Developer Eric Hornby has come up with an interesting way to generate some interest for his independently developed game, Earthtongue: The Hungry Fungus. Currently it’s available on PC and Mac for a measly $5.00 but, there is also an option to pay by art. No joke,  if you don’t have the cash, you can create an original work of art (which can include music, poetry, etc) about Earthtongue and submit it for a Steam key. Your creation must take at least 30 minutes of your coveted time to create which is fair considering you’re welching poor Eric out of his five bucks.  There’s already a Tumblr gallery of the fan art people have submitted as payment. We took a good look through it and it’s admittedly pretty awesome. As concepts to sell your game go that’s one of the coolest we’ve seen in a while.
According to Eric, Earthtongue places you in a sunless world of fungi and bugs, sustained by a slow rain of nutritious substance. It’s up to you to nurture this world through your guidance and cataloging.
EarthTongue is a vivarium sim that places in you limited control over a small ecosystem on a fantastical world. You will spend most of your time watching life grow and eat each other to survive. Your subtle nudges will be required to maintain the balance of this world, but it can handle itself much of the time. Player given goals are limited, aside from maximizing the health of your ecosystem. You may choose to try to create a fungal garden to your liking. You may try your best to breed as many beetles as you can. You might use those beetles instead as food stock for the mantises. You might instead just peacefully watch the story of Earthtongue unfold on its own.
