New Day

About New Day

New Day is a single player management game with a horror theme. It was developed by Scrapbook Studios and was released on December 25, 2024. It received positive reviews from players.

Welcome... to New Day! New Day is an upcoming life simulation game where almost anything can happen! Create your own islanders, design their apartments, and get involved with their day-to-day life as they divulge into unexpected friendships, problems, and more! Within New Day, you'll be able to use the Islander Creator to create your very own original islanders! The Islander Creator featur…

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Reviews

88%Audience ScoreBased on 952 reviews

gameplay12 positive mentions

grinding21 negative mentions

Highly customizable character creation with many options including species, traits, and makeup.
Fun and charming gameplay with multiple minigames and a cozy, silly vibe reminiscent of Tomodachi Life.
Completely free and openly developed with regular updates, fostering an engaged community and promising future improvements.

The game is in early access with limited content and features, leading to repetitive gameplay and grinding for money.
Poor optimization and long loading times cause lag and crashes on some systems.
Inconsistent art style, clunky UI, lack of interaction between islanders, and some frustrating design choices reduce immersion and polish.

gameplay
79 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15% positive mentions, 74% neutral mentions, 11% negative mentions
The gameplay is simple, minimalistic, and focuses on creating a relaxing, mood-driven life simulation with customizable characters and social interactions, including unique relationship dynamics. While some players enjoy the variety of activities like fishing, events, and island customization, many note the current limited mechanics, lack of tutorials, repetitive loops, bugs, and unfinished features, making it more suited for those preferring a slow-paced, casual experience rather than deep or action-oriented gameplay. Ongoing development promises expanded content and improvements, which could enhance long-term engagement.
- “One particularly interesting mechanic is that relationships are not always mutual, meaning a character may admire someone who has little interest in returning those feelings.”
- “While the game can easily become a relaxing and wholesome life simulator, it also includes optional mechanics involving violence, firearms, murder, and other darker scenarios for players interested in creating more dramatic stories.”
- “The gameplay is simple, the villagers are super customizable, and they even have non-binary and aromantic options for those that don't care much for romance in their games.”
- “Too many systems appear to be placeholders, while basic features either are not implemented yet or do not provide enough meaningful gameplay to justify the grind.”
- “As for the gameplay, it gets very repetitive, especially since there are only a few ways to make money, with only a few actually being efficient, and nearly everything required within the game is absurdly overpriced (ex: making a drawing for an islander, which costs $50 for some reason).”
- “Unfortunately, the mechanics are so bad that it makes the game extremely tedious to play.”
graphics
52 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15% positive mentions, 79% neutral mentions, 6% negative mentions
The game's graphics feature a cute, calm, and charming aesthetic with a soft color palette, but many reviewers highlight significant inconsistencies in art style and quality, ranging from low-resolution assets to mismatched designs. While the simplistic visuals have potential and generally run well on low-end hardware, the overall presentation feels unpolished, rough, and sometimes rushed, which detracts from the experience. Improvements in graphical polish, style uniformity, and UI clarity are needed for a more cohesive and appealing visual identity.
- “The visuals are clean and serene, with a soft color palette that sets a calming tone.”
- “The graphics are absolutely stunning, with vibrant colors and lush landscapes.”
- “The atmosphere of the game is nice, and the graphics are pretty good for the style of the game.”
- “I also think some of the 2D graphics need polish, as they’re not consistent with each other in style and quality.”
- “A lot of the drawn assets in the game were clearly drawn in less than 5 minutes. There are many varying art styles, as if they just asked a Discord server to draw a bunch of assets willy-nilly.”
- “The art style is extremely inconsistent, and it makes everything look generally bad.”
humor
42 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The humor in the game is a mixed bag, often described as quirky, dark, and whimsical with moments of clever wit and satire, especially in its lore and character interactions. However, many find the humor inconsistent, relying heavily on random, edgy, or outdated memes and rude character behavior that can feel more off-putting than funny. While some players appreciate its unique charm and dark undertones, others see the humor as forced, repetitive, or abrasive, detracting from their overall enjoyment.
- “It feels like it's some kind of ARG or there's some kind of weird deeper mystery going on with it, and every now and then you'll just get a random piece of lore like "oh the earth was destroyed" and it's hilarious whiplash.”
