MINAMI LANE
DEVELOPER: Blibloop & Doot, Wholesome Games, Seaven Studio
RELEASE DATE: February 28, 2024
PLATFORMS: Steam, Switch
Minami Lane is a wholesome, cozy, casual management sim with the cutest aesthetics. The game's simplicity was very appealing to me and a welcome break from the hectic convention atmosphere. In Minami Lane, you’re growing and customizing your street (or, well, lane) with businesses, houses, and parks. The game provides objectives to hit as you move along — for example, the demo had you working to open up a boba shop, get 15 residents, and a bonus objective to do it within 15 days. However, unlike many other management sims, these objectives are made to be helpful and optional, not stressful.
The gameplay in Minami Lane is very intuitive. Your mouse is used to scroll across the map and you can click to interact with buildings, check the moods of customers, and even pet cats! While you’re spending time to make money, the game itself is stress-free and focuses on realistic goals and customizing your buildings. Plus, there are cute little cats that you can pet! Minami Lane's art style is cute, soft, and bubbly. The game’s design is East Asian inspired — from its coloring to its ramen and boba shops. There are limited customization options, with enough to give you freedom but not enough that you end up with clashing themes.
Minami Lane was brought to PAX West by Wholesome Games, an initiative to spread more wholesome games through events, their Wholesome Direct, and Wholesome Games Presents publishing. Wholesome Games informed us that Minami Lane was created by a team of two developers, Doot and Blibloop. And, in fact, Wholesome Games’ other two games, Make Room and Usagi Shima, were made by solo developers! We’re very excited to see a brand supporting such small indies — at their first event booth to boot! Every game backed by Wholesome Games gives cozy, approachable vibes and is a game they’re passionate about playing themselves. They started their journey as a solo Twitter account, similar to Game Raven Review, which made us even more excited to see the games they posted.
I am looking forward to getting cozy with Minami Lane on my Switch at home. I was so into completing the goal of opening up a boba shop that I even went past my demo time — and I’m itching for more playtime and to see what other shops and options I can unlock. Minami Lane is currently on Steam and Switch for only $4.99 but does not have a demo. However, Usagi Shima, another feature from Wholesome Games, is available for free on the App Store and Google Play Store, and I recommend giving it a try to get a taste of what Wholesome Games is all about!
Sarah: This is Sarah, and I am here with Wholesome Games playing a wonderful, wholesome little game. Who do I have with me today?
Jenny: Hi. I'm Jenny Windom, organizer and host of the Wholesome Direct.
Matthew: And I'm Matthew Taylor. I'm the founder of Wholesome Games and the director of Wholesome Direct.
Sarah: So, what are you guys currently working on?
Jenny: Oh gosh. I mean, in this moment, we are working on our first PAX booth. We're so happy to be here and just excited to meet players of cozy games and Wholesome Games, and we're getting ready now for the next showcase, because that's gonna be coming up pretty quick.
Matthew: We brought three games with us today. We've got Minami Lane, Usagi Shima, and Make Room. These are the first games in our Wholesome Games Presents label, and then, you know, we're also talking to people about all our showcases, like Jenny mentioned the Wholesome Direct every June and Wholesome Snack this December.
Sarah: Nice. So what got you guys into working with indies?
Matthew: It's been interesting. It's been a journey. So in February of 2019, I started a Twitter account called Wholesome Games, where I just shared games like this. I was really excited about like Neneko’s Night Market and Ooblets and games like that. I just really wanted more games. And then that Twitter account grew into doing a digital showcase called Wholesome Direct. And then we've just worked with so many indie developers because we just helped promote them and try to work with them to get more visibility. And then, more recently, we had a few developers we talked to [that] were like, wow, I think we could do a little more for you. You know, we have so many awesome, self-sufficient developers, but they just wanted a little more help at the end of development to reach this audience, and that's what the Wholesome Games Presents thing can do for us.
Sarah: Cool.
Jenny: And just to add, I think what's really awesome about our team in particular is we have [a] really savvy group of people who understand development as well as the curation process. So I think in addition to being able to help and support these developers and also to be able to, like, interact with our community, I think we have this really nice balance between the ways that we're able to understand the development side as well as that community component.
Sarah: I was gonna say you guys seem different than just like a hands-off publisher kind of thing, where you just kind of shuffle out games. Are you even… are you considered like a publishing company? Or do you go…?
Matthew: Honestly?
Sarah: Or are you a weird third thing?
Matthew: We are a weird third thing. I mean, honestly, for the sake of simplicity, we call it a publisher because, like, you know, Steam doesn't have a category for what we are, so it's going to say Wholesome Games Presents under ‘publisher.’ But in more detail, we kind of tell developers it's more like marketing services. But you'd be surprised how many developers really just need some people who have done this before in their corner. They've already made a really great game that, you know, we don't take any creative control or anything like that. They just want a little more help, like Jenny said, and those skills that we've got over the years, like, whether that's a little bit of business development help, a little bit of influencer relations help, obviously, we have channels for these kinds of games that we feel like we have some experience and what works and what doesn't.
Sarah: What do you look for when you guys are deciding what games to work with?
Jenny: I think the first thing that we look for is, are we actually personally excited about the game? It's really important for us to already feel really invested and passionate about the project so that, you know, we're able to support the developer wholeheartedly. I think we also look at, you know, what do they need, and are we actually able to provide that? That's the biggest consideration. We don't want to enter into a partnership or work with developers and, you know, feel like they haven't gotten what they needed out of this partnership. And that's, that's really the big, biggest key to us. I think.
