As its Kickstarter winds down, The Good Life’s prototype is made available

Sheep and stuff

With nine days left and a few hundred thousand dollars remaining, The Good Life‘s Kickstarter campaign‘s success seems questionable. The project has all the quirks of a Swery-led project: an outlandish story, nutty characters, and if its prototype demo is anything to go off of, some rough edges.

In what appears to be an effort to drum up additional attention for The Good Life before its second crowdfunding stint ends, developer Swery65 released an early demo for the public. The free download (available here) comes with a note from Swery, stating while there a handful of bugs in the prototype build, he “[hopes] you’ll enjoy this chance to visit the world of The Good Life much earlier than scheduled.”

The prototype functions as a proof of concept more than anything. The Good Life‘s elevator pitch revolves around Naomi, a photojournalist, who winds up in a town that seems perfect save for the fact that its residents all turn into animals. It’s weird, but the premise is just out there enough to make it sound promising. In the demo, players can guide Naomi through a small section of town and interact with a few villagers, and offer to help them with some small-town drama. One character, for example, recruits Naomi to document an extramarital rendezvous. By searching out the couple, sneaking a well-timed photo, and passing the shot along, Naomi gets to not only be a hero but presumably also break up a marriage. Weird. 

It’s worth noting that despite being rough, the prototype is rather charming. Naomi’s a bit of a grump; almost to the point of being endearing. She’s a fish out of water in a town overrun by sheep, and the little tidbits of dialogue present in the demo serve as a nice introduction to The Good Life‘s fiction. How it all comes together—if at all—remains to be seen. But for now, at least you can download the prototype and see if it warrants a contribution to the game’s Kickstarter.