Demos are a great way to reel in players and secure a purchase. So much so, that Steam held a Next Fest recently, chock full of previews so players could add to their ever-growing wishlists to get excited for. Smack dab at the top of mine is Bobo Bay, a game inspired by the Chao Garden portions of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2. This creature interaction was where I spent most of my time in those games, training and caring for these adorable little critters, and I’m thrilled to revisit it now that NewFutureKids has released a Public Alpha on Steam.

With a massive garden and a schedule of events, Bobo Bay is looking even more expansive than its source material. The small dev team has been excellent in providing development updates on both its YouTube and other social media. What was once just a minigame is now the focal point, and with a lot of fan attention, this public alpha will draw even more attention to what appears to be a super-promising idea. Even if there are bugs or things missing, this is an excellent opportunity for fans to provide feedback and work out the kinks at this juncture of development.

While Bobo Bay‘s tentative release date is looking like Q4 2025, that just means there’s ample time to polish and not rush any aspect of the dev process. As communicated on X (formerly Twitter), this public alpha will have several hours of content, which is more than enough to appease any newcomers or longtime followers. We will be sure to report back once we’ve gotten some quality hours in with Bobo Bay to inform you of our thoughts. Here’s hoping this is everything it’s cracked up to be and we’ll see if we get even more updates ahead of the 1.0 release!

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