At PAX West 2025, I had the opportunity to talk to Mike, the Technical Director of Caldera Interactive for The Rabbit Haul. 

The Rabbit Haul is a farming simulator at day and a tower defense game at night. The village is completely empty, leaving players to need to regrow the village through growing and selling their crops. But beware, the Trash Panda Posse strikes during the night, trying to steal crops away for themselves. 

The demo I got to play was pretty fluid, the controls simple enough for me. It took a bit of getting used to on a controller, but I got the hang of it. I loved the art style of the game as well as the User Interface (UI) design. 

Knowing that certain crops planted together with certain defense tower plants create effects, the process of discovering them was very much learn as you go. When speaking with Mike, he told me that several of their early testers for the game had discovered effects that even they didn’t know, having simply given them the system to improve. 

I also liked that to proceed to the night, it was easily avoidable. For the demo, it was holding down the Y button on the controller. It had to be held down for several seconds, filling in a circle to proceed to the night time. This meant that it was not possible to accidentally move to the night. 

I was personally curious about what inspired the creation of this game. Mike explained that the designer at the time had been playing both a farming simulator and a tower defense game. The designer wanted to grab elements from both games that made them enjoyable and combine them into on experience. The hope was to create a cozy experience while still providing a challenge to players. 

The hope for the game to stand out was this dual-genre elements from the game. It will appeal to a larger audience who wants to relax with the farming simulator but also find difficulty in the waves of enemies during the night. In the full release of the game, Mike and the team are hoping to create an endless mode, establish leader ships, and have Twitch integration. With the marriage of two genres, the game should appeal to a larger audience, particularly gamers who only view games in either genre. It can be a great way to introduce a different genre to them that they can enjoy. 

Another personal element I was curious on was the villains. Why go with raccoons? The team wanted a team that was more mischievous. They’re not an evil group, but rather another sort of animals who are simply living life just like any other. The name itself was solidified through Trash Panda. It’s a cute way of describing raccoons on the internet. The Posse part of the name was a good alliteration with the name and played into the more mischievous aspect of the group. 

The greatest challenge in creating the game came from being a small team. The team is only three people, meaning it’s a lot of work in simply making the game. The other big challenge that came with being a small team is getting the word out. But, I’m sure as more people learn about the game, it’s sure to gain traction. 

The balance between the easy coziness and the difficult wave of enemies was another element that needed to be perfectly balanced. The game can’t be too easy for players searching for the tower defense aspect, but it also can’t be too hard for players trying to enjoy the farming simulator. A good moderate difficulty is best to have a good balance of both genres’ elements. Thankfully, a lot of early testers are able to give feedback to the team to understand how well-balanced the difficulty actually is, both for more and less experienced players. 

The Rabbit Haul was an absolute blast at PAX West 2025, and I encourage others to check out the Steam page to see if they’re interested. What are your thoughts about combing a farming simulator and a tower defense game? What kinds of things would you want in a game like this? Share your thoughts in the comments below or in our Boss Rush Discord! 

Featured Image Source: Caldera Interactive

Boss Rush Podcast – A Podcast about Video Games

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