The Longing is an adventure game with an odd concept. It’s a mix of adventure and idle game, according to the developers, where you have to wait 400 days for the awakening of a king. It was developed but Studio Seufz and published by Application System Heidelberg.

Here’s the trailer:

The music is excellent and it was obviously made by a decent artist. Here’s the story and objective of the game:

Play as a lonely Shade, the last servant of a king who once ruled an underground kingdom. The king’s powers have faded and he falls asleep for 400 days to regain his might. It is your duty to stay in the earthen palace until he awakens.

As soon as you start, the game inevitably counts down the 400 days – even when you stop playing and exit the game.

It is now up to you to decide what to do with your solitary existence beneath the soil. Don’t stress yourself, you have plenty of time.

Okay so wait 400 days. If you thought these were 400 days in the game (i.e., faster than real time) you’re wrong. You have to wait 400 real days. Yes that’s plenty of time to travel around and do nothing. The developers continue:

Start the game and simply come back after 400 days to see how it ends. You actually don’t have to play the game at all. But the Shade will be even more lonely without you.

Or explore the caves and collect items for your comfortable underground living room. Just send the Shade to take a stroll – the walking speed is slow, but luckily there is no need to hurry.

Read tons of classic literature from Nietzsche to Moby Dick right in the game – or at least have the shade read them. After all, time goes by faster if you learn to keep your mind occupied.

Ignore the king’s commands and advance to the outer regions the cave. It will be a long and dangerous journey into darkness…

So basically it’s a game were you actually just do whatever you want until you have your game installed for 400 days. When you start the game after 400 days the king awakes. I bet it’s possible to cheat by changing your operating system clock.

It’s an interesting concept and maybe it’s for you if you have a lot of patience and like artistic adventure games. I happen to like these kinds of games were you only really have to travel around but not waiting 400 days. So far it has a very positive score and is available for $15 on Steam.