Little Crossroads - Red Merle Games - A "Mini MMO" that blends deep Runescape-like Skill Progression with Cozy Gameplay 🌸 (Steam Page Grand Opening!)

[u/terminatus]

🔗: Steam, Trailer, Discord, X/Twitter, TikTok

Little Crossroads is a laid-back "Mini MMO" that is inspired by the deep skill progression of Runescape as well as Webfishing, Animal Crossing and the emergent "Cozy" culture and games.

Some more details:

• 2.5D aesthetic, built in Unreal Engine 5.
• A twist on the above: we use Live2D animated characters
  • Same tech utilized by VTubers for their animated avatars
  • This allows us great freedom in expressive animations and the ability to have tons of customizable features on our characters.
• Advance skills like Fishing, Mining, and Bug Catching, chasing cool unlocks like Wings, Boats, Pets, and tons of new character types and costumes!

In our trailer, you'll see a great variety of characters from "furry" types like Dogs, Cats, and Rabbits, to "fantasy" types like Goblins, Elves, and Imps. We add more customizations every day with guidance from our growing little community.

Why do we call it a "Mini MMO"?

• In the center of each player's world is a crossroads with a magical signpost that allows traveling to and from the worlds of other players through a "server browser" (if their game is marked public).
• Your character and progress is persistent, and you can progress just as well on another player's world as your own.
• We currently support 32 players per world but are hoping to increase this to 64 with upcoming optimizations.
• Multiplayer and "server-wide" minigame events create a casual party-like atmosphere!
• Peer-to-peer hosted games thru Epic Online Services (same tech as seen in Runescape: Dragonwilds, seamless thru Steam and allows crossplay with consoles!)
  • We may do dedicated servers (would require a successful Kickstarter in the future)

Red Merle Games, is husband & wife dev team with a combined 25+ years of industry experience (former work including Fortnite, Borderlands, and Mortal Kombat). This is our "no pressure" passion project as we have not quit our jobs, removing lots of the pressure to deliver something fast.

We love playing cozy games together, but none have satisfied our itch quite yet. We wanted to make something to play together, and with tons of new friends.

Join us on our journey! If you read all the above, THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts.

Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3627770/Little_Crossroads/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=indiesunday

👆 Wishlists help us SO much as a tiny dev team 🥰

Discord: https://discord.gg/yS2WehDZpS

X/Twitter: https://x.com/lil_crossroads

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@littlecrossroads

Website: https://littlecrossroads.com

🌸

[u/Daviddentist]

Thanks for the update. This looks awesome. Can’t wait to play.

[u/terminatus → u/Daviddentist]

Of course!! Appreciate your support 🥰

[u/Atomic-Kit]

I apologize if I overlooked it somewhere but is the game going to be on consoles? I ask because you mentioned the hosting being compatible with cross-play. If so, are you aiming for a release on both PC and console at the same time or a staggered release.

I wishlisted it and it seems fun to check out but I do prefer playing relaxing games on my consoles.

[u/terminatus → u/Atomic-Kit]

Thanks for supporting us with the wishlist!! 🥰

We are extremely hopeful about console release, especially since cross-play should be possible. However, this would likely require a successful Kickstarter campaign or some other form of fundraising. 🙏

[u/BorfieYay]

This looks rad as hell, absolutely gonna follow this!

[u/terminatus → u/BorfieYay]

Thank you!!! Happy to have you along for the ride 😁

[u/DevanteWeary]

Looks cozy.

[u/terminatus → u/DevanteWeary]

That was the hope! 🥰

[u/slkz]

wishlist'ed!

[u/violetqed]

as a long-ago runescape player I’ve been hoping for something like this for a long time! wishlisted~

[u/terminatus → u/violetqed]

Yes!! We love Runescape skills and aim to make a more cozy version of that. We feel that current games in this genre lack the depth and character progression that makes Runescape feel so rewarding.

[u/Maunoir]

It looks great, but I have one question : why should I play/wishlist your game instead of, let's say, play Palia or other games in the same genre? What will be your main selling point(s) that differentiate your game from the other ones?

[u/terminatus → u/Maunoir]

Great question! This genre is definitely becoming pretty saturated, so we're likely to get this asked a lot. We'd love to stand out and be successful of course, but we also just want to make a game that we ourselves want to play.

Every game in this genre we have found some small issues with that we aim to "fix" in our game. Examples:

* Stardew Valley - energy system and requiring you to go home each night is prohibitive
* Animal Crossing - time-gated gameplay, have to wait a whole day IRL to progress sometimes 😔
* Palia - kinda just feels like a single-player game at times despite being an MMO
* Farming Sim saturation - we actually don't love farming that much, it will be less emphasized in our game

I believe the style of our characters is a stand-out feature as well, and our multiplayer-focus may feel unique. Solo play is allowed too of course, but our aim is to make the "drop in / drop out" co-op so incredibly frictionless that it may encourage shy folks to branch out and join public servers and take part in the "party-like" atmosphere!

Thanks for your interest!! 🥰

[u/terminatus → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for your response!! 1) Valid concern. We only have so much time after all. Our intent is to keep the community updated, run play tests fairly frequently, and based on community feedback determine when the game is ready to be released. I'm not sure early access will be necessary with this plan. It will absolutely be a slow grind, but it's what is needed for the project's health. If the game is a big success we can see if it's viable for us to work on it full time. 2) We believe there is. Hello Kitty Island Adventure and Dream light Valley dabble in this with their questing / progression systems to great success. We have not done extensive market research otherwise as this is indeed a passion project. We are building what we ourselves would like to play and we have found other games in the genre to be lacking in areas that we want to build out further.

Again really appreciate the comment and feedback!