Implementing Shops into my Farming Game!

[@nikolasadair]

There's a lot of potential for interesting game play: weather that affects your crop and crop prices, critters that eat your crops, livestock, etc. Very cool to see the game developing!

[@ukyo6195]

But you know how many farming games are existing!?

[@HolyMethWizard]

Java be real quirky though

[@TheXLAXLimpLungs]

You figure that out all on your own?

[@AdamSmithPromotions]

Would be cool if it had rpg aspects, items to equip your character with that effect your crop growing abilities or shop prices etc.

[@mikiqex]

Don't forget about crop rotation because of pests and soil fatigue, birds eat your seeds, better tools (like 2x2 plowing or harvesting)...

[@DevDuck]

Wonderful progress! Awesome that you have enough of a vertical slice to demo gameplay already - I think that will only serve to increase the quality of the finished product, and make the devlogs even better! Can't wait for the next one. It was good to see Rufus.

[@ill97le]

Having an actual product during "all" stages of development is actually a very good way to work and it is common in most branches of software engineering, usually known as MVP or Minimum Viable Product. Once you have the MVP you can iterate and perfect it, and at any stage you will have a "viable product". You will also "get to know" your game at an earlier stage and thus be able to steer it in the direction you want. Great work!

[@jbritain]

My favourite example for that is the game Elite Dangerous, it's not finished but it's been a polished game since it was released in 2014.

[@klaxoncow]

I remember reading a dev blog by Jeff Minter - who's an indie game developer that's been going since the early '80s (and, indeed, his "Llamasoft" is probably the longest-running indie developer on the planet, and one of the oldest still-surviving software developers out there) - and his thing is that the first thing he works on with any game is the player and the controls. He tends to make shooters and goes straight to the meat of the game - the player and the controls. Because that's got to work. The player has to be able to control their avatar exactly and it must feel good. And the other trick with this approach is that he can "play" his game straight away. From the very beginning, you can pick up a controller and play the game. Admittedly, in the beginning, there's not much of a game to be played. But, still, you can "play" it immediately. And then, following his approach, you then put the game in around the player. Now that we can move, we need an environment to move around in. Then enemies to shoot. And so on and so forth. He starts with the player and then builds the game around it. And, indeed, the point of focusing on the player and the controls first is to make sure that the game feels good to play. Getting the controls to work perfectly is make or break for whether a game is any fun to play, so that's the first thing and the most important thing. And he actually builds the game around that. Because he starts with that and builds around it. So, as he adds things to the environment, he can immediately make them interactive. Do these controls work? Does this feel good? Is this actually fun to play? He's focusing on those vital questions - that make or break a game - and, you know, if, as he's doing things, any of the answers is "no", then he'll keep refining it until the answer is "yes" (or if the element being introduced really just doesn't work, then dump it and don't waste any more time on it). Of course, with your "building games" here, it's a bit harder to define what is "the player" and deal with "the controls", as it's not just moving an avatar around the screen. But you can adopt the same attitude, albeit adapted to the genre of the game. Straight to the gameplay. Does it work? Is it fun? If not, why not? Fix the bits that aren't any good. And, indeed, if something really doesn't work, then consider just dropping it, so you're not wasting your time trying to make something that'll never work, work. Apparently, Shigeru Miyamoto - you know, the guy who does Mario - has also always operated by a similar attitude that he makes the game up as he goes along. Sure, there's a basic idea. But they go straight to implementing that gameplay idea. Does it work? Is it fun? And once the answer is "yes", then he fills out all the fine details and turns it into a playable game. One way to look at it is that, at first, you just build a "prototype". Absolutely nothing about it is final. All you're doing is creating the most basic gameplay to find out if your game idea works and is fun to play. Like, sprites can just be blocks or rectangles. Zero sound. The most minimal "prototype" just to immediately get to the basic gameplay loop. So you can know, before you properly start coding it, that your game is actually worth bothering with. That it's fun. Then you can take that prototype and build it out into a complete game. And the cool thing is that, all the way through, it's playable. Indeed, if you're bored or need a rest, then stop coding the game and just play it.

[@Ash_18037]

@@jbritain Thats not what MVP is about at all. Polishing a game before it's finished is classic mistake and recipe for never finishing (ie implementing the originally planned features) the game. Then again that does describe Elite Dangerous pretty well.

[@BMartinsGamingExpo]

@@klaxoncow thanks for writing this out. I saved it in a google doc to look at every time im working on my game. Eventually i will start a channel like thin matrix as well.

