Put Stardew Valley and Overcooked in a Blender, and You Get This Charming New RPG

Cosy games might seem a bit ubiquitous these days, but it's difficult to deny that there's something nice about settling down on an evening and farming a few crops or cooking a few meals.

The lack of anything approaching high stakes just means you don't have to lock-in in the same way, and that's a much less taxing proposition for our already beleaguered brains.

So any time a new game pops up that appears to draw from games like Stardew Valley, Overcook and even Animal Crossing, our radars start going off like there's a submarine in the immediate area.

Pao Pao is one such game, an upcoming sandbox set across multiple islands, where players complete quests, search for rare items, farm crops, and even run a little restaurant to your heart's content.

The game can be played solo, or co-op with up to four players total, with a menagerie of anthropomorphic animals who inhabit the game world.

Much of the game is about food, and creating ever more wonderful culinary creations as the owner of a restaurant on one of the islands. Managing that establishment will require you to fish, farm and forage for supplies to make your recipes a reality, and you'll also need to take good care of your patrons at the same time.

Over time, you'll be able to upgrade and improve your establishment, and you'll also be able to head out and explore the semi-open city when you're not on shift.

There's also a bunch of customisation options for your character that allow you to choose from a ton of different animals before adding some additional flair with various outfits and colour options.

To keep things interesting, many of the regular tasks you do will have mini games associated with them, so you'll be very busy, even if you aren't stressed.

Whilst there isn't an exact release date for Pao Pao just yet, the developer has confirmed that it will release at some point in Q4 2025, so any time from October onwards.

If that still feels like too long to wait, they are currently running a playtest that remains open to applicants. To get involved, head to the game's Steam page and request access via the green button link at the top.

There's also no confirmation yet of the game's price, with pre-orders currently unavailable, regardless of whether you're playing on PC, via the Epic Games Store or Steam, or PlayStation.