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You've probably played Grounds to Grow before- on scavenged pieces of paper from your mate's math homework, or on the back of that one pop-quiz you finished half an hour early. Take on the challenge of running your own school, right from behind that dusty old corner desk your batty English teacher made you sit at- Scribble up some classrooms, jot down a timetable or two, and populate your school with whatever bizarre figures your brilliant, childlike imagination can conjure. Grounds to Grow is an attempt to recreate the feeling of truly owning a world- your buildings are meaningful artworks, and your people are whatever you feel they should be.

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Grounds to Grow!

News

Hey, IndieDB community! Nice to meet all of you; especially you there, in the back. Cool Bow tie.

So: Grounds to Grow. My very first "proper" game, and definitely the first one I've made any kind of public. What is it, exactly? Good question!

What is this thing!?

Grounds to Grow is a game about running a school, with a firmly entrenched pen-and-paper theme. Every building you create will be drawn in whatever shape you choose, as will all of your students- Just use the mouse to draw whatever you want, and there it is, in all its phallic glory.

Students you create will go to class according to a timetable you set; each year will have its own set of classes. They'll learn at different rates, some learning enough to skate by without any studying, others faring less well. Some students will study their little hearts out, even forgoing meals to get up those grades- Every one will behave differently

They'll even interact with each other in different ways- like-minded students will get along and form friendships, tending to hang out together between class, and maybe even choosing the same electives down the line.

Students who don't get along, on the other hand, will generate less positive results. Fights may break out, ink might be spilled. Things will definitely get out of hand if you don't monitor your students, and attempt to separate difficult pairs.

Grounds to Grow is my attempt to not only recreate the silly notepad games you played during high school, but also capture the feel of a real school community- cliques, bullies, studying, playing, achievement: The good and the bad, all wrapped up in paper.

Where it's at

Things are progressing well, thank you! Practically everything short of the student AI is in and functional. Even now, my students are able to walk to every class you schedule for them, provided you've built the classroom. They don't know how to hang out yet; I'm actually working on complex "Hang out" algorithms. Not joking, it's hard!

Not really much else to say about it at the moment, except that I'm confident I'll meet my Christmas release date. I'll put up a slightly more informative video fairly soon; once I can just start my game and have good things happen without having to mess with the time scale or whatever else is causing problems.

Wrapping up

So, that's a brief look at where things are at the moment. I'm working pretty flat out at the moment; I'll try to post more news at least daily. Precariously close to release, and I've only just begun!

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