That Evil Farming Game (non-existent farming simulator game; 2000-2015)

A screenshot of the Vinesauce animation by Tuskol that confirmed its non-existence.

Status: Non-Existent

That Evil Farming Game is a non-existent farming simulator game that was first talked about by Reddit user Sparta213 before being confirmed to not exist because of Sparta falling asleep watching Vinesauce videos and clips.

Origin

On April 30th, 2016, on r/tipofmyjoystick, user Sparta213 makes a post titled "This Game Was Kind Of Like Harvest Moon."^[1] The post then says:

"I know almost nothing about this game. All I can remember is that it's kind of like Harvest Moon but with a dark twist. The game starts out with you and your wife, one night you get in to a fight and you end up stabbing her to death. Now the game revolves around you farming to stay alive while trying to keep the town from finding out about the "incident" that happened. Every now and then the cops come to search your house and you have to hide her corpse. Edit: I have no recollection of what console this game was for or when it came out. I know that it was released after 2000. I know this is so vague but it's really hard to remember something you forgot! Also it had to be before mid – early 2015. Graphics were not 3D. I'm 100% sure it wasn't a browser game."

Sparta’s post gained lots of traction and users made lots of suggestions on what the game could be (mostly about it being a Role-playing horror game) but no conclusions were made, making the game become lost.

It wasn’t until December 2018, another post was made on r/TipOfMyJoystick by u/DavidSpadeAMA about an "Evil Farming Game,"^[2] quote:

"There was this game I used to have downloaded in about 2006, before I upgraded my computer and lost it. It was a farming, Stardew Valley style of game, where you murder your wife, and then you try and pretend you never killed her, and that was the whole game, keep farming and make sure no one finds out you killed her. There was fishing minigame, and I specifically remember fishing up evidence of your wife’s murder and then you pass out. Edit: It wasn’t pretending to be a kids game, it wasn’t RPG Maker and I got it off some indie devs website. There were screens between each “day” that showed the date (in the game) and one of the characters was an old dude with a white beard."

Users will then again make suggestions on what the game could be from games that have a similar plot or being a creepy farming game (none about a killing wife plot) but again, no conclusions were made on what the game was.

It wasn’t until some days later on December 29th, 2018, u/udunmeabamboozle posted on the r/tipofmyjoystick subreddit about “the evil farming game” but also claimed that they’re trying to fix their old laptop to see if it can run again. Though around a week later, the user claims that the laptop was unfixable from an undamped hard drive.^[3]

Spread

With the mystery of what the game is, a subreddit devoted to uncovering the game named r/thatevilfarminggame was made. The subreddit accumulated over 2,000 users in over ten days. The surge of interest was then aided by Nexpo and Whang by them posting videos about The Evil Farming Game. With the help of the mystery and spread of the game, Sparta came back to Reddit for an AMA on March 16th, 2020.^[4] Sparta will answer a lot of questions about the game, some of the important ones were:

Claims that it may have been a dream, a theory made at the time. He also claims that he has chronic insomnia and takes medication
Believes the other OPs were faking their claims on playing the game because their claims are inconsistent with his own memories
Claims the game is top-down with pixel art style, one place to hide the body was under the floorboards, and that there was a day/night cycle
Never read 1922 by Stephen King (a novel (as well as a Netflix adaptation) in which a farmer murders his wife. Many suggest there is a relation between 1922 and the EFG)
Doesn’t believe it was an animation because “I don’t and never have been an animation watcher”
Did not download the game from a gore site (a rumor that Sparta possibly downloaded the game from a European gore site named “ashnremains”)

Dream Theory

A lot of theories were made throughout its hunt, but one theory that people didn’t rule out was the dream theory. It was suggested that Sparta probably had dreamt up the game. Evidence being how Sparta has chronic insomnia and took meds (mostly memory-affecting meds) at the time the original post was made, one post/comment from Sparta, quotes:

"Holy shit, I have no recollection of ever asking that, I'm actually scared right now to be completely honest. Feel free to take this post down I think I think maybe my new meds are messing with my memory or something? I'm at a LOSS
EDIT: I have chronic insomnia and I just switched meds, turns out Klonopin/Clonazepam can give people amnesia. Sorry for the double post, I'm gonna stop taking those ASAP"

This also is further supported from Sparta lack of memory of when he played the game, giving the gaping years, 2000-2015.^[5]

Non Existence Confirmed

On June 13th, 2021, an anonymous Reddit user found a Vinesauce animation video by YouTuber Tuskol. In the video, it talks about a game Vinesauce made up about Harvest Moon but you accidentally killed your wife and have to farm while hiding the body from the police time to time. Vinesauce’s idea weirdly matched up from "The Evil Farming Game," making redditors then speculate that the Dream theory was possibly true and Sparta actually did dream up the game.^[6] It wasn’t until a day later when Sparta confirmed that this was the source and how he used to fall asleep to Vinesauce clips at the time, ending the hunt for this mysterious game altogether.^[7]