Dinkum is most of the best parts of Stardew Valley with all of the best parts of Animal Crossing. The game is hardly original but it uses a formula that works. Also big plus that the game is a super light install and it runs on almost any hardware.

The biggest issue I have is that the 'treadmill' just doesn't work for me. The way any of these games play is by making things annoying enough that you want to upgrade your tools and buildings to lessen the annoyance, without being so annoying that it makes you want to put it down prematurely. It's a difficult formula to get right, and for me Dinkum just doesn't quite nail it. I find the stamina system to be too punitive and the tools break too quickly. The game requires some good fortune to get to a place where you can build repair tables and even then the cost of them is reasonably high. It's hard to see the bigger picture when you're playing early in the game and it can lead to a feeling of 'why am I doing this?'

Some of this cleans up as you hit the mid-game and things become a little clearer but I found myself getting back to that same point. And some of the tedium you hope would clean up, never quite does (fucking crocodiles). The NPCs are surface level like in Animal Crossing but without most of the charm or visual appeal. The artstyle isn't bad but it isn't half as cute as this genre tends to demand. Out of the big hitters in this genre, Dinkum is probably the least visually appealing.

There are a few things worth noting though that do really make Dinkum standout. The multiplayer is fantastic, it's the best implemented in the genre. Shared progress and the ease of dropping in and out makes the game feel like it was made for a multiplayer experience and comes out feeling nearly as much as something like Valheim as it does Animal Crossing. The multiplayer 'base building' nature with shared quests and money and such really alleviates a lot of the game's tedium. I also am a big fan of the 'terraforming' ability the game gives you by letting you dig and move dirt and create entire new landscapes and shapes. Nothing else in the genre is quite so free.

If you like games like Stardew, Animal Crossing, Portia, Littlewood, then you'll really like Dinkum. And if you like to play those with friends, it's very worth playing Dinkum. It's got some warts but it's in early access so by the time this thing wraps up it'll probably stand alongside the best the cozy island gaming genre has to offer. It already kinda does.

I bought this game to play with my husband because he likes chill simulation games. This game fits the bill, though it does not make it clear when one should actually start playing multiplayer. I started on his world too soon and missed out on the crate recipe, which is important. Because of that, I started playing on my own to catch up, but ended up far outpacing him (I play way more video games than he does).

I enjoyed my time, but as I always do with this genre of game, I made a lot of big goals without ever putting in the effort to achieve them. I made a plan for how I wanted to build a town. I had about half of the buildings. The character requests were not my favorite, which are important for unlocking the remaining buildings. The characters requested one thing each day, oftentimes when you are unable to get their item in a timely fashion. I would rather a more static list of items they like and dislike as in other games in the genre. They could even implement the request system on top of the static list.
One of the most lucrative ways that I found to make money was trapping the crocodiles. It just happens that trapping felt tedious, taking up the time I wanted to spend doing other things.
Despite my critiques, if you like the farming sim genre, I would check this game out, especially as it gets more updates. I think there is promise here. The theme is cute and well-implemented. The characters are precious. You have a lot of agency in how your town develops. There are plenty of decoration options. I just probably won't pick it back up again, though that has more to do with my relationship to farming sims (I never finish them because they are too long and I have too many games to play).

Tried so hard to find the fun in this game but I just couldn't. It's like someone just checked off all the features of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley with more tedium and none of the soul. Just kind of ran around for 4 hours selling fish and all I had to show for it was a general store and a museum. The reason why AC and Stardew are so good is because of everything you can interact with in between the tedium. Having to manually pick up every single item I try to harvest is a big turnoff too.
I grabbed it because I had heard good things and it had high marks on Steam but I don't know how this game is rated as highly as it is.