Designing a New Town for my Farming Game
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- Опубликовано: 26 июн 2024
- Devlog video about "Homegrown", a casual farming game I'm creating using my own engine.
The UI overhaul is done so I'm getting back to gameplay! First up, the town needs an update in preparation for all the new features I'll be adding to it.
Support the channel on Patreon and get access to the game & code for Homegrown, the city-builder, and Equilinox:
/ thinmatrix
Play my previous game "Equilinox":
store.steampowered.com/app/85...
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Trello: trello.com/b/W3zkIJTM/farm
Email: thinmatrix@gmail.com
Background music by Jamal Green:
open.spotify.com/artist/50jTM...
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#devlog #Homegrown 
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The alternative UI style you were showing off looks really good! I’d switch, it looks less flat than the current UI which fits with the art style better
you got me in the first half, i seriously thought the spiffing brit commented x)
Agreed. The darker accent UI colours really help prioritize what's what in the UI and make it stand out a bit more. I recommend switching!
Agreed
+1 on switching to the new style.
Totally agree! I think it better fits the art style of the other parts of the game!
One way to add a lot of personality to the shops is to have the shopkeeper visible on the side somewhere, maybe reacting when you buy something, and greeting when the menu is opened.
I kinda like the current simple villager designs.
I'm planning on making it possible to talk to the villagers soon! Mostly to give you tips about how to use the town features if you're unsure.
@@ThinMatrix yes sort of how they do it in the Viva Pinata games! I've always found that to be kinda cute. If you haven't played any of the games yourself, you could probably find a video somewhere where someone uses a shop in a playthrough or something :P Bascially, when you unlock a new shop, the shopkeeper kind of announces themselves and when you then visit their shop for the first time they'll tell you a little about themselves and what products/services they offer. After that they'll always be visible on the side of the screen when you're browsing their catalouge and make little facial expressions or just do some silly idle animation when you're buying/scrolling.
maybe back behind the shops you could add some houses for the villagers that obviously serve no purpose to the player, but would be a nice touch to add more life back there.
Yup and also farmers farming❤
Nice town! As a suggestion: Wouldn't be nice to see the town evolve with player? I mean, like new shops opening as u progress and the town visually grrowing in npc numbers and infrastructure. Like, the bridge turning from a rusty wooden bridge, to a new good look and fancy bridge!
Thanks! And yes, I have a few plans for things like that :)
Looks great! Maybe add the possiblity to scroll through the town with scroll button aswell? Still with the fixed camera positions.
Thanks, good idea :)
New shop layout is cool instead of only moving left to right you could have the layout be like an upside down U. You still only have tow arrows but instead of only going right it does a turn this will make the world feel nice and connected it could even move in a L shape. The map could wrap around and see the back side of the town if you are in one spot.
Interesting idea, thanks for the suggestion!
The new UI does a much better job of presenting the information in a hierarchical format (e.g. big text = more important, same size text = approximately same importance). It looks so good!
You can add multi layer of mountain range in the background, I think that may look better as a back drop for the market place
The new UI for the shop looks better IMO. The darker background behind the item icons makes it appear differently than just an inventory of stuff that you already have. this distinction is very important for intuitive UX design
Changing the camera view in the town was a good move! Someone else mentioned a similar idea, but I think it'd be really nice if the town shops become available slowly as to not overwhelm the player. Personally when playing these types of games I get very overwhelmed with areas like this until I'm more familiar with the ones I currently need. That could look like the town itself expanding, or just some way to guide the player to only the shops they need when starting out
Love your updates! One suggestion: make the village area arrows closer to the center of the screen horizontally. If I don't remember where a particular shop is, I might want to click e.g. left arrow and then immediately the right one (because I realized the shop in question is not on the left), which requires me to move the mouse all the way to the right and breaks the flow. This is of course a tiny nitpick, though :)
Maybe have them be on the left and right sides of thee inventory button. The part of the screen feel a little empty now that the hotbar is gone. Also, it's more noticeable that the buttons are now on the screen meaning players are more likely see that they can move left and right.
