I'd love to know more about what sort of content you all like to see in these devlogs. Do you want me to go into even more detail than in this video, show more code, etc, or do you prefer the less technical devlogs? Let me know!
It would be nice to see the birth of a feature vs the end result, like you showed at the end of the video with the tree system, where your initial thoughts were to have a merchant give you compensation for the amount of trees... so it would be nice to see the overall thought process of a feature, and who knows, maybe we will like parts of the iteration you were on the edge of and provide even more feedback that way. Great work once again!
Thats what i want but i dont know if its a good idea because i think this game is not just a hobby project and will be a paid game. Altough its not going to be a multiplayer yet so I would love to look into its structure
If you're looking for other benefits for keeping trees to provide more of a decision for the player, here are a few that could be interesting: 1) A system where the player could tap certain types of trees for sap to make (and then sell) syrup. 2) Bees forming hives in the trees from which the player can harvest (and then sell) honeycomb. 3) Trees attracting nesting birds so that at random times birds fly in and out of the trees and there's a bit of background chirping noise. (Not for an in-game resource benefit, but purely for a charming aesthetic benefit.) 4) Trees that produce fruit/nuts.
I think a boon for having trees would allow us to go for a more naturalistic approach. So if you have trees it draws in animals, bugs which could be both beneficial and detrimental. You would have to balance this so, you have more more trees on your farm which draws more bugs/animals to your farm which you may need for certian benefits/items etc but they may say bring more disease and or eat your crops. However having trees could make certian plants grow better, you get tree related produce from them etc. Just a way to make it more in depth.
And imagine, this project started almost 2 years ago as a "small break project" from the city building game! I really admire your work and perseverance! Keep up!
Probably a small thing, but I think it'd be nicer if the logs spawn in your inventory after the tree hit the ground and disappeared, rather than at the moment the tree begins to fall over.
A few things I think might improve the tree-falling-over animation: - Leaving a stump in it's position while the tree is falling over - A larger explosion of leaves when the hits the ground - Removing the leaves after it hits the ground and letting the log sit there a little longer before fading out - Leaving some leaf items on the spot the tree fell - Maybe some screen-shake when the falling log hits the ground Great devlog as always! Keep up the good work :)
@@ThinMatrix and if you want to be super fancy. Gather them at the cursor. Letting them have a kind of bounce function for the velocity and shake them on the start of each bounce. This should give a nice sweeping looking animation. 🤩 The average velocity for each leave should be dependent on the distance from the center point. Closer leaves taking longer to get to the center. What to do, when you move the cursor during the animation could be tricky. But I'd just lock the center they go to a the start of the animation. Oh my... If you'd make the leaves Objects, you could make it so you can click on them to gather immediately ( maybe even without a tool? ) and only when you click on the ground, it will work with AoE and gather the leaves at the center of the affected tiles or group of tiles. Actually, the whole, picking something without a tool, could make for an interesting start of game mechanic. You can only manually pick fruits, vegetables etc. at the start. And then can get a tool, that let's you pick those in a tile or more at the same time... Sorry, got a bit carried away with that. I just immediately saw a thing in my head, had to get it out and one thing lead to another But it's YOUR game. And I'm not even a Patreon. 😅 So many ideas, for just one thing. How do you deal with that?
Just a tiny suggestion - I think usually evergreens are softwood and trees with leaves that fall each year are hardwood, so in the example of different speeds of chopping down they should be the other way around.
Didn't watch quite a few videos from you (mid 2023ish). This is the vid I came back to, and I love it. I guess I'll spend next few days watching all the stuff I missed, sorry about that. Also, even tho I'm an artist (by day) and UE blueprint guy (by night), I still love all the depth you show, even if I don't know the syntax, I love seeing the approach other people take.
It would be nice to have 4-5 different cutting sounds to add variety and it doesn’t sound repetitive … Just my opinion :) Love this type of videos I hope you keep them coming!
I do actually have exactly that, and their pitch is also varied each time, but perhaps they are still too similar. I'll try and make them even more distinct!
Another thing that would be nice is that the moment when the tree falls does not interrupt a chopping sound in the middle of it. That is the time you take to chop a tree should be a múltiple of the time of a chop
You could also use an easing function to make the progress bar for chopping trees increase in "chops", instead of the current linear increase. Just for a tiny bit of extra flair. So many great details already!
I am fascinated how this game has grown over time, especially when you have done it alone building your own engine in Java. Your devlogs are so inspiring. Thank you for them. I wish you best luck with it and never give up continuing this amazing journey. 👏
Really enjoyed this style of video, just seeing a more technical breakdown of you create is super insightful! :) I do enjoy of course enjoy the B-Roll and Rufus footage thrown in :P Now that you're nearing the end, anything you're excited to add in/dreading to add in!
Random idea for more tree content, and I'm sure it would tie in with other people's suggestions, but bee-keeping! Bees could randomly come by and set up a hive on one of your trees, after which you could perhaps rehome them into a hive-box, which could buff your plants.
