dust-punk-development - Tumblr blog

[dust-punk-development]

I cannot stop making cupcakes. Help.

Seriously I am thinking of that bakery sim game, and I wasn't able to find a SINGLE game that went the depth require for a proper bakery sim. Where is the inventory management? Paying for publicity? Calculating your cost of exploitation? Managing your employes task and schedule? I'm dreaming too big I know but damn. Give me an actual challenging strategy game.

Could be a fun mobile game tho

[dust-punk-development]

Haven't done any pixel art in a moment, so, here is a cupcake! Not part of my current game project, but I always wanted to also make a hyper difficult realistic bakery management game.... I actually used to work in a bakery, it was crazy hard but fun!

I love the shape and size, I could probably do a bunch of different color/flavors/topping variation!

[dust-punk-development]

Side scroller: A good choice.

So, after experimenting, I truly do think that making the game a side scroller is the best choice. It will limit the number of comparison to stardew valley, would make the development a lot more manageable for me, and make it prettier (in my opinion!). The planting/crops/animals mechanics will probably be a bit more minigames-ish, but this could allow for more interesting mechanicals things.

For exemple, going to your field, a menu would appear and tell you the actions you could do, like for exemple, pick out weeds. You could then allocate time out of your day to do so (and lowering your energy/hunger/thirst) and as such make it possible to have a better harvest. That way, it remove the long, painful grind that you often see in farming games, and focus more on the management/survival aspect. The layout of the house also really serve well such a style. Here- a super quick mock general plan on where things should be.

The black line in the middle represent two level of "depth" that the farm would have. It would probably be one of the only environment like this, but it would be pretty interesting, and would add a level of polish to the game.

The green line is the dirt, and I am thinking of doing a bottom of the game UI. I know, a bit unconventional, but I think it might be the best way. It would also create a de facto space to show character speech. I will have to work on the UI soon.... Probably. In the meantime, a list of features of the farm:

Orange square: the farm house.

Black triangle: entry to the cellar.

4 brown rectangle: the 4 fields you can work on (or at least, their entry that you can manage)

Pale green open rectangle: the veggie garden.

Red square: the coop

Pink square: piggery

Yellow square: work shed

Green upright lines: the 3 starting fruits trees you have.

Blue rectangle: the starting whel

Grey rectangle: Cow + horse barn.

Dark green upright lines: entry to the forest section of your land.

Not pictured are possible berry bushes around the area. You might also be able to modify things around the farm, but that would be a later capacity tbh.

So! Yeah! It's slowly shaping up!

[dust-punk-development]

Not much pixel art last weekend, classes has been kicking my ass. Here, a cute pixel style cow face.

I will try to work out some game dev writing! this afternoon!

[dust-punk-development]

A bit more development on the MC!

I really like this sprite... Except the feets! Feets are so hard to make!!!

But hey, I think I like this style, and I might try to stick to it, and do some proper scaling for the various parts of the game. I really am happy to see my art advancing, but I will need to do some more developing of the various mechanics before doing anything more intensive.

[dust-punk-development]

Test for character in the game!

I had never made pixel art character before. The first row is me attempting proportion and character design without ref... And it sucked.

Second row is more based on existing style. The first one on the left is based in Stardew valley "front" style and I was honestly not vibing with it. I don't want to be a stardew clone, and ideally I would love a distinctive visual style. I feel like a pixel style closer to side scrollers might be better. I might even consider making the entire game side scroller, that would simplify the art style....

[dust-punk-development]

Attempt at making a pixel art environment in 1bit style

This confirmed to me that the game will N O T be in 1Bit, this was actual hell lmao. I am however quite happy with some of the techniques that I learned on this!!

I might also install Godot soon, I really am certain that this will be the correct engine for this project.

[dust-punk-development]

Reference and design: The farm house

Finding reference was an interesting challenge, and I learned a LOT from this. First of all, the visual inspiration, not mine:

To my surprise, two story house were very common in the prairie at the turn of the century! It's quite interesting. It's also important to note the cellar (useful to keep foods and to avoid tornado, wich yes, they WILL be an actual in game issue ;)). I also looked into how... Small, most of those homes are. Literally impressive, how many kids can pile up in one.

