Steam's free weekend of Dinkum was a joy!

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Dinkum

I can't remember when, but sometime within the last month, there was a free weekend for this game, and I managed to actually pay attention to it and play it for a few days.  Go me for paying attention to the ad carousel.

Dinkum is a multiplayer, build a life, explore, and really another game like Animal Crossing. It just falls into that genre pretty well. It was developed by James Bendon and published by KRAFTON, Inc. The game came out in July of 2022 and seems to have some regular updates in the new hubs portion of the landing page on Steam, between patch notes and bug fixes. 

Gameplay

The story starts off at a depressing place where no one has any motivation, and you were chosen to go to an island by a granny. When there, you are tasked with placing the home hub tent, also known as Granny's tent. After placing those, you get a tent, and there is also a visitors' station. The visitor's plot is for those who want to visit the island, and you have a choice if you want to try to convince them to stay or not. The first person who visits runs a shop, so of course, you are tasked with trying to make them stay. After doing some tasks for them and they eventually come around. It's good because you need them. 

You get a few tools, an axe, a pick, and some other odds and ends. Fishing took me a while to figure out. Now the axe and pick will break after a while. I said we need the shop guy because you will be able to buy new tools from him, as we can't make those. You can upgrade your tools to something better later, though. As you chop away, you will start to gain experience. Much like in Animal Crossing, once you go to bed, your daily doings are tallied up. As you level, you will be able to make more things. Speaking of things in general, I forgot to mention, you know how you get to even chop things to begin with? You have to buy a permit. Everything new for you to do takes a permit. More bag space, make a bridge, fish, and use a shovel. It all takes buying a permit to unlock the ability to. Some can even be upgraded to a better thing. While others have to be leveled. 

Some things can't be mined or chopped at first. As said before, as you level, you get then upgrade your tools, and those upgraded tools will be needed to do the higher tier items. Which drove me nuts at first because there are a lot of hard trees where I set up home base, and I wanted them gone, and goodie me, I couldn't clear the area yet. 

There are a lot of biomes, and each one has its own trees and fruits. There is a wide range of animals as well. Once you get permits for it, you can raise and trap them. I just unlocked the trapping, so I wasn't really able to see how it worked. I got stuck trying to terraform my area. I unlocked the shovel and just wanted to even things out. 

Stamina was interesting; you had a bar, but if you took your time, you would be alright. My problem is I want things done now, so I kept on exhausting my character. Food could heal you or help you regain your stamina. Did I mention a shark tried to eat me, and I ran away from a crocodile?

Thoughts

This is something I would like to play more of. I should have picked it up when it was on sale, but I just didn't have the funds to do so. I think the day progression was pretty fast; I always felt like I was on a timer and didn't have enough time during a day to go do something and come back. I always had to wait till the next day to be able to buy or sell something since I would miss the window that the shop was open. It does seem like it would be easier if there were more people playing, as you could do tasks and projects together. I wish you could set a waypoint so that navigating would be a bit easier. I got lost a few times just because it was hard to navigate with the map. Like you could mark things on the map, but I want like an arrow on the mini map or something so I know I am going the right way. I liked the concept and the game in general, of course, this is one of the kinds of games I like the most, so it isn't hard to please me. 

The community also likes the game, as over on Steam, there is a very positive rating with 93% of people liking the game. The biggest complaint I've seen is more of an ethics thing. It seems the developer pushed the publishing rights to what a user considers it a scumbag company. I also saw someone say they don't like the villagers' voices, did I mention I did not like how to old lady laughs? But everyone else said they had fun playing the same, it's relaxing, has a cute charm, and other various positive comments. 

Have you played the game? Or are you thinking of picking it up? Let me know down in the comments!


Content

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Location: Ohio, USA

Comments

SurvivalLover said…
This seems like it would be a good server game, do places offer it?
April 21, 2025 at 2:14 PM
AliceRose said…
I'm going to have to watch the video now to see about the villagers voices and granny's laugh. Wish me luck. LOL
April 21, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Lights said…
insert animal crossing dialogue
April 22, 2025 at 11:02 AM
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