A small free French indie game has just made its early access appearance in the Steam catalog. Root of Tomorrow is a turn-based management game that invites the player to discover agroecology.
The game is far similar to Farm Manager in its operation. In a top view camera, you interact with the various elements: buildings, fields, slurry pits, etc. If the developers wanted to offer a simple experience in order to sensitize professionals and the general public to the challenges of agroecology and animal welfare, they ultimately go further than titles like Farming Simulator in this area.
Realistically, you must, for example, take into account the type of feed your pigs are fed (normal, two-phase, multi-phase, etc.) to find the right compromise between working comfort, fattening speed, and remuneration for the breeder. The pedagogy is there, right down to the purchase prices for raw materials, very close to reality, with cereals around € 200 / t. Nothing to do with the purchase of "seed pallets" from Farming Simulator.
The game, because it is, is played on a turn-based basis. One turn represents a leap forward of 2 months. The game is played over 10 years, or 240 turns. At the end of this decade, you should have obtained an overall score of 4. This score is an average of the sub-score (economic, environmental and social). The mechanics are easy to understand, but achieving their ends is complex. To increase all the gauges, we will have to think. For example, doing a Food Making training will increase Animal Welfare by +0,2, but this point supplement is only active 10 turns after validating it.
It would be impossible to list here all the possibilities offered by the game, as there are so many. Root of Tomorrow is in early access for the moment and only pig farming is available, but it already allows to gauge the completeness of the gameplay. Two other updates are in the pipeline, bringing cattle and sheep farming. These first 3 scenarios are playable for free. Then will come paid DLC, without us yet knowing what it is.
The French of Gamabilis can boast of having created a serious game that is fun and very close to reality. If you want to learn agriculture, the real one, without going into the complexity of a Simagri, then Root of Tomorrow will meet your expectations.