An issue with fixed positions is that the screen aspect ratio comes into play as to what you'll see in those positions. You could automatically adjust the FOV so that no matter the aspect ratio some designated safe zone is guaranteed visible. Not sure what the best solution is, just something to keep in mind with 3D menus !
I've already done some work on this, you can see at 8:55 when I change the window to a wide aspect ratio that the correct shops are still shown. Doesn't work so well with very narrow aspect ratios, but I'm not sure if I need to worry too much about that.
@@ThinMatrix I'd personally just care about aspect ratios down to 1:1 and if it gets any narrower than that the player most likely uses only half their monitor. You could lock the aspect ratio of the town to stay at 1:1, scale the size down from there on and add more sky space vertically to support weird window sizes like split screen or something. Tbh most of the UI will not work with very narrow window/screen sizes but with this at least the correct shops stay visible. Keep up the amazing work!
I preferred the town overview as it is much easier to navigate. With my disability, I am much more mindful of the muscle cost of moving hands on and off mouse or keyboard, which also incurs head and eye movements, and repositioning delays. The side view in town might be nice as a scroll-in option. But with a zoomed-out by default town option, I could move arrow no more than 2/3 distance from center to screen edge with a single hand movement, and click once to select a shop. That said, I do appreciate the experience of the side view, and should maybe be mandatory for unlocking shops or using foundations, etc. But the shortcut option as default would be a huge usability bonus for me.
As I am making my own farming game, this series has been super insightful. Home grown’s success feels like my own and I am so proud to see the project getting all the love. Well deserved ❤❤
The new design no doubt! Looks much more cozy and I feel really represents the game! Keep up the good work!
For the villagers - I think a style similar to the game 'Untitled Goose Game' could work, as it has a similar art style to Homegrown! 😄
The 2nd UI design creates a visual-logical link between the particular item you're viewing in the shop as well as the rest of the shop's inventory, which I think is better.
Your videos feel so cozy always, they are very enjoyable to watch.
I like the alternate UI. Richer colors, a little darker and cozier. The inset inventory feels cozier as well.
What better way to end the day than watching this! Love the videos!
Great video as always! My only suggestion is to be able to use A and D to move through the town (in addition to arrow keys) as I typically prefer that movement, but overall great work!
Thanks! And that is already possible :)
@@ThinMatrix Might I also suggest being able to move through the town with the scroll wheel. It would improve mouse-only gameplay.
Okay, I haven’t watched this devlog yet, but I just wanna say that every time it comes to your videos, I take my playback speed off of 2x, back to normal speed, I ask my wife if I can have some uninterrupted time to just properly sit down and focus on your videos, I love them so much 🙌🏻🎉 keep up the good work
The changes are really coming along. I love the perspective shift for the town menu. When you navigated to the "empty space" and mentioned you had some plans for that later on.... my first thought was a rotating space for community events. Certain seasons could have different events related to the growing season and you could participate with what you've grown in your garden. I'm imagining a harvest festival in the fall or a flower competition in the spring. Anyway, love what you're doing, amazing work! Looking forward to playing the game when it's released.
Looks awesome. This is definitely a pre-release polishing idea but I think having the camera move inside the shop when you click on it would tie this update together very nicely and give the player more of the impression that they’re actually going shopping in the town
I like the way you designed the new town. Suggestion: After the empty spots in the shop you could return the player back to the farm. It's like you are leaving the shop and going back home
I have total admiration and respect for how you started with an idea and managed to stick with it for so long, I keep checking on your progress since the beginning when you decided on the graphic library to pick, it was lwjgl if I remember correctly. You're fulfilling the dream of many of us.
The new town looks awesome, i wasn’t sure about the new perspective at first but now I’m sold
I am so happy when you make these vids. Love to see your progress. Keep up the good work dude!
Yes! I’m excited for the town changes, I think it’ll add a lot more depth to the game to have some farmers markets and potentially other things to look forward to outside of the regular flow
new design for the buying UI looks a lot better. Especially the colors are awesome! Maybe you can add a minigame for in-game boosts which you can access in the town.
