12 is Better Than 6
12 is Better Than 6
Game
Game2020
Summer in Mara
Developer Chibig
Take care of your own island and sail with your boat in this cozy farming adventure! Relax and unwind exploring a tropical archipelago or harvesting your own crops while helping others. Discover the story of Summer in Mara, with farming, crafting and exploring mechanics. From the Steam store page
224 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 26, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
63
Fresh
112 positive · 67 negative
95% range 55–69%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 112 | 67 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 17 | 1 | 21 |
| Mastodon * | 1 | 0 | 5 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
776 of 1,069 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
62% recommend · 114 yes, 70 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 184 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mostly Positive (1,649 of 2,203 positive).
Players find the game relaxing and charming, with a heartwarming story and cute art style. [1][2][3] Many reviewers criticize the repetitive fetch quests and time-wasting design. [4][5][6] Some players note bugs, poor keyboard controls, and a lack of polish. [7][8][9]
Liked
Representative posts
- [5]
I have a soft spot for games chasing the Stardew Valley formula: relaxing farming, interconnected systems, and satisfying gameplay. That is why I played this game to completion against my better judgment. Do not follow my example. This is not just a game full of fetch quests. It is a game that actively wastes your time. Quests are structured to send you back and forth between distant NPCs for no meaningful reason, …
- [6]
This is a promising game premise absolutely buried under really bad game design. The quests are probably the worst I've seen in any game are just so mind numbingly boring. Talk to this person, trek all the way across an island, talk to this person. Oh you're missing this item go allll~ the way back home and then rinse and repeat for so many hours. The most promising part of this game would be the sea sections but …
- [1]
Wasn't sure if I should give it a positive or negative review but I spent over 20 hours in this and got all achievements done. Why would I lie to myself and say "don't play it!"!? It was relaxing, cut, summery now when it's dark and cold outside. Easy quests, relaxing farming and lots of exploring to do. A lot of conversations in text, since there's no voices, so I can admit that i fast forwarded like every quests …
- [4]
A tentative recommend with BIG caveats: - The game is very repetitive, mostly consisting of fetch quests, so you will likely want to have a podcast or a video running on a second monitor to not die of boredom - The UI feels incomplete, like it was shipped mid-development. It's missing tons of button hints, UI prompts and tutorials, which makes it sometimes very confusing to understand what are you supposed to do …
- [3]
This is a truly lovely and family-friendly game. It deals (gently) with themes of environmentalism, death/loss/memory, neighbors and community, and more. The gameplay loop never grew tedious to me, although at times figuring out what I needed to do next from cryptic quest log text ("Something interesting will happen soon! - meant I had to sail to a specific map spot, as one example) required me to check a guide …
Summarised from 34 of the 230 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 12, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
Players who liked Summer in Mara talk about relaxing and cozy atmosphere with nice visuals; those who didn't talk about repetitive fetch quests that waste time. Which matters more to you?
Reactions
60 of 224 · most liked firstThis game is fun overall but has some big issues and things that could be improved upon. Fast travel: its great when you have no money because its free but if you are saving up for something, it gets pricy. and its incredibly annoying and time consuming running/sailing around. having a better means of transportation or a free fast travel would help alot If you jump off your boat a little too soon you get stuck in the water and swimming is quite slow. You have to swim around to a place where…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have a soft spot for games chasing the Stardew Valley formula: relaxing farming, interconnected systems, and satisfying gameplay. That is why I played this game to completion against my better judgment. Do not follow my example. This is not just a game full of fetch quests. It is a game that actively wastes your time. Quests are structured to send you back and forth between distant NPCs for no meaningful reason, padding playtime with what feels like fake gameplay. There were multiple moments…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Score: ◆◆◇◇◇ (2/5) Do you like fetch quests? Do you LOVE fetch quests? Do you spend EVERY WAKING MOMENT dreaming of fetch quests? Then you'll love Summer in Mara. Look, I don't like tearing down indie devs, especially ones from underrepresented countries in the industry (Spain in this case). This also seems to be the first major release from Chibig so I want to cut them some slack, but I just can't see this game holding someone's attention. It's a shame because I enjoy the cartoon…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really wanted to like this game. It looks great, and it starts off as a lot of fun. The story and plot it has at the start is really moving and compelling. But it all kind of just trails off into a bland and boring grind. I have played a ton of relaxing simulator games, and they were just that, relaxing. But they were also interesting too! This game even has that tag, relaxing. But instead, I would say the tag should be changed to 'boring'. There is not a lot to do, and a ton of time waiting…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As other reviews pointed out, this game is a mixed bag as it show a lot of promises but suffer from 2 major issues: 1) does not have a core audience as it is too bland and repetitive for adults, with very simplistic tasks and a game design loop that is not enough to entertain adults as cozy game, and at the same time it is too long to be a game appealing to kids, since it is stretching very much beyond belief to hold the attention of any child or young adult. 2) The story just get lost…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Summer in Mara being given away by Fanatical: www.fanatical.com/en/game/summ... (partner link)
