Hello Saeges!
It has been a bit since our last devlog but we come to you with great news: the first demo for Farmwand, this time all about customization, is coming soon. What are we working on, what are our plans and what can you expect? Read along and find out!
The roadmap
As you may know, we are a very small team. Farmwand is being developed by only the two of us with no help from publishers or any other sources of revenue besides our main jobs and the amount that our Patreons donate. As such, while tackling a game as complex as ours, we need to have a good plan and a good balance between how much content we can make, how fast, and how we get it to you in the best possible way.
First impressions matter, and making sure that every part of Farmwand is as polished as it can be is very important. Because of that, we have decided that instead of releasing one big demo close to the release of the Early Access, we will build up to it with several smaller demos scattered in between. The first demo to be released will be focused on Character Creation, as you will see it when you start a new game (with some differences of course, as the game is still in development).
There will be more demos, some focused on other mechanics like decoration or potion making, before a last demo that will act as a more complete vertical slice of what you can expect from the game. With your feedback on every demo we will be able to make adjustments, tweak mechanics and polish the experience as we move towards the Early Access, which will grow with more content over time. Once the story is fully playable from beginning to end, the gameplay is all there and there are as few bugs as possible, we will have a version 1.0.
At least that is our plan, and while it has and will take us a while to meet all our goals (again, a tiny team!), we believe this will be the best way to meet them all. It is better to have a good game that took a bit longer than expected, than a rushed and incomplete one.
But now, the juicy details. What can you expect from this first demo?
The Character Creation Demo
In Farmwand you are a Saege that has just graduated from one of the four Academies. Which one? Well, that's the fun of it! Our game is half RPG, half life-sim, and as such you will not only choose your appearance but also parts of your background, your skills and more. You will decide who you are at the start of your adventure, in more ways than one.
This is Augustus Mysticus Turnip. the Saege that will receive your paperwork and send you off into the wide world. He will be your guide through this small demo.
Then you will get to the main portion of the demo, the Character Creation screen.
We have put many, many hours into designing our Character Creation system. From an UI that was simple and easy to understand to the dozens and dozens of items that will be available to you to design your avatar.
All sorts of outfits, over 25 diverse hairstyles that were sculpted, painted and set up with physics individually, more than a dozen beards and mustaches, accessories, tops, bottoms, hats, shoes...
All sorts of body types, tattoos, skin marks, custom shaders to let you color things to your heart's desire.
A few more words about other things
But we haven't been idle on the other fronts. We have now a redesigned, fully functional Inventory UI that is...CUSTOMIZABLE! (yes, we love custom things, yes, we may have a problem).
We've also finished adding all planned "normal" crops to the game (around 25) plus a bunch of magical ones. We've kept designing more magical creatures and the larger locations you'll visit:
And all in all, we've kept quite busy. But now, we have a small favor to ask of you.
We are inching closer to a thousand wishlists (YAY!), 400 members on reddit and 300 on Twitter. We are so very happy to see so many people liking our work and excited about playing our game, but with your help we can do better. With the demo coming up and us pushing as much work as we can, it is very important to make sure that Farmwand reaches as many people as possible.
If you want to help us, please spread the word about our game. Share this article, our other posts, or invite your friends if you think they may like it. Follow us on Twitter (X?), on reddit, Discord and in our other social media.
Having more followers also gives our content a push with the different algorithms. You can also take part in the discussions and polls we post regularly over on Discord and reddit, as they are a great way for us to get your feedback and to decide what makes it into the game next.
And if you want to support the development even more, we have a Patreon where you can donate a few dollars. Any amount you can give is deeply appreciated, as it helps us directly to cover the development costs of the game (website, tool & service fees, some parts of the game we have to commission, like the music).
And of course, once it comes out, play the demo. Tell us what you think, what you like and what could be better.
We are still adding some last few things. And testing, doing lots and lots of testing. But it is our hope that you will enjoy this demo a LOT and that it will give you an idea of the level of care and depth that you can expect from the other mechanics and the game itself. It is being made with a lot of love, and we can't wait to hear what you think about it.