I do actually already have plans for beekeeping and making honey, but I really like that idea of finding them in trees first and then re-homing them. Thanks!
I'd love to see more videos like this, not just code but the way you design a gameplay feature, models and art etc. - but they don't need to replace the existing "here's what I've been working on" style. You could call them deep dives, to differentiate from the dev log videos
"Efficiency" for the rake could be renamed to "yield" and I think it should be on the tree aswell for the log amount. Yield is what discribes the amount to return. Love the updates and the progress! Good job!
I would love a more code heavy video and some code architecture. Seems like you have a pretty solid codebase so it’s easy to add new features, would love to see more of that
As always, I’m so glad to see your new video in my youtube feed ! So great to see your evolution along the years 🫶🏻 I had the idea that the trees could reduce a little bit the drying time of the nearby soil, by keeping it in the shadow (like in agroforestry) It isn’t a great main mechanic but could be a cool nice feature !
I love the idea of using leaves as plant matter. Here are a couple other benefits I thought of for trees. Trees can bring water up to the soil level through a process called hydraulic redistribution. I know you said you considered a buff idea and decided not to use it, but increasing the water level of the land slightly in a radius around the tree would be a realistic benefit. My thought is you’d still need to water the plots, but when they dry out they don’t get totally dry, so they still do better than if there was no water at all. Another idea might not apply to your game mechanics, but trees protect other plants from weather. If you had any idea for weather mechanics, the trees would provide protection from wind and shade in the hot sun. Keep up the good work!
A couple additional possible benefit to trees. 1. Fruit trees. Let us set up an ochard type area that could double for leaves and produce. 2. Tapping trees. Would give the opportunity for extra activities with gathering sap and making products based on it. Also I think chopping down trees should give a lump sum of leaves for composting. The balance could be chopping down gives a good amount of leaves immediately but keeping the trees gives a steady supply long term
Love your vlogs! Have you thought about adding some animals to the environment? Like birds, butterflies, squirrels etc? I think it would make the world seem more alive.
The wood types can lead to a whole new gameplay based on carpentry, where you can build furniture based on the wood type and sell it to the market, or improve your own farm by repairing the fences. That is, if that doesn't lead to feature creep.
When chopping a tree, wait a few seconds before it disappears. For a more immersive gameplay experience, you can make it fade to the ground by gradually lowering its position along the Z-axis-a small detail that adds a nice touch.
on tree benefits, I like how they're implemented I do also agree that a passive direct aura buff to plants probably wouldnt be fitting. *however*, rather then a direct buff, you could mark the spaces near a grown tree as "shaded" then give different plants different growing preferences. Certain crops may prefer certain environments over other enviremnets Sunflowers for example, you'll want those in a nice open area, but might get a health de-buff if they are in a "shaded" area, while also getting a health buff while in bright open space Then maybe certain root vegetables might be more resistant to such a negative effect but with a vine crop like grapes, you might be able to let them grow on the tree as for the stat name "efficiency" i think it's good, i was able to intuit what it does based off the name before you explained it
Some ideas for trees: - Different tree types: Sap/Syrup Producing (eg Pine/Maple) these could be used to produce special fertilisers and maybe sold to different artisan shops (like amber?) Fruit Trees (eg Apple/Cherry + would be nice to have pink petals) Boon Trees (eg Hawthorn, Great Oak) these provide a unique boon like greatly increased plant waste, maybe more shade/drainage etc for nearby crops, reduced risk of weeds grown. This could be a way to reduce dependency on compost enriched with fertiliser, and maybe fertiliser could also induce some negative effects overtime to incentivise more natural approaches for balance. Certain trees could also attract wild animals which maybe could be a source of seeds not sold in shops, like eg a squirrel appears and leaves a hazelnut behind, allowing you to convert it to seeds and then grow hazelnuts.
What a coincidence, I live in Barcelona! I hope you enjoyed the trip ^^ I like to see how your game is progressing, even though I have no idea about programming
I noticed two places where I think some more randomness could help improve the playing experience: 1. In the particle system. At the moment you create an exact number of particles, which isn't really an issue if there's a lot of them. But for the trees it gets kinda repetetive I think, so I propose you add either a min_particle and max_particle number where it is randomly decided how many particles are spawned, or a proper probability curve, centered on the desired mean amount of particles emitted. Perhaps even a combination of those two systems. 2. The tree growth timer. From my understanding, that one is just a static number right now. Which is probably fine for most plants in the game but I think it might look pretty weird when you plant a lot of trees and they all grow at the same time like some reverse domino. Thanks for considering and have a great day, already looking forward to the next one :)
You know what could be cool? When holding a tool item, make it rotate towards whatever you're using the tool on. For example, make the rake head rotate towards the leaves you're raking up.
I loved the in-depth devlog, your game looks beautiful. It's fascinating to see all the technicality that goes into it. I'm used to making games in GMS2, so it's cool to see what game dev is like using a lower-level language.
