Welcome to the latest installment of our weekly dev blogs! This week, we’re going to take a deeper look into changes and improvements coming to our core game mechanics: Farming and Husbandry. It’s not our most visually glamorous week; but farmwork rarely is!
Before we leap into it, a quick reminder! Last week, we released a new build: Alpha backers can download the latest version of the game from the Crytivo Store.
Farming isn’t just about watering crops and walking away. Those who’ve played our pre-alpha build know that disease can strike at any moment! Disease is a barebones system at the moment, but we’re working on some improvements!
First off is a visual overhaul. We’re adding feedback for when crops are cleansed, and visually distinct effects for each disease. Wait, did I just say different diseases? Yep! That’s right! We’re working on adding a few different types of diseases to the game. Each will affect your crops in a slightly different way, and require a different kind of pesticide.
Next, we have crop auras! On Softshoal Island, some species of crops have a mysterious aura surrounding them. These provide various benefits to nearby crops, such as reduced disease chance, faster growth, increased yield, or a better chance at a bumper harvest!
This week, Casey and Nick began laying the groundwork for expanding disease and implementing crop auras. These features are a little way off, but we can’t wait to get them into your hungry hands!
Next, we have Husbandry! A lot of work has gone into this feature over the past month, and we’re happy to say it’s getting close to being ready to be released. Our Husbandry system is more complicated than most, so we’ve taken a step back and simplified some aspects of it.
Casey’s refactored enclosures, which has allowed us to implement animal throwing! Instead of navigating a menu, animals can now be picked up and thrown to rearrange them. We’ve found this to be a lot more fun than navigating the menus.
Old favourite Gilbert finally has a youthful spring in his step, and can now run! You’ll be able to see him run in the very first quest, Crash Course.
Why give Gilbert a run animation? A lot of players felt he moved too slowly during the tutorial quest. However, we found that simply speeding up his walk animation looked… weird. Thus, running Gilbert was born.
Til next week!
With all the behind-the-scenes work that’s gone into the project this week, this dev blog isn’t particularly flashy. However, it’s still important! In a way, game development is like farming; lots of hard ugly work, all to produce one tasty crop!
We’re still reading your suggestions and bug reports, so please keep sending them! And if you aren’t already a part of our wonderful community, please hit the Discord link below to join!
Happy Farming!
