My Time at Portia
A post-apocalyptic farm sim about rebuilding a city and becoming a master builder.
My Time at Portia is a farm life sim role-playing game from 2019, created by Pathea Games and published by Team17. It launched for Windows on 15 January 2019, and later arrived on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Android, iOS, and macOS. The game shares some traits with other farm sims like Stardew Valley.
The story takes place long after civilization collapsed, with humanity emerging from underground to rebuild. They form the Alliance of Free Cities and a military group called the Civil Corps, which is at war with the tyrannical Duvos Empire, which seeks ancient tech and conquest. The player takes on the role of a famous builder's child, inheriting their father's workshop in the independent city-state of Portia after he leaves on a journey. Upon arrival, a guild commissioner named Presley escorts them to the workshop. The goal is to expand Portia and become the top builder, competing with a rival named Higgins.
The player starts by building a bridge to Amber Island and deals with Bandirats (humanoid rats stealing things), two bandits named Tuss and Huss pretending to be debt collectors (exposed by a builder named Arlo), and Panbats (panda-bat hybrids poisoning the environment). Mayor Gale plans transportation called Dee Dees and asks the player to build them. After fixing a broken pipe, the player and fellow builder Sam fall into an underground cavern, where they fight the Rat King, leader of the Bandirats responsible for water pollution. They also discover a robot chef named Ack from an ancient civilization, who crash-landed in a spacecraft and later becomes a resident. Gale plans a museum and a tunnel to the neighboring city of Sandrock with help from visiting builder Mint.
While investigating an old mine for earthquake causes, Mint, Sam, and Arlo get trapped in a cave-in. The player works with another builder, Remington (also a Civil Corps member), to rescue them from a rogue robot called Rock-on, which is causing the quakes. After building wind turbines, a hot air balloon attraction, and harbor improvements, an investor named Musa from the Alliance arrives to help. An Alliance agent named Mali investigates the ancient tech. The player later helps Sam capture Tuss and Huss, suspected of stealing an ancient relic. The real thief, a masked knight called the Rogue Knight, infiltrates town seeking a powerful AI called the All Source.
Quick Facts
- Title
- My Time at Portia
- Developer
- Pathea Games
- Publisher
- Team17Mobile ports published by Nuverse subsidiary Pixmain.
- Engine
- Unity
- Director
- Zhi Xu
- Producer
- Zifei Wu · Dylan Li
- Programmer
- Calvie Xie · Jiangbo Zhu
- Writer
- Zifei Wu
- Composer
- Claude Ruelle
- Platforms
- Windows · Nintendo Switch · PlayStation 4 · Xbox One · Android · iOS
- Released
- Windows · 15 January 2019 · Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One · 16 April 2019 · Android, iOS · 4 August 2021 · macOS · 12 May 2022
- Genre
- Farm sim, role-playing, simulation
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The game takes place long after civilization has been destroyed. Humans emerged from underground and began rebuilding society, eventually forming the Alliance of Free Cities and a military organization called the Civil Corps. The Alliance is at war with a tyrannical empire called Duvos, which seeks ancient technology and conquest. The player character is the child of a famous builder, inheriting their father's workshop in the independent city state of Portia after he goes traveling. Upon arrival, the player is greeted by Presley, the guild commissioner, and aims to expand Portia while facing rivalry with another builder named Higgins.
The story involves constructing a bridge to Amber Island, dealing with humanoid rats called Bandirats, bandits Tuss and Huss, and panda/bat hybrid monsters called Panbats. The player builds transportation called Dee Dees for Mayor Gale, fights the Rat King, discovers a robot chef named Ack from an ancient civilization, and helps build a museum and tunnel to Sandrock. Later, the player confronts a rogue robot called Rock-on, works with Alliance agents, and ultimately faces the Rogue Knight and the Sky Sharks, a band of pirates working for Duvos. The All Source, a powerful A.I. named Wendy, is reprogrammed to help the town. The player can marry a bachelor or bachelorette, and their father visits, giving them the Robopig Rider before leaving again.
Reader's Guide
My Time at Portia received 'mixed or average' reviews on Metacritic. Critics praised its core gameplay as fun, its charming world, tranquil environment, pleasing aesthetics, well-designed crafting system, convincing NPCs, varied seasonal events, and sense of progression. However, they noted significant weaknesses: annoying audio bugs, excessive length, slow pacing where players wait for NPCs, painfully dull mining, lack of meaning in several mechanics, lack of payoff in the narrative's premise, conflicting day-night cycle pacing, long loading times, and lack of voice acting in cutscenes. A patch was issued to fix lengthy loading times on Nintendo Switch. The PC version was among the best-selling new releases of the month on Steam. The game's sequel, My Time at Sandrock, entered early access on 26 May 2022 and was fully released on 2 November 2023. Another sequel, My Time at Evershine, is in development. In October 2025, it was announced that Seed Lab, developer of Starsand Island, collaborated with Pathea Games on My Time at Portia, with Starsand Island releasing on 1 February 2026 featuring two characters from Portia.
Did You Know?
- The game was initially released as an early access title on Steam on 23 January 2018 before its full release a year later.
- The player's default names are Marco for a male character and Linda for a female character.
- The All Source, a powerful A.I., is actually named Wendy and is reprogrammed to help the town after being used to attack it.
- A mobile version for Android and iOS was released on 5 August 2021, followed by macOS on 12 May 2022.
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