Myulk: kampen om det öppna landskapet

Myulk is a combined adventure and farming management game, in Swedish (mixed menu text & un-captioned spoken language).

The adventure part is a classic point&click adventure with 2D characters in Myst-style 3D rendered backgrounds with a few animations, where the protagonist has inherited a decrepit farm 'Öppnaäng' (Openmeadow), and needs to get it up and running. This involves a gnome-like figure from the Swedish folklore; a 'Tomte' called Yul, who is traditionally helpful, provided the farmer treats him right; and in this game he gives you advice about the farms various animals and warns you about an ill-meaning tree creature called 'Slymmer' who is trying to make the farm fail and turn into a dark forest.

The farm and fields are initially overgrown with roots originating from this 'Slymmer' character, and you need to pick up items, navigate mazes and find a means to remove these roots, eventually removing Slymmer from his den (but he is not yet defeated). This takes up the first year of your farming career.

The second part of the game involves more of a dairy-farm management game, and you have two more years to make the farm economically sound. The actual farm work is not directly interactive, but is represented by the advancing clock/calendar and icons showing the work being done, your job is allocating your time & money to farming tasks of varying urgency.

You are also supposed to get a number of documents from the nearby 'Någelunda' (Sumwhat) town archives to first prove ownership of the farm, then get a bank loan to purchase farm machinery and cows, and you also need a veterinary certificate for your cows so you can lab-test & sell their milk to the Swedish dairy producer Arla (who is also a sponsor and publisher for the game). Of course the administrative tasks are a bit convoluted, and requires both flattery and trickery to get the civil servants to do your bidding.

Things can also break down on the farm, some things can be repaired by yourself, but for other faults you have to call repairmen and to not lose time you may need to hire a farmhand helper to succeed. The time for farming tasks are partly pre-defined, you always need 8 hours to sleep, and 3 hours to milk and feed the cows, but the rest of the day can be used as you wish or need; plowing/seeding/fencing the meadows/mending broken items etc. There is a weather-predictor device (that you have to make work) that tells you of the weather for the next six days, which sets limits on how long you can spend on harvesting on your own, or if you need extra help in case of impeding rain.

During the second and third years you also have to find more items for a magic weapon to finally banish the evil Slymmer from the farm. The final battle is a series of simple action sequences, and only after a successful battle you will get the blessings of Yul to continue running the farm, provided it also is economically viable.