I cant wait until fishing is in.
2 Likes
The āMusicā volume slider doesnāt seem to work, but I imagine thatās because there isnāt any music in the game yet. The door opening sounds are a bit harsh to the ears, regardless of volume. Iād personally soften them a bit as weāll probably be hearing them a lot. The patterns added to the NPCs look good (Though I think you may have to edit Salās portrait to match his world sprite). Finally I think only giving one Honion to Beatrice every so often would take a long time to make any effect and if you ever add a weight loss mechanic for NPCs, even longer potentially.
Edit: The lighting effects at night seem to work rather well.
This is a very promising project with great sprites and a wonderful foundation for a game. What it lacks is content, progress, and quality of life features. All these are on their own either extra or something that I am sure is on its way but development takes time especially when one is a solo developer. What you have developed so far is really promising and the sprites are wonderfully crafted!
Suggestions I have:
Progress:
- - Buy more farmland
------- The player needs progress, something to strive towards. A reward at the end of a stick. This does not necessarily mean āTerraformingā. That seems excessive. What I mean by this is that you could take inspiration from other farming games such as Graveyard Keeper where there are signs with an āItem/priceā (Graveyard Keeper uses stuff like āNobility Permitā and etc that you gain throughout playing the game) and when you get that item / pay the price you remove the sign and suddenly the farmland is plantable.
This would really give the player a chance to expand their farming business and feel like they can have multiple farming spots around the world/farm and give way to different shaped āDirt areasā and thus having more āTetris planting gamesā for them to optimize around.
- - Weight events
------- Having the player / NPC gain an amount of weight / reaching a certain sprite will unlock a ācut sceneā or a reward/content. For example:
- Cutscene: The character weight reaches stage 3 and a new character is revealed, a sports jock who demands the player to run laps with them, this unlocks a new character and reveals them in a cutscene. (Just a random example)
- Reward: Character reaches Weight 3, next time they talk to a character for the first time they will give them a āpieā. (Just a random example)
- Content: When the character reaches Weight 5 and two other NPCs Weight 5 there is suddenly a competition in town for who is the heaviest eater / heaviest citizen, unlocking a new form of an event for the player to take part in. (Just a random example)
The reason these are good ideas is that it gives the player a āmental rewardā for gaining weight or making others gain weight. (outside of sprite changes)
- - Time Events
------- The same as above, using Cutscene, Reward, and Content unlocks but rather than having this bound to the player weight it is bound by the date. On Spring 5 āThere is a Harvest Festivalā or on Spring 18 āA stranger is in town!ā etc. I know this is something already implemented āKindaā with the Summer Mansion Lady, so this is simply content but also a progression for the player.
- - Changes in the World
------- Having Purple lady move away so that you can āTrample all over her dirtā. You already do this with the very long farming quest for the sheep guy, where you unlock new recipes and then eventually can fatten him up by selling seeds. Having progress like that is what will keep the player going. To know that their actions have moved characters away from blocking parts they want to reach etc. Basically, make the players have actions to do that will unlock new sections / Move the NPCs around or have them unlock their houses, etc. Have their farming reward them with other things than money. Maybe add a āhome bake featureā to the food you create so that it is more rewarding to cook your own meals and thus could be used to unlock/change the world.
- - Unlocking Recipies
------- This is something you already developed. You have a cooking system. As I played the only thing I could create was Disgusting Muck or Roasted Rorito(?). This is because I could not understand how the cooking was done properly. I believe if you had the player being able to buy/find/be rewarded with recipes for their actions then the players will feel a sense of progress. And if you read this far you know that progress is what will keep the player playing. I believe if you add a form of ācookbookā where you update it with āDiscovered recipesā either from you doing random cooking or from finding recipe pages. The player will find they have a sense of progress.
- - Quests
------- You already have this with Sheep Guy. Having more characters asking for particular items could really give a sense of progress but also give the player a content idea of what to do. The important part is to have the quests reward the player with new content or by having a form of mini-game inside these quests.
