Harvest Moon Creator's Next Game is a Cafe Management and Dragon Raising Sim

Harvest Moon is a game that's come to be widely adored across generations. It's inspired dozens of other hits too, like Stardew Valley, which goes a step beyond its quaint farming simulation life. The series' original designer, Yasuhiro Wada, has ventured beyond the core series in the years since its heyday. Most recently he departed from the genre he helped form for the experimental ecosystem simulator Birthdays the Beginning. Wada's next game looks to continue in that career trajectory of pleasantness.

Wada's next game, in collaboration with Aksys Games, is entitled Little Dragons Café. The game is in development for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, and has no gameplay footage available yet. The game's premise is an endearing one: in the game, you play as two twins who are running a local café, when suddenly they're saddled with raising a little dragon—which doubly is the only way they can awake their mother who has fallen into a seemingly-eternal slumber. Sounds like just any other Monday, am I right?

The game will be a blend of many sorts of simulations, which is Wada's bread and butter in game design. Players will juggle caring for their dragon, managing their own café, growing their own produce, going fishing, learning recipes, as well as feeding and helping everyone in town. Sounds like a lot of work for two kids who are becoming makeshift dragon-parents themselves.

Despite no glance at the game itself yet beyond a logo and character art, according to the publisher it's been in development for two years already, and is aiming for a release this summer. A port of Wada's last game Birthdays the Beginnings, which initially released last year on PS4 and PC, will be released on the Switch this summer too.