Beautiful, i love this project, the way you present to us, made me want to start my own game but once in front of intellij i don't have the motivation to go on, thank for the inspiration
If I may propose a minor fix for the mining operation (cutting trees/raking and the like). As seen in 14:48 when the user is raking the leaves and momentairly stops and resumes raking on the same entity, it starts the progress from start. There should be a grace period, that if the player resumes the operation, on the same entity, it would continue the progress instead. This has actually been an issue I once had, with a slightly malfunctioning mouse - the button mechanism was worn out, and it'd sometimes emit a mouse button up event, despite me still pressing it, for a brief moment, but games recongized it as me no longer pressing the button - and in some games it was the problem I'm describing. Some players might also simply missclick, accidentally loose the mouse click for a second, etc.
I used to watch you a ton in the early days. I’m not sure you remember my name but I like to think you do 😅. I haven’t checked in in a while but I’m glad you’re doing well man. It’s great to see you’re still building amazing things. In part due to your channel I got interested in programming and I’m now studying AI in college so this video is super helpful!
An idea to give pros of having trees. Take inspiration from Animal Crossing. Here you can hit trees with an axe 3 times daily and they will drop wood without "getting chopped". Same as making the player able to shake the trees so they drop sticks or other random stuff.
Can be scope creep, but if you ever wanted to bring in a mushroom mechanic you can add this too the tree. One idea is if the leaves are left on the ground it can have a chance to grow mushrooms, this gives the dynamic of should I rake the leaves for compost vs leave them for mushrooms Another is you could change the tree felling, first stage is a tree, then a stump then gone, if you leave the stump this could once again grow mushrooms that could be harvested.
Loving your implementation it's looking so smooth! You make it look so easy 😅 Have you considered implementing automation later down the line, like maybe you can hire gardeners to carry out certain tasks, and you can upgrade them, but it costs a certain amount a week, and increases when they get more experience? Not sure if that would pivot your direction too much
Thanks! And yes, there will be some level of automation. In some sense, every upgrade takes you one step closer to automation already. Take watering for example, at the start of the game if you have a 4x4 bed of carrots you'd have to water 16 tiles every 30 seconds let's say. But then you upgrade you watering can to have 2x1 range and you only have to do 8 watering actions, upgrade it to 2x2 and you only have to do 4. And then you invest in some fertilizer that slows water loss and it's down to 4 every minute, and so on. Almost every upgrade is designed to lighten your work load, allowing you to grow more crops at a time. Later in the game I'll be adding things like sprinklers - simple ones at first that still need refilling with water every now and again, and they'll be upgradeable to give them a larger range, or need refilling less often. Again, each upgrade getting you closer to automation. I don't think I'll ever add other farmers though - I quite like the feeling of you doing everything yourself, I think it adds to the satisfaction.
So personally, id like a short cooldown for preventing falling leaves after you've collected them from the floor. I think it might be annoying to finish cleaning up under the trees and then immediately another leaf falls! It might also be nice to be able to drag select over the signs when purchasing more land. I imagine when you get a large farm and want to extend it out on chunk to the right, it could take a while to buy all the plots separately
Good point with the leaf cooldown, I'll add that to the to-do list! As for the sale signs, I don't know if that would ever be necessary. Buying land is meant to be pretty expensive, and the land prices scale up so even as you become richer getting new land will still be quite a big investment. So it's not something that you can do very often and usually you're only buying one plot at a time. I'll have to see how it balances in the late game though - there's not really enough content in the game right now to get to the point where you have massive farms. But if it does get to the point where you're often buying multiple plots at once, then I'll probably just increase the plot sizes as you get further from the starting area.
I think the tree falling animation will look better if the fading only started after the tree has already hit the ground and is laying idle. Currently it starts fading in the middle of movement. But it makes sense for something to fade when it actually is still (frozen in history if you get what I mean)
The trees could also help with water retention, so you need to water your plants less often. It would also incentivise mixing trees with other plants, like with agroforestry 🤔
I think in general, a big improvement on the upgrade system could be to include some type of level requirement to the tools for some tasks. For example, only being able to cut "medium size trees" with a level 2 axe and only "large size trees" with a level 3 axe etc. Very similar to how Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley does it. I think that gives the player a very satisfying sense of achievement when they actually buy the upgrade. "I can finally cut down the large trees" is more satisfying and motivating than "Now I can cut the large tress faster" :) This can of course be iterated upon with many tools. I personally think these "hard checks" provide a very good motivation and something tangible to look forward to in the game. I've been watching for a while, love the game and your videos! :)
This could be implemented in a way that works with your current upgrade system as well. Like your rake becomes "tier 2" after you've purchased any 5 upgrades for it. Or When you've spent a certain amount of gold on upgrades :)
Interesting mechanic I would think trees could have, that also adds more to the placement of the trees is that watering a tree waters nearby plants. So it acts like an AOE watering unit over time. The logic behind it being that the roots disperse the water.
