Just a quick message to let you know that I'm still working full time on the game. The next update will be major, with a complete world redesign and expansion, new dialogues and a friendship system. There will also be 8 new music tracks that Irene is currently working on (for a total of +/- 1h of original music!). Daniel already started working on the endgame (zones on the map that will evolve according to your choices).
This is a big update and it will take time. I'm expecting to publish it in March, but at this point there are still a lot of unknowns and it could change.
Ben
Small update
Howdy Scientists!
The latest update fixes a few bugs that were reported after the alpha 0.4 update. Many thanks to all the players who sent me bug reports, it helps a lot!
Fixed: The Quiz would not start correctly on Friday nights
Fixed: nested loops didn’t work in BotArena (they are not required to finish the levels, but now they work properly)
Fixed: the uppercase letter I appeared as an empty square on Turkish computers (Thanks to Istvan Toth for the explanation)
Fixed: changed northwest fence's collider so that you can’t get stuck on it
Fixed: prevented dialog to occur at the same time as entering a building (could lead to a "black screen" bug)
Fixed: there was a 1 second freeze when upgrading a building
Various performance optimizations that should improve the framerate
Update 0.4
Howdy Scientists,
I just published the latest update that brings buildings, two new animals and the possibility to grow crops inside.
[previewyoutube="j62_GnxjkX4;full"]
Warning: This update is not compatible with the previous savegames. I try to avoid this as much as possible, but sometimes the changes on the game are so important that it would require too much work to keep backward compatibility. If you have an unfinished game that you want to continue, you can either configure Steam to not install the update automatically, or go to the steam game properties/beta window and select the alpha 0.3 branch.
The plan now is to work on the new dialogues and give more depth to all the NPCs. In November, Daniel will work on new graphics to extend the map to its final version. It is probable that the next major update will take place at the beginning of 2021, but if I have the time I may do a smaller update before that because I'm not satisfied with the current crafting system. I will also do minor updates to fix any bug that I might have missed.
I’m late, again... (Sorry!)
Howdy Scientists!
I realize I’m really bad at estimating when an update will be ready. When I said 3 weeks, that was because I thought I would finish in 2, and here we are 4 weeks later and I’ll need a few more. My apologies for that, I will work on making better estimates in the future.
The thing is, even when I finish something in time, I often see ways that it could be improved and polished. And as a player, I think it’s better to take more time but deliver something good, than deliver a lot of small underwhelming updates.
Here are some of the changes I’ve been working on:
Planting inside will be possible, here with light, heating and air conditioning.
Plants do not depend directly on seasons anymore, but on their cold/heat tolerance. Some do grow in fresh conditions, some do grow in warm conditions. That means that you can add a heater or an A/C system in a building or greenhouse to grow plants that are not adapted to the current season.
You will have 5 buildings that you can build anywhere : the coop, the deluxe coop (hosts 6 animals instead of 4), the greenhouse, the barn and the shed. You can grow plants in all buildings if you wish to, but you will have to provide some artificial light (except in the greenhouse, of course).
The deluxe coop and the barn.
Like before you can plant in hydroponics, aeroponics and aquaponics systems, but there are also simple planting pots if you want to keep it simple (and don’t mind watering them).
Two new animals can be adopted : cows and goats. For each you have a young, an adult male and an adult female model. Females provide milk, but only after having a baby.
New animals!
There are still bugs to fix, and a few things I’d like to add like a centrifuge to make butter from the milk or separate honey and wax from honeycombs. I also want to improve the animals pathfinding and provide a fence door so you can prevent them from invading your crops. Finally, it would be nice if you could name your buildings and move animals from one building to another.
I’m a bit reluctant to give another estimate, but let’s say that I will be satisfied if I finish before the end of September.
Ben
Progress update
Howdy Scientists!
Just a quick report to let you know all is going well with the buildings update. I worked on the building construction system (you buy the plan for a type of building, then you can build as many as you want as long as you have materials).
At first I wanted to make the greenhouse work like all buildings by teleporting the player on another map, but once I saw Daniel's model, I realized it can work directly in the world map and it feels much more natural that way.
[previewyoutube="rbkIfPgPigc;full"]
I still have to work on the system that will manage unlimited buildings (big & small coop, barn, shed), giving each one his own little map where you can put furniture and where animals can walk and sleep. Since we have hydroponics, it will be possible to grow plants in any building, if you provide artificial light and eventually heat in winter.
Then I'll work on the new animals, and I'll make a lot of tests to be sure I didn't introduce bugs. All in all, I expect to finish in 3 weeks.
GamePad Update
Howdy Scientists!
Finally, the gamepad support has arrived! Let me know if there is something I can improve.
I will now focus on the buildings update, with 2 new animals.
Weekly Update #9
Howdy Scientists!
My sincere apologies for the lack of updates. I’m almost done with the gamepad support, but there are still a few bugs that I need to fix. In modern games, we expect a gamepad to be plugged in and just work, and we also want to be able to go back to using the mouse without having to jump through hoops, and the pointer to know exactly where to go at all times.
Turns out there are a few magic tricks involved to make these things happen, and many opportunities for bugs. For example, if I plug my gamepad in the middle of a drag & drop operation, it should be cancelled, and so on. These are things I’m still learning as I progress, hence the difficulty in predicting when I will finish. In retrospect, my “in two weeks” estimation at the end of March was extremely naive.
To my defense, the strangely apocalyptic beginnings of 2020 did not help either. I hope that you are all doing well in these trying times.