neutral · AI labelView post →Hi! We're Chibig, a small indie gamedev studio from Valencia, Spain ✨ You may know us from Summer in Mara! Currently working on: 🍍 Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara 💫 Mika and the Witch's Mountain 🤏 Elusive People
neutral · AI labelView post →This is a cozy life sim game with adorable artwork that quickly loses steam thanks to its fetch quest design. There are A LOT of quests in this game, and they are as simple as go grow this and bring it to me or cook this and bring it to me. The main problem is that these quests are the money sink in the game. Most of the seeds need to be bought and they are not cheap. It makes sense to hold onto everything that you grow or find in case a quest will require it. The crafting system is also…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You can't rebind the controls. As a keyboard/mouse player, that's an instant 0 out of 10 for me. Useless.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a promising game premise absolutely buried under really bad game design. The quests are probably the worst I've seen in any game are just so mind numbingly boring. Talk to this person, trek all the way across an island, talk to this person. Oh you're missing this item go allll~ the way back home and then rinse and repeat for so many hours. The most promising part of this game would be the sea sections but nothing fills me more with dread than having to go back to the main city to take…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Edit: It wasn't worth the time getting this game for free let alone someone shelling out 20 bucks I'll be honest when I first started playing the game I was surprised that it was free because it felt like it had such a high production value however holy crap just so many stupid gameplay design decisions that just compound on one another that frankly I'm done one of those design decisions is you get quests however if you already did said quest before the quest came up well your crap out of…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a fun game once you get used to the mechanics, but it doesn't have cloud save. This is one of the type of games I think it should since there's many quests and takes you a long while to complete.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I walked away from the game after almost 18 hours. The beachcombing pace was OK for a while, I was discovering new islands, new NPCs, new recipes, and learning new details about the world and Koa (the character you play as). But eventually I realized I didn’t care that much. I began to get annoyed by a few things, like the day/night cycle AND a stamina system; being unsure about what to sell to vendors since it seemed like any item might be needed for a quest; the fishing that requires certain…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →🌸 It's not Summer in Mara. 🏮 It's not Mika and the Witch's Mountain. 🐉 It's not Spyro. But if our indie game reminds you of them… We're probably doing something right! #gamedev #indiegame
neutral · AI labelView post →I really wanted to like Summer in Mara, but honestly, it’s just not worth it. The controller support is a complete disaster no matter what you plug in or how many fixes you try, it never works properly. You end up fighting the game instead of enjoying it. What makes it worse is the devs have clearly walked away from this project. No updates, no fixes, no communication. If you hit a bug (and you will), that’s it! Your save or your progress is basically screwed. It could’ve been a chill…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →fetch quest fest simulator
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Wasn't sure if I should give it a positive or negative review but I spent over 20 hours in this and got all achievements done. Why would I lie to myself and say "don't play it!"!? It was relaxing, cut, summery now when it's dark and cold outside. Easy quests, relaxing farming and lots of exploring to do. A lot of conversations in text, since there's no voices, so I can admit that i fast forwarded like every quests because I got no patience to read it all. I yet found the game interesting…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game Breaking Bug The game has bugged in a way that makes it unplayable. I'm now stuck forever on story line quest 104 of 126 as the item that I needed to turn in has disappeared from my inventory and stopped growing. In addition, a bunch of the characters have stopped spawning leaving me unable to complete any additional side quests. After searching the internet, this also appears to have been an issue that was reported back in 2020 (release year) and has remained unaddressed or fixed by…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There is nothing critically or functionally wrong with this title. However, its marketing trades on an art style, concept, and mechanics that make you want to believe that it as a combat-free, cozy version of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. It is not. That 22-year-old title still has more exploration variety, better characterization, and a more intriguing story than this hopes to aspire to. It might be a bit unfair to compare an indie game to something created by the Nintendo Machine at…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →We got this game to check it out before we bought copies for our kids to play, and it looks like a lot of fun, but I can't remap the keys to be able to play it any length of time with out issues from my carpel tunnel :(
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Summer in Mara is a cozy adventure and farming sim. You play as Koa, a girl who was raised by her adopted grandmother on a tiny island where they live in sync with nature. Before I continue: At the start, the game recommends using a controller, and from what I've read, the mouse and keyboard controls are pretty rough. So if you don't have a controller or don't want to use one, this probably isn't for you. After a short tutorial you're on your own, and your island is a bit of a mess. The…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Until August 13th, you can claim Summer in Mara (Steam) for free on Fanatical by subscribing to their newsletter www.fanatical.com/en/game/summ...