[@Andrew-tl9gk]

Problem is that most of the times the MVP is already a huge ass project that takes forever and gets features added all the time 😂

[@JohnnyCodes]

Great video! I don't think I have commented on your channel before but I have seen every video you have released over the past 5 years or so. I just wanted to say thank you for being an inspiration for me and my channel. I don't think I realized how large of an impact you have had on my life until now but I just wanted to say thank you.

[@ThinMatrix]

Thanks for the lovely comment! ^^

[@mattlol85]

@@ThinMatrix I second that! Always lurked never said a thing. Learned a lot from you and want to say don't stop!

[@paliszarok]

yeah ive seen you on the comment section before

[@rogadev]

For the beehive, maybe it starts without honey oozing out the sides, then when full, you can harvest the honey to sell in the shop. 🙂

[@ToufouMaster]

or use it for something else (i don't know if it's like that in real life but using it for boosting growth and selling prices maybe?)

[@mikiqex]

@@ToufouMaster The other way around - like selling honey with herbs :-)

[@nop7695]

I worked on a farm/garden, there's a lot of research you can do easily to add quick depth to the game, without gaining too much complexity: One thing I can think of that is problematic is watering, when you farm in a home/diy manner, the most valuable resource you have is time, and watering takes a lot of that (also weeding out the garden), there's a hierarchy to be sure. Watering with buckets or gardening cans is awful, takes a lot of time, since you can water about one or two small plots at a time (so let's say about 10 plants max), it also tires you awfully, since water is heavy. You can't support anything more than a really small garden with buckets. Next most obvious improvement is a hose, it's still slow, but at least you don't have to carry water around! Most people stay with the hose for a long time. After that you can do piping, you use plastic tubes with holes on them and lay them around your garden, all connected to your tap so that you open up the faucet and it waters all of your crops at the same time, getting this prepared is sort of hard but you end up with almost automatic watering. There's also sprinklers and hose sprinklers but those are only really useful for grass.

[@landsgevaer]

And then finally there is hydroponics... 😉

[@nop7695]

@@landsgevaer The easy electronics project for highschoolers and technician students by excelence lol

[@EudoxiaMysteries]

Man I love your devlogs so much. I think it was a good idea to drop the citybuilder for this one. It´s far less complex and realistic to finish in a reasonable time.

[@WessonSnyder]

The paving got me the idea of having something like an in game "beautiful garden" competition. Where some metric decides a score for the garden, and the winner wins a price, like rare seeds, etc.

[@TheBookDoctor]

And a thought on the buying interface: In the panel with the items that are available, what if the bottom half had a section that showed your current inventory of those same items. Then when you click "buy", the icon for the shop item could animate downward to "merge" with your copy (or animates down and fades out or something), while the number on yours updates to your new inventory amount. That would be pretty intuitive and obvious visual feedback.

[@dandymcgee]

I think it's really important that the shop shows you how many of something you already own. That would help give the user more feedback and let them decide how many to buy and when to stop buying.

[@axle3341]

Looks awesome! I realize this is a dev build, however unless you specifically mentioned the tools needed to start, I wouldn't have known to get them. Down the road it might be helpful to add a set of "getting started" tasks and checklists to complete said tasks. For example: Buy tools: then tasks to get the tools you bought in the demo

[@steel0tsunami]

I also wouldn’t have known what tools to get, I thought maybe you could get given a set by someone in the village etc. but I like the idea of a getting started checklist more.

[@b0bMC]

Instead of being able to instantly sell the crops, you could add a little guy at the house. When you click on a crop with your sheers, the little guy walks over to the crops and harvests them, creating a use for the path. Once the little guy is done harvesting the things you’ve clicked on with the sheers. The little guy will walk back to the house and wait until you are ready to harvest more crops. Just thought this was a neat little idea that would make the game more immersive.

[@DawidRokitaCk]

Great progress ! Beehive can have a "range" in which it will accelerate plant growth. Maybe range can be extended over time as bee family will grow or maybe by a some sort of upgrade mechanism. Player should have possibility to buy more real estate like in cities skylines. One again great job. Can't wait to see next update video.

[@DBProds96]

Might be interesting to have a little farmer dude NPC that can walk around the farm once you've put path/slabs down

[@kylebanks]

Already looks so chill, can't wait to play this

[@CodeNoodles]

It blows me away how polished you make a new feature look when you add it. Keep it up it looks awesome!

[@Geri805]

Really nice additions, btw one nice small detail would be somehow showing how much the player would earn or spend when buying or selling a bunch of items at once

[@lrsvmb]

Maybe add a basket to you Shop to visualize what products the user currently has, and then checkout all at once? I think that would be great

[@DJDMorrison]

You're the only KZbinr I have notifications turned on for and I drop everything when I see you pop up! Thanks for all the inspiration the last couple of years and so excited to see how the farming game progresses!