- “I also like the little bits of dark humor, such as Toasty's backstory, and the fact that you can play a card-based version of Russian roulette with your islanders (in one mode you can either lose all your money or have your islander become a ghost, in another you either have the islander or the entire save file deleted), as well as its potential to actually be a bit of a horror experience if you're playing it that way.”
- “The writing, humor, graphics, music, and gameplay are all just so delightful.”
grinding
21 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions
Grinding in the game is widely criticized for being tedious, repetitive, and slow, with limited and uninspired mini-games that quickly become boring. Earning currency to afford items feels overly grindy and unbalanced, detracting from the overall enjoyment. While some appreciate the simplicity of bug collecting for passive income, the current money-making mechanics need improvement to make the game more engaging and less frustrating.
- “Grinding money is extremely repetitive and takes way too long.”
- “I don't think I'll consider playing this again until they improve their money-making system; it's incredibly tedious grinding mini-games just to afford one or two things, honestly a big waste of time that makes the game not fun to play.”
- “It's bland and boring, and you have to keep grinding just to get enough currency to buy a decent outfit.”
music
19 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
42% positive mentions, 42% neutral mentions, 16% negative mentions
The music in the game is widely praised for being enjoyable, relaxing, and fitting the cute, peaceful atmosphere without becoming boring. The soundtrack, including congratulatory tunes, is highlighted as a standout feature, though some players note audio balancing issues and occasional abrupt volume changes. Overall, the music enhances the charming and delightful vibe of the gameplay but could benefit from finer sound mixing and less repetitive UI sounds.
- “Paired with gentle music, it creates a space that feels peaceful but never boring.”
- “The writing, humor, graphics, music, and gameplay are all just so delightful.”
- “I do like a lot of the UI elements and the music is great; it's very NDS-esque and is a joy to listen to while playing.”
- “A lot of new players will see grammatical issues, an ugly art style, a laggy performance, and slow dialogue text with too-loud music and too-abrasive islander 'voices', and will immediately uninstall.”
- “For the devs, I mean music suddenly getting louder and my actions not registering so islanders stay hungry or something until I move to the next room.”
- “Especially the congratulatory sound that plays whenever you do something right in cooking or catch a fish, especially when the current song is completely stopped for this sound effect. In the case of cooking, you get a 5-second UI showing somebody holding their thumbs up, when it would be better to just have a 'perfect!' text box and quickly skip to the next task. Sometimes less can be more, especially when these are repeated actions that players wouldn't want to drag on.”
story
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11% positive mentions, 72% neutral mentions, 17% negative mentions
The story in "New Day" is an abstract, player-driven narrative with underlying lore and dark humor, blending lighthearted community-building with hints of darker, horror-like elements. While some story arcs and NPC interactions show promise, the current content is limited and draws inspiration from other games, leaving much potential for future development. Overall, the story complements the sandbox and emergent gameplay but may feel underdeveloped at this early access stage.
- “Let me list all the things the game has right now: fishing, shopping, full character customization, a fish tank to maintain, a baby clicker that you need to maintain, islanders that you need to maintain, garden that you need to maintain, apartment customization, a job system with their own story arcs, a mock social media feature, and there's plans for other features for the future.”
- “I also like the little bits of dark humor (such as Toasty's backstory, well, what I've seen of it) and the fact that you can play a card-based version of Russian roulette with your islanders. In one mode, you can either lose all your money or have your islander become a ghost; in another, you either have the islander or the entire save file deleted. It also has the potential to be a bit of a horror experience if you're playing it in a way where it could be seen like that.”
- “The Memomart & Kiki story is just Stardew's Jojamart & Pierre repackaged.”
- “The story is pretty abstract and open to interpretation.”
- “This kind of game doesn't need story.”
optimization
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20% positive mentions, 60% neutral mentions, 20% negative mentions
The game's optimization is inconsistent, with many users reporting poor performance, frequent crashes, and lag even on high-end PCs or low settings. While some find it playable on modest hardware when settings are adjusted, others experience overheating, long loading times, and unresponsive gameplay, detracting significantly from the experience. Overall, significant improvements are needed to ensure smoother performance and better graphical consistency across different systems.
- “The presentation favors charm over realism, helping the island feel lively and approachable while maintaining smooth performance on modest hardware.”
