Preview: Time to Morp will have you excited to say, “It’s Morpin’ Time!”

Time to Morp is an interesting little colony sim game about creatures known as Morps. Later, you’ll be able to use the Morps to help you gather resources that you can use to build up your base. Once you get far enough along, you can automate systems so that you have even less to worry about.

Morps all start the same as beige cuties, but depending upon what they eat will decide what they transform into. For instance, eating rocklike deposits makes a stony colored Morp whereas eating wood makes a leafy designed Morp. 

There are several to find and some are more rare than others. 

You play as an intern on your first mission and your team is responding to an SOS signal. When you’re dropped onto the planet, it appears uninhabited until the Morps come out of hiding.

The early stages of the game carry on as if the SOS doesn’t exist. In fact, I’m fairly sure that the dialogue doesn’t mention the SOS in the beginning. I only know about it because it was mentioned on the Steam page. Your main focus in the beginning is to create your base. 

Despite not knowing anything about Morps in the beginning, you quickly learn that every Morp is different and requires different enclosures. 

When I tell you that this game is a bit of an infodump, I mean it. Not only are you trying to figure out the keys for a bunch of different mechanics, but you’re finding new Morps, talking to your crew, exploring for resources, researching upgrades and buildable structures… the list goes on and on. 

If I’m honest, I had to set out on an adventure to clear my head of all the technicals of playing and I’m not even in the bigger aspects of creating automated systems yet!

I changed my mind, I want to be an Old Morp Lady when I grow up!

In my journey around the island, I found that it’s not the type of map that auto-populates into an open world. There is a perimeter to the island, so it seems a bit less daunting when you know that. Not only that, but the seeds for the world are randomized. So, two games won’t be exactly the same.

Just by walking around, I was able to find several new Morps due to resources changing throughout the island. Not only that, I was able to find quarks (which seem rare) and treasure chests. There were two types of chest – techno and water – but they both had the same thing inside: ‘Token of Decor’. Those can be used when you unlock the gardener and I assume will let you decorate your enclosures. 

Once I got back to my little village, I felt a bit more grounded and had a better handle on the controls. At the moment, they’re working on controller support and I feel like once that’s implemented, it’ll be a lot easier to navigate. For someone who prefers to play on a keyboard, you’ll likely have a far easier time than I did in the early stages. 

At the start, everything is heavily guided in telling you what to collect or build. Time to Morp may continue to play that way well into the game. Honestly, I hope it does because this game has the ability to be pretty massive. I can’t imagine the requirements for automating things. 

Go, Go Space Intern! Mighty Morpin’ Space Intern… I’ll see myself out.

As you work through the tasks you’re given, you’ll eventually be prompted to open up research. Here is where you’ll find all your upgrades, designs for building, power, etc. This little section really gives you the scope of what’s possible and it’s a bit daunting. 

Thankfully, you don’t have to solo in this world. If the game seems too big for one person, you can invite friends! This game allows for multiplayer gaming of up to 4 people. Personally, I’d recommend playing with friends. Preferably, I’d want someone who is comfortable with holding down the fort and progressing the research tree.

There’s a lot to this game and since it’s in early access, there’s potentially more that will be added or expanded depending on the community’s feedback. Team Halfbeard expects the game to be in early access for about 12 months. And, from what I saw, there’s really no need to wait for full release to play. Time to Morp didn’t feel like it was lacking anything when I played it. 

There’s a lot that I didn’t touch on, but I can’t close out the article without mentioning the art. The art style and the colors used are… chef’s kiss. 10 out of 10, no notes. There’s so much whimsy and vibrant fun everywhere you look in this game and the Morps give me “cute aggression.” I just wanna squeeze them. 

All around, Time to Morp is a fun, whimsical game that I think most people can enjoy. If you want to pick it up, you can get it on Steam for $19.99 normally. But, it’s 20% off at the time of writing for $15.99.