Tiny Pixel Farm is a free mobile application by AppMagaNet that hovers somewhere between a farm simulator and an idle tapping game. This is no Harvest Moon but offers a similar charm. The game is focused on raising animals, running a hotel, and managing goods and resources with simple mechanics. There is no dialogue in the game, and you are at the mercy of simple picture explanations.
The story begins with your aging grandfather. He is unable to keep up with the demands of farm life and is in danger of losing his land. That’s where you come in with your young blood to take care of the land in his stead.
The game starts with two plots of land. Swipe over the grass to cut it to clear land for animal pens or to find gold (yellow circles) and experience points (blue diamonds).
Certain animals can only be housed in certain pens. See the image to the left for reference. This image contains all the possible animals you can own and the type of housing they have to have.
There are three color variations of pens, but these appear to be strictly cosmetic and have no bearing on income. The Pond has two cosmetic varieties and is used to collect fish.
Horses do not generate animal products and are useful if you have a hard time with keeping your Market empty. More on that later. Once ready, the horses don racing masks. Swipe over them and a truck will appear to take them to the races. They’ll appear back in their stables, and you’ll earn gold and XP.
Trees
For each plot of land, except the bottom row, you can purchase a tree with three possible positions to place it on that section. Once the tree is planted, you can add a beehive or sap bucket to harvest honey and maple syrup respectively. The tree color or position does not matter.
Collecting Goods
Purchase pens and animals by clicking on the main house and selecting the register. Using the silo on the bottom tab, harvest wheat to feed your animals. Feeding is done automatically. When your animals are ready for harvest, simply swipe over them to collect their goods.
Animal products are transferred to the Market and fall under one of six categories: Milk (goat and cow), Eggs (white and brown), Syrups (honey and maple), Meat (beef, chicken, bacon), Fur (sheep and alpaca), and Fish. Patrons purchase these goods one at a time, so watch how full your market gets. New items will not go to the market if it reaches max capacity.
As you collect goods from animals, they level up individually. The higher the level, the more coin you earn for their products. This applies to just a single animal type. If you own two white horses, they level the “white horse” twice as fast. This allows you to sell your animals, rearrange your farm, and purchase the same animals without decreasing their product value.
The Wild Side
Along with domestic animal on your farm, wild animals will spawn depending on conditions. I’ll address conditions later in the Collection section. When critters have a heart over their heads, swipe over them to earn additional experience points
Hotel
In the top-left corner of your screen is the hotel. A patron will arrive at the door and ring a bell. Click on guests to check them in. Once in, the guest will walk around your farm and leave coins. Upon check-out, the guests will leave money in their rooms to collect. The hotel can be upgraded to four rooms, and some guests will only appear once you’ve unlocked all of them.
Collections
Click on the main house and click on the book to access your collection. There are four categories to complete: farm animals, wild animals, fish, and hotel guests.
Farm animals and fish can only unlock once you reach certain levels. WIld animals may have multiple parameters, such as having a fish pond, a cow, and a pig. Watch an ad to view the requirements or try it blind. As long as you make a spot for every animal you can own, you will easily unlock all wild animals.
As mentioned above, hotel guests unlock based on your hotel level. However, the final two guests are holiday-specific, but you can unlock them toward game completion just by watching an ad to view their unlock parameters.
Farm Hands
I didn’t realize this was a thing until I was level 30. Don’t make my same mistake! This helps this game become idler and less tedious. Click the main house and the person icon to access your farm hands. Each farm hand can be assigned a land plot.
As you level your assistants, they can perform more duties on their plot of land. Four-star helpers will harvest animal goods and trees on the same plot of land.
Most important – Assign a farmhand to your silo, and you’ll never run out of feed again.
Presents
Another pivotal aspect of the game is ads. Instead of popping up at inconvenient times and accidentally clicking on them, Tiny Pixel Farm uses ads to your advantage. When you build an animal pen, click the red present to complete it instantly. When you’re reaching max capacity on you Market, click the red present to sell everything at once.
Overall, this is a fun game for killing time or turning your brain off before bed. If you’re determined, you can 100% this game in a day or two. It’s satisfying when everything procs at once, and it sounds like a winning slot machine as you slide around and collect everything. Once you unlock your full collection (and view your two holiday guests), it triggers a finishing cut scene. However, and I wish I got a screenshot of it, your grandfather has two speech bubbles at the end. One has a Lv99 in it, and the other has a stick figure sitting at a desk. I may try to get that far and update this later, but I finished the game at level 47, so it’s still a long way off.
Though I finished the game, I still pick it back up on occasion. It’s a nice anxiety reliever and something busy you can do without thinking too hard. I didn’t expect a lot from this game, but I enjoy it more than I should.