[@ravensigil]

something that i could see as useful is having an indicator next to the shop item that you are currently selected on (to buy), telling the player how much of that item they currently have!

[@AllMattJazz]

Nice to see you back on form ;) hope you're doing well can't wait to see going forward how the game shapes up

[@BraianStrak]

I only just came across your channel but I wanted to say that I love the style of your videos as well as the art style of the game. It has a very calm and laid back, peaceful vibe, and I think the two compliment each other well. Keep up the good work :)

[@ThinMatrix]

Thank you!

[@decstar77]

Game idea: You could give tools a "wear" value. Meaning that tool will break down over time until they are unusable, then you'd have to re-buy them. You could have different tiers of tools, more expensive but chops faster less likely to break etc. But otherwise very nice, looking forward to seeing more :)

[@wulfshade5703]

This looks incredibly relaxing to play. Looking forward to seeing more of this. On that note, and as someone fascinated by Aquaponics, I think farming fish in a pond with a filter that also produces fertilizer (either as an item or a flat growth speed bonus) would be quite interesting. A chicken coup could also function similarly, plus eggs.

[@GamesBySaul]

Amazing work! - Being able to have a small little...prototype/demo must be so satisfying for you honestly, it's something you could actively share with people, and have people enjoy! Can't wait to see where you take it, it feels super relaxing already!

[@falxie_]

I find it really fascinating how polished your games end up feeling given the extra overhead of managing your own game engine

[@natgazer]

Some sort of water mechanics to keep the soil wet is a pretty cool thing to add, and maybe some greenhouses for more sensitive plants that will give you more money. And the bee-hive, it would be good to speed up plant growth because of faster pollination!

[@cocccix]

This game is looking amazing. I already imagine some dynamic involving some ants, bees and other Insects that may help the grouth of the plants or destroy them. Some itens that prevent ants may prevent bees, the gameplay looks very satisfying.

[@amisner2k]

Adding a little arrow/caret icon to your preview model that points in the object's forward/facing direction would be a nice touch. Watching your videos is always a special treat, Thin. I appreciate the effort you put in to your videography. Cheers. 👍

[@GumRamm]

Such great progress on such a great project! Feature idea that you probably already had on your own: Starting with a small garden and buying expansions over time sounds like it would be a lot of fun!

[@TheFictionMan]

I appreciate the added explanation of the Smoother code. Two cool extensions to it could easily be Ease In and Ease Out (very common in animation). Glad you are back to work and feeling better mentally and physically.

[@Trandunz]

I really love watching your devlogs man like im a programmer to but dood when I watch your videos I just wish I could be as peaceful as you are. Makes my morning everytime i sit down and open my IDE and chrome. Keep doing what you doing :)

[@landru27]

Really nice to see this project taking shape, and to see the progress you are making. I applaud your "breadth first" approach. I also support your choice to go a tad deeper with placement rotation and easing of that rotation. It's polish, but it's a key bit of polish, judiciously applied, and it clearly did not derail you. Like many others here, I'm excited to see how this develops and unfolds!

[@kiki-drawer2669]

I'm hype for it! This simulator is looking great and your interest in this game shows in how much design and creativity is flowing from you♡ wonderful update as always

[@pieter-janvandenbroecke3568]

It would be pretty cool to have some homes and streets around the shops in the background, with cars running around and people going along with their lives. Your old code would be perfect to add some interesting scenery!

[@gryzor]

Love the progress. As for selling/buying, I'd *always* sell/buy with the inventory open. Like most RPGs, when you're buying/selling you see your inventory alongside.

[@zerozeros9805]

Always really happy to see a upload, your video’s are a great wind down after a long day. Really love your work!

[@beastbomber2316]

You should add the money to the smoother class so it moves nicely when changed.

[@mrbunton2487]

One possible 'placing' ui improvement is to let the of the placed items (eg: beehives) be parallel to what the previously selected tile was. eg: if you want to place a beehive facing north, you first hover around the first tile to the south of the original tile and then hover back up to the origin to have the correct orientation.

[@eldinmujovic8705]

Great job, I love your work really.

[@anian-weber]

Your Videos are so relaxing to watch, keep up the good work!

[@Skeffles]

Excellent progress. It's awesome to see the grow and sell game loop coming together so fast!

[@sasquatchbgames]

dude it's so great to see you so excited for your project again! I used to actually look forward to Mondays each week because on my lunch break I would watch your Equilinox devlogs, they were chill, entertaining and inspiring. Keep up the good work sir!