I like the detailed video. Some things you've probably thought about already but I noticed. Maybe you could have the tree not fall on the fence if there's one nearby? (*surrounds tree with fence then tries to cut it down*) Also, the pine trees would not drop leaves. I feel very much like Captain Obvious saying that, I'm sure it was just testing, but it looked quite odd. The raking feels like it could get very repetitive but maybe I'm just projecting, I just had to rake my yard! Keep up the great work you're crushing it!
Thanks for the suggestion! I had originally dismissed the idea of avoid other objects when the tree falls as being too much effort, but now that I think about it again it probably wouldn't be too hard to just check the neighbouring tiles and fall in the direction of an empty one. I'll put it on the to-do list! For the tree, yeah, those just happened to be the types of trees that I already had in the game. I'll have to swap it out for another deciduous tree so that it makes more sense. You're definitely right about the raking! It's something I was still trying to work out, because it will get even worse as you expand your farm and have more and more trees. There needs to be some sort of upgrade that can reduce how often the leaves need to be collected, but I haven't been able to think of anything suitable yet.
I’ll watch any video you put out because I am genuinely excited by your creativity. But to give you an answer to your question; If you have the time to dive into more technical topics (even just gameplay mechanics like in this video), I sure would get some great insight out of that. I hope I speak for more than just myself by saying this.
Hey man. I've been watching you for a while and I have to say that you make great videos and I enjoy watching them. Keep up the good work. Here's an idea to have an incentive for keeping trees: compost emits CO2 and trees absorb it at a given rate. Depending on that you can label you produce as BIO and have a price multiplier at the market.
If you're willing to work on it a bit more, you could definitely do a wispy side to side motion on the leaves and still make them fall onto a unique spot by deciding where they'll fall and back solving!
I love your devogs they are calming and fun to watch, can't wait for Homegrown to release looks like so much fun to play, keep up the amazing work. As a game developer I am curious are you using a custom game development framework or game engine?
I absolutely love this format. Ironically, i found more technical stuff made the video far more entertaining. I'm also a game dev, so it could have been that I'm just a huge nerd😅
I think one thing that could make this game a lot more fun is giving the player workers that can help with these sorts of tasks. Holding down the mouse on a tree isn’t super engaging. Orchestrating a bunch of workers to do different tasks however would add a fun management element to this game. Loving the progress so far!
it might look better if the leaves spread for a greater area, not just directly underneath the tree, as if wind was spreading them. also makes raking more important
I'd love to know more about what sort of content you all like to see in these devlogs. Do you want me to go into even more detail than in this video, show more code, etc, or do you prefer the less technical devlogs? Let me know!
Maybe something about your entity component system implementation
I love the "more detail" vibe of this video; bring on more like this!
It would be nice to see the birth of a feature vs the end result, like you showed at the end of the video with the tree system, where your initial thoughts were to have a merchant give you compensation for the amount of trees... so it would be nice to see the overall thought process of a feature, and who knows, maybe we will like parts of the iteration you were on the edge of and provide even more feedback that way. Great work once again!
Personally love the technical explanation with code examples.
love the usual style, this is. a little too in detail -What sets you out from the other channels is your flow and editing
A video about your overall game code architecture/structure would be great!
Thats what i want but i dont know if its a good idea because i think this game is not just a hobby project and will be a paid game. Altough its not going to be a multiplayer yet so I would love to look into its structure
If you're looking for other benefits for keeping trees to provide more of a decision for the player, here are a few that could be interesting:
1) A system where the player could tap certain types of trees for sap to make (and then sell) syrup.
2) Bees forming hives in the trees from which the player can harvest (and then sell) honeycomb.
3) Trees attracting nesting birds so that at random times birds fly in and out of the trees and there's a bit of background chirping noise. (Not for an in-game resource benefit, but purely for a charming aesthetic benefit.)
4) Trees that produce fruit/nuts.
I think it would be awesome if fruits were like a rare drop fallen from the tree, and as such they hold more waste value.
Birds are helpful as they eat insects. Keeping trees and building birdhouses can attract more birds and you would need less ferilizers.
I was thinking the same about the tapping. or i thought of like Birch wine that my friend made once. Lots of stuff you can make with tree sap
It would make sense for the bees from the beehive to give buffs to the plants.
I think a boon for having trees would allow us to go for a more naturalistic approach. So if you have trees it draws in animals, bugs which could be both beneficial and detrimental. You would have to balance this so, you have more more trees on your farm which draws more bugs/animals to your farm which you may need for certian benefits/items etc but they may say bring more disease and or eat your crops. However having trees could make certian plants grow better, you get tree related produce from them etc. Just a way to make it more in depth.
subscriber of 9 years here - more in depth videos are fun to watch :) more plz
Loved to see more of the code. Love the principles like using the builder-pattern for the GameSounds!
And imagine, this project started almost 2 years ago as a "small break project" from the city building game! I really admire your work and perseverance! Keep up!
