Out and About interview: “Why not create a healthy metaverse?”

Wholesome – Out and About has a lovely message, as it hopes to inspire a real-world connection with nature through its gameplay. Check out our interview with Yaldi Games founder and managing director Elena Höge!

Wholesome – Out and About will see us working to help a community rebuild its town and strive towards sustainability, while we explore, craft, cook, and more!

What is Wholesome – Out and About?

Wholesome – Out and About is an open-world life-sim with farming and exploration elements, and a big focus on encouraging a real-world appreciation of, and engagement with, nature. It’s in development and is published by Yaldi Games.

“‘I called the company Yaldi Games because that’s a Scottish word… the word means something like ‘excitement’ and ‘joy’, it’s like ‘yay’ but the Scottish version of it,” Höge tells us. “I thought it was adorable, I loved how the word was written, so that’s why I called the company Yaldi Games, because excitement and joy were just the things that we’re trying to create within the games, but also inspiring real-life experiences. That’s kind of the model of the company, the mission is we want to make games that inspire real-life activities. Any games I want to make in the future should all have really fun gameplay (that’s like common gameplay, not ever educational)… and then this little piece of knowledge integrated into things and then use them in your real life.”

This core aim, and the founding of Yaldi Games, was partly inspired by an experience Höge had in 2019, a few months before founding the company in 2020. “My parents had started foraging, and that’s not something that we had ever done before. Usually when we went outside, we went hiking or we went for a walk, and especially as a kid that was quite boring; you don’t have the same appreciation for nature as a child and as a young adult,” Höge says. “So when I went foraging with them at that point, when I was grown up, that was the point that I realised how much it connects you to nature. Foraging was kind of like a window that allowed me to see through to nature and the ecosystem and how everything ties together. I went foraging with my parents on this Bavarian hill, and we were scrambling up the slopes — they were very steep slopes — but I found quite a few interesting mushrooms for the first time… that was such an exciting activity,” she continues, likening the experience to a treasure hunt and a detective game, because of the need to carefully identify the mushroom you’re looking at to avoid any dangerous ones. “Exploring a forest is always so much more interesting than just walking down a given path. And then that way you actually move more; you spend a whole day outside, and it feels like fun. So I knew, in that moment coming down that mountain, that’s when I decided I was going to make a game that had real plants, real mushrooms, real recipes and crafting instructions, because we could potentially inspire people to actually then go out and recreate those activities,” Höge says. “That’s what I did on that day, and it made me really happy, and I felt like, that’s something the world needs, so I’ll try to make it. Let’s see how it goes!”

Höge describes the experience of entering and winning competitions and grants for Yaldi Games and Wholesome – Out and About, and laments the difficulties indie games and studios face. “I got the UK games fund, which is the first games fund and the only games fund… there’s not enough funding for games, there’s not enough funding for indies. It’s bad. All the money goes into film.” In general, she says, it creates a “super bad ecosystem for indies to actually thrive.” Wholesome – Out and About was able to stand out thanks to its aim to promote both physical and mental wellbeing, as well encouraging a connection with nature and education.

When does Wholesome – Out and About launch?

We don’t yet have a release date for Wholesome – Out and About on Xbox, but we’ll keep an eye out!

What’s it about?

In Wholesome – Out and About, we arrive at Wholesome village to find it suffering in the aftermath of a storm which also wrecked our Granny’s cottage. We’ll be trying to help the townsfolk and repair the town, while also helping the community work towards sustainability.

“The most important thing about the story, the messages that I wanted to communicate with the story, were all about community, sustainability, and climate action,” Höge says. “It was actually inspired by an article I read in a newspaper about a town coming together as a community to make their town net zero, because they saw that their government was just not doing enough, so they decided to just do it themselves… I thought that was really inspiring,” she continues, “so the whole setting of the game is inspired by that story… there will be a dramatic incident at the beginning of the game which is a cause of climate change and the lack of the response we have been doing as humans so far, so that will actually bring the town together, bring the people together, and allow them to think about how can they become more sustainable.” The townspeople will also be working on “how can they come together as a community to buy this community centre,” while we’ll aim to “help the people that have been struck down by the misfortune of this event, to rebuild. It’s still a little bit wobbly,” Höge says, “but the message is really all about the community, sustainability, climate action, and this town coming together.”

Höge explains that “it’s all about communicating some actionable things… what’s really important to me is that every character has their own journey to sustainability, and that we as a player learn about it through them. So we can learn about fast fashion through a character that used to order lots of clothing like we do on Asos or something, and then them realising how this is bad, and then changing their behaviour…. It’s very light-touch information, but just by having it integrated into a character’s behaviour and their dialogue, I think it could have a huge impact on teaching people about it, just putting the information out there.”

What’s the gameplay like?

In Wholesome – Out and About, we will be “helping the town, bringing people together, and seeing them buy and restore this community centre that is the centrepiece of the town,” all while seeking to learn more about nature. We’ll also be upgrading our house, garden, and shop, and “essentially contributing as an active part of the community.”

