My dream game is a time of day
Back in 2021, I was listening to a podcast and one of the hosts was excitedly awaiting Hundred Days, a vineyard management game. I remember them specifically mentioning their excitement for the chance to spend their mornings sipping coffee in the bright summer sun growing digital grapes and bottling this year’s finest vintage. Every summer since, I think of that conversation and how all I want when summer rolls in is that game that feels like summer. I shed my seasonal depression, get out the flower print and linen, and replace the death metal with festival rock.
So much of life—from the food we eat to the clothes we wear—is seasonal, yet it feels like the constant barrage of video games lacks seasonality. Sure, Call of Duty always comes out in early winter and horror games typically pop up in October, but I’m not talking about summer blockbusters or release calendars, I’m talking about the games that match the vibes. I’m talking about the slow game of watching flowers grow or a breezy sailing game on spring seas when the world is full of life. I’m talking about Hundred Days.
Hundred Days is a 2021 vineyard management game made for the PC and mobile. It’s a pretty simple game that has you maintaining vines, choosing grapes, bottling your wines, and slowly meeting the people of your town. There aren’t relationship mechanics and there’s no Stardew-esque complexity, it’s just an easygoing game about grapes and wine. There’s no combat, no puzzles, and no branching dialogue or roleplaying; the greatest tension in the game is if you can get all your chores done on time (you usually can). Instead, you meet people in the local shop and just make a small vineyard. It’s quaint and easy, but it also misses the mark for what passes as “cozy” these days.
As much as I, like that podcast host, wanted Hundred Days to be the pastoral idyllic game I begin my mornings with, it wasn’t. Hundred Days didn’t really have the staying power and, since 2021, I haven’t found something that satisfied that need. I love games with grim, expansive worlds and I’m not sheepish about violence in video games, but there’s a million of those coming out every day. They don’t feel seasonal, they just what video games are now. Stardew Valley never hit for me in the way I wish it did and the systems for romance and combat always felt more expansive than I want. Summer feels like a time of change for me, a time to embrace the heat and the sun and slow down. It’s a time to find tiny moments to remind myself of summer vacation as a kid, even if I have a day job to go to.
So I keep coming back to Hundred Days, a game almost exclusively about wine. My dream game, the one I wish Hundred Days was, is a time of day. It’s a game that embodies the true essence of sitting on a back porch as a slow breeze winds through the trees. It’s hot—but not too hot—and the promise of a slow day fishing by the creek is already cooling me off. The coffee is strong, but calm and all I have to do this morning is enjoy the scenery, sip my Joe, and manage this little digital vineyard. My dream game fills the gap the New York Times crossword or an easy-reading Agatha Christie novel does: something to enjoy, but not think too hard about. It’s a simple pleasure free of points, hearts, or timed-challenges—things the rest of my day will inevitably be filled with.
Life comes quickly and it’s already been four years since I first started Hundred Days. Each summer, I redownload it, wondering if this year is the year, but alas, it still is missing something. Until that nebulous summer game arrives, I guess I’ll have to stay satisfied drinking my coffee and playing Good Sudoku (a nighttime game), Knotwords (a train game), or Alto’s Adventure (a winter game). Maybe it’s time to redownload Summer House (a spring game) and build the patio I’ll eventually play my summer games on.
