Hello Folks,
We know it’s been quiet for some time and you’re eager for updates and today is an update day, yay! For everyone who missed our announcement we would like to remind you that Farm Folks IP has been acquired by Crytivo. The original developer, Overgrown, was going through substantial hardships that stalled their progress and through time we at Crytivo became worried about the future of the project so we decided to acquire it.
They gave us their entire documentation, but it isn’t detailed enough to hand them over to a team and expect them to make the game perfectly. So we are rewriting their documentation so that all details can be clearly communicated, and we figured it would be a good time to pull back the curtain and share our progress. We want to communicate directly with you the players and make sure we’re making a game that everyone will love and enjoy. This is our first of many planned updates and we hope you’ll like it.
We’re still in talks with multiple Dev. teams that will develop Farm Folks (complicated business). We want to make sure we give the project to the right “parents” that will raise it well. As soon as we’re done with foundation, which might take a few months you guys will start seeing bigger strides in progress.
With the game being called Farm Folks we figured we should start from the beginning—farming. Keep in mind that these game design decisions are not final and subject to change. Your feedback and comments will influence our future development. Make sure to leave us a love note below ;)
Alright, let’s get to it!
Like with many farming games the main general cycle will look like this:
Getting seeds -> Planting seeds -> Growing crops -> Harvesting
Let's review each step in detail.
How would you get seeds ?
Since seeds are one of the most important resources in the game, there are multiple ways to get them.
Buy them at a shop in Port Medir. This is the fastest way to get seeds, but definitely not the cheapest.
Other NPC’s can sell or exchange seeds with the player if their storyline is advanced enough or they have a high enough friendship level.
Rare seeds can be obtained as a reward from winning an agriculture competition or participating in festivals.
Seeds can also be found by exploring. You can find them on the ground, hiding under a bush, near a tree, or in other nooks and crannies around the world.
Seeds can be also found while exploring caves.
Soil Preparation
In order to “prepare” the soil you will have to perform a couple of simple steps. You will need to make sure that you have a hoe equipped, aim where you want to plant, and then perform an action. Each time you take a swing with the hoe the player character will lose some stamina. If you run out of stamina then you won’t be able to swing the hoe. Simple as that.
If in 24 hours nothing is planted in the prepared soil area, there is a chance that space will get overgrown with grass. Then the player would have to remove the grass in order to prepare the soil again.
Planting Seeds
Once the soil is prepared, the player will have to choose which seed they would like to plant, then place it on the prepared soil. Once the seed is planted, the player will be able to click on it and learn the following information about it:
- Name of the seed
- Produce name: only if it is unlocked in the farmer’s log
- Planted: How many days ago the seeds were planted and how long to wait for the harvest
- Fertilizer: What fertilizers, if any, were used for this crop.
- Water: Was the seed watered today or not. If the seed was not watered, it will stop growing and won’t be ready for harvesting until it will be watered again
- Stage: The current number of stars in the plant
Watering
Watering is the most important method of caring for plants, since a non-hydrated crop will not grow. Players must use a watering can, fill it with water (you can get it from any water source), and water the crops. Crops are automatically watered on rainy and wet days.
Fertilizer
Fertilizing is one way to improve the yield. A crop that grows on fertilized soil will benefit depending on which fertilizer is used. Once the crop is harvested, the fertilizer will be removed. It will need to be re-fertilized for the next crop.
There are the following types of fertilizers that will exist in the game:
Basic: purchased or created by adding manure to the composter. Plain brown. Reduces the chance of the disease by 10%.
Sandy: created by mixing the main fertilizer with sand in a composter. Brown with yellow spots. Reduces the chance of the disease by 25%.
Organic: created by mixing the main fertilizer with hay in a composter. Brown with green spots. Gives you a 50% chance to increase the yield per unit.
Sweet: it is created by mixing the main fertilizer with any sweets in the composter. Increases the star rating of the plant by one.
