Description

Chico and the Magic Orchards is an action-puzzle game. Players take control of Chico the chipmunk, exploring stages and trying to get a giant walnut to the goal.

The game was designed with "dual mode" gameplay in mind: when players are controlling just Chico they are free to jump over obstacles and press switches, while with the walnut in hand they can use it to interact with other puzzle elements, and roll it into hard-to-reach places.

The game was designed to evoke the feel of a classic handheld game, specifically Nintendo Game Boy games from the original monochrome era. However, it has of course been updated with modern conveniences; such as remappable controls, customizable color palettes and widescreen border art, auto-saves, and more.

History

The Beginning

Chico started its life as a game jam entry for Retrograde Jam 2, a ten day event that ran from July 2nd to July 11th of 2021. The goal of the jam is to produce a game that simulates "everything that made gaming in the early 90s great!"

Nick Ver Voort (Daikon Games) created the entry working solo, and over the course of the ten day window created what would be the foundation of Chico and the Magic Orchards. The game jam version is still available to play on itch.io

Road to 1.0

Chico ended up being the first place winning entry in the jam, with many comments from players that they enjoyed it and really wanted to see it fleshed out into a full game. While Nick was currently pre-occupied with finishing up Song of Asirra Act 1, he kept their comments in mind.

After shipping Song of Asirra Act 1 at the end of 2021, Nick decided it was a great opportunity to take a break and finish Chico. From January 2022 through July 2022, he worked diligently and evolved Chico into the finished product that exists today, becoming Daikon Games' first commercial product.

Chico DX

Chico receieved a positive reception, but one of the few complaints was about the game's length (specifically, that it was on the short side). After the launch, and initial flurry of bug fixes and minor updates, Nick decided that a free update with additional content would be a great way to extend the game's reach.

The update added a new post-game campaign which would take Chico's gameplay in a slightly different direction, with larger exploration-focused stages rather than the short puzzle-packed ones of the base game. Additionally, the update was a great opportunity to introduce enhancements to the entire game, such as accessibility options, more polish, and a full-color mode!

Chico and the Magic Orchards DX launched on January 13th, 2023

Language Support

Post-launch, Chico has been localized into various non-English languages! On February 25th, 2023 the Spanish Language update was launched. A Portuguese language update followed on May 22nd, 2023.

The latest major update for the game launched on October 28th, 2023, adding support for Japanese and Simplified Chinese.