Babe wake up, thinmatrix uploaded
That second UI looks amazing, I think it's worth switching because it looks so much more unified and complete.
Great update as usual mate, thanks for making these videos I really enjoy them
The amount of progress since I last watched one of the devlogs, I wish I would make as much progress xp
I really like the larger icons on the UI more visible + contrasty and if you play with a touchscreen easier to click!
The game is coming along very nicely! Thank you for sharing the process with us.
I love the new town and the different UI that you showed off. Great job, very nice work!
I liked the old town, but I understand that it probably only maked sense if you had a character to control and move around the town like in Stardew Valley
That new town looks amazing! You're so good at this
Very pleasant to follow this new step. As usual !
I love the new town and the alternative UI design too! Well done man 👌
Looking really amazing so far.
Think it's really sad that you've restricted the town to be a side scroller - Loved the idea of a full 3D town that you could fully navigate. I get you see it as a menu, but in my head it's a perfect opp to add some personality into the game and meet NPC's - Perhaps you could haggle etc with grump shop owners!
Love the dev updates! Keep it up!
I disagree, I think it's much more interesting this way
Same. I think the main issue is that the player is just an omni present entity, hence everything is just a menu. Maybe if there was an actual character following around the mouse, doing what we clicked, the 3d town center would be better.
I think that is what is missing here
It's probably unfinished, but I think adding more buildings, roads, trees, villagers behind the central shop node would allow them to seem integrated in an actual town.
Great videos.
Yes!!! I love your gameplay logs!!!
Looking good!!
Its so great to see how far this game has come!
The Artstyle and the new town reminds me of the cartoon "Bob the builder" from the 90s and early 2000's
love the ui changes and new town is so good
I really like your new UI design, feels chunky and comfy!
awesome progress friend
The new shop UI design looks great!
Really liking the town! I think the town square buildings would be more interesting if they weren't arranged in a perfectly straight line, I quite like how you broke up the repetitiveness in the other areas by angling them, having them at different distances from the camera and so on
Great work, keep it up, it's great! 👍😉
For the shop UI, I prefer the one with the scrolling wheel. Seeing everything in one big box is a bit overwhelming. The one on the right with the smaller box and scrolling wheel felt cozier.
New UI style looks great!
I'm glad you are doing well
I think that you should go back to the former village layout for the shops, because the new "chain of shops" look a littlebit blunt.
But you are right in that you should restrict camera movements.
You could create a fixed cam position for each shop, where you can see a bit of the village while keeping the corresponding shop at focus.
Only when you press the left or right arrow key, the cam should follow a path to switch smoothly between the fixed positions.
I like the new UI better. It has a softer, cozier field and matches the game vibe more
The fixed positions are a cool idea. Reminds me of Myst.
Such a cute game you’re making.
To be honest top down view of the town gave me a "Visiting the town" vibes.
Maybe making changing to a rotating movement and placing the player at the center of the buildings would keep it. Each time you click to next button it would rotate instead of sliding. Which might keep the feeling of being inside of the town.
Just an idea. Love what you are doing keep it up 👍👍
Love it!
Hmmmm. Another idea for scrolling mechanic on the town screen, maybe add farms you can scroll to and sell some crops to other farmers for livestock, etc.
Also, yea the back of the town needs some decorating if you're going to stick with the side-scrolling idea.
If you ever add any sort of online leaderboards or the ability to visit friend's plots, that sign post on the far left would be a great "button" to do so!
This town looks super cosy! Strech goal to have daynight cycle affect things in the town? 👀
I also think that alternate UI style is super neat, adds some contrast to the icons and the backgrounds, I'm a big fan!
the UI you were messing with I think reads way better. the contrast allows the icons to pop more with the dark background :)
Just throwing it out there; if you're considering future plans for home grown, perhaps a restaurant as a minigame or a expansion later that would allow you to convert your farmed things into dishes for a different money making method. Just to give a little different vibe to the flow. Farm and Feed if you will.
this game is looking good!
