Staxel: A Grow-o-Explore-a-Decorate-y-Social RPG
Make things, make friends
Wait no stop, don't scroll past! Yes, I know that screen may look like just another Minecraftbut and yes, finding out the game's named Staxel [official site] does nothing to help that perception, but Staxel is not quite what you may think. It's a sandbox RPG of small town life, with gardening and crafting and socialising and exploring and farming and decorating and collecting bugs and... I do like the sound of that. Planning to launch the game in 2016, the developers have now dropped the first trailer. See:
"Oh so like Animal Crossing," you may mutter, but not that either. I understand comparison is an easy way to get a handle on things, but you're being a bit reductive now and I don't appreciate that. Just wait, okay? I'll explain. It's an open-world RPG where you can live a little fantasy life, perhaps going off into the woods and befriending elves or simply trying to make a lovely house. It'll have oodles of crops, flowers, bugs, and other things, some of which may be used in interesting ways.
Speaking about the puzzling dungeons hiding rare treasures and recipes, the developers hint "Will you need to grow a rare flower as a key to open a door?" That sounds lovely, that - nicer than hacking a monster to bits so you can rifle through its pockets (or guts) for a magic key.
It'll have both singleplayer and multiplayer.
Staxel is making a run at Steam Greenlight, where you'll find more info on what the game is. The devs haven't yet decided whether they'll release the game properly, or drop into Early Access first.