Back in 2023, I was scrolling through TikTok and saw a new indie life-sim MMO in development. Instantly, the solarpunk themes and two person development team grabbed my attention. I supported them on Kickstarter just as they had surpassed their original goal. Three years later Qloud the development team has grown, the community has and Loftia entered the beta stages. Backers like me could finally explore the game. In Loftia, it’s all about contributing to the wider community. Caring for everyone, avoiding waste, overindulgence and focusing on the shared well-being over personal profits. Your overarching quest is about proving that you’re using natural resources responsibly, following the ‘Loftia Sustainable Growth Plan’ that helps maintain the floating islands.

I’m excited to share my impressions of this game but remember: this game is still in the beta. The developers are actively working on features, developing the world and making improvements before the full release.

What is Solarpunk?

Loftia’s key grab is that the world is a Solarpunk future. Solarpunk is a movement that envisions a more sustainable future, prioritising community and to work in harmony with nature. ‘Solar represents the energy sources and ‘punk’ refers to the do-it-yourself attitude and how it counters our current culture. This aesthetic is a huge influence on Loftia and has been from the beginning of development. Eco-futurism or Ecomodernism is an environmental philosophy that overlaps with Solarpunk aesthetics through using technology to protect nature and developing human well-being. This technology influences the crafting systems as well as the mechanics.

Welcome to Loftia City

At the start of the game you crash-land in Loftia City. Pebble, your tutorial guide, reveals that the Earth cracked apart into floating islands after humans abused the natural world. These islands form Loftia with Loftia City being the most similar to how Earth was before. The main hub area is Loftia City, home to NPCs, shops and scavenging resources like tires, wood and plastic. While Pebble introduces you around town, quakes rumble through Loftia City splitting the pavements, and damaging the Airtram travel. Pebble and Amani ask you to check in on the other islands and their residents.

This is the start of the main quest line through the game. The quest in the beta ended when you completed the visit to Gridfall. However, I was so distracted completing other side-quests, I didn’t complete the quest to travel to Gridfall before the beta closed. SoI haven’t explored the third area, ‘Gridfall’. And I didn’t finish the beta quest and didn’t get the exclusive reward available to beta players.

The Hanging Gardens

To travel from Loftia City to The Hanging Gardens you speak with Cliff the Airtram Operator. Cliff takes you to this beautiful, green, meadow-like area with a blue lake, a bamboo forest, with farms and fishing areas. There are so many different things to do in this area like you can take part in hourly Community Garden Events: planting, watering and gathering vegetables to complete the requested amounts. Kassim at the research hub teaches you to fish, about their fish re-population efforts and about the research stations you can find across Loftia.

The research stations function as similar to bundles in Stardew Valley and other life and farming sims. You complete the sections of the research projects by contributing vegetables, fish, foraging and scavenging items, and refined resources, this unlocks new items, clothing and most importantly crafting recipes. These contribute to the development of Loftia and the surrounding islands as they allow you to explore the world in new ways.

Another cozy game? Here’s how it’s different!

Unlike most cozy life sims you’re not working towards personal wealth, you’re working towards community development and caring for all of the world. As a resident of Loftia you must adhere to the rules of ‘Loftia’s Sustainable Growth Plan’. The Sustainable Growth Plan is controlled by Amari, so you don’t misuse the land, you must buy and achieve licenses so you can have more crafting tables or planters for your garden. This is a mechanic meant to force you to slow down and make only what you need, rather than falling into the as many as possible challenges life-sim players have gotten used to. It’s more about what you can make and how that benefits the community. Including donating food and dishes to the collective kitchen in Loftia City, rather than cooking in bulk and hoarding the food for yourself.

The messaging of the exploration feels so different with the community features and having all these people running about. Even if you’re not messaging other people, you have a community feel when you’re all smashing wooden boxes together for scrap so you can make furniture or upgrade your tools. Much like in Palia where you’ve got other ‘humans’ sprinting around the map, but in Loftia it feels like you’re all working towards the same goal: a more sustainable Loftia. It’s so nice to have a life-sim where others are contributing towards the same goal and project.

Adventure and Plot

The floating islands are still facing problems after breaking away from Earth, and the NPCs are already working to fix them, but they need your help. You’re tasked with maintaining the main areas like Loftia City and its residents, but you’re also introduced to Ryder, the resident adventurer who sends you on missions to restore natural zones. Completing the tasks on these missions earns you ‘Blooms’, which support Loftia’s community projects. You can explore and repair the conservation technology alone or team up with other Loftians. I played solo, others teamed up via the official Discord or the in-game chat. Either way you earn some blooms, you earn more working together but you can work alone too.

Community Built Mechanics

There’s a huge focus on researching and developing technology that makes use of old rubbish and resources by recycling. With your tools, crafting tables, refining machines and trusty solar charger; you have everything you need to build for yourself and contribute to the community projects and research projects around the floating islands. Community projects are things like building a wind turbine (the beta access’s project) or research projects like managing fish populations.

When you take the hot airballoon to your home, it loads in on an island with three other player’s home (or an empty space where someone’s home island can appear), this is to continue to community mindset. You can pop into other’s gardens and refill your watering can from their water collector, but also water their crops, or harvest mushrooms from around the edge of their island. In the center of this home cul-de-sac, you will find a place to sell your crops and some types of resources. And some homes will even have a trade cupboard where you can take what you need and leave things in exchange for someone else.

My Small Gripes

Time in the real world and the in-game clock are different, and from what I could tell there’s nothing to help you keep track of both. Community activities like the community garden are based on the real-world clock not the game’s day-night cycle. So, when I wanted to join the hourly gardening event, which needs you to sign up five minutes before it starts, I struggled with tracking the real time in-game. When I got the timing right, it was a blast and such fun chaos. But without a reminder or a timer until the next game, it was tricky to join in.

I had similar issues with the community wind turbine project, there was no way in my menu to check what was needed without being at the community bot, I tried to donate resources only to find it was the wrong item type or we had already moved onto the next stage of the project, by the time I’d upgraded my crafting tables enough to get the right items.

But these are very easy issues to get over as a player and maybe this was only something I experienced. But when every other quest or timeline is easily managed. These two stuck out for me.

Conclusion

This game is shaping up to bring something new and different to the cozy game genre. It’s been short-listed as one of the most anticipated games in the upcoming Cozy Game Awards and I can see how it would be. I certainly have been excited for it for a long time. Between the lovable NPCs, different style of world building and focus on community efforts, it feels different from the likes of Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon. Making use of online gaming mechanics to create an experience where you can collaborate with as many or as few people as you want but there’s always a community element to what you’re working on. It feels like you’re a part of something. I

would keep an eye on this game for the early access release later this year or the full release on PC and Nintendo Switch further down the line. If you’re a cozy gamer, this is definitely for you. To learn about the game check out Loftia’s website and wishlist on Steam.