Hey friends! I spent a cozy chunk of time wandering, foraging, and cooking in Out and About by Yaldi Games. It launched in early access on August 11, 2025. If you like gentle exploration, real plants, and slow-paced community-building, this one might be right up your alley. I’m writing from that relaxed, “sit with a cup of tea” place, so here’s my friendly take.

Overall Impression

Out and About is a warm, low-stress foraging adventure with a focus on real-world plants and fungi. The game treats plants as characters in their own right. Identification, properties, and recipes all tie to real-life botany. This makes it delightful if you enjoy learning while playing. The vibe is cozy in a simple way: soft art, gentle music, and calm rhythms that let you breathe out.

It’s early access, so expect a few bumps. Most players love the core idea and atmosphere, but some ran into tech issues like flickering textures and camera sensitivity. Compared to other cozy sims, it’s slower than Stardew Valley but more educational about nature. It’s not a farming sim replacement. Instead, it’s about foraging, cooking, crafting recipes, and helping rebuild a storm-damaged community.

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Gameplay Mechanics

The gameplay loop is cozy and rewarding. You identify plants, forage them, and use your finds to cook meals or craft remedies. Small quests add structure as you rebuild the town. Foraging feels genuinely relaxing, with the satisfaction of spotting plants, checking the guide, and deciding their best use. Cooking doubles as light crafting, enhanced with charming cutscenes that tie each recipe to the plants you gathered.

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What makes the game shine is its mix of learning and comfort. Plant identification introduces real species in a fun, non-preachy way. The cooking and crafting systems keep progress engaging. Inclusive character customization and thoughtful touches, like keybinding support, show the developer’s care for accessibility. Together, these details make the game both cozy and educational.

That said, polish is still needed. Issues like flicker, textures, and dialog progression have been noted. UI frustrations, such as missing filters in crafting menus, also stand out. Small annoyances — like repetitive cooking animations or time passing during sorting — break immersion. Still, the design encourages slowing down and appreciating the world, offering a warm, engaging experience despite rough edges.

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Story and Characters

The story is gentle and centered on community. You’re rebuilding after a storm, helping neighbors, and learning herbs and recipes that matter to them. Characters are charming rather than deep. Their warmth comes from small interactions, not grand narratives. That works for me: it’s cozy and reassuring. The world unfolds through exploration and dialog, making each discovery feel earned. If you want drama, this isn’t it. If you want a quiet place to belong, it’s perfect.

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Visuals and Graphics

Out and About’s art is soft, sweet, and readable. Plants and items are drawn in a cozy style that still keeps them recognizable, which is important since identification is a gameplay mechanic. The visuals set a calm, pastoral tone and make the world feel inviting. There are a few texture and animation oddities reported by players (and some have complained about minor body-cloth oddities), but overall the art does the heavy lifting in selling the cozy atmosphere.

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Sound and Music

The soundtrack is intentionally low-key. Most players find the music comforting and unobtrusive — it blends into the background in a good way. A couple of folks noted the cooking music loop can become repetitive after long play sessions, and asked for options to change or skip it. Sound effects are gentle and support the relaxing mood. No heavy voice acting here, and I’m fine with that; the quiet narration style works for the game’s slow tone.

Difficulty and Replayability

Difficulty-wise, it’s very accessible. There’s little in the way of challenge — which is exactly the point. Replayability comes from collecting different plants, experimenting with recipes, and seeing how the town returns to life. Some players reported roughly 25+ hours of content already, and it feels like the kind of game you’ll return to for seasonal playthroughs or to complete your plant catalog. Ongoing updates and content additions from Yaldi should boost replay value over time.

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Accessibility and Inclusivity

This is a real standout. The game includes lots of customization options — pronouns, hearing aids, hijab, cleft lip and more — which is so lovely to see. Keybindings out of the box and community calls for mouse-free or low-mouse play show the devs are thinking about different player needs. A few more accessibility toggles (camera lock, skip animation options, more menu filters) would make it even better.

Trivia / Developer Notes

Developed and published by Yaldi Games, this indie title first gained attention through a successful Kickstarter campaign, with many backers now praising its cozy direction and sharing feedback. The game launched in Early Access on August 11, 2025, and has quickly earned Very Positive reviews on Steam. The developers are highly responsive, already releasing updates like version 1.1, which smoothed out performance issues for many players, showing their commitment to ongoing community-driven improvements.

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Who should play this

Pick this up if you love slow, cozy games, are curious about learning plant lore, and enjoy low-stress community sims. Wait or be cautious if you’re sensitive to camera issues or motion sickness, or if you prefer fast-paced gameplay.

Final Thoughts

Out and About nails the cozy, educational foraging vibe and has strong inclusivity and charm. It loses a little polish in early access, but the core is lovely and I’m excited to see how Yaldi Games grows it. If you want to relax, learn, and care for a small town together with nature, this is a warm game to curl up with.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Add Out and About to your Steam collection!