Havendock Preview

Waking up as an amnesiac castaway stranded without food or water in the middle of the ocean has never sounded so good. Created by solo-developer YYZ and published by Different Tales, Havendock is a cosy colony sim that brings a lot of fun to the table with its cute NPCs, relaxing management systems, and charming decorations. It’s easy to get mesmerised by the chill gameplay loop and you’ll be surprised how much time passes by in a blink. Trying to squeeze 15 minutes of playtime in before writing this preview actually turned into more than an hour (or maybe two). Seriously, I can’t get enough.

Before launching into my new life as a castaway, I designed my character, choosing from a variety of vibrant (sometimes glowing) hair colours, quirky mouth and eye customisations, and hairstyles. Fun accessories like a party box or paper bag were entertaining to play around with, giving my character some extra personality. And although choosing an accessory automatically comes with an attribute like “five percent glow in the dark” or “five percent sunshine”, the game makes it clear that they have no purpose for gameplay and are there just for fun. The same explanation applies to any quirks you choose, such as making your character “invincible”, which does not actually make you invincible. It felt like Havendock was preemptively preparing me not to take things too seriously — just relax and have fun instead.

At the start, I woke up on a small patch of sand — unaware of how I got there — surrounded by a seemingly endless sea, and my first task was to collect planks of driftwood to build decks, which would be the foundation of my new settlement. If you frequently play colony sims, you’re likely used to building and managing things as an invisible god-like presence. Havendock diverges from this, letting you run around as your own character, picking up resources as you go. Similar to ocean-based survival game Raft, you’ll pull driftwood, leaves, fish, and even crates from the water as they float by. But rather than throwing a hook out to catch them, you can simply click on the items when they drift into your range and they’ll land right in your inventory.

What started as a simple wooden deck quickly turned into a small liveable settlement with birdhouses, farms, traps, and drinkable water. Along the way, I entered a somewhat friendly alliance with a large penguin in exchange for fish. And soon, I was able to explore more of Havendock’s detailed research tree, learning how to build a pier, so potential settlers could dock their rafts and join me. Fixing a nearby lighthouse even opened up my little town to traders sailing in on their boats. Before I knew it, I had a bustling settlement with adorable homes and a central dance floor to keep everyone in good spirits.

Maintaining hunger, thirst, and happiness meters is relatively stress-free. At the top of your screen, you’ll see numbers indicating how much food and drink is available to your settlement, and there’s also a happiness meter on the top-right. Once I began assigning my settlers to tasks, such as cooking meals or scuba-diving for resources, I had a steady supply of everything we needed. If your settlers are unhappy or hungry, small tooltips will appear on the screen to let you know and you’ll likely see/hear your settlers walking sadly around the town, so they won’t slip under your radar. As I played, nothing too bad happened if the NPCs had to wait a while before I could build something that would improve their happiness, but I did have my first settler pass out from exhaustion before I researched and built him a rock to sleep on to replenish his energy. Aside from making sure your settlers are cared for, there’s also not much in the way of threats other than the occasional lightning strike that can cause some of your structures to catch on fire.

I was surprised at how seamless Havendock’s gameplay felt. Once I built some early necessities such as water pumps and cooking stations, I realised I could still collect resources floating by, even if I was in the middle of an action. As someone who can’t resist multitasking, it was satisfying to catch passing fish while my character was busy making a teriyaki dish. I also loved that you could simply “Ctrl + Click” and “Shift + Click” to remove or input items; this made adding ingredients to a grill or removing grown vegetables from a farm very easy and allowed me to grab and go without needing to open up a menu. It’s quality-of-life details like these that go a long way, letting me fall into a smooth rhythm of clicking and building without having to do much thinking. Plus, Havendock’s art style is colourful and charming, complemented by soothing music, which makes for a very cosy experience.

You can enjoy the journey and progress at your own pace, trusting your settlers to handle any tedious tasks while you focus on what you have fun doing, whether it be trading, decorating, or exploring. No matter what you spend time on, you’ll be surrounded by Havendock’s lightheartedness, imagination, and humour. Perhaps the best example of this is the fact that you grow hamburgers (complete with buns, lettuce, and all) when you need raw meat; it’s cute, nonsensical, and it works.

I’m excited to see how Havendock develops in Early Access. While the game is currently playable from start to finish, developer YYZ has expressed that there are many directions and features to explore for additional content. There’s no official launch date for full release yet, but the game is expected to leave Early Access sometime in 2024.