For the town area, you could take inspiration from AgeOfEmpires3. They have a hometown implementation where you have a main view, and when 'selecting' a specific building (in aoe3 for choosing cosmetic changes), the camera zooms and moves towards that building. By that design, you don't have a 1d (left to right) horizontal town. It might give you more room to create a nice lively town
Nice upgrade. I like a bit more the new UI, is more colorful and the other is kinda plane. Also, I think that it could be nice if the shops were more unique, like with different silhouettes and colors. Like the seed shop could be a greenhouse and the tool shop could be like a shed. I really like your videos. Have a nice day!
That shop UI is amazing, you can also make the inventory UI something like that. Also it would be great to play with a controller and maybe on consoles
That UI that you showed really looked nice
New UI looks better to me
I like the clouds as they are now 😊
I think the clouds would look better as groups stark white spheres that maybe wobble a bit. Definitely could do with a more cartoony vibe.
You've created such a cute little town!
The one suggestion I would make is keep the current idea but shift things out of being in a straight line. For example you could lay things out more dynamically but still have the camera flip between. Like you start on the entry screen from the farm. Then with the first click the camera goes down a curved path to the outskirts area with the upgrade shop. Then the next click goes over a hill to the town square. To switch to the restaurant area the camera could spin around to look opposite of the shops. Thin it zips off to the otherside of town for the farmers market area. I bit more work but I think this would give a more natural feel to the location and a bit of a stylistic flair rather than the camera just sliding to the left and right.
Hide the left / right arrows when you show the inventory in the town, it seems like they will navigate the inventory
The new town system is really nice, I like it!
For the town center, maybe it would look even better if the buildings were row houses? Or have the gaps between buildings look more like alleyways leeding to more of the town. Right now the free standing buildings look a bit odd so perfectly lined up like that, but that might just be me.
HUGE TIP: Do all your UI design in Figma... my god is it wayyy better than any photoshop or ps-clone... So easy to group together assets and export all at once
I really like the name and thumbnail of the video, it is catchy and fun
I liked the first idea more, one idea could have worked: having only two fixed camera position and you can transit between the two of them (or you could have finally add a higher places to the game and you can fit all buildings at one screen)
I'd say the new design is better. Also think about maybe doing a dark themed UI instead, with warm grays? It's a cozy game and I really dislike when I'm chilling out and every time I open something my eyes get lasered.
You show show a navigation for the town, Icon what part of the village your are at and all the parts you can click on to move about as well.
Finally!!! Took you long enough to add people to the game
I can't wait for this!!!!!!!
Man I love ThinMatrix.
I am going to watch the video, but I already know it's going to be Awesome!💕💕
It was awesome!
I was imagining not having a set of shops visible, but only one, with arrows on either side, using that (or the keyboard) you can scroll between the shops
That also gives you the opportunity to make it more specially dedicated to a specific shop, with additional widgets on the screen that are tailored to that shop
Add a small waterfall to the right side, maybe some mountains and pine trees too
Great idee!
I think that the new Ui is better cause it adds a more cozy feel to the game
You should consider customer "quests" and maybe town challenges or rare vegetables / seasonal vegetables to add some external influence to the gameplay loop 😁
so nice
Fantastic work - I love the little emergent zones you're getting with the town loads of possibility for narrative / progression, perhaps the more money you put into the town, the more shops unlock, travelling traders come into town.
Have you thought about a day night cycle and weather at all? Buying bamboo sticks for your plants to grow up, avoiding a strong wind event could be neat or a particular shop that only opens on the outskirts of town in the dead of night.
Anyway, love the progress mate, you're an inspiration!
We have a neeeew devlog, we are happy
I like the new UI style
Brilliant video bud. With the inventory in the shopping area, It may be better to have an inventory box open when you click on the shop. So you don't have to jump between windows to track what you have and need. Less clunky.
Great one!
Nice!!! A town !!!!
Always wait to hear CaffeineCoder at the end feels like a tradition lol
For me it's Alexander Chávez, happy to see that I'm not alone. Today, I was stressing out because his name was near the end :p