Along with completing quests, we’ll be exploring, cooking, crafting, gardening, foraging, and decorating. “When you’re in the middle of the game, for example, you’ll probably start a day by rolling out of bed, and then going outside and watering all your plants, because watering is best done in the morning,” Höge begins. “And then you’ll probably have lots of items that you created and cooked in your inventory so you’ll take them to your little shop. You can place them there and they’ll be sold over the course of the day… your granny takes care of them, and then you can go off and explore.” While exploring the world, we can walk, ride our bike, and unlock train stations to get around faster. “Essentially it’s all about that exploration and foraging, because you can really take your time, you can explore those beautiful environments, and then what you’ve found, you can take that back, you can cook something with it or craft something with it, and then put that in your store and sell that the next day, and fulfill some orders in your garden.” Höge refers to playing Animal Crossing, saying, “I just noticed that, for me, I would really love to have a bit more engagement and direction than Animal Crossing is offering.” To that end, Wholesome – Out and About will feature daily quests. “Those daily quests are really interesting, I’m a big fan of them myself, because they’ll be all about the characters and curing some problems that they’re having,” she explains. “So for example, I have a long list of medical conditions and herbal remedies for them, so through the daily quests, you’ll learn about nutrition, what kind of herbal cures you can use to heal certain kinds of problems. If you have a headache, for example, the character could tell you to get meadowsweet and make a tincture from it, or a tea, or if they have a fever, that also works… the daily quests are really the things that I’m looking forward to the most. There’ll be a lot of them, and so you’ll find different ones every day, that give you something to do, something to forage for, something to look for, and then that improves your friendship with the characters and allows you to level up and unlock more dialogue and that kind of thing.’

Höge says these daily quests will likely be the “main way” of helping the townsfolk and making friends. “We’ll have a really beautiful storyline in the first actual seasons, the first days of the game, essentially, but then we’ll let the player loose, and they can choose to do what they want to do. In that case, the daily quests will be something they can come back to and do every day, to engage with the characters, to help them out, and of course you can also gift them things.”

One of Wholesome – Out and About’s core aims is to encourage players to take what they learn in the game and apply it to the real world; for instance, trying out the crafting recipes in the game, in real life. There will be a lot of these recipes: “in my spreadsheet currently, I have like 180 recipes, and I love all of them,” Höge says. “I did create a lot of them myself as well, so for example something that’s in there that I created is spruce tip jelly. Spruce tips come out in spring… You can harvest them, you can eat them like this as well, they’re very high in vitamin C, but you can also put them in water and make a spruce tip jelly, which is super delicious on any kind of bread.” Another of these recipes is the meadowsweet tincture; “something I did for my mum and aunt, and they are using it all the time because it clears up headaches,” Höge explains. “If you take it before, when you get that tingly feeling, then it actually makes the headache disappear… there will be other things that are super cool, like a shampoo made with conkers — you can also use them for washing machines, you can use conkers for laundry… I’ve always been into face tonics and masks and everything, there’ll be lots of face masks or chamomile face tonic, that clears up your skin… most of these recipes are really not hard at all, that’s the beauty of it.” Making these recipes in real life, as Höge says, “saves you money and reduces the amount of plastic that you then put out into the world.”

What’s the world like?

“You will always be able to just go out there and explore,” Höge begins. “We have a similar day and night cycle to Stardew Valley, so if you go into the world and walk for 20 minutes, you might not have enough time to make it back. That’s why the ways of getting around with the train and bike are so important.” She continues to say, “the open world was super important to me because I’m not a big fan of just opening different levels; I noticed that when I played Animal Crossing New Horizons, I loved exploring the new islands, but they were super tiny, and there was nothing on there.” Interestingly, she explains that the game’s map as “being like half the size of Breath of the Wild; it’s maybe slightly smaller than that, it’s definitely big enough — it’s definitely quite big for an indie game.” There will be different biomes to explore, such as boreal forests, temperate forests, wetland, coastal land, and grassland. “We have these different biomes that you’d normally see in the European and North American regions. That means we’ll also have the plants and the fungi of the North American and European regions.”

Höge has plenty of plans for possible future content, too. “What we’ll then do in the future is add islands, because the game is located at the coast… once we’ve actually launched with the main land, and maybe a few smaller islands… then we will essentially be putting islands on top of there, we can release those as updates or DLC, and those will then be completely new biomes or zones.” For instance, she suggests a Mediterranean zone, where you could grow things like oranges and peaches. “And then in the future, we’ll add lots of other islands and regions.’

Any news on the Wholesome – Out and About achievements?

