- We shan't live The Good Life until 2020 - 30 July 2019
After he directed the delightful Deadly Premonition , I’d follow Hidetaka “Swery” Suehiro into Hull and back for a new game about the characters, curiosities, and killings of rural life. Thankfully, all I must do for The Good Life is wait a while longer. Swery’s new studio, White Owls, have announced they’re delaying The Good Life so they can, y’know, finish it and make it proper good. After the jank of Deadly Premonition, there is no developer in the world I would give more time for refinement. (more…)
- Swery's village life sim murder mystery The Good Life delayed into next year - 29 July 2019
Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro's delightful looking The Good Life - a game of cats, dogs, journalism, and murder in a small English town - has been delayed into next year. But it's not all sad news; there's some fresh footage, highlighting the overhauled art-style, to watch in the meantime. The Good Life, you might recall, is "daily life RPG" following the adventures of Naomi, a New York photojournalist who moves to the English town of Rainy Woods in order to pay off a massive debt. There are plenty of options on the work front, with developer White Owls previously revealing that players can earn money through the likes of photography, gardening, sheep shearing, jam making, milk delivery, bartending, casino dealing, even cryptocurrency. All of which brings to mind a slightly more elaborate spin on the likes of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. Or at least it would if Swery, best known for h…
- The Good Life from Swery has a story trailer - 5 May 2018
Swery65 once got in some trouble for trying to take us to Rainy Woods, back when it was the title of Deadly Premonition and back when it was a little too legally infringey upon Twin Peaks. We’re going back to Rainy Woods, albeit in a much different form, as Swery welcomes us to The Good Life . We have our first real look at what the game will look like, after a less than polished demo got forced out earlier this week, in a last ditch push to get the Kickstarter over the finish line. The Kickstarter just succeeded , so congrats to everyone who gets to bring this game to life. Now on to the cute kitty cat pals… (more…)
- Deadly Premonition dev's The Good Life has been successfully crowdfunded - 2 May 2018
There's great news for fans of cats, dogs, murder mysteries, village life sims, photojournalism, and, possibly, Hitchin today: developer Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro's delightful looking The Good Life has reached its Kickstarter goal. The Good Life, in case you haven't been following along, is a "daily life RPG" in which players take on the role of New York photojournalist Naomi, who "moves to a backwoods British town called Rainy Woods in order to pay off her massive debt". Once in Rainy Woods, according to The Good Life's Kickstarter page , you can make money by taking photos, or you can "shear sheep, deliver milk, make jam and hay, do some gardening, or work as a bartender, a casino dealer, a miner, or even mine for cryptocurrency". Read more…
- Taste Swery s The Good Life in prototype demo - 26 April 2018
To Tom and Barbara, the good life means escaping the rat race to farm in their suburban garden and pash. To Kanye West, the good life feels like Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, or summertime Chicago. To Deadly Premonition director Hidetaka “Swery” Suehiro, The Good Life is his next game about rural murder and mystery. Swery and his White Owls studio are currently trying to crowdfund the game, which sends an American photojournalist into an English village where people can turn into animals by night and murder is afoot, but it’s still short of its goal. So last night they released a prototype demo so everyone can poke around. (more…)
- Deadly Premonition developer Swery swears to find funding for The Good Life even if Kickstarter fails - 24 April 2018
With 10 days to go and only half of the Kickstarter total raised, Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro's second attempt at crowdfunding murder mystery game The Good Life may fail. But the charismatic Deadly Premonition developer, and Yukio Futatsugi, co-creator of the game, are determined to get The Good Life made regardless. "At this point they're almost at 6000 backers - that's great," the pair told me via translator at Reboot Develop 2018. "The problem is the goal itself is so large." The Good Life needs around 200,000 more to reach its 448,224/$650,000 goal on Kickstarter . It's a considerable amount but far less than the $1.5m The Good Life sought on Fig in autumn 2017 . Most successful Kickstarter games, however, are well on their way to being funded at this stage in their campaign, so it'll take a hell of a late sprint for Swery and Futatsugi to get there. Read more…
- Swery on the cats and countryside of The Good Life - 23 April 2018
Hidetaka Swery Suehiro, director of cult favourite Deadly Premonition, recently relaunched a crowdfunding campaign for his studio’s latest project, The Good Life . It s a life sim murder mystery in a sleepy British village, where the inhabitants have a habit of turning into domestic animals. Once a month, everyone changes into a cat or dog, allowing you to roam the village at night and visit previously unreachable locations. This raises all sorts of questions, some of which I have put directly to Swery in an email interview. Come read what he has to say about life sims, Instagram, and rural towns, along with some advice for owners of bitey cats. (more…)
- Deadly Premonition director s The Good Life returns to crowdfunding - 26 March 2018
Part of the reason I’m not a betting man is because I’m terrible at predicting odds. I figured The Good Life was a sure thing when it last surfaced: A unique premise from the quirky director of a cult hit game, with a satisfying chunky art style, a solid (or so I thought) pitch video and the most important thing of all for instant internet success: Kitties. Tons of the fuzzy little friends. When the original funding drive on Fig tanked , I felt let down. Thankfully, Suehiro ‘Swery65’ Hidetaka and his crew aren’t so easily dissuaded, and they’ve officially re-launched their attempt to fund The Good Life: Now with extra dogs . (more…)
- Deadly Premonition director's cat and dog-themed murder mystery returns to crowdfunding - 26 March 2018
