Milkmaid of the Milky Way

The puzzle adventure game takes place in space and in 1920s Norway.[2] The main character is Ruth, a milkmaid living alone with her cows on a farm in a Nordic fjord in the 1920s.[3] The game's story begins with Ruth doing tasks and chores on her farm, longing for a different life after the mysterious disappearance of her mother and death of her father.[4] Then a spaceship flies overhead and abducts her cows from a field. Ruth has to get on the wing of the ship as it flies away, and figures out how to get inside to rescue her friends the cows.[5] Later gameplay involves an intergalactic feud involving an oppressive monarch, and other characters such as an oracle, and space cows.[6][7]

The game is a point-and-click adventure game.”[3] Players start by exploring the farm and surrounding area, encountering various challenges and puzzles.[4] The game allows both running and walking speed.[7][8] Early tasks include milking cows, patching the roof, making cheese, and also rescuing a lost cow.[4] Puzzle solving is used to get through obstacles, not leveling up, and the skills learned in the first day are useful later on in the game.[9] In between gameplay, there are also animated video clips to move the story along.[4] On day two, the game becomes a science fiction venture concerning alien situations.[4] When a spaceship abducts Ruth’s cows, Ruth has to get on the wing of the ship as it flies away and figure out how to get inside.[5]

The game was independently developed by Mattis "machineboy" Folkestad, a developer in Oslo, Norway. He got illustrator Natalie Foss to make the cover.[10] He worked on the project over two years, in his free time while also working a full-time job.[4] The game was initially released for iOS.[4] In January 2017, this was followed by a release for Steam (for Windows and Mac) and Apple’s Mac App Store.[4] It only came out for Android on May 18, 2017.[11] The soundtrack is available on iTunes.[10]

While the images are done in a pixelated style, the backgrounds are hand-painted with a pastel color palette.[8] The game is completely written in rhyme, and is available in English, French, and Norwegian.[10][8]

The Microsoft Windows version of the game was given a score of 74 out of 100 by Metacritic, a review aggregation website.[1] Adventure Gamers praised its story, but complained about the rhyming and lack of hints, giving it 3.5 out of 5 stars overall.[13] Stuff.tv gave it 4/5 stars, stating the script had moments like a Douglas Adams story, and the “entire project feels like a concise, modern take on a classic Lucasfilm game.”[6] Gamezebo thought it was “charmingly retro.”[9]

iDigitalTimes gave it 5/5,[10][4] saying that it was “already a strong contender for one of the best mobile games of 2017,” because of its “engaging storyline, beautiful graphics and clever gameplay.”[4] Macworld thought that “everything about Milkmaid of the Milky Way has clearly been carefully designed, and the result is gorgeous.”[7] Also, Pocket Gamer gave the game the “Pocket Game Silver Award."[3]