Probably a small thing, but I think it'd be nicer if the logs spawn in your inventory after the tree hit the ground and disappeared, rather than at the moment the tree begins to fall over.
Good point!
A few things I think might improve the tree-falling-over animation:
- Leaving a stump in it's position while the tree is falling over
- A larger explosion of leaves when the hits the ground
- Removing the leaves after it hits the ground and letting the log sit there a little longer before fading out
- Leaving some leaf items on the spot the tree fell
- Maybe some screen-shake when the falling log hits the ground
Great devlog as always! Keep up the good work :)
Good input!
I think also that log shut sit a bit on the ground
It's always a happy day when I see this in my home feed!
Love these more in-depth videos, showing more of the process, of the code, etc is always appreciated ;)
i like this format! more plz
yes we need more!!!
THis is currently my favourite series on YT at the moment. It's so satisfying to watch you create this game. I simply cannot wait to play it!
Make the leaves regroup while brushing them off the floor ! So satisfying
Great idea!
@@ThinMatrix and if you want to be super fancy. Gather them at the cursor. Letting them have a kind of bounce function for the velocity and shake them on the start of each bounce. This should give a nice sweeping looking animation. 🤩
The average velocity for each leave should be dependent on the distance from the center point. Closer leaves taking longer to get to the center.
What to do, when you move the cursor during the animation could be tricky. But I'd just lock the center they go to a the start of the animation.
Oh my... If you'd make the leaves Objects, you could make it so you can click on them to gather immediately ( maybe even without a tool? ) and only when you click on the ground, it will work with AoE and gather the leaves at the center of the affected tiles or group of tiles.
Actually, the whole, picking something without a tool, could make for an interesting start of game mechanic. You can only manually pick fruits, vegetables etc. at the start. And then can get a tool, that let's you pick those in a tile or more at the same time...
Sorry, got a bit carried away with that. I just immediately saw a thing in my head, had to get it out and one thing lead to another
But it's YOUR game. And I'm not even a Patreon. 😅 So many ideas, for just one thing. How do you deal with that?
eeeee
This is a wonderful reminder that game development is a slow process but the results of time always prove worthy!
Just a tiny suggestion - I think usually evergreens are softwood and trees with leaves that fall each year are hardwood, so in the example of different speeds of chopping down they should be the other way around.
Yeah for sure, with Oak being one of the hardest woods (at least here in Europe), it should definitely pose a bit more of a challenge
Didn't watch quite a few videos from you (mid 2023ish). This is the vid I came back to, and I love it.
I guess I'll spend next few days watching all the stuff I missed, sorry about that.
Also, even tho I'm an artist (by day) and UE blueprint guy (by night), I still love all the depth you show, even if I don't know the syntax, I love seeing the approach other people take.
I never thought cleaning up trees would look so satisfying to do. Awesome!
It would be nice to have 4-5 different cutting sounds to add variety and it doesn’t sound repetitive … Just my opinion :)
Love this type of videos I hope you keep them coming!
I do actually have exactly that, and their pitch is also varied each time, but perhaps they are still too similar. I'll try and make them even more distinct!
Another thing that would be nice is that the moment when the tree falls does not interrupt a chopping sound in the middle of it. That is the time you take to chop a tree should be a múltiple of the time of a chop
I personally love the fact that the video is more technical. Please make them like this from now on
You could also use an easing function to make the progress bar for chopping trees increase in "chops", instead of the current linear increase. Just for a tiny bit of extra flair. So many great details already!
Happy to see more technical videos again! It brings me back to the days your engine tutorials 😍
Fantastic to watch the whole process! I really like how the trees look when they fall and how the leaves shake when you gather them.
I am fascinated how this game has grown over time, especially when you have done it alone building your own engine in Java. Your devlogs are so inspiring. Thank you for them. I wish you best luck with it and never give up continuing this amazing journey. 👏
The tree chopping effect with the sounds and the animations is sooooo satisfying
Really enjoyed this style of video, just seeing a more technical breakdown of you create is super insightful! :)
I do enjoy of course enjoy the B-Roll and Rufus footage thrown in :P
Now that you're nearing the end, anything you're excited to add in/dreading to add in!
oo that transition at 3:48, smooth as butter
That sound and animation for the tree being cut down is so satisfying, absolutely perfect
16:03 Yield may be a better name
Oh I like that.
Yup, one syllable which means it's easier to say and compliments the other names too (area and speed)
Random idea for more tree content, and I'm sure it would tie in with other people's suggestions, but bee-keeping! Bees could randomly come by and set up a hive on one of your trees, after which you could perhaps rehome them into a hive-box, which could buff your plants.
I do actually already have plans for beekeeping and making honey, but I really like that idea of finding them in trees first and then re-homing them. Thanks!
I'd love to see more videos like this, not just code but the way you design a gameplay feature, models and art etc. - but they don't need to replace the existing "here's what I've been working on" style. You could call them deep dives, to differentiate from the dev log videos
Excellent dev log! I really appreciate the more technical nature of it!