[@drominus3875]

Nice art style. Zoomed out reminds me of OSRS. I like the large pixels of the grass/ground too. The rotation smoothing of the building is such a nice bit of polish too, it fits the game feel of a farming/building game. Great progress man, keep up the good work.

[@JamalGreenMusic]

So good to see these devlog videos! 😍

[@moritzmaibaum8494]

Great video! Your videos are so motivating. It's cool to watch a project and its development from the start. That's exactly what I want to be able to do when I'm out of school. Your videos show that even with Java, as a small developer, you can do something great like that! I'm already looking forward to see the next devlog.

[@Pontypants]

Nice job!! Love this new farming game - Currently digging out a real garden in our backyard so this is really relatable :P Love all the progress so far, the UI is looking great! Keep it up!

[@manen_]

nothing better than a thinmatrix video like actually nothing beats them

[@LetsSmiley]

Oh my god I was so happy to see a video of you so soon! Thank you! And btw. this is not a call for "I need frequent videos". Keep up the great work, on your pace!

[@ashleyelizabeth9591]

I’d suggest considering a story concept to intrigue players more. Also perhaps have player start with smaller farm and buy more farming space. Have certain crops require certain conditions like space, weather, what can be next to them similar to Equilinox. Keep up the great work!

[@porcuspine2368]

You can really feel in this video how excited you are to make this, and it's really good to watch!

[@eric-jt4ij]

My favorite game dev youtuber! Seeing such steady progress after years of what felt like stagnation with the city builder game, its finally time to see another beautiful game like Equilinox take shape!

[@RobBogdan]

Always enjoy your dev blogs, they are very relaxing to watch

[@SuperDutchrutter]

Love the new project so far. Great job creating a proper scope so you can have a playable version this early into development. Excited to see this project as it progresses.

[@ThinMatrix]

Thanks!

[@sydryan9589]

Home Grown - considering you're using your own engine that's such a perfect name.

[@sighbru]

Hey man, this is such a cool and cute little game :) You’ve helped me get back into game dev and I’ve actually been making a farming game very similar to yours while following along with your dev logs! Keep up the awesome work

[@DJMartinezfrance]

The idea and progress of the game is really good! I love the concept and the features that are coming little by little! I imagine fruit trees are a future addition, and I think beehives are a really good idea! There could be transformation of products, for example jam, sweets with honey and fruits, which will bring a much longer gameplay, and of course quests! Good development and congratulations again for this decision!

[@blackcoffeedevelopment3522]

Man I really love the way this is looking already! When you where showing the crop sales and what not I couldn't help but think, man it would be cool if the crop prices change based on season and events. Probably all things you are thinking about for the future already. Also, thank you for inspiring others like myself to start their own projects.

[@stellar_x]

I can see loads of potential for this game, like being able to expand your garden, you can also reuse a lot of the animals from equillinox for farm animals

[@Draconicrose]

It's really cool that you already have a basic gameplay loop down!

[@jeanmanguy7900]

nice to see more updates, seems it was a good idea, you seem in a better flow. Good luck!

[@dwmatheson]

Great progress. Always look forward to one of your devlogs.

[@chrisg.3364]

Very nice progress, its really coming together! I had a little idea or inspiration maybe you like parts of it: The game could have a similar time paste as simcity or similar games, meaning that the ingame time would go a lot faster than real time. Therefore the player would experience multiple cycles of the four seasons. This would allow the player to not just plant seeds and harvest them when they are grown, but having to plant them in the right seasons for higher yield. Also the player could possibly plant things like raspberries and not completely harvest them, but cut them before winter for also higher yield next year. Just like you would do in reallife. I see however that even though this is probably not too diffiicult to program, you would need to put in a whole lot of research about each plant which is quite time consuming :/ But maybe still fun :)

[@IgnoreMyChan]

4:00 I'd rather see how many I have in total pre- and after buying. So like the inventory amounts.

[@LunarcomplexMain]

Can't wait to see some multi tile selecting / placing, similar to what you worked on with the streets!

[@joker025ful]

Wonderful work!! I will definitely play this. I would suggest for rotation to be able to Tab instead of the middle of the mouse.

[@louroboros]

I audibly gasp with excitement whenever I get notifications for new ThinMatrix videos :)

[@humbyjumbyjoe9]

Make it so that when pathblocks are placed next to a garden the seeds grow faster.

[@JJTrades_X]

This could be a fun multiplayer game. The market could be made up of actual players buying and selling. Some players could grow crops just for seeds that they later sell to the marketplace. Lots of potential. Great progress!

