The Game
Hundred Days – Winemaking Simulator is a beautifully simple and cosy simulation game about making wine (as is quite obvious from the title). Developed by Broken Arms Games, the story follows a woman who leaves the busy city life in order to make a mark on the world of winemaking – something she doesn’t know much about, but through the assistance of the experienced winemakers of the vineyard, quickly becomes second nature.
The game’s simple yet beautiful aesthetic compliments the simple mechanics – each action or operation on your vineyard is represented as a “tetris” style block which you must place in a grid before ending the the turn and advancing time.
Worth it?
The game will set you back around £25, but you can find it on sale or CD keys for around half of that. The game is also available for free with the PS Plus Premium tier. The campaign and story only last 100 turns/days, which does feel like quite a short time, but you have the option of playing endless after that. This is where you can really explore all the game has to offer in terms of research, upgrading your various buildings and production line, purchasing new plots of land to work and the various wines you can make.
Overall it’s definitely a nice cosy game that will keep you busy for a few hours at a time. Longer term it is a bit repetitive and once you’ve unlocked the majority of the research tree it loses it’s replay value a bit. This makes it a little hard to justify the full cost of the game, but the aesthetics, music and overall vibe of the game make it a great game to unwind, relax and enjoy a nice glass of wine with – even if only for a few evenings.
Tips
- Upgrading your shop and warehouse to allow you to sell to more customers and do special orders
- Unlock more of the grid before purchasing additional plots of land to work
- You can stagger when your wines will be ripe by pruning them differently
- Trial and error – a lot of the game is about trial and error to find the perfect process for each type of win – some require aging, others don’t
- You don’t always need to hit the ideal levels for each wine to get a good score
- Make sure you finish seasonal work within the season to avoid impacting the quality of your wines and any upcoming work
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