Here, a quick plan of the layout:

I was actually very, VERY decided having the house be a "cohesive" inside, and not like stardew valley, where it just expend and become serpentine. The game will features no house expansion mechanics, so everything you want to keep inside will have to compete with the current space, or your barn/coop, or your "garage".

But! To come back to the house!

The bottom plan is the firt floor. You can see the main door at the bottom giving way to a mud room, where on can drop their dirty stuff. Then, to the left, you walk into the "main area", where a big wood furnace is (the red square), to keep the house warm. There are also stairs that lead upstairs, and the kitchen is the to the right. There, you have a large sink that come from a tank that collect rain water, and a smaller stove to cook. There is also plenty of shelves and counter to put away.

Upstairs, there are 3 bedrooms. At each end of the house and using the heat of the two source of warm (the oven and the furnace), are the kids room, where they hang out two to a room. I want there to be a dialogue further down the line where the MC talk with her kids about how her and her husband where thinking of eventually changing the walls and letting each kids have a tiny, tiny room.

Meanwhile, the parents had the coldest room in the middle, but also the one with the view on the path to their farm. A good strategic position.

There is an outhouse outside the property, but I will not actually make it usable in any way! That's not necessary to the game. I might just make it a cute lil unmovable object.

So! That's the design of the building! And probably pretty final, wich is a relief. I will be able to do an accurate assets calculation on what is needed there :)

Ofc, scale is still a major issue at this point, but I hope that I will be able to figure that out once I start REALLY working on more "final sprites" and mock up. At this point i'm still in the writing/concept stage of the game.

I also REALLY want to talk about some of the more horror aspect eventually, aaaaaah I'm so excited!!!

(for vibes, I think the best way to describe my game is "what if Harvest Moon and Fear and Hunger had a baby, and that baby was raised by Frostpunk?")

[dust-punk-development]

Chicken pixel art: V1

My first attempt at a chicken! I think I will rework it for a more realistic style, that would allow greater differentiation between breeds. (I doubt I will get to putting chicken breeds in the game... But hey! At least it's gonna be doable!)

The pecking pose is godawful, and I refuse to work on it more. But at least, we are getting somewhere!

[dust-punk-development]

And to continue in my quest to get better at pixel art: An apple!

I want to continue working on the general gaming system, before making list of all the assets needed for the game. It will.... Be extensive, as I want a l o t of things to be done by myself to have a pretty cohesive graphic vibe, but I might look into free/purchasable assets, especially for things like tiles and terrains. There is only so much grass I can freaking design.

[dust-punk-development]

Crops in the game

Crops are divided in 3 category: orchard products (wich we will include berry bushes in), field crops, and garden crops. I will not allow the garden crops to be added to the fields, because the harvest is very labor intensive and would need to add a "hire help" mechanics, wich is just too much work for my solo dev life.

ORCHARD:

You start the game with one Apple trees, one cherry, and two raspberry bushes close to house. In the wooded area on the property, there is 3 black walnut trees, wich the player has to discover.

You can acquire extra: Pear, pecan, chestnuts, blackberry, raspberry, dewberry and goose berry. Planting a Berry bush usually provide the same year (depending on the season), while planting a trees take 3 in game years.

FIELDS CROPS:

Starting crops: Corn, wheat. Those fields were sowed by your late husband. You have to care for them. You have the options to either sell the entire crops, keep a part for yourself, and taking seeds from it for next years.

What you can buy as seeds: cotton, alfalfa, oats, red clover, hay, legumes. All

GARDEN CROPS:

Your garden start with: Potato, cucumber, onions, beans, green beans, lima beans, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, beets, radish, tomato. You can buy more of those any time. This might seem like a disadvantage to have a variety of crops, but if you overrun your local grocer with only one variety, the price for said food will drop. This will need fine tunning, ofc.

