We've been playing the beta version of Ranch Life, a would-be FarmVille killer from Icebreak Games. It's a solidly put-together slow-burn animal husbandry sim, located towards the simpler end of the genre.

Players start off with a plot of bare grass, a rickety chicken coop and a feed tray. Progression is textbook: you buy livestock from the shop menu, wait for it to mature, plonk it down in the carefully non-evocative "production zone", wait for it to spawn offspring, and sell 'em off.

Then you buy bigger and better facilities, and more animals to inhabit them. It's the circle of life. Between yields, there's dung to be cleaned away, flies to be swatted and feed to be ground up.

Actions earn you experience points and, accordingly, level ups. Some of the larger or more exotic beasts are only available at higher levels.

There's just the one currency, and you can buy more of it with your credit card if hard graft sounds too, well, hard.

The game's biggest downside right now is that it's constantly trying to make you share stuff. No, I don't want my friends to know that I've just built a new stable, thanks. There are boundaries, you know.

Play Ranch Life