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Harvest The Land

Genre: Farming Simulator

Platform: Windows

Engine: Unity

Duration: Sep 2023 - Dec 2023

Team Size: 4

Role: Designer / Artist

Harvest the Land is a straightforward farming simulator where players learn the fundamentals of farming through hands-on gameplay. Starting by hoeing the land and planting various crops, players will harvest vegetables that can be used to either expand their farm or purchase premium seeds for more valuable yields.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Participated in designing the core game loop of this farming simulator by adding various crops with diverse price ranges and extensional lands for upgrades.
Managed and organized all the art assets of the game to stay within the deadline and produce the best quality.
Designed all the icons for UI buttons, variation of tiles that changes due to their own conditions, and cursor effects.

Creating the game loop

The main purpose of our development was to create an interesting and fun game loop based on objects or topics that are close to use in a limited time.

First, we looked for a simple loop in our ordinary life, such as:

Grocery: People go in, spend money on groceries, and come out with purchases.
Bank: Take money in, store them, spend stored money to buy collectives, etc.
Farm: Plant the seeds, give water, harvest crops, and sell them to earn currencies.

Getting Idea from a Fabel

After looking for an idea from regular life, we also had time to take a look at some old myths and fabels to come up with any ideas for an interesting game loop.

We tried our best to utilize any objects or contents in the scene to come up with an interesting game loop.

Paper Prototype

After multiple prototypes of games we had, we finally decided to build a farming simulator game. First, we built a paper prototype of the game with iPad for a faster and easier process. Because of the paper prototype, we were able to picture the same mechanism and features of the game with all the group members. When we all knew what we wanted to build, we started to move.

Planning and Organizing

In a meeting, we first named which system or art assets are needed, so that we can start our development off with those parts.

The left document is a list of our art assets made at the beginning of the production, along with some details of the game mechanism.

Tile Design

Designed detailed tile maps featuring various vegetables growing in realistic positions to enhance player immersion.
Crafted vegetable sprites for the shop system and inventory.
Created tool sprites for the user interface to demonstrate each function in an intuitive sense.

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Tile Transition Due to Its Condition

My first thought here was that I wanted to give different reactions to each tile when an action is applied.

Dark Green Tile: Locked Area / needs to be purchased to activate
Light Green Tile: Available Area / hoeing available
Hoed Tile: Successfully hoed the demanded area / seeding ready
Seeded Tile: Seeds appear along the hoed area / can water now
Wet Seeded Tile: Darker soil representing the area is wet after watering

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Cursor Design

Designed unique combinations of sprites for cursors that can be switched depending on which tool the player chose and have a little animation when each is clicked on the tiles.

These variations of cursor sprite provide clear feedback on which function is in use by directly displaying the tool sprite on the mouse cursor. This design not only allows players to easily understand their current condition based on the situation but also provides clear feedback if the function is in use or not.

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Conclusion

The most challenging assignment was to come up with a fun and interesting game loop from the basis. It was not easy to find a loop that could be transferred to the interesting game loop.

However, my team and I were able to come up with a challenging and interesting game loop by utilizing the paper prototype method and brainstorming iterations.

We had many parts to be fixed and updated to build the experience convenient and easy. The primary goal of our art assets was not only to have a smooth and fancy sprite but also to visually deliver essential information to the players.