DevLog Week 5 - Crop Growth
Update Summary
Game Feature
Soil state
To grow crops, first you need a block of soil. For each different crop, they have different requirements to grow, other than the current in game season, it also need to grow under a certain level of softness or wetness of the soil. Player could manipulate these states by using a tool or other interaction method.
To increase soil softness, player will need to pick up the hoe tool and use it on soil, to decrease softness, simple let your character walk over it.
Water your soil by holding water can then interact with soil, the wetness of soil will continually decrease when time passes.
Soil softness and wetness state show up when near soil, walk on soil will decrease its softness
Crop growth
When all requirement of the crop growth are met, the crop will grow by increasing its growth point by time pass, when the growth point reaches to a certain number(each crop have different growth points required at the different stage), the crop will change to next stage and tell us its current stage by changing it's looking.
Crop starts to grow when the requirements are met
(Speed of grow on gif is not the final setting)
Crop harvest
While the crop grows to the final stage(I mean before it withered), player will able to harvest its product by interacting with it with an empty hand(on holding nothing), the crop will create an item object on the ground for player to pick up. If the crop is able to harvest multiple times, it will change the stage to the stage before harvest stage(fruit set stage) after harvesting, then it will take few days to bring back another little surprise. If the crop is only able to harvest once, it will disappear after harvest, and leave a lonely fruit on the ground.
Some of the crop can be harvest multiple times, but some can not...
(Speed of grow on gif is not the final setting)
Character
Interact(with)
To interact with the interactable objects, the player will need to holding or not holding with different things.
- Seed
To grow a new crop, the player will need to interact by tap 'J' key with soil while holding any type of seed. The seed will disappear after use, the soil will be start grow the crop that the seed you interacted earlier if all crop growth requirements are met.
Plant crop by holding a seed then interact with the soil
- Tool
Holding hoe then tap 'J' key to interact with soil will increase its softness state, holding a water can and tap 'J' key to interact with soil will increase its wetness level.
Increase soil state by holding tool and interact with soil
- Empty hand
When the crop is ready to harvest, tap 'J' key while not holding anything to interact with an empty hand to the soil will harvest the crop, the crop will drop you its product as an item.
Interact the crop with empty hand could harvest the final stage crop
Feedback
The wetness of the soil state is continually dropping during game runs, it is too hard to track to notice if one or more soils are getting too dry.
At the moment, he state of softness and wetness is only showing if the character facing it. By the suggestions, I will make an independent detect circle that shows all states of the soil inside of that circle, then add a warning notice on top of the soil that if the wetness or softness are not meet the requirements of the plant currently growing as a reminder.
Crop are growing too slow, different crop requirement are too hard to remember them all.
Currently, crop growth data are all similar to each one, there will be a lot of balance change. But the current build crop growth speed indeed is too slow, will make a change to the design document to make the crop grow speed faster but with less worth for each product to make players have more chance to interact with the game.
I have no idea what to do when I play this game.
Will make some guide line in the description section under the game page. There will be a guide about what the game is about, how to play the game, and the details for in game items such as the crop growth requirements.