Content:
- - Cosmetic Purchases
------- This is something someone already suggested. Having a Store for Cosmetic such as clothes. Though this could also go as far as having cosmetics for your house or for seasons (Such as Halloween outfits/pumpkins to decorate within Autumn)
Though, this could be very time-consuming at least for big cosmetic changes such as house changes. I believe it is very doable through with clothes since you already have a bunch of different styles. The problem would be to add a few more to give even more variety. It is very possible only time-consuming. You already have the sprites of naked. Just take it to add a few lines and done. I say personally I think I could make one new outfit between 30 minutes to 2 hours for all the body types since it is a very pixelated style, just time-consuming. I believe it could be rewarding in the end, but this is really something that should be added ālaterā in development as it is not a āmust-have featureā. Though if you do it. Be reasonable. You already have a bunch of pants and shirts. Add at most 5-10 new variants that that player can purchase along with the ones you already have. Make the player āprogressā towards changing their appearance and adding it to their wardrobe. Potentially too add a āBarberā where they go to change their hairstyle with new styles that did not exist previously. But like I said. This is a āLaterā stage feature.
I realize now also, the biggest issue and time consuming part is that if you make one such update change, you would have to do it with all the pants changes. But even this should not be that hard to do. I believe if you just Batch Action Copy the Shirt Change to all the pants variants then it could be done within an hour / 30 minutes. (Using Photoshop)
- - Fishing!
------- You already working on it but having fishing added would give the player something more to do!
- - Mini games!
------- Eating Contest mini-game where you have to stuff as much food as you can before the time runs out, Skipping a Rock and pressing E each time it hits the water to try and keep it skipping. Jog Guyās idea from earlier means you have to avoid bushes and remember to hit e at the right time to not pass out. Etc etc. Smaller designed games that give the player something new to do.
- - NPCs react to Player Weight
------- Having the player getting commented about how their character looks would really drive a sense that the world is āaliveā. It is also a small reward to the player by letting them know their actions have changed the world / how an NPC looks at you. Perhaps one NPC starts to look at you more favorably while another starts to despite the weight the PC or an NPC has gained.
- - More actions around the world
------- Eating inside the fast-food diner by pressing a table (Choosing to sit for example), taking a nap under the shade of a tree in a forest area, hitting E on bushes might drop seeds. Finding a secret farm where someone is planting random plants Etc. Make the world more alive by having it seem there are more places than just your home where you can sleep or eat.
- - Weight Based content
------- Weight Based Actions, Actions based on what Weight you have. Or also areas that could be unlockable / locked by your Weight Progress.
- Weight-based Actions: Sitting at the Diner is doable at weight 4 and below, but getting past that and you break the table/bench. Causing a potential ādebt-Also known as a questā or a penalty/reward for mistakenly breaking the bench with the player weight.
- Weight Based Unlocks/Locks: Being thin lets you enter a secret cave. But if you are at weight stage 4 you get stuck at the entrance and get a cutscene. If you are weight Stage 5 you cannot enter the cave since you are too big.
For Unlock it could be: Under Weight Stage 4 your character is too weak to push a rock that blocks an area. At Weight Stage 5 you can finally push it using your weight and unlocks a new area.
Quality of Life:
- - Fast Forward Time Functionality.
------- A clock / an item that can use the bedtime mechanic to fast forward time to the time the player want. You already have this functionality with the clock and with the buying system you have the option to decide a number base.
It should not be that hard to reuse what code you already have to create this āclockā so that one can skip the vast amount of dead time the game currently has.
Of course, this might be a feature that would just be scrapped once there is enough content in the game, but even then it might be a nice little quality of life feature to help the player decide how fast they want their game to run. I personally think it would be a nice feature to have since so far 1 day is generally 11 minutes long and if summer is 30+ days away. Being able to get there faster than 11 x 30 330 minutes (Or around 5 hours+) would be a really nice thing indeed. (It is also a great playtesting tool to have players reach summer and give constructive and useful feedback. 
)
- - Easier Farming Rotation.
------- At the moment you simply press R over and over, but it would be really nice if it was possible to press a button or scroll your mouse to rotate easier and having it being able to rotate in both directions rather than just one.
- - Clarity
------- The game is not the best at clariftying why a character gains weight. Etc, I did not realize that the bunny lady got fat until she got really fat and that is because I sold her veggies. This could be solve by simple comments such as: āOoof, I really need to lay down eating all these vegetables, but you just keep giving me them and it is hard to resist!ā or āI finally completed this recipe! Now I can finally start selling stuff in my shop!ā. Etc. It is not Super important yet, but a good thing to think about in the future.