This delay should not affect the planned updates I discussed a few weeks ago. I hired videogame artist Daniel Thomas for another 10 weeks and he started working on the new buildings. Here’s a preview of the barn and the greenhouse:
Sources of Inspiration
Once again, no weekly update while I’m focused on the full-gamepad support, but a little post about some of my sources of inspiration.
Games
When thinking about farming RPGs, the Harvest Moon (1996) series and Stardew Valley (2016) inevitably come to mind. But for older gamers, there are even earlier memories of RPGs that included some agriculture and crafting. For me, it was Ultima VII (1992). That is probably the first RPG game where most objects could be moved or interacted with, and the player was free to explore a huge world filled with non-linear adventures.
The world was so realistic that you could decide—instead of being an adventurer—to harvest wheat, mill it, put the flour on a table, add water (or beer!) to make dough, and put it in an oven to make bread that you could consume or sell. It would quickly become boring, but there was a special feeling associated with letting your weapons aside and just craft for a while.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOfzind4xCA Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley are definitely the main source of inspiration for WoMen in Science, though. Graveyard Keeper (2018), the dark humorous farm-sim game where you manage a cemetery, is where our point system comes from.
Another—maybe more surprising—source of inspiration is Baldur’s Gate 2 (2000). In the dialogues with the imp Cespenar, the game will scan your inventory and branch to funny comments depending on the objects you carry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-RhrMlnklw I implemented a similar system when you bring an artifact to Carl Von Linné in the museum, so that he will not just explain the artifacts but also make comments on other items. In the future I’d like to build on this system, and create something like a small database of all that happens in the world, so that NPCs can react to it in surprising ways.
My own life
I think that it’s important to put a little part of yourself in what you create. I was always interested in agriculture and biotechnology, and that was actually my first career choice, before I went into software development. I played with hydroponic and aeroponic setups, and a few other elements that you will find in game in real life. In fact, the game’s university is based on Gembloux Agro-Bio-Tech, in Belgium, where I was a (far too unreliable) student for a time.
“Blooming Chestnuts”, the title of the summer soundtrack, is inspired by that time. The teachers would tell students that they need to start studying for the finals before the chestnut trees are blooming. Once you see the flowers, it is too late, you failed already, they said. The funny thing was that for the untrained botanists we were trying to be, the blooming happened quite suddenly, triggering the unprepared into a panic state.
The winter theme, named “Nelligan’s garden of frost”, is a reference to my emigration from Belgium to the province of Quebec (Canada), 20 years ago. One of Émile Nelligan’s most well-known poem is “Soir d’hiver”, where he describes his window being a “garden of frost”. He’s not talking about the Canadian winter though, but about his own vulnerability.
I hope that this little incursion into my world was not too boring! There are of course many more things that I find inspiring. So many in fact, that I have a notebook where I have been writing every idea that comes to mind since the beginning of this project, and that will inspire future updates.
A small update this week : you may have noticed that rabbits and chickens don't go outside when it rains or during the winter. That means they can't find anything to eat by themselves. From now on you can put green material in their feeder inside the coop, and they will take some at the end of the day if they can't go outside. If the feeder is empty when they need food, their hearts will decrease a little bit (which means less egg production from hens).
The full gamepad support should be ready early next month. It's the first time I program an interface to respond to a gamepad - truth to be told, I didn't even own a gamepad until two month ago! - so I had quite a lot to learn. Once that is out of the way, I will be back to full speed updates.
We will have our very first "Weeklong Deal" starting Monday, if you haven't bought the game yet (or our nice soundtrack composed by Irene Chan), there will be a 20% discount. If you bought the game recently and are still eligible for a refund (played less than 2 hours and purchased less than 14 days ago), know that Steam considers than asking a refund to buy the discounted version is totally acceptable.
Take care, Ben
Future updates.
No update this week, instead I will discuss my plans for the major updates that will arrive later this year.
Buildings update
The first major update will be released before the end of July and will permit to add buildings to your farm. You will have to purchase the plans, then decide where you want to build. Then you’ll have to bring the materials to complete each step of the construction.
Once you have bought a building's plans, you can build as many as you want as long as there is enough free space around your farm, but you will still have to collect or buy the materials.
Buildings will include the chicken coop, a barn (with 2 new animals), a greenhouse and a multipurpose shed. This is pretty standard for farm sims, I’ll probably add some more exotic buildings and upgrades for the existing ones later. If you have suggestions, don’t hesitate to share in the comments.
World Update
The next update is planned for the end of the year, and will extend the map. It will be about 200% larger, with many new areas and more variety.
Map of the current world.
The NPCs will also be updated with new dialogues and more quests, that will evolve according to your friendship status.
This is a major update that will probably not be compatible with old saved games (since the map will be very different). Luckily, it is possible to keep multiple version of a game on Steam, so I will make sure that those who want to continue to play the previous version can easily do so.
End Game
Next year I would like to work on progress and replayability, two important aspects of the farm sim genre.
Currently, the game lacks an endgame, a goal that gives you a reason to continue playing and feel that you are getting somewhere, like the Community Center in Stardew Valley.
I’m thinking that it would be nice if you could be elected mayor of the community, and choose how it will evolve. You could decide if you let the community grow, or if you keep it small, if you prioritize productivity or the environment or something in between. You could also decide what festivals should take place during the year, what new shops or industries can open in town, etc.
I’d like to make the changes to the community pretty epic. You could end up with an ultra-modern town with robots and technology everywhere, or turn it into an ecological sanctuary for endangered species, each change on the way having both advantages and disadvantages.
It would give both a sense of progression, and a good reason to replay the game and see what happens to the town and its inhabitants when you make different choices.