Matthew: Yeah, I think that's a big thing. Whenever indies work with publishers, sometimes it can be a little ambiguous what the publisher will do for you, and we really want to make it really explicit, like we're going to work as hard as we can for you, but these are the exact things you should expect from us, and if that is a perfect fit for your project, let's go with it. If not, there's so many other partners out there for these kinds of games, so we just want to work with the folks where it's just a perfect fit for us.
Sarah: So the game that caught my eye was Minami Lane. Minami?
Matthew: That’s right.
Sarah: Okay, what made you guys decide to work with that game? What stood out to you? What are you excited about?
Jenny: I mean, for me, it was so utterly charming from the jump. I mean, you look at it, and you're instantly wanting to be in the world. And so I think for me, like, the art definitely was a selling point. It was something that we immediately were attracted to. I personally love the fact that it takes a concept that is perhaps a bit intimidating to people, this idea of like a city builder, and really narrows it down so that it becomes more accessible and approachable for people. And so, for me, the additional attraction was taking a genre and maybe allowing it to be the gateway game into perhaps other types of games that people haven't been scaffolded up to before.
Sarah: I was playing it, and I was like, this doesn't feel stressful, like, as much as these games normally are, where I'm like, I need to make money so fast and get all these things done. But it was very, like, soothing.
Matthew: Yeah, I know the developers were very passionate about making all, like, all the timed objectives and stuff totally optional. So there's, you know, you don't have to worry about that kind of stuff unless you want to. Jenny covered it really well, but on a gut reaction level, the first time I ever opened a shop and saw, like, the ramen customization, I was just like, it made me smile, you know? And I think at the end of the day, those kinds of reactions are what we're looking for.
Sarah: Yeah, so how has it been, working with the developers for these games and just all of that, how has it been?
Matthew: It's been really fun. Like, I mean, we're super lucky. We're very selective with who we work with because we want to work with people who we feel like embody, like that, Wholesome Games brand. It's been really cool to work with such small teams. I mean, Minami Lane's made by two people. The other two games are each solo developers, so they're just really inspirational. Like, I mean, yeah, their games are basically done by the time they get to us, right? So they've done all the hard work. And I really want to emphasize that, so it's just really cool to work with them and see such talented people and get to be associated with their work at all is, like, extremely awesome for me.
Sarah: Fun little question: if you guys could go back in time and give yourself a piece of advice, or [for] somebody else who's starting out, what would that piece of advice be?
Matthew: I would say, just do it. Like with Wholesome Games, in particular, it started as literally a Twitter account that I would just make an effort to post one game per day on. So, like a really reasonable goal, something I could fit into my day, and just gradually, we found our community. I met Jenny at PAX East in 2020, and, you know, one thing just kept being added, one at a time. So I think sometimes people get a little bit on their own heads of thinking it's got to be perfect from the start. And really, if you can just get that first step in your journey, I think that can be really important.
Jenny: I think it's, yeah, exactly that where I think sometimes people maybe will look at our account be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to do that’, but we're at our like, step twenty, and so understand that you're starting at step one, and that's okay to build. And I think also being willing to… being willing to listen and adapt; I think that's been one of the things that as we've been doing every showcase, as we've been even making this booth and sort of determining what we'd like to do next, we've been really trying to listen and understand: What are people looking for? What do they want? What are we interested in doing? And then finding the amalgamation of all of that.
Sarah: Yeah. Alright, now, can you guys plug again, the games that you have today, the studios or the, I guess, developers, right? Because you said it was just two devs and then solo devs. Plug all that, yeah?
Matthew: Yeah, absolutely. So well, over here, we've got Minami Lane, which was made by Doot and Blibloop. Those are their usernames, and it's out right now on Switch and Steam. It's that really cozy, approachable city-building game we're talking about. On the other side, we've got Make Room, which is made by Kenny, who is like a game asset legend, and he's making a really wonderful game that's like an interior design game that also has some objectives. That's probably coming out into this year or start of next year, on Switch and PC. And then we have Usagi Shima, which is out now on iPhone and Android, that's made by Jess Yu, who is also a tremendously talented developer, solo developer who has made the cutest bunny collecting game you've ever seen.
Sarah: And plug yourselves, so, Wholesome Games, your personal stuff, whatever pitch you want to give me.
Jenny: Folks can find us on pretty much any platform. The best place to go is wholesomegames.com that's where they can get the link to all of our socials, to the newsletter where every month we send out a curated list of games that are coming out and that people can keep an eye on. It's also where we announce the direct in any of our showcases and events. So wholesomegames.com for sure.
Matthew: Yeah, that newsletter has become really important to me because there are so many games coming out in the genre. And, you know, we started first and foremost as a curator, right? So, like, to have that newsletter once a month that are like, ‘Hey, here are the new releases this month that you should really pay attention to’. And also, as we keep growing and doing more events, I know that can get tougher to keep up with. Like, we've got the Direct every June. We've got the Snack in December alongside the Game Awards. Now we've got a Steam event happening in the summer, too. So it just keeps adding up, which is really good, but I know it's tough to keep up with. So that newsletter is really the best spot.
Sarah: Awesome. Well, you guys heard it, wholesomegames.com, check out that newsletter. And thank you again, Jenny and Matthew, for interviewing with me.
Jenny: Thank you so much.
Sarah: I hope you have a great rest of your PAX.
Jenny & Matthew: You too.
