Devlog #4: Little Touches (Patreon)

HEY FARMERS!

I've been working on a lot of under-the-hood changes that should come with the fourth major build! So in the downtime between big builds, I wanted to highlight some of the "polish" that'll come for anyone who's interested in seeing behind the curtain. As well as a few teasers for the bigger features to expect!

Particle Systems

(NERD EXPLANATION INCOMING, SKIP AHEAD IF UNINTERESTED IN GAMEDEV TALK)

GameMaker Studio has a neat little feature for easily making particle-based FX. I've never used it much before, but I'm diving into it to add some fun little touches to various things.

The way it works is pretty simple. You just have objects work as emitters, which call on the ID of a particle that you've made. (Say, "Particle_X", for instance)

In code ahead of time, you determine the characteristics of Particle_X. Its shape, colour, speed, movement, angle, etc. You can even decide if certain characteristics should be random between each individual particle that spawns. Then, in realtime, you can call a certain amount of the particles, which will spawn for a pre-decided amount of time, and then disappear. It's the same as drawing any sprite, but you get to mess around with a lot of the characteristics of them with very little impact on performance, even if you use quite a bit of them.

So, after tinkering around with them, what does it look like?

WAIT, DON'T LEAVE! THERE'S MORE IMPRESSIVE STUFF TOO!

Finally, there's trees in the woods

Okay, yeah. Been putting this off long enough. It's been a bit strange how few trees there are in a... y'know... forest.

To go with the addition of breakable boulders, trees are being added as well! You can knock them down for Wood and Plant Fibre, and dig up the stumps for additional wood!

Once tools are added, you'll need appropriate tools for breaking things like boulders and trees, but for now, you can just do it with your hands. (Sky's a bit of a tough country gal, you see. She can handle it.)

As you can see, the trees will drop some leaves when cut down (as will bushes when you break them!) and if you look closely, you can even see that anywhere you click will chip off little pixels of wood!

But where's the GOOD stuff?

Ah, yes! The GOOD part! Well, not only are these particles good for cute little additions like this, but they also make great uses for:

-Milk spatters when milking Cows
-Steam puffs when cows are gassy
-Splashes when dryads are leaking or burst
-Steam around overweight/bloated cows
-& more!

Here's an example of what that looks like, with subtle steam puffing up around a very bloated Mocha, especially when she burps!

On top of effects, I've done a little bit of cleaning up and optimization with the code and various systems. I've also gotten lots of new music from Pixabay's generous royalty-free catalogue to replace the generic copyright-free lo-fi of the game's current soundtrack. Don't worry, it's still some chill, laid-back music that shouldn't change the game's current relaxed atmosphere! :)

But what does this have to do with the next build?

At long last, story!

The game's been pretty sandbox and lacking in much narrative, so it's about time we start putting a bit of story in!

For now, the narrative of the game's only really been hinted at, but I'd slowly like to start shaping the game's story into something more coherent. The way to start that, is of course with how Sky got to Gorge Valley to begin with.

All of this has led to working on the opening cutscene! I don't want to spoil much for now, but I'll leave you all with a brief little sneakpeek!

*Chef's kiss* True cinema.

But that should just about do it for now! I'll have plenty more to update you all on soon! For now, keep those cows fed and that farm healthy!