Cozy life sim Palia arrives on Steam, celebrates with big friendly frog

Palia first launched on PC in 2023, and rolled out onto the Nintendo Switch. Now, the free-to-play life simulator game can be downloaded from Steam. The new platform for Palia coincides with patch 0.178, which is focused around celebrating spring. If you haven’t had a chance to sample this Stardew Valley-style game, now’s a great time to start foraging, farming, and building your own cozy little house in Kilima Valley.

In Palia, the player awakens from a long stasis in a world that had nearly forgotten humanity. Now that humans are back, they have to re-integrate with the elves and golems of Kilima Valley and Bahari Bay. Luckily, it’s a peaceful place, with lots of room to explore, garden, cook, and catch fish and/or bugs.

Patch 0.178 introduces a new elemental temple. After going through water, fire, and air themed temples in previous updates, players are now going to delve into the Temple of the Roots with the eccentric golem Einar. Each temple comes with a series of quests that, when completed, open up bundles of collective goods to fulfill. Those who can find all of the bundled items earn handsome rewards, like a new cosmetic for their home, or a new fish entering the ecosystem.

Appropriately for spring, the new patch also includes new flowers. Catching bugs in Kilima Valley has the chance to drop flower seeds, which can then be planted around your plot. Home decorating and building is one of the biggest parts of Palia’s appeal, so it’s nice to see new ways to spruce up your home.

Developer and publisher Singularity 6 has also shared a roadmap for development, which includes new building blocks and structures, a new level of friendship to earn with villagers, pathways and walkways for your plot, and a map grid for easier coordination.

As for the giant frog, affectionately dubbed Frogbert, he’s just hanging out in Kilima Valley as a reward from Singularity 6 for all of those who added Palia to their Steam wishlist. We can only hope this big froggy boy has good intentions, because if he chooses, he could crush us all underfoot. I, for one, welcome our new Frogbert overlord.