[dust-punk-development]

I made a cat!

Very, VERY proud of that slow blink animation. I will probably work on the tail swoosh soon. I am also super pleased with the general shape/level of details I got. I might rework the nose/ears (the pink does not show well with orange) and add details/rework the paws.

---

As for the game, cats are actually quite important! Adopting a feral cat will cancel out the effects of rodents on your crops/store of grains, and might actually help you against some of the more paranormal things happening around the farm during the dust storm. They need to be fed (a bit) to have access to water, and might give secrets bonus...

[dust-punk-development]

The village: list of shops

The concept is that village in wich the main character live has around 300 people. After a LOT of research, I found that it would probably include:

- a farm supply store (potentially a co-op)

- a grocer/general store

- a gaz station/mechanics

- a town hall/notary type deal

- a carpenter

- a church (important)

- a school

---

I originally wanted to add a bar, but the game would take place in Kansas in the 30's, and as such it would be impossible to have one, sadly.

[dust-punk-development]

Not related to the game, but I made a character today! Skills slowly improving....

The gf wanted me to make a "lil mushroom guy in a raincoat"

[dust-punk-development]

Animals Available on the farm

From the start:

- chicken (10 hens and one rooster)

- cows (two milking, one currently with a female calf. Need a bull eventually to make more calf)

- Pigs (1 boar, 4 sow)

- One mare (for pulling equipment)

----

Animal that can be bought, eventually (all have advantage and disadvantage, and you can buy more of the aboves):

- Ducks

- Geese

- Donkey

- Dogs (can be found/adopted)

- Cats (can be found/adopted)

- Horses

- Sheeps

- Goat

----

Animals that can be hunted/trapped:

- rabbits

- fox

- coyotes

- mice/rats

- wild turkey

- crows

- Deer

[dust-punk-development]

One more little animal today! Call duck on water this time. Slowly learning things like proper shading technique in pixel art

I'll probably make a list of all the animals I want to make available in the game today.

[dust-punk-development]

General Details on: Chicken

Chickens are one of the most basic resources on the farm. You start with 10 hens and one rooster. All chickens have hidden stats, that can be assed by picking one up and observing them individually. They are:

- Health: generally indicate how hurt/sick they are, probably on a value of 20 to 0. Chicken with less than 10 will not lay eggs, and those health point transpose to how much you could yield from them if you were to butcher them at the moment. Each 2 points represent one (small) portion of meat. They get back their health by having no thirst and Hunger.

- Thirst: a chicken loose 7 health a day if they don't drink, and get a thirst counter. If they hit 4 thirst counter, they die.

- hunger: a chicken will loose 4 health a day if they cannot eat. If they go 7 days without eating (getting a hunger stack each day), they die.

- Happiness: very hidden stat. Taking care of your chicken every day, including petting them, will make them like you and might make interesting things happen.

Chicken AI is quite simple. They will walk around. If there is water accessible to them (no walls, no chicken fence), they will walk to it and drink one portion of water. If they have access to food, they will walk to it and eat it. When the sun goes down, they walk back to their home, if they can access it. If their roost is unavailable, they will go to sleep where they are. If they are outside, there is a 75% chance that they will be eaten.

Chicken can produce: meat, bones, feathers, eggs, and special gifts if you have high enough happiness with your chicken. Each of those things can be sold, and each can have many uses.

Chicken can feed themself if they have access to tall grasses/bushes. But they might also eat berries/sprout that humans can also eat.

If an egg is left with a hen for 21 days (time to adapt, maybe), you get chicks. Chicks will become chicken after a month, with 50/50 hens and rooster. Chicken lay every 2-3 days

If their is more than 1 rooster for 10 hens, they will start fighting and loose health every day.

----

EXTRA MECHANICS IF I HAVE TIME:

-Genetics (bigger chicken, more eggs, friendlier, etc)

-Different breeds

-Fear mechanics

-Possibly a mechanic with feed quality.