"Efficiency" for the rake could be renamed to "yield" and I think it should be on the tree aswell for the log amount.
Yield is what discribes the amount to return.
Love the updates and the progress! Good job!
I would love a more code heavy video and some code architecture. Seems like you have a pretty solid codebase so it’s easy to add new features, would love to see more of that
I love the more technical videos, i personally would love for you to make some in even more detail
As always, I’m so glad to see your new video in my youtube feed !
So great to see your evolution along the years 🫶🏻
I had the idea that the trees could reduce a little bit the drying time of the nearby soil, by keeping it in the shadow (like in agroforestry)
It isn’t a great main mechanic but could be a cool nice feature !
Very inspiring, it is really starting to come together now. Well done!
Thank you!
What an awesome game and vlog! The trees could also drop pine cones/needles/acorns for crafting/decorations and compost etc.
I love the idea of using leaves as plant matter.
Here are a couple other benefits I thought of for trees.
Trees can bring water up to the soil level through a process called hydraulic redistribution. I know you said you considered a buff idea and decided not to use it, but increasing the water level of the land slightly in a radius around the tree would be a realistic benefit. My thought is you’d still need to water the plots, but when they dry out they don’t get totally dry, so they still do better than if there was no water at all.
Another idea might not apply to your game mechanics, but trees protect other plants from weather. If you had any idea for weather mechanics, the trees would provide protection from wind and shade in the hot sun.
Keep up the good work!
A couple additional possible benefit to trees.
1. Fruit trees. Let us set up an ochard type area that could double for leaves and produce.
2. Tapping trees. Would give the opportunity for extra activities with gathering sap and making products based on it.
Also I think chopping down trees should give a lump sum of leaves for composting. The balance could be chopping down gives a good amount of leaves immediately but keeping the trees gives a steady supply long term
Love your vlogs!
Have you thought about adding some animals to the environment? Like birds, butterflies, squirrels etc? I think it would make the world seem more alive.
Thanks! And yes, I'll be adding little details like that nearer the end of development :)
The wood types can lead to a whole new gameplay based on carpentry, where you can build furniture based on the wood type and sell it to the market, or improve your own farm by repairing the fences. That is, if that doesn't lead to feature creep.
As a programmer, I would love to see more technical stuff.
When chopping a tree, wait a few seconds before it disappears. For a more immersive gameplay experience, you can make it fade to the ground by gradually lowering its position along the Z-axis-a small detail that adds a nice touch.
it is impressive how a seemingly uninteresting thing can be turned into a simple and fitting mechanic!
Nice, been following this project since the start so it's great to see it nearing that release! Congratulations on getting this far!
bro it´s almost 10 years and your game is not over yet
Yes! Need more of these!
on tree benefits, I like how they're implemented
I do also agree that a passive direct aura buff to plants probably wouldnt be fitting.
*however*, rather then a direct buff, you could mark the spaces near a grown tree as "shaded"
then give different plants different growing preferences.
Certain crops may prefer certain environments over other enviremnets
Sunflowers for example, you'll want those in a nice open area, but might get a health de-buff if they are in a "shaded" area, while also getting a health buff while in bright open space
Then maybe certain root vegetables might be more resistant to such a negative effect
but with a vine crop like grapes, you might be able to let them grow on the tree
as for the stat name "efficiency"
i think it's good, i was able to intuit what it does based off the name before you explained it
I was expecting the trees to automatically add compost to nearby fields, as trees do in real life, but I love the renewable source of plant matter!
Some ideas for trees:
- Different tree types:
Sap/Syrup Producing (eg Pine/Maple) these could be used to produce special fertilisers and maybe sold to different artisan shops (like amber?)
Fruit Trees (eg Apple/Cherry + would be nice to have pink petals)
Boon Trees (eg Hawthorn, Great Oak) these provide a unique boon like greatly increased plant waste, maybe more shade/drainage etc for nearby crops, reduced risk of weeds grown. This could be a way to reduce dependency on compost enriched with fertiliser, and maybe fertiliser could also induce some negative effects overtime to incentivise more natural approaches for balance.
Certain trees could also attract wild animals which maybe could be a source of seeds not sold in shops, like eg a squirrel appears and leaves a hazelnut behind, allowing you to convert it to seeds and then grow hazelnuts.
Really appreciate the more in-depth video this time. Thank you for sharing your process with us
so keen for this to release 🙏
What a coincidence, I live in Barcelona! I hope you enjoyed the trip ^^
I like to see how your game is progressing, even though I have no idea about programming
I noticed two places where I think some more randomness could help improve the playing experience:
1. In the particle system. At the moment you create an exact number of particles, which isn't really an issue if there's a lot of them. But for the trees it gets kinda repetetive I think, so I propose you add either a min_particle and max_particle number where it is randomly decided how many particles are spawned, or a proper probability curve, centered on the desired mean amount of particles emitted. Perhaps even a combination of those two systems.