We don’t yet have the Wholesome – Out and About achievements. “What happens with achievements is that achievements will be one of the last things that we add,” Höge tells us, “but of course I already have the outline of what kind of different categories of achievements there will be. I think the most important thing for me as a player myself and as a game designer, is I want to make achievements more of an active part of a game; normally it’s like, ‘oh you unlocked this achievement,’ that’s it, you get a banner, maybe a stamp… I’d love to actually put more rewards into the whole process of achievements.” One idea Höge suggested is the possibility of an in-game reward: “You know, if you found 50 berries, you unlock a berry dye; it would be something you’d be more looking forward to do. I haven’t designed them in full yet,” she continues, “but I know the approach that I want to take is to look at it and say, ‘how can we make achievements more an integral part of the gameplay.’”

One of Wholesome – Out and About’s core aims is to encourage real-life experiences through its gameplay, and we wondered how this message might be reflected in the game’s achievements. “if the community has any ideas, I’d love to hear it,” Höge says. “I was once thinking of a step counter; in the menu, giving you the ability to put in the steps that you’ve walked in your day, to then translate to the steps you can walk inside the game — but that would still be something that players could choose to do on their own, and it would only be a limitation that they would place on themselves.” Höge has a wealth of possible ideas for the future. Commenting on the Pokémon centres in Pokémon Go, Höge suggests an idea for something similar in Wholesome – Out and About. “I’d love to at some point mark natural spaces, woods, or nature reserves; I’d love to make those places you could go and maybe scan a code, and then you could unlock a reward in the game. I’d love to do that, but that would cost a bit… I think that what people need to realise is that technically we can do a lot, if we just have enough money to sustain the development. As an indie developer, a lot of the studios just die at birth, just because they don’t have the money to sustain themselves. And then these people go and work for AAA companies or another studio. It really is all about, if we can engage the community, if we have a good amount of base sales, and people coming back to buy the DLC, we could potentially do anything. That’s what I’m trying to do with this community-driven approach, is like, having people in my Discord channel, asking them: ‘What kind of regions do you want us to add next?’ and seeing where their interest lies, and using that data to make the next decisions. There could even be the potential to, if someone raises a good point about a feature that other people would love to have, we could then integrate that.”

Höge’s ideas for the future of Wholesome – Out and About include possible content for years to come. This includes more islands to explore. “I have a really big vision for this game, that also is kind of rooted in the business model for it,” she begins. “I want to build this game that can become a second home in a way — a place where you can log in and relax and explore, you’ll have your routine, and you can learn… in the future I would add all kinds of new features — that can be new DLC with actual new gameplay features like fishing, bird watching, and wildlife watching. Ideally, at some point, I’d like a farm so you can have farm animals and then horses, bee-keeping; there’s so much interesting knowledge there about real things that I can integrate,” she continues. “So that’s one level. The other level is definitely the areas; so new islands with a Mediterranean region, an Asian region; I’d love to put an Indian and Australian landscape in there that could look like the real thing. Through the game, you would learn about these cultures, because you’d be able to explore new towns, meet new characters, learn recipes… and then learn about their local plants and mushrooms — essentially, dive in and learn about another culture.” As Höge points out, “if we have a good player base and we get enough money in to sustain development, we could cover the whole world at some point. Really just a second world that you could learn in and use as inspiration for your travels and cooking and crafting and daily life.”

Other ideas include smaller updates. The word ‘battle pass’ is used so much… but the concept behind it is that you have constant new stuff. I love that idea. So I would love to work with cooking and crafting magazines, professionals that do knitting, sewing, crafting, and then getting all of this knowledge into the game as well; so not just big DLC like fishing, but ‘hey, now we have pottery,’ now you can learn about how to do pottery and how it works and you can download these instructions and make it in real life, and add all of these real life skills as smaller updates. That’s the dream.”

Then comes her “really big vision… I’m hoping my community will understand it when I pitch it to them,” Höge says. “You know Etsy, right? Etsy connects people who craft cool things to people who want to buy cool crafted things. Etsy isn’t really treating their sellers right, so that’s a whole different thing 1 in the end, what the metaverse means for a lot of game companies is ‘we’re going to create digital stuff and then charge people for it, and then that’s the metaverse, yay.’ Everything will be full of ads, and you’ll just be able to buy digital real estate. I’m not a fan. My metaverse strategy is more like having a platform like Etsy,” she continues. “If you learned a skill like sewing through the game, you could then decide to sew something and then add it as an item to the game, because you could upload it and it would scan itself as a 3D model, and then you could sell it in real life as well. That’s my endgame. Why not create a healthy metaverse?” Ideally, it seems the aim behind Wholesome – Out and About “is to become a healthy metaverse that can engage and add this real life value by connecting people who craft and create cool things to people who want to buy it and decorate their home with it.” Höge describes her “big vision of this wholesome metaverse — like Etsy meets games.”

So, feature updates, skill updates, and areas could all be on the cards for Wholesome – Out and About. “I’m a gamer who loves to invest themself in a game, but then also see the effort come back,” Höge says. “I don’t want to invest myself in a game that I know is maybe going to end too soon, I often feel like I want to create something that stays around for a long while and has this positive impact… As long as we have the funding to sustain development, we will continue working on this project.”

So, what do you think? Will you be exploring Wholesome – Out and About? Let us know in the comments!