[@akhilvarma198]

Great work! Having the crops go bad if it is not harvested in time could be a nice addition, imo.

[@itzjustalegend3284]

Awesome devlog, keep going!

[@nemesic2000]

This guy uses JAVA and ECLIPSE to build games. He is a keeper!!! Well done sir!

[@addieb674]

interested in seeing this gamified in a way that's as much about play & ecology as expansion and profit!

[@manoliskontos8377]

You doing great! You are a true inspiration for me and many others! One early feedback , you could place the tools for harvesting in ui for quick access. Have a great month!

[@ceo-potato]

In the rotation you can add an arrow instead, and it will point where the item is pointing That will make it that you don't need to do transparency

[@southrad5567]

Great progress! You're an inspiration to me and I love your content, keep up the amazing and inspiring work! Feature Suggestion -> Select Multiple in the store in order to speed up the process of selling items.

[@edgunn1395]

You should consider adding a gardener who carries out the work instructed. You could select areas of land to harvest, plant seeds etc which would be more rewarding I think than simply clicking the squares. Also, they should chill in a hammock when they're not busy

[@DanPos]

Great progress, looking forward to giving this a go at some point!

[@gatorsoup]

tis a good week when we get a thinmatrix devlog

[@thorney36]

Would love to see little delivery men come via vehicle and install placeables such as the bee hives while farm-hands till the soil, harvest crops and drive to deliver the produce to the markets, while following the farm paths with speed buffs which would give some functionality to the paths

[@Dubcore2011]

Cool use for paths may be if there is a random chance for a crop to spread into a neighbouring tile and overgrow another crop therefore causing less crops to be able to be sold. Paths would be the investment to prevent this rather than just being visual

[@ArmanNobari]

The garden game updates are of course great, but tbh I look forward to seeing Rufus too :D

[@originalname6231]

Hey I'm just commenting with some suggestions for if you ever get stuck on ideas! - Expanding farm with livestock - Bee's to help grow the plants - Different weather seasons with different crops that can grow - People you can hire - Machinery to automate the farm - Further processing of harvested crops like making flour from wheat etc Just some idea's for the future! Love your work.

[@timotnah3664]

Great stuff, great decision to "drop" the citybuilder. This farming game has massive potential, growing it in gameplay step by step.

[@JonathanBuckland]

Just some future ideas. When you buy stuff you could have a truck go off and return with the goods. As you business gets bigger you can add storage houses and more trucks/vans to deliver goods as your money grows.

[@plantarise8284]

It would be really cool if you had an actual farmer (owner of the farm), who works on every action you make into the game on demand, and he has to actually move throughout the farm to do the required actions, and by placing paving slabs the farmer can move faster and more efficiently through the farm, a little complex idea for the actual stage of the game, but the devlogs been lovely so far♥♥ Really excited about this project Thin❤

[@TheXLAXLimpLungs]

One strange thing is it appears to be the front door of the house that enters to the garden space. I'd recommend flipping the roof to give the appearance of a door on the other side and that you're exiting a back door.

[@TNothingFree]

Very adorable, I really like the colors. One graphical note I have is to reduce the outline of the GUI, I think it doesn't blend in with all the other colors.

[@MarkHetherington]

should have the people come buy the products from you, like a the front of the house have a road and have cars drive over, park and buy some food, then leave (steal from the city builder for that part!)

[@ThomasIsBored]

You coming along so quickly! I'm nowhere near this stage and I've been at it for weeks...

[@fnoffer]

I love the energy of your videos, the music, your chill narrating voice, the nature theme and the artstyle of the game is coming together wonderfully :D

[@Pyrografpl]

As always amazing! Keep working, I'm looking formward to see next devlog :)

[@the3dworkspace729]

I love watching your vids... you got the dream game dev goal

[@abutterYT]

I understand polish isn't the main concern right now although a Shader to make those trees move would be incredible for some variety!

[@MoneyWizardGang]

you are like the most productive game dev ngl

[@NathanCorleone]

It’s really coming along nicely!

[@empluna]

Hi, very nice progress. It will definitely be really relaxing to play. Maybe a few suggestions for the future. How about raised beds, or greenhouses for special plants?

[@ImTouchkv2]

I think having people around the farm would give pavements a purpose and maybe room for automation stuff in the future. Looking forward to see what you do next!

[@alexanderrotmg]

Always looking forward to the uploads

[@Akkaren79]

You could show the player's inventory and the shop inventory together while shopping. This way you can not only see your stacks go up and down but also what else you already own and might want.