2. The tree growth timer. From my understanding, that one is just a static number right now. Which is probably fine for most plants in the game but I think it might look pretty weird when you plant a lot of trees and they all grow at the same time like some reverse domino.
Thanks for considering and have a great day, already looking forward to the next one :)
Thanks for sharing! its awesome seeing how other dev's structure their workflow so i can compare 🔥🔥
You know what could be cool? When holding a tool item, make it rotate towards whatever you're using the tool on. For example, make the rake head rotate towards the leaves you're raking up.
I loved the in-depth devlog, your game looks beautiful.
It's fascinating to see all the technicality that goes into it. I'm used to making games in GMS2, so it's cool to see what game dev is like using a lower-level language.
Exactly what I been waiting for!
I definitely like this video structure better then the usual one.
Wonderful video as always man keep it up
Thanks!
A video going into the architecture of the project or your game engine would be awesome
You can probably add some flowers and bees. I love the game I'm hoping you are to release an early access version of the game
What about having fruit trees? Apples, peaches... maybe even vines? One could do an orchard or just make their garden a bit fancier
Coming soon! :)
Yeah! Another great day with this video!
For the new upgrade type. Instead of Efficiency, you could use Productivity
I was thinking the same thing. Wanted to check existing comments before I added another one.
I love this type of video so much more!!!!
Beautiful, i love this project, the way you present to us, made me want to start my own game but once in front of intellij i don't have the motivation to go on, thank for the inspiration
Love your content man! Its so cool that you manage to find work life balance 😇
If I may propose a minor fix for the mining operation (cutting trees/raking and the like). As seen in 14:48 when the user is raking the leaves and momentairly stops and resumes raking on the same entity, it starts the progress from start. There should be a grace period, that if the player resumes the operation, on the same entity, it would continue the progress instead.
This has actually been an issue I once had, with a slightly malfunctioning mouse - the button mechanism was worn out, and it'd sometimes emit a mouse button up event, despite me still pressing it, for a brief moment, but games recongized it as me no longer pressing the button - and in some games it was the problem I'm describing.
Some players might also simply missclick, accidentally loose the mouse click for a second, etc.
Thanks for the suggestion! That's not something I'd thought of before, but it makes a lot of sense. I'll add it to the to-do list!
More code, more attention! :) I really like it!
I used to watch you a ton in the early days. I’m not sure you remember my name but I like to think you do 😅. I haven’t checked in in a while but I’m glad you’re doing well man.
It’s great to see you’re still building amazing things. In part due to your channel I got interested in programming and I’m now studying AI in college so this video is super helpful!
An idea to give pros of having trees.
Take inspiration from Animal Crossing. Here you can hit trees with an axe 3 times daily and they will drop wood without "getting chopped".
Same as making the player able to shake the trees so they drop sticks or other random stuff.
Can be scope creep, but if you ever wanted to bring in a mushroom mechanic you can add this too the tree.
One idea is if the leaves are left on the ground it can have a chance to grow mushrooms, this gives the dynamic of should I rake the leaves for compost vs leave them for mushrooms
Another is you could change the tree felling, first stage is a tree, then a stump then gone, if you leave the stump this could once again grow mushrooms that could be harvested.
For the rakes I'd suggest the word "yield" instead of efficiency for how much they pick up
Loving your implementation it's looking so smooth! You make it look so easy 😅
Have you considered implementing automation later down the line, like maybe you can hire gardeners to carry out certain tasks, and you can upgrade them, but it costs a certain amount a week, and increases when they get more experience? Not sure if that would pivot your direction too much
Thanks! And yes, there will be some level of automation. In some sense, every upgrade takes you one step closer to automation already. Take watering for example, at the start of the game if you have a 4x4 bed of carrots you'd have to water 16 tiles every 30 seconds let's say. But then you upgrade you watering can to have 2x1 range and you only have to do 8 watering actions, upgrade it to 2x2 and you only have to do 4. And then you invest in some fertilizer that slows water loss and it's down to 4 every minute, and so on. Almost every upgrade is designed to lighten your work load, allowing you to grow more crops at a time.
Later in the game I'll be adding things like sprinklers - simple ones at first that still need refilling with water every now and again, and they'll be upgradeable to give them a larger range, or need refilling less often. Again, each upgrade getting you closer to automation.
I don't think I'll ever add other farmers though - I quite like the feeling of you doing everything yourself, I think it adds to the satisfaction.
im yet to watch this but i just want to let you know how much i love this series and your videos. keep it up
Lovely devlog
So personally, id like a short cooldown for preventing falling leaves after you've collected them from the floor. I think it might be annoying to finish cleaning up under the trees and then immediately another leaf falls!
It might also be nice to be able to drag select over the signs when purchasing more land. I imagine when you get a large farm and want to extend it out on chunk to the right, it could take a while to buy all the plots separately
Good point with the leaf cooldown, I'll add that to the to-do list!
As for the sale signs, I don't know if that would ever be necessary. Buying land is meant to be pretty expensive, and the land prices scale up so even as you become richer getting new land will still be quite a big investment. So it's not something that you can do very often and usually you're only buying one plot at a time.