neutral · AI labelView post →Be prepared to suffer some serious hand cramps as you hold down SHIFT to sprint everywhere doing endless fetch quests! Cute, great story, a tug on the heartstrings. So much running though... -_- It pays to have at least 5 of anything in your inventory just in case someone asks for something. Once you have some cash you can fast travel. A bit buggy as hell, but if you exit and re-enter the game, or just finish off the main quests then it seems to sort itself out. Pro-tips: * You need…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What looks like a cozy farming and exploration game is actually a bug riddled mess. I lost count of the number of glitches and other technical issues I came across. Was any playtesting done at all? A lot of these problems have been reported by players but the devs abandoned this game long ago. Aside from that, this game quickly becomes a fetch quest where you will spend almost your time running from point A to B on a bland map. I hope their upcoming game isn't as embarrassing but I wouldn't bet…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Let me start with saying this. This is a fetch quest game. 90% of the game is doing boring uncreative fetch quests, holding w between npcs and your island. Some quests doesnt even give anything, you're just wasting your time reading dialogues and when it does its just a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ reward. You just delivering an items from one npc to another when that npc is 3 meter away. In steam page it says over 20 islands to "explore". Most of those islands are empty, you can explore the whole island in 5min.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Appleseed's Indie Game Of The Day! Day 379) Summer in Mara by Chibig Studios Summer In Mara is a cozy game where you play as Koa - and explore island life to the fullest through farming, crafting and sailing. It's a beautiful game that you can play at your own pace.
positive · AI labelView post →Maybe I'll give it another try later but I genuinely couldn't get into it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The whole game is a giant fetch quest, as others have already mentioned in their reviews. The bad thing about that is, that it often doesn't even make sense. For instance, in one quest, I have to grab some batteries for someone. I already have some in my inventory. But instead of directly giving that person the wanted items, I still had to do something else to - you guessed it - get the exact same items I already had. Then, there's the amount of running around you need to do. At some points…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've put nearly 30 hours into this, so this is more on me...but if there's such a thing as "hate-playing", that's how I felt playing this game. I wanted to complete the story, but the pointless busywork and extraneous dialogue was a slog to make it through. Fetch quest after fetch quest, sail to an island, collect resources, sail to another island, craft something, sail to another island, give it to the character who needs it only to be given another recipe to make, repeat. The island is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game was a gift from a dear friend, Kiki Cakes! This game has some bugs, could use an option for adjusting screen resolution for those with wide monitors and needs some tidying up in the spelling department, but it's nothing that will break the game or ruin any enjoyment. I love the art style, setting and characters and even after the end of the story, I was wanting more and will be playing again for the sandbox mode. This is a mix of being a farming sim, fetch quest and adventure.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Horrible playing experience, can't turn off certain things in the options menu, a lot of things about the gameplay feel clunky. The store page mentions it is compatible with controller, wasnt the case. The handholding and the unending string of unfullfilling fetch quests make this unplayable to me. A shame this game wasn't given the polish it so dearly needs because the art is so precious!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →(Review originally written in November 2025) pros ✔️Nice visuals that captures a very wholesome cozy atmosphere. ✔️Nice music but it can sometimes get repetitive. cons ❌No minimap. only when ur in the boat. ❌A little annoying to always scroll through your long list of quests. ❌Game is sometimes giving u objectives in places on the map where it's yet to be unblocked. ❌At some point the game starts to get old and boring because you go back and forth. Even when you try to remember and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Summer in Mara is the perfect showcase of Chibig's work. It's relaxing and cozy, and that's why their next game, a metroidvania called Elusive, has me curious. Can't wait to see what they do with it #indiegame #indiedev