Loamy: created by mixing sand and organic fertilizers in a composter. A mixture of brown, yellow and green. Reduces the chance of disease by 20% and gives a 40% chance to increase the yield per unit.
Growth
The future crop goes through several stages of growth (at least three), which correspond to different plants.
At each stage, the plants look a little different-from small sprouts to adult, mature plants.
The change of growth stages occurs at 6.00 on a new day.
The player can only harvest the crop when its stage is "Ripened Crop.”
Crop quality and health
Each crop and trees will have an internal HP value that will be used with systems such as plant diseases and pest attacks. HP won’t be regenerated if the crop was already damaged.
Besides the HP parameter, each crop will have a “Star Rating”, which will influence the price that the player can receive for the crop. The crop gains or loses stars depending on multiple factors during their growth. The Star rating will affect how the crops will perform during festivals and other activities. The Maximum star rating of the culture is 3 stars. The way star rating will be calculated will look like this:
+ 1 star: awarded if the crop never stays sick overnight
+ 1 star: given for using the correct ( preferable by the crop ) fertilizer
+ 1 star: given if there was a large harvest
Your crops can also lose stars based on the following:
-1 star: one star will be removed for each day when the crop remains sick overnight
-1 star: one star is removed if the crop was damaged by pests
The quality of the crops will determine its price.
Crop Disease
During the growth phase, each crop has a chance to get sick. The change determined by the actual crop and how delicate it is and by the fertilizer that was used for the crop. Sick crops won’t be able to grow until it is treated.
Four types of diseases will exist in the game. Each disease will be more common at certain times of the year, but it does not exclude the appearance of the others. For example, in the summertime, crops have a higher chance of getting sick due to infection called Solaria and a very small chance to get infected by the disease called Rhyvacteria. The consequences of each disease are following:
Rhivacteria ( Yellow ): Most common during spring. It deals 1 damage to the crop. If it is not cured overnight, it will spread to the neighbouring crops.
Solaarea ( red ): Most common during Summer times. Deals 2 points of damage to the crops. Spreads across all neighbour crops overnight.
Warribalus ( green ): Most common during autumn. Deals 2 damage to the crops. Applies to all crops within 3 squares overnight
Cilluenza ( blue ): Most common during winter time. Deals 1 damage. Spreads across neighbour crops overnight.
Disease Treatment
Sick crops can be cured with various types of pesticides that can be purchased at the Meridia Farming Store. They can also be crafted by players. There are many types of pesticides.
Rhyvacteria Salve: Cures Rhyvacteria
Solaarea Serum: Cures Solaarea
Warribalus Formula: Cures Warribalus
Cilluenza Cure: Cures Cilluenza
Universal remedy Vulnerary: cures any diseases
Each of them has a “super” version that the player can create, and it cannot be purchased in the store. The Super version will not only cure the crop, but also make it immune to the respective disease.
For example, Super Solaarea Serum will immunize the crops against Solaarea, but Super Vulnerary will immunize the crops against all diseases. The use of fertilizers and proper crops soils can help prevent diseases.
Sick cultures are identified by their hue and a visual effect. This allows you to immediately identify them. When you treat the crop, it will produce 2-3 disease essences. The Rhyvacteria essence will fall out of the crop that has been cleared of Rhyvactiera. The essence of the disease is necessary when creating items related to pesticides.
Harvesting the crop
Once the crop is ready to be harvested, the player will have to pick it. For each day when the crop is ripe but not harvested, the quality of the product is reduced by one star. If it falls below zero, the crop will die. Harvested crops will display their star value. If the player has used the water or fertilizer that the crop prefers, their farmer's log will be updated with this new information.
And that’s it for this update, we hope you enjoyed it. We’re extremely excited to share more info with you in the future. Please keep in mind that it’s an unusual and challenging process to take over someone else's project. Our main goal is to develop the game you were excited for, and to do that right, we’re taking our time to avoid future issues. We’re counting on your support. Sign up and stay tuned for more updates.
🦎 Crytivo Team.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/895160/Farm_Folks/