I'll have to see how it balances in the late game though - there's not really enough content in the game right now to get to the point where you have massive farms. But if it does get to the point where you're often buying multiple plots at once, then I'll probably just increase the plot sizes as you get further from the starting area.
11:28 just made my day
I think the tree falling animation will look better if the fading only started after the tree has already hit the ground and is laying idle. Currently it starts fading in the middle of movement. But it makes sense for something to fade when it actually is still (frozen in history if you get what I mean)
The trees could also help with water retention, so you need to water your plants less often. It would also incentivise mixing trees with other plants, like with agroforestry 🤔
I think in general, a big improvement on the upgrade system could be to include some type of level requirement to the tools for some tasks.
For example, only being able to cut "medium size trees" with a level 2 axe and only "large size trees" with a level 3 axe etc. Very similar to how Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley does it. I think that gives the player a very satisfying sense of achievement when they actually buy the upgrade.
"I can finally cut down the large trees" is more satisfying and motivating than "Now I can cut the large tress faster" :)
This can of course be iterated upon with many tools. I personally think these "hard checks" provide a very good motivation and something tangible to look forward to in the game.
I've been watching for a while, love the game and your videos! :)
This could be implemented in a way that works with your current upgrade system as well. Like your rake becomes "tier 2" after you've purchased any 5 upgrades for it. Or When you've spent a certain amount of gold on upgrades :)
I think you're right, that probably does make more sense in this scenario with the trees. Thanks for the suggestion!
I always love your videos, but more in depth ones like this would be awesome!
Mushrooms and shade for some plants might also be a benefit to have trees
Interesting mechanic I would think trees could have, that also adds more to the placement of the trees is that watering a tree waters nearby plants. So it acts like an AOE watering unit over time. The logic behind it being that the roots disperse the water.
Cool progress could be good if when you chop a tree it leaves a stump that you need to dig out
Also I'd love to see more code
Yay! Technical stuff! ❤
You could add shade as a mechanic. Plants next to trees would be shaded benefiting some while adversely affecting others
I like the detailed video. Some things you've probably thought about already but I noticed. Maybe you could have the tree not fall on the fence if there's one nearby? (*surrounds tree with fence then tries to cut it down*) Also, the pine trees would not drop leaves. I feel very much like Captain Obvious saying that, I'm sure it was just testing, but it looked quite odd. The raking feels like it could get very repetitive but maybe I'm just projecting, I just had to rake my yard! Keep up the great work you're crushing it!
Thanks for the suggestion! I had originally dismissed the idea of avoid other objects when the tree falls as being too much effort, but now that I think about it again it probably wouldn't be too hard to just check the neighbouring tiles and fall in the direction of an empty one. I'll put it on the to-do list!
For the tree, yeah, those just happened to be the types of trees that I already had in the game. I'll have to swap it out for another deciduous tree so that it makes more sense.
You're definitely right about the raking! It's something I was still trying to work out, because it will get even worse as you expand your farm and have more and more trees. There needs to be some sort of upgrade that can reduce how often the leaves need to be collected, but I haven't been able to think of anything suitable yet.
@@ThinMatrix Leaf blower? Maybe not in the theme. Not sure if seasons were on your mind but maybe it's only something that happens in fall?
I’ll watch any video you put out because I am genuinely excited by your creativity. But to give you an answer to your question; If you have the time to dive into more technical topics (even just gameplay mechanics like in this video), I sure would get some great insight out of that. I hope I speak for more than just myself by saying this.
Hey man. I've been watching you for a while and I have to say that you make great videos and I enjoy watching them. Keep up the good work.
Here's an idea to have an incentive for keeping trees: compost emits CO2 and trees absorb it at a given rate. Depending on that you can label you produce as BIO and have a price multiplier at the market.
If you're willing to work on it a bit more, you could definitely do a wispy side to side motion on the leaves and still make them fall onto a unique spot by deciding where they'll fall and back solving!
Rather than "efficiency" for the rake, consider fortune/yield!
Honestly loved it when a ton of leaves came off as particles haha
I love your devogs they are calming and fun to watch, can't wait for Homegrown to release looks like so much fun to play, keep up the amazing work. As a game developer I am curious are you using a custom game development framework or game engine?
I absolutely love this format. Ironically, i found more technical stuff made the video far more entertaining. I'm also a game dev, so it could have been that I'm just a huge nerd😅
Great video as always!
Would've been funny to see you arround Barcelona, I also was there last week!
Greetings from Spain! ♥
I think one thing that could make this game a lot more fun is giving the player workers that can help with these sorts of tasks. Holding down the mouse on a tree isn’t super engaging. Orchestrating a bunch of workers to do different tasks however would add a fun management element to this game.
Loving the progress so far!
it might look better if the leaves spread for a greater area, not just directly underneath the tree, as if wind was spreading them. also makes raking more important
All the support