Harvest Fable

Inspiration

I love games that are comforting and easy to play, and so when this contest was announced, it was a great opportunity for me to challenge myself and turn a game idea I had thought about in my head for quite awhile into a reality. The inspiration for this game idea mostly came from me seeing other cozy games done really well like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley. I was also a big Farmville fan back in the day! I also have 4 kids, my oldest (8 years old) is starting to understand just how much goes into these games. I built this with them in mind and asked them at many times what makes a game fun for them. They were also very willing and useful beta testers!

What it does

The game Harvest Fable is a cozy yet competitive game world that works and looks great in VR, desktop and mobile. You're thrown right away into the game to start farming and harvesting crops, as well as collecting coins along the way. There are 2 leaderboards you want to work your way up on, becoming the Best Harvester by growing and collecting crops and/or the Wealthiest Farmer by collecting coins. With the leaderboards resetting every week and month, there are plenty of opportunities for players to compete and win.

How I built it

Most of the visual assets, graphics and models brought in to assemble the game were created using Adobe Creative Suite, 3DS Max, Blender, and Meta Horizon's Desktop Editor. I also utilized AI programs such as MidJourney to help create a consistent brand look and style for the game, it also gave me many reference images and ideas to help create the graphics and shape the overall vision for the game.

Challenges I ran into

I ran across a few bugs that came up that were challenging. Simple things such as getting the rake to swing properly on mobile, the watering cans to trigger the crops to grow, and other issues came up. Another challenge at the start was how large or small to make the play area/map. I knew I didn't want it too large where you had to run forever to do anything, but not too small either where it felt cramped. The map size I settled on seemed right to me, essentially an arena sized farm map where you could still run and jump around, but rival farmers and competitors would always be close by. I wanted to maximize the action you would experience in the game. I also had a lot of fun with creating a simple UI for the mobile version of the game, but it was loading also in the desktop and VR version which I didn't want! I eventually figured out how to make the UI only appear on mobile devices, which was a big relief as I was ready to leave that out of the game because it had taken me over 4 very long nights to figure out.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I'm very proud of the aesthetics and consistent overall look I was able to give the game. Everything feels like it's all from the same game visually which was a big aim of mine heading in. I'm also quite proud of the game mechanics achieved and the addictive gameplay I was able to create, another very important goal I had. I wanted to give the game a similar feel to a Las Vegas slots game with really great sound design and fun visuals, and the ability to gather points at almost every turn. I wanted the player to feel trigger happy, and this game calls for a lot of screen tapping fun! The fact that the game has a persistent world like element and can be returned to day after day was important to me too. The ability to continue where you left off with your leaderboard progress is something I'm proud I was able to put in as a core element of the game.

What I learned

I knew very little of Typescript heading into this. I knew the fundamentals of codeblock language in Meta Horizon, but learning typescript was quite the challenge. I had to recall a little bit of my coding knowledge from my C++ days, and the discord channel for the MHCP was probably the most useful resource in learning typescript quick enough to get a lot of the things I wanted into the game. I also learned a lot from my kids. The things I thought I knew kids would want in a game, actually were sometimes quite different from what they actually wanted!

What's next for Harvest Fable

I would love to expand the map outwards, add additional crops to add more variety and vary the speed in which they grow, as well as vary the points depending on what type of crop it is. Wearables that can be obtained with enough points to increase the players speed in harvesting and jumping boosts to help players travel around the map. Also changing the map based on seasons might be a fun and easy way to keep the game fresh throughout the year. Those are just a few of the things I have planned, but will also be looking to see how the game is received by others and what types of things the players want to see!