't use WASD to move my character (it's why I couldn't play Stardew Valley).

So does anybody know if forward character movement can be mapped to a mouse button? Or better yet, does it use point & click?

I can cope with using the keyboard to interact with the world, I just need to be able to move my character with the mouse.

Cheers.

Originally Posted by Tiptoe
Could somebody who has played the demo tell me what the controls are like? Cause I have a hand injury which means I can't use WASD to move my character (it's why I couldn't play Stardew Valley).

So does anybody know if forward character movement can be mapped to a mouse button? Or better yet, does it use point & click?

I can cope with using the keyboard to interact with the world, I just need to be able to move my character with the mouse.

Cheers.

From what I've seen the movement is only controlled by WASD or up, down, right, left arrow keys, sorry.

Seems like you can turn on the auto run though:

http://mytimeatportia.wikia.com/wiki/Game_controls

Here are some impressions I posted of the game yesterday in another forum I frequent. I played with M+KB.

Originally Posted by Ragnaris
I'd like to share my experience with the game, given that I've played it for about 60 hours in total now while it was in early access.

I do feel that the average of 74% sits about right with me. Some may feel it deserves to be bumped up to around 80%, and I'd say that's fair. Here are a few impressions:

• Crafting is enjoyable. It's fun to hunt down the parts you need, and leaves you feeling satisfied when you've fulfilled a work order given by NPCs, one of the game's features.
• Plenty of room to expand your land.
• Convenience factor - the game gives you options to harvest materials as you progress which eases the burden of tedium. No need to chop down trees because you're low on wood at level 36.

It does have a fair share of problems, however.

• Stiff and sudden animations along with missing sound effects may take you out of the aspect of immersion. Given that this isn't a title from a big name developer, however, this isn't really a big deal and is, to some extent, expected.
  
• Combat is noticeably simplified and begins to feel repetitious very quickly. If you're using a sword, you can expect to perform three attacks, and that's it. Two swipes, followed by a roundhouse slash. If it's a hammer, it's the same idea - two attacks, then a spinning attack. For some reason, this was something I picked up on almost instantly, and kept hoping there'd be more to it.
  
• Community events seem to lose their appeal after the first go around. If you're rewarded with certain gear from a particular event, you can expect to see that same gear every following year, which means anyone who has leveled since then won't benefit from repeated attempts, save for, perhaps, the fishing event which provides you a good amount of restoratives and buffs.
  
• Dungeon diving is, unfortunately, not as varied as you'd hope. Dungeons have four instances you can traverse, but all it equates to is you traveling through the same location with a set of randomized areas that feature the same enemies at a higher level. You might find one or two new enemies in the upper echelon, though. As an example, choosing instance #1 means you fight rats and goblins at level 5. Choosing instance #2 means you fight rats and goblins at level 10. Choosing instance #3 means you fight rats, goblins and, say, fish at level 15, and so on. All which lead to the same boss encounter that's simply a higher level than the previous instance. Different dungeons means different enemies, but since you will be completing 4 instances of a dungeon for upgraded gear and materials, it feels a little shallow.

Although mining can be enjoyable to an extent, it's just what you'd expect - the acquisition of resources through repetition. Combat doesn't appear to be overly punishing, and in fact can be abused with the roll mechanic.

There's obviously much more to the game than what I've boiled down, but it's a very simple and fun farming/crafting/adventure title. However, I do feel it's best to temper expectations, as you won't see anything new or truly innovative here. It is a good game, but far from great. I wholeheartedly agree with the average of 74% that we're seeing right now.

In response to someone who inquired about similarities to Stardew, here's what I mentioned:

Originally Posted by Ragnaris
Stardew's got some obvious advantages here.

For one, it has more fleshed out characters. Concerned Ape took the time to really personify the people of Stardew, and give them all unique traits and habits. In some way they all felt like neighbors or good friends, someone you could connect with. There's a distinct charm to everyone you meet. In Portia, you don't ever really interact with at least 50% of the town's NPCs unless you want to begin a relationship with them, and for the other 50% or so, you're mostly just doing quests for them. You don't really get to know who they are or appreciate their quirks, except for maybe Emily or the mayor.

Stardew's caverns/dungeons also have much more varied enemies that encourage unique playstyles, and the end game creatures in areas like the Skull Cavern provide some decent challenge, too. There are also a ton of miscellaneous items to obtain from them that retain their use throughout a large part of the game in some way. Portia dungeons typically have 1-3 creatures, and because their animations are commonly stiff and/or sudden, it's hard to predict what they'll do next, so you just roll to protect yourself. Very often you'll see creatures that perform animations that don't make sense, like watching something jump in the air only to land with a spinning attack, which gives you no forewarning, or something doing a lunge attack and it just warps to you. You don't really feel like you're dodging an attack, but instead dodging the moment the game says you're about to take damage. This is made worse when the game is audibly missing sound effects to detail an enemy attack, so you can only rely on visual cues instead of visual and audio. A lot of the monster drops do see use later in the game though, so that's a good.

I got stuck in Portia's geometry a lot too. I'd find myself mining one spot, only to get clipped on something, free myself, go back to mining, then get stuck again. I don't remember that being much of an issue with Stardew, and if it was, at least I could visibly see what it was I got clipped to.

Additionally, Stardew oozes atmosphere. You'll often hear frogs croak in the background when it rains, or hear the wind whistle during seasons like Autumn on a windy day. Portia feels a little lacking here.

I think the vast difference in review scores for Portia is pretty telling. There's a lot to like in Portia, but there's a lot to be desired, too.

Keep in mind that Stardew was made by a man who was obsessed over his own work, someone who had to make perfection of every pixel. This is a man who was concerned about every little bit of detail. Portia doesn't feel like it was designed in that manner, but that doesn't make Portia a bad game by any means. I think it excels in certain areas while takes missteps in others.

Originally Posted by Ragnaris
another forum I frequent.

Which one could that possibly be?
You know, for us who need a place to mingle when watch is not accessible. Assuming ofc it's not codex.

Originally Posted by joxer
Which one could that possibly be?
You know, for us who need a place to mingle when watch is not accessible. Assuming ofc it's not codex.

It's not one I'd recommend for anyone that has trouble wading through a lot of crap (Reddit). Unfortunately most other RPG sites I used to visit have either been shut down since 2014 or transitioned to a Discord group. There's still the Watch and GameBanshee, though.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
From what I've seen the movement is only controlled by WASD or up, down, right, left arrow keys, sorry.

Seems like you can turn on the auto run though:

http://mytimeatportia.wikia.com/wiki/Game_controls

Thanks Purpleblob, I was afraid of that. But that auto run feature might work if it works like other games, where you hold down a mouse button and your character follows the mouse cursor. I'll have to check out some videos.

Thanks for the reply.

Not surprised as it's the same engine they used in Planet Explorers. That game at least allowed you to use the mouse but the keyboard was used for most actions.

Did they officially flee from the Planet Explorers project, or was it simply abandoned?