Animal Crossing: New Horizons may never get another update again, but that's okay - Critter Cove is coming next month and its demo is proving that it may end up the next big cozy title.
Free game demos on Steam are great, but they usually don't offer much playtime - generally speaking, players can expect to get a couple of hours out of them. That's not the case with Critter Cove, though - Gentleman Rat Studios' debut title offers a playable demo, and fans are getting a lot more out of it than a mere 120 minutes. In a post revealing players' in-game time so far, the developer highlights as much.
Alongside screenshots showcasing fans' hours spent in the Critter Cove demo on Steam, the studio writes: "tfw when the community asks you how many hours of content is in your early access release but have been playing your '2-hour demo' for two days straight." The attached pictures are wild - some fans have over 20 hours, which is quite long compared to two hours, but others have almost 200 hours total.
tfw when the community ask you how many hours of content is in your early access release but have been playing your "2 hour demo" for two days straight pic.twitter.com/2JCX2Nc3OhAugust 19, 2024
As Gentleman Rat Studios puts it, that's literal days' worth of gameplay - in fact, the person with 165 hours has spent the equivalent of almost an entire week playing the Critter Cove demo. Fans commenting on the mind-boggling numbers say that they're not all that surprised: "I just can't get enough of this game. Will definitely clock hundreds or maybe even thousands of hours when early access gets released."
Feedback left on Steam so far seems stellar, too - demo players report being "WOWed" by the upcoming indie gem, with many expressing how much they "absolutely love" Critter Cove so far. I personally can't wait to hop into the wholesome sim myself. Something tells me that I'm going to get more than my money's worth when the game fully releases into early access on September 10 - and then some.
Check out these other upcoming indie games for more to look forward to.