Deadly Premonition director Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro and Panzer Dragoon's Yukio Futatsugi have launched their second attempt at securing backer funding for The Good Life, an intriguing open-world murder mystery game set in an idyllic English village. The original pitch failed to secure funding , but the team hopes its new campaign, which includes a more detailed design proposal, a new art style and a smaller funding goal, will capture the imagination of Kickstarter backers this time around. The amount of money required to fund the campaign - which is now live - drops from $1.5 million to $650,000. It's also shifted from the investment-oriented service Fig to Kickstarter as its crowdfunding platform of choice. Read more…
- The Good Life to try crowdfunding again on Kickstarter - 14 October 2017
Maybe it was overly optimistic, but I was sure that surreal shape-shifting, debt-repaying, murder-sleuthing adventure The Good Life would have been funded within a week or two of its announcement. Deadly Premonition and D4 director Suehiro ‘Swery65’ Hidetaka is a bit of a wild-card admittedly, but he’s never less than interesting. Sadly, ‘interesting’ isn’t enough of a hook to raise $1.5m, and so the Fig campaign has officially failed, falling short of $700k after 40 days of funding. It’s not the end yet, though, as plans are being drawn up to try once again on Kickstarter. (more…)
- Deadly Premonition director s The Good Life starts crowdfunding - 4 September 2017
The director of Deadly Premonition, the world’s worst best game, has launched a crowdfunding campaign for his next game. Hidetaka ‘Swery’ Suehiro has split from Access Games and founded his own studio to make The Good Life , a murder-mystery daily life RPG set in an English village — the happiest in the world, the locals will tell you — where everyone turns into a cat at night. Yup. Playing as a debt-laden photographer by day and cat by night, maybe we’ll solve the many mysteries of Rainy Woods. I’m well up for that. (more…)
- The Good Life is Midsomer Murders plus cat capers! - 23 August 2017
A while ago I announced that I would love for Penelope Keith to start doing the tutorials in games like Call of Duty . Imagine how quickly you would improve with Margo Leadbetter shouting “Here s how to use a variable grenade, you ghastly little child” across the training ground. When Alice pointed out a game called The Good Life a week or so back I immediately imagined that someone had listened to my demands! However, this is actually Swery’s new project – him off our beloved Deadly Premonition – and it has a debut trailer! (more…)
- New version (v.2.2.3) - new features - 27 December 2014
Version 2.2.3 is out and in this patch we have listened to all players' feedback. The major new feature is the new way to end the game. Here's a log of changes: - New way to end the game In this new version, we devised a new way to finish the game. Instead of waiting until everybody is "bankrupt", the gameplay lasts as long as all the properties in all ports are bought by the player and the rival players. This is estimated to take about 6 to 8 hours of gameplay. If all properties are bought, then you see a splash screen with the final ranking of all competitors and, if the player is in first position (i.e. owns most of the properties), then he is awarded the tycoon status. This is a physical ending to the game; the player will be able to continue from there but there will not be any more rewards from then on. Players awarded the Tycoon status will be on top of the Hall of Fame board in…
- New version (v.2.2.3) - new features - 27 December 2014
Version 2.2.3 is out and in this patch we have listened to all players' feedback. The major new feature is the new way to end the game. Here's a log of changes: - New way to end the game In this new version, we devised a new way to finish the game. Instead of waiting until everybody is "bankrupt", the gameplay lasts as long as all the properties in all ports are bought by the player and the rival players. This is estimated to take about 6 to 8 hours of gameplay. If all properties are bought, then you see a splash screen with the final ranking of all competitors and, if the player is in first position (i.e. owns most of the properties), then he is awarded the tycoon status. This is a physical ending to the game; the player will be able to continue from there but there will not be any more rewards from then on. Players awarded the Tycoon status will be on top of the Hall of Fame board in…
- Greenlit 'The Good Life' Launching Today on Steam - 21 November 2014
We are elated to announce today's Steam launch of The Good Life after it was Greenlit by the Steam Community earlier this year. The Steam launch features an enhanced edition over the previous retail release, with the addition of Trading Cards and Achievements, as well as graphical updates and new features such as fishing. Thanks everyone for voting for the game and the patience that it took for it to debut. We intend to release the Mac version soon after this Windows launch, if you were wondering. For those who do not yet know the game: The Good Life is a very laid back sandbox game for people looking for an experience that doesn’t involve shooting and killing, but focuses on the awesome life one could have when living on a tropical island running a small boating company. As a tropical paradise blend of simulation, tycoon and time-management, we strongly feel The Good Life will offer a…
- Greenlit 'The Good Life' Launching Today on Steam - 21 November 2014
We are elated to announce today's Steam launch of The Good Life after it was Greenlit by the Steam Community earlier this year. The Steam launch features an enhanced edition over the previous retail release, with the addition of Trading Cards and Achievements, as well as graphical updates and new features such as fishing. Thanks everyone for voting for the game and the patience that it took for it to debut. We intend to release the Mac version soon after this Windows launch, if you were wondering. For those who do not yet know the game: The Good Life is a very laid back sandbox game for people looking for an experience that doesn’t involve shooting and killing, but focuses on the awesome life one could have when living on a tropical island running a small boating company. As a tropical paradise blend of simulation, tycoon and time-management, we strongly feel The Good Life will offer a…
