One of our main focuses was to emulate as much of PEI as we could within our designs. This meant a lot of research into both farming and Prince Edward Island. The start of the project focused solely on this type of research, while looking into various farming games as well. The research paid off during our green light pitch for the project’s design, as our client was impressed and happy to see so much influence from PEI incorporated into the designs we put forth.
The farming mechanics were something we spent a lot of time designing and iterating on as we worked on the project. Since part of our focus was sustainable farming methods, we had to find a way to balance the core concepts but also simplify them enough for children to be able to pick up and play the game.
It was important to not only look into real life farming, but we took inspiration from other farming games as well. The simplification of the crop life cycle has been done before, so we tweaked the concepts to work with sustainable farming methods. To avoid a text-heavy game as well, our tutorial was planned to teach new concepts to players as they continue, and not all up front. For example, players would be taught crop rotation only after harvesting their first crop, as it relies on not planting the same crop in the same plot of soil right after growing it.
My main focus while programming the prototype was working on the grid system that we planned to incorporate on farms. The grid system was designed to provide the opportunity for players to manage the space of their farm. Since PEI is a smaller island, we wanted to incorporate the aspects of managing land use as a secondary objective next to farming. Players would be given the freedom to place objects, or til plots of land on any area of the farm as they see fit. We thought this would fit well with the target audience as well, giving them more customization options to the look of their farm.
When players tap a grid space, a highlight would appear representing the size area of soil they're going to till. The same system is used for placing objects, such as the larger soil beds. Since players have the freedom to place things anywhere, I wanted to make it clear where they were placing things. Additionally, this helps players position objects that may otherwise overlap.
