Dear Polder

Everything here is flat except the dikes. Mills turn above the ditches, and at night the lighthouse by the sea lock sweeps its beam across the polder. In spring the bulb fields lie striped like tea towels.

Up to four farmers share one farm online. One of you drives piles at the breach while another plants tulips and a third loads the cabbages into the shipping shed. The day ends when the last of you is in bed. There is always one.

"The farm is yours, puddles and all," writes Aunt Riek. "The storm took the dike and half the fields, but the house stands." Close the breach the water board's way: piles, sacks, clay, stone. Give the farm mill back her sails and she pumps the drowned land dry. Every morning there is more farm, until it is three times the size it was.

Saturday nights the band plays at the inn; on feast nights the dancing moves out to De Dam, the village square, under the lanterns. Step into the schottische and the steps slide in to your feet on the beat. Step on Douwe's foot and he says, "My foot's fine. Really. Cows step on it all the time."

Hens, ducks, cows and sheep. Feed them, give each one a scratch, and their hearts fill up night by night. A happy hen now and then lays the big egg, worth twice as much. Jacob swears his cows give more milk if you sing to them. Nobody has ever heard Jacob sing.

A fishing boat has lain half sunk at berth three since the storm. Bail her out and patch her up, then sail her to the herring bank. Back home, eels bite in the ditches after dark. Willem sells your catch at the fish auction at dawn.

No energy bar, no fainting. At two in the morning the clock stops until everyone is in bed.

Your animals never die. Only a crop left in the ground past its season wilts.

No timers you can fail. Miss a feast day and it comes back next year.

No combat. The worst anyone does to you is gossip.

Solo is the same game. You just get all the eggs to yourself.

A dedicated server comes with the game. Or host from your own copy and invite friends through Steam.

Dear Polder is the first game from Voxel Crown Studios, a small studio in the Netherlands, a few metres below sea level.