Hi again Saeges!
As promised, we continue right where we left off last week, with a small roundup of all the things that we've been cooking for Farmwand since last we saw each other. Let's jump right in!
Taking care of the little critters
The latter part of last year was...difficult. I got sick every other week for almost two months, between repeated bouts of flu, followed by stomach issues. Stress and a depressed immune system are a bad mix, so I had to take a short break as per doc's advice, before coming back to work on brand new things.
Funny enough, it was a period about taking care of myself before coming back to work on taking care of the Farmwand's little critters.
Farming is not only about plants. It is also about the little animals. After playing a lot of different games and checking how they implemented their animal companions, we have come around a system that can feel deep, familiar, and easy to grasp You better get ready, because raising creatures is not a task to be taken lightly. You will need to build some coops, get those chicken feeders ready and, of course, prepare the appropriate feed!
We are also taking a page out of some games that may seem a bit unrelated. You may be familiar with games such as Zoo Tycoon or Planet Zoo. In those games, animals need to belong to an "enclosure" in which they eat, nest and live. Farmwand is not too different. Animals live in "animal houses", and around these houses you can place feeders and other enrichment items. You can optionally build fences around them too!
And, of course, you have to be able to move the little animals around.
There is a lot of work that goes behind every single interactive / usable / equip-able item in the game. And every interaction, background character, creature, pet... There are hundreds upon hundreds of animations for tons of different things. Walking, running and standing have to look slightly different depending on whatever you are holding. All of them unique, all of them done by us, all of them done by hand (to have that slightly stylized motion).
Code is the same. Most features are being developed from scratch so that they play nicely with each other and can combine for interesting results. Certain things in our game, like the chicken coops, have to be items that you can craft, place, customize, put chickens in, interact with (in order to manage / name / dress up said chickens) etc.
They have tons of different functions that, like lego blocks, have to be carefully designed to stack together while not interfering with each other. To give you an idea, here are some of the blocks used for the chicken coop.
New furniture packs
We've been also working on lots of new furniture and decorations. Some for the demo, some for the full game. All of them very cute, if we may say so ourselves!
Even some goblincore ones!
Very useful information at your fingertips
Finally, we started working on the Journal, the place where anything worth writing down is written.
Earliest WIP / Design
In there you will be able to read your active quests, information about any creatures, plants and characters you meet, small tutorials / hints, and so much more.
We're currently plugging it to the different databases that contain its data, as well as polishing all of its animations.
The upcoming demo
All of this work is us going overtime for the upcoming demo. Our plan is to make it span several in-gme days, each one focusing on several different tasks to give you a great overview of what the game will be about in a smaller, more controlled playground. It is almost a vertical slice, meaning that while there is not a lot of areas to explore, most of the features and content in there will be as polished as it can be. Gameplay-wise, a ton of the game's features will need to be coded for the demo even if not in full-use yet.
So, it is a lot of work. It will be out soon, but still not set in stone exactly when, as we'll also need to test it all thoroughly (for which we may need some assistance, but more on that later ;) )
And, as we do not want to delay it much longer, you may get to play it a bit earlier and then go at it again as we update it from time to time, all building towards that Early Access release.
That's it for this update devlog, and until next time!
J&D