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Writer's pictureCassandra Morphy

The Idea Factory (Video Game) - Farm Wife

The game starts with a female main character (twenty-something) sitting on a train, staring down at a letter. The letter reads something to the extent that her grandfather had heard about her recently getting fired and the state of her finances and offered her a spot on his farm. He even sent her a one way ticket (which she used already). After the letter is read, the train comes up to the station. Instead of her grandfather waiting for her there, there’s a man that’s about thirty or so, holding a picture of her. He explains that her grandfather passed away after sending the letter, but that there’s still a place for her on the farm. However, the farm is now owned by the man, who had been running it while the grandfather’s health had been failing.


The two of them head home to the farm, where the main character is put to work. Usual farming sim tutorial for 3 days, tending to the farm and harvesting the starting crops. Once that’s done, the farm owner says that she’s done such a great job that he’d give her the farm. He presents her with a contract and she signs it without looking (overly eager). Unfortunately, it’s not a contract for the transfer of ownership. It’s a marriage license. They are now married and she’s stuck living on the farm.


The game has several functions, in addition to the usual farming sim:

There’s a scheduled menu for the next two weeks (current and following) which the main character needs to be able to satisfy. Missed meals for the character results in lower energy for the following day. Missed meals for the husband results in lower husband satisfaction.

Every day, the husband will have a request. Sometimes it’s an additional meal which she’s expected to make. Sometimes it’s foraging something or buying something from the stores in town. Sometimes, it’s sex. When it’s sex, the player loses the rest of the day. The player will need to balance getting their chores done with that possibility (game autosaves as soon as they talk with the husband). The longer they take to complete the request, the less husband satisfaction that is recovered from doing it. Running out of husband satisfaction results in a game over (save is deleted).


There are three main quests that are meant to be escapes from this life:

Squirreling away enough money for a ticket out of there, giving up on the farm. Easiest “win” condition, but not as easy as it sounds as the husband checks the shipped crops and adds all funds to the farm accounts. You’ll need to sell the crops when he’s not looking, but also getting seeds through means other than buying them.

Working out how to poison the husband. Since you’ll be making all his meals, this should be easy. But he’s cautious and has spies in town that will help him if you ask the wrong person. If the husband dies, you would stand to inherit the farm. But you also need to get away with it, with the town sheriff investigating the death as suspicious.

Getting someone in town to help you get rid of him legally, through divorce and lawsuit. This would result in you eventually marrying the person, which will have a similar game play in the post game, but he’ll be nicer about it.



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