positive · AI labelView post →This feels like an early prototype that was never finished. It looks nice but there's no game here. There's no game loop, no decisions, no challenge, and no real intrigue. Run to the next place and press A. The only difficulty is I'm often not sure where the next place is. I got bored so fast. My time played is deceiving due to how often I would set the controller down and check my phone or wander off to do something else.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →🚨 FREE GAME ALERT 🚨 🔔 Summer in Mara 💥 Steam keys are on a #Giveaway on #Fanatical 📅 The keys are limited! So Hurry! ☑️ Type: Solo Cozy Adventure ✅ Reviews: Mostly Positive ✴️ SteamDB Rating: 73.01% 🔗 Link:⬇️ www.fanatical.com/en/game/summ... #giveaways #indiegames #IndieGameDev
neutral · AI labelView post →Get Summer in Mara Steam Key for FREE #indie #indiegame #free #steam #freegame www.indiegamebundles.com/summer-in-ma...
neutral · AI labelView post →Summer in Mara is a nice adventure game where you take care of your island: plant and grow fruits and vegetables to cook so many various dishes, take your boat and explore islands. Talk to many characters and do some quests for them. The graphics are great and the ambiant is relaxing... I highly recommend it!!! 🩵🌴🩵
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mara is a game with a lot of heart that does so many annoying things that I have to wonder if the devs ever really played through it. It's got charming characters and locations, some interesting ideas in the writing, worldbuilding, and character conflicts, and it's cute and charming aplenty. Yet the actual gameplay is literally all fetch quests. All game, the entire game, go grow, craft, or buy some object and bring it back here. Most of these fetch quest require you to sail home, plant some…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →controls are bad, story is meh, maps and feature are badly explained. literally exploring with no clues.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's kindof cute and it's not super bad. The problem is that it's hard to work towards your own goals, like it's possible in similar games. You just fulfill quests and get random stuff for doing them. For example getting a better hoe. In Stardew Valley for example you have to get some bronze ore. Smelt it and buy the upgrade at the blacksmith. You know what to do, you can start working towards it right away. In this game you do a quest someone gave you. Then you do another quest someone gave…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's too shallow and underdeveloped to be fun. The game is a fetch quest fest. Like 100%. Every. Single. Quest. On top of that no basic action or movement feels satisfying. Nothing cozy about this game unfortunately...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A tentative recommend with BIG caveats: - The game is very repetitive, mostly consisting of fetch quests, so you will likely want to have a podcast or a video running on a second monitor to not die of boredom - The UI feels incomplete, like it was shipped mid-development. It's missing tons of button hints, UI prompts and tutorials, which makes it sometimes very confusing to understand what are you supposed to do next. - Don't expect a farming simulator from this game, all the farming and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gave it a couple more hours, and... I mean... it is as underwhelming as the prologue can get. Not only does it feel unfinished and hollow and empty, but it's also beyond unrewarding and painstakingly long. The animation is the only good part of this game; I tried to enjoy it, but found it more enjoyable to just put on background instead.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is very cute and looks great but honestly it's not very fun to play. It's very clunky and unpolished back and forth running fetch quests. Not fun at all. Controller sensitivity is off the roof and can't even change it. Settings are in main menu but still can't change them.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →+ Cozy and cute style. Story is enjoyable so far. It's a mix of farming and adventure game which i quite like. - The quests can be tedious after a while. Audio issues on the cutscenes (right ear dominant sound). You can accidentally softlock yourself in the tutorial. Some areas are buggy and you can get stuck on them. 5/10, felt like a rushed game. I dont hate it but i wont recommend it, as there are better alternatives.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was a bit put off by this game at first, thinking oh it's a game for kids, and it probably is, but I don't give a hoot because it's fun as hell. I felt it was very addictive as I could not stop playing it. Chill game, beautifully crafted, controls are brilliant. Most of the game is pretty intuitive, but I still had to YouTube a couple of things as I suck at games. Navigating this gorgeous world reminded me of N64's Super Mario, with lots to do engaging in tasks and puzzles. I liked it so…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The lack of options in the settings menu as well as being stuck on xbox glyphs if you use a controller was enough to push me away. As others have said it feels undercooked.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →#Gaming tip: If you see a game, usually indie or low budget, that seems to be nice but you can't really say what it is you're actually doing other than just being there, it might be good. Games like Tchia, Summer in Mara, Expeditions or even Elite as a more well known, are pure great vibes and fun*
