The cute farm sim RPG "Ooblets" has been in development for several years, but no one knows when it will actually be released. Shortly after development was revealed, a publishing deal with Double Fine was announced, but fell through when Double Fine was acquired by Microsoft. The developer, Glumberland, later decided to self-publish the game exclusively on the Epic Games Store, stating at the time that it would speed up development in the long run, but that the first release might be delayed "because it takes time to get up and running."

Ooblets is still sitting on the Epic Games store with a "coming soon" release target, but we still think "its charm and cuteness will certainly make it a highlight of 2020." We boldly included it in our list of the most anticipated games of the year. And it seems we were right.

"I hate to get you excited, but 2020 is the "YEAR OF THE OOB" so "GET EXCITED!" wrote Gramberland in his January development blog. "It's predicted in the prophecy/milestone calendar. That's all I can say right now, so feel free to draw all sorts of wild conclusions."

According to the developers, this is actually not the biggest news of the update. Apparently the really big news is a new activity called "Sea Dangling," which, as far as I can tell, is basic fishing minus the fish.

"I didn't realize there were so many Sea Dangling enthusiasts, but apparently it's a big deal. This concept worked very well at Ooblets."

"The whole thing is tied in with the new Reconstitooter system, which reuses other materials and outputs bait that you can use hanging in the ocean.

The badge system has been changed so that instead of having to track down the mayor to get the badge after unlocking it, which "made sense narratively but was very cumbersome," the mayor now sends Ooblet off as soon as he gets the badge. There are also lots of new animations, a "mysterious pile of cans," new dance moves, some lore, and some "boring stuff" like balancing.

"Our next big thing is to get the Mammonia area in decent shape, fix the obcoops, add a bunch of clubhouses, add a disposable card system, and put in more lore items," Glumberland said. 'It's going to be another busy month.'