Whoa! Watch out, explorers! 🙌 As we approach the next town, you'll notice that life in the simple, rural lands is not as quiet as one would expect! With fishing bears, crow pirates, bandits and even aliens, you might get more than you bargained for! 👀
But now that we're here, we've arrived at our next destination in our Tour of Explora! After the sharks, cats, and slimes, it's time we land at the otherwise normal and quiet Lawride Town! Its humble rural life has everything a seasoned farmer needs! 🍉
It’s time to slow down and enjoy the simple life! Lawride Town is well known in the zone for having everything that farmers need. Just head to The Farming Farm south-west from here and they’ll share some sowing lots with you! 🌱
Life is good and straightforward, until you step out of the town that is. If you want to get your own fish, travel south to Minty Bear’s Lake. Who is more professional at fishing than a bear? Go even further, and you’ll reach the Pirate Cove at the beach. That place should be self-explanatory. And if you head north, you might see some Crop Circles in the wheat fields. Those were written by aliens. It’s kind of their thing, you know.
But while Lawride Town is good at growing crops, the local group of bandits is great at stealing them! The town is regularly terrorised by a group of meddling hooligans in masks that raid the place and bring chaos to its inhabitants. Or so they say. They mostly do petty crimes like taking vegetables and the occasional graffiti. At worst, they’re a minor inconvenience. 😅
Since everyone else seems to be busy, you will have to take your business to The Mayor. After such curious folks in previous towns, it's almost weird to see a human around! Given that the town basically runs itself, he’s been re-elected mayor multiple times, mostly as a formality. But with age, he’s got experience to spare, so listen to the elder, and you might learn a thing or two about life. 👴
However, he’s also known to have a very frail backbone. He'll be the first to hide at the smallest sign of a bandit raid. It’s almost as if they got into robbing specifically to tease him. So try to not make him worry, alright? He's trying his best, even if some of his quests and ideas for the town can sometimes be a bit dubious.
While we’re visiting the farmlands, let’s talk about farming! Once you get the proper equipment for the job by purchasing a Hoe, you can plant any seeds, which you come across in towns and earn from town quests, in different farming spots all across the world. Like we mentioned before, there are some spots available at The Farming Farm, so feel free to help yourself!
Farming is quite easy, but you’ll notice that seed packs work in different ways. Most farmers in Explora sort their seeds in four different groups: Crop, Exotic, Extravagant and Bizarre. Whatever type of seed you intend to plant will grow differently depending on where you plant it. For example, the Crop Seeds that you plant to grow a carrot in one place might grow a melon somewhere else. 🍈
Once you have your seed packs and a suitable farming spot, just plant it and wait for a while. Go for a trip, keep doing trades and quests. After a while, the crop should be ripe and you can simply come back and pick them up! It's that easy! Also, just between us. There are rumours about some special water that can make the seeds grow faster. One has to wonder if there’s any truth to that...
As for our behind-the-scenes this time, we get to highlight another game of ours, The Farming One! Made back over ten years ago in RPG Maker, it was the first game our team ever worked together on, and it was the first time that we mentioned Lawride Town in a game. As the tour continues, you'll notice that we actually lifted some more towns and landmarks from our previous projects. For us, it's a fun way to expand our cast, while also paying homage to how we got here. 🐳
The Farming One was a hybrid of incremental and farming games. Our idea was to turn otherwise calm, cosy experience into a frenzy of automated growth, taking staples of the farming genre and distilling them to their most basic aspects. Despite being developed in a single month, it included several upgrades, marriage candidates, and even multiple endings!
Up to a point, we consider Townseek feels like its natural evolution. After developing The Farming One, we wanted to develop a game where you could meet different species and characters while doing various activities. While we never quite nailed down the game design we wanted at the time, mostly due to the lack of experience and know-how, we feel that Townseek has captured a lot of the same vibe that we wanted from that concept. Creative ideas are always shifting around! 🧭
The Farming One is available on Steam Workshop. We plan to preserve it in more ways in the near future, as there's not many ways to play it right now.
Check for your belongings before we depart towards our next destination. If the bandits took your carrots, let it slide this time, since we’ll be heading next towards Burrowburg, the land of fluffy bunnies and gigantic carrots! 🐇
We’ve also got one more surprise incoming. A new community quest will soon be upon us! While the previous one appealed more to pet owners, this new one is more aimed towards artists, though everyone can participate. We can't tell you just yet about it, but let’s just say that you should get your creative engine roaring up! Keep an eye out on our Discord Server on how to participate, and let us know what your thoughts were about this stop of the tour!
That’s all this time around. See you at the bunny burrows! Cheers! 🐇
– Whales And Games 🐳