Want to play an idle farming simulation game and earn crypto? Sunflower Land may be the game for you!

This blog post is about a Web3 farming simulation game called Sunflower Land. It is an idle game with blockchain and play-to-earn component. I have been playing this game for a few months and here I want to share with you my experience with Sunflower Land as a "free-to-play" player (without buying tokens and items from public marketplaces). Below is a screenshot of my land with a lot of pumpkins waiting for me to be harvested.

If you just want to get right into it and help me out a little, you can sign up and start your journey as a farmer in Sunflower Land using my link here. You can also read up more on the game on the Sunflower Land official website and the official docs.

Disclaimer: Everything in this post is my personal experience with the game and none of it is financial advice.

Gameplay

Sunflower Land is an idle farm management simulation game. The basic game loop goes like this: Buy seeds with tokens → Plant seeds → Harvest crops → Sell crops for tokens → Use tokens to buy more seeds. As you go through this game loop, you will gain resources (i.e. tokens, seeds, and crops).

There are two main lines of progression in the game. First is leveling up your in-game character (called Bumpkin) to unlock more game features such as raising animals, cooking different dishes, and buying certain seeds which are only available after certain Bumpkin level. To level up your Bumpkin, you will need to cook some dishes using your crops and feed your Bumpkin.

The second line of progression is land expansion and buildings which involves another game loop: Buy tools with tokens → Use tools to collect building material → Build buildings to unlock features / Mint and expand land. This is the main game progression where you unlock new features and have a bigger plot for buildings and for growing more crops (and raise animals). There are also a number of game play features such as digging for treasures in Treasure Island and Seasonal events which I will not cover in this post.

The "goal" of the game is continue to build more buildings, expand your land plot, earn more tokens and resources. From a gaming standpoint, the "ultimate end game" would be cosmetics where you can mint rare decoration items for your land as well as accessories and clothing for your Bumpkin. Of course from a Web3 game standpoint, it would be about earning SFL token and selling resources on public marketplaces like Nifty Swap.

Game Economy

For Sunflower Land, you have to pay a one-off cost of USD$5 (in MATIC) to mint a plot of land to start the game, so you will need to have some MATIC in your wallet on the Polygon network to start playing. By minting the land, you will also get a free Bumpkin NFT as your in-game character. The shops have limited stock for each item, so you will need to pay USD$0.1 + gas fee (which at the point of writing is pretty high at around USD$2). Currently the developers introduced a bundle of 5 re-stocks for USD$0.75 + gas fee, which works out to be around USD$0.6 per restock. From my experience, each re-stock can last me a few days, so 5 re-stocks can last me about 2 weeks.

Sunflower Land has only a token called SFL. SFL is the token we earn and use in-game. The two main ways of earning SFL are from selling crops and from selling food to Goblins at te Grub Shop. The Grub Shop refreshes every week. From my experience at Bumplin level 12, I can earn about 20 SFL a week (SFL price is around USD$0.065 at the time of writing, so 20 SFL is around USD$1.3). Do note that the developer can mint as much SFL as they want as everyone earns SFL through selling crops and food. Also, there is a withdrawal fee of up to 30% for withdrawing SFL tokens and items.

The main SFL sinks are the cost of buying seeds and tools. Crops and building material are required to progress in the game as well as to mint cosmetics items. I am not in the position to judge whether the game economy at the current state is sustainable, but I believe that it can be fine-tuned to be sustainable (i.e. does not rely on new players) given that there are enough players who play for cosmetics and progress (i.e. play for fun as opposed to play for profit).

Web3

So why choose to play a Web3 game like Sunflower Land? First is the idea of ownership. I feel good owning the NFT land, Bumpkin, and items I minted, which means I can sell them on secondary marketplace if I wanted to (although it is not clear how well they will sell). Second is the potential to earn. I feel good earning SFL tokens as I do activities in the game as a sense of in game achievement as I know I can sell the token for fiat if I wanted to. Third is idea of owning limited items. It is an extension of the first point but the idea of minting and owning items with limited quantity (like the pink flamingo decoration in my plot) adds to the satisfaction, similar to buying limited edition items irl. Some of these limited NFT items even have in-game bonuses such as increase crop harvest etc. Being an on-chain Web3 game makes the points above possible, which for me adds to the fun of playing the game.

Verdict

Sunflower Land is a simple casual idle progression game that is great if you are looking for simple game play that you can log in a few times a day for a minute or two to manage your farm, and see the progression over days and months. The main selling point of Sunflower Land is its Web3 components which adds to the fun of an idle game knowing that you own the assets and tokens. It does have an upfront cost of USD$5 to start the game and a small continuous cost of restocking supplies, so it is not truly a free-to-play game. Also, you will need to have a crypto wallet (or learn to set up one which I think is a good learning experience!) to play the game. If you don't mind the costs and if you already have some MATIC in your wallet on Polygon, you are in a perfect position to start your journey as a farmer in Sunflower Land!

Please feel free to use the comment section below if you have any questions and comments. If you want to support me, you can sign up and start your journey as a farmer in Sunflower Land using my link here. Have fun building and decorating your farm!