I apologize if this got rambly, I am just trying to give you ideas/suggestions of things you could do to really improve upon this game. I believe personally that the first stage you should focus on is: Content. After you have all the content you feel the game needs you to move into Progression using that Content. When you have Progression Complete you move over to Quality of Life Features (Unless those features are just really nice to implement fast so that you can playtest the game easier.)
The final thought is that I believe the charm behind farming games is honestly the sense of progression one makes.
11 Likes
somethings I want to add to this idea. House Improvments. why not as the game goes upgrade the house both to better fit the weight (like at a weight limit you canāt go upstairs unless you get a upgrade) and some general cosmetics.
contensts maybe have some form a contest. could even have unlocks like higher weight stages or new recipes. could be āmake the most crop, or cook the best mealā kind of thing
4 Likes
Earape stardew valley music plays
1 Like
Random question, does this game have an kind of Itch page or a Patreon?
Is the Discord server really the only place outside of here that we can follow development? (ā¦assuming the game isnāt dead, I mean, itās been a while.)
2 Likes
Nope, just here and the discord. Itās not like they would get updates any more frequently though, and I prefer to keep the number of places I have to update stuff on to a minimum.
4 Likes
Quick progress update, Iāve been working a bit on fishing. Mostly got the visuals down at the moment, but progress is progress!
19 Likes
nice now i have something to do in my spare time
2 Likes
Still nothing in terms of new quests, but fishing is in the game now! Go on down to Carlile and talk to him about fishing to get a rod. You canāt actually do anything with the fish, but you can catch them. I guess you can eat them but theyāre all just default in terms of preference.
- updated Salās portraits to match their sprite and gave him a better haircut
- corners of portraits now properly cropped
- starting a new game now lets you choose a name and appearance
- updated some dialogue, mostly for when you first talk to someone
- updated water, has more detail now
- added a beach by the dock
- adjusted item stack amounts
- refined the hitboxes for water
- added fishing
- added fish
- Carlile now has actual dialogue related to fishing
- Sal no longer give infinite rotato seeds
- ānothingā items should no longer exist/be able to be picked up
11 Likes
FISHING
4 Likes
Ok, Where did the grass and paths go? Iāve been lost for an hour.
I tried to sell what I didnāt have and game crashed.
All right, I started a new game and grass back.
Now thatās a new one. I saw that starting a new game fixed it for you, and I did change the tile sheets a bit, but nothing for the grass/paths. Iāll look into it just in case.
Yup, thatās the big one Iām working on now. Honestly if it is what I think it is then Iām surprised itās never come up before, but I should have it fixed soon.
1 Like
Found two bugs I donāt think has been mentioned: Itāll crash if you try to sell Grapple Pie to Noah and I bought 100 rotato seeds to sell him which made two piles of 80 and 20 in the inventory, but when I sold 50 both disappeared.
Itās a very nice framework for a game, but Iād love more time skips that give a āDo this to skip X hoursā, and the fishing wait is just a little too long for me. I find I am tending to just leave it open and check in on it every few minutes.
A little sad Beatrice seems just as ornery at max weight!
1 Like
Oh, Iāve just had this one happen - it ticked over to the first of Summer and then suddenly all the dirt and grass tiles got replaced with path tiles. I could still see the grass edges of streams, as well as trees and buildings.
Starting a new game and then loading the old game fixed it, but only until I did a screen transition.
How do you sell fish?
Currently, selling fish is not implemented yet (but, while it isnāt obviously a guarantee, I would think that Carl would be the one to buy fish when it gets added)
3 Likes
Just started playing this for more then 10 minutes (and it took a few tries to get a save that actually kept my name, while also not losing progress to a few errors causing the game to crash (like accepting getting rotatoes for the sheep guy, while not having any). Finally getting some pay-off in my waistline worth noting (Iām in a sweetroot groove, buying burgers with it all), and a surprisingly good deal of progress with our nice frog vendor and seed bunny. I do wonder if the sweet seed rabbit ever gets anywhere near as big as the frog, thoughā¦and what it takes to bribe (and enlarge) the surly dragon (and if it does anything for the player?).
Also, would be nice to see a way to make fish a better food item/gift, as well as maybe special effects for certain rarer fish (I know I can think of a good one for the āTrowtā).
2 Likes