- “No performance issues on max settings either which is so common now on my poor older computer.”
- “If it could be changed or optimized in some way for people with low graphics that would be awesome!”
- “I have a high-end gaming PC and I had to turn on optimization to get the game to work.”
- “Forgot to mention, that even with a really good PC, this game is very poorly optimized, so much so that it freezes for every single action.”
- “My next thing is how horribly optimized the game is, even playing with the lower end settings I only have 50 mins of playtime.”
stability
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions
The game suffers from frequent bugs, crashes, and freezing issues, especially during loading and saving, making it unstable for consistent play. Despite these stability problems and poor optimization, many users find the gameplay enjoyable and hopeful for future improvements as it is still in early access.
- “I downloaded this game yesterday and have tried to open it many times, but it keeps crashing. Every time I try to start a new save, it freezes at 18% on the loading screen and either crashes or stays frozen until I manually close the app. It even crashed and restarted my device once. I tried deleting the save file as a fix, but it didn't work. This game is full of bugs, and many have lost their saves after the update. It has potential in the future, but right now it's quite sloppy.”
- “It starts the game normally: I press play, the little guy with a pou talks, I enter my island's name, and then it glitches at 7%. It improves until 9%, then the game freezes with a Unity popup, and the game closes itself. I can't play because of this.”
- “Save feature is buggy right now after the update, and I lost my island that I worked on for hours. I really like the new updates and recommend playing at least once, but you might want to wait until it's fully developed.”
atmosphere
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43% positive mentions, 57% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The game features a calm, cozy atmosphere with a colorful and inviting art style that encourages relaxed exploration at your own pace. It emphasizes soaking in the experience rather than winning, creating a peaceful, walking simulator-like vibe. While generally praised, some early release bugs can occasionally disrupt immersion.
- “The atmosphere feels calm and cozy, and there’s something nice about simply going through the daily routines and exploring at your own pace without the game constantly rushing you.”
- “It’s not about winning or losing but rather about taking your time and soaking in the atmosphere.”
- “Visually, the game adopts a colorful and inviting art direction that complements its relaxed atmosphere.”
emotional
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The game offers a broad emotional range, from a relaxing and wholesome life simulation to darker, more dramatic themes involving violence and moral dilemmas. Players report strong emotional attachment and intense, sometimes unsettling narrative experiences that deeply impact their feelings.
- “While the game can easily become a relaxing and wholesome life simulator, it also includes optional mechanics involving violence, firearms, murder, and other darker scenarios for players interested in creating more dramatic stories.”
- “I'm emotionally attached to this game; also, some eldritch being keeps telling me to kill my islanders??”
- “One of my characters adopted a baby, then Frederick told me they had a baby that I should take; when I declined, he told me he was basically going to kill the baby and made me feel guilty for telling him no.”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
Users appreciate the engaging character design and customization options, including sexuality, pronouns, and species, but feel that the limited hairstyle choices restrict deeper character creation and development. Overall, the character development is enjoyable but could benefit from more variety, especially in hairstyles.
- “Making characters like Kris and Susie from Deltarune is fun because of the interesting character design.”
- “The character designer is fun, and it has some strong points like sexuality, pronouns, voice, species, and wings depending on the species chosen. However, more hairstyle options would improve the experience, as currently many characters share similar hairstyles with slight variations.”
- “Four hours of progress, character design and such, gone like that.”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 50% negative mentions
The game's sandbox design promotes replayability by ensuring each island develops uniquely, but the current limited options, due to its early access state, reduce overall replay value for some players.
- “Its sandbox design encourages replayability because no two islands are likely to develop in exactly the same way.”
- “Most things are locked, which makes sense with the game's early access state, but the problem with limited options in a life simulation game is that there's not enough replay value for me.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The game features a completely free experience with no microtransactions, making it appealing by allowing players to explore and provide feedback without any financial commitment.
- “The decision to keep the experience completely free without microtransactions also makes it especially appealing, allowing players to explore its systems and contribute feedback without financial commitment.”