positive · AI labelView post →It's time for out Bi-Weekly Game Stream. Come join me on www.twitch.tv/cartoonsoup for a chill 2 hour session of Summer in Mara as I perpetually search for oranges. #SummerinMara #Gaming #Chilllivestream
neutral · AI labelView post →9. Summer in Mara is a very sweet, good, relaxing game. It's also a game about someone advocating to give a ten year old a cannon to stop alien colonalists
positive · AI labelView post →One Fetch Quest After Another
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like this game. I think its cute and the art style is fun. Like other reviews this is game is mainly a lot of running back and forth to complete quests and the NPCs pride themselves on being kind and polite but are very rude to your character. I don't mind the back and forth, I just wish the NPCs were a bit nicer and could show more gratitude for having their errand completed
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →imagine a classic farming game mixed with wind waker then add the longest, most annoying fetch quest you could imagine that is the entire game (not to mention the crazy amount of bugs)
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sigh.....if you show left button click but can't click anywhere except for the text by the symbol not even the symbol itself, that is just small and fiddly. Why? Why! Also in the tutorial the person won't repeat the instructions and the journal is bound to the ctrl key? What? No options when pressing esc except resume and exit. How does this game not follow any of the industry standards? Sigh..... Collected some resources before i got a quest to collect them, the quest doesn't check your…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →mostly wanted to try this because I thought the perspective of being a child would make the farming sim more interesting somehow, like changes in dynamics you have when socializing or changing how you go about doing tasks instead of exploring how being a child would change the usual "you are now in charge of some kinda farm" dynamic, we just get all these random adults relying on a small orphan child to do everything and actively making her life difficult? why? I'm normally of the opinion that…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You want to know a funny thing? Do you know what the developers’ idea of a fun endgame quest is? PAYING OFF A FU.CKING 10000 COIN BOAT MORTGAGE FOR YOUR DEAD GRANDMOTHER. I generally had a rule when writing reviews that if there is any value in a game, I’ll give it a thumbs up no matter what and then just say what’s wrong in it down the line. However, I just can’t recommend this one in good faith – I feel like you just won’t have much fun. Koa follows in her alien grandma’s footsteps to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Summer in Mara is... fine? Its very cute, the music is fun but I am a couple of hours in and its just basically nothing but FETCH QUESTS. Like I don't have the ability to sell the carrots I grew to buy more seeds, so I have to sail between islands to go bring someone a flower so they will give me a packet of seeds. To go plant them, harvest them and bring them back to another island. Only to be told that I need to talk to this other person who gives me another packet of seeds to go back and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the first thing i did after completing the tutorial was immediately delete the well with an axe, and the tutorial did not include placing a well 10/10 would soft lock again
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →FREE STEAM KEY: 🪴"Summer in Mara"🪴 is Free at Fanatical for a limited time! Link:⬇️ www.fanatical.com/en/game/summ... 💢Link a valid Steam account, and subscribe to Fanatical email to claim free Steam game. 🏖Steam Random Keys➡️ www.g2a.com/n/randomkey471 #Steam #SteamKey #FreeSteamKey
neutral · AI labelView post →This is a truly lovely and family-friendly game. It deals (gently) with themes of environmentalism, death/loss/memory, neighbors and community, and more. The gameplay loop never grew tedious to me, although at times figuring out what I needed to do next from cryptic quest log text ("Something interesting will happen soon! - meant I had to sail to a specific map spot, as one example) required me to check a guide online. It is only loosely a farming/lifestyle simulator--more emphasis on finding…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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