News: Harvest Fall BETA will be out when I implement some basic farming and trading mechanics, and maybe a basic save system so you don’t lose your progress but that will take some time to figure out. The beta versions will surely be available for Windows but that doesn’t stop me from porting these versions to mobile and other platforms such as Mac and Linux or even the web so that any PC user can test these versions.

Keep in mind that the first beta version won’t contain all the content I’ve been talking about in these devlogs but will be added incrementally through updates. For example, the first beta, Harvest Fall Beta 0.1.0 will only contain basic farming and trading mechanics, but Harvest Fall Beta 0.1.5, might contain NPC’s to socialize with and more on top of the basic farming and trading mechanics with Harvest Fall Beta 0.2.0 containing even more content. The beta versions will also be free to download and play so please get them… please– your feedback, positive or negative, will be greatly appreciated. These beta versions will also be released on Itch.io, too, but experimental builds and updates could be released here on GameDev.net.

Also, I originally wanted to make the first beta version $2.49 so that anyone who buys it could get future updates and the full game for free but I changed my mind and so the beat versions and their updates will be completely free of charge to download and play but the full game will be CAD$4.99 - 6.49.

Now, on to my game.

Today in this devlog, I want to talk about and give a basic overview of the systems and mechanics in my game such as the farming mechanic, trading mechanic, weather mechanic, combat, exploration and more.

So let’s start with farming.

Farming is the heart and core of Harvest Fall, after all, it is a farming sim. At the beginning of the game you spawn in your house, you then come out to see your farmland, empty and lifeless due to the lack of crops. You’ll need to get seeds and to do that, you’ll have to head over to a merchant. You’ll be given 1200 Bits, and you can spend it on seeds for your farm. On each and every purchase you make there’ll be a small 8% tax. So what you’ll be paying is the original price of the item plus the 8% of that price.

Trading:

Seeds are not the only thing you’be able to get from Merchants. Merchants will offer a variety of items such as seeds, home improvements and farm extensions, animals, foods such as salads, weapons and armor, potions that do different things such as turn you invisible, make you go faster, give you more endurance, and more. You will also be able to not only buy from Merchants and other businesses but also sell your crops, animal products and loot to them to make some money. Keep in mind that there are a total of 3 Merchants in Fallsville, each at different distances from your house and different operational hours.

Combat:

There are 4 biomes dedicated to battle and combat. The first biome is the Forest where you can fight wild animals and monsters for their loot so you can unlock special items from or sell them to Merchants. The second biome is the Mines, where you can mine ores for items such as coal, gold, diamonds and more but have to defend yourself from endless waves and hordes of monsters. The third biome is the Dungeons. The Dungeons is basically one huge dungeon where the only goal is to survive and slay endless hordes of monsters for their loot while avoiding obstacles. And the last but not least biome is the Underworld.

The Underworld is planned to be hell-like and similar to the Nether dimension in Minecraft. In the Underworld, you basically fight– yes, more endless hordes of monsters while avoiding obstacles such as fire and lava but will get a chance to socialize with the peaceful monsters that live there such as goblins and trolls.

Some monsters will be specific to particular biomes while some will be in most if not all biomes. For example, zombies and mutants are not specific to any biome and will be everywhere except Fallsville and the Beach. Demons can be specific to the Mines, the Dungeons and the Underworld.

To make your battles against these monsters and animals easier, you can purchase potions, armor and weapons from the Merchants.

The Beach and Fishing:

Fishing will be included in Harvest Fall as a way to sell more items besides your crops. The purpose of the Beach is to make the player relaxed and have an endless supply of fish and trash for the player to catch (Yes, I said trash).

Exploration:

You can get achievements for exploration by simply frequently visiting each biome and socializing with NPCs.

Building:

You can purchase improvements and extensions for both your home and farm. The more improvements you buy, the more land plots you’ll own. Eventually, some but not all of your extensions will wither down and will be rendered incapable of being maintained. When this happens, you can simply re-purchase them. If you don’t like that some of your extensions will eventually die you can purchase some good ol’ extended warranty to give them some longevity.

Hunting:

You can hunt animals and monsters for loot and achievements. You can then sell your loot to Merchants to make a quick buck.

The Inventory:

The in-game inventory is a little different from inventories found in other games such as Stardew Valley or Minecraft. It has everything that you are capable of getting in Harvest Fall. But, you will have to unlock these items.

For example, your inventory might have the carrot item, a little icon of a carrot even though you might not have grown and/or harvested any carrots lately. You will not be able to do anything with the carrot in your inventory until you have grown and harvested at least one carrot.

The number of carrots you have harvested will show up on the item’s icon.

There’s more to the game’s UI but the inventory is what I’ve paid most attention to which is why I’ll talk about other UI elements such as the health bar in future devlogs.

And with that statement, the overview has ended, but wait– I have even more news about Harvest Fall.

So you know how in the last devlog I talked about having issues on maintaining the quality of sprites? Well guess what, last week I looked for a solution on Reddit and actually found one!!

And, you know, I’m just gonna reveal it now since I have nothing else to lose. I’m writing Harvest Fall in C# on top of MonoGame. I’ve found MonoGame very easy to work with and I really love its content pipeline, the MGCB Editor.

Well, that’s it for this devlog! See you in the next one and get on Itch.io so you can get Harvest Fall BETA on its launch any day from now!!