The development process overall

Perhaps because it was our third group project, we were more experienced and comfortable with the collaborative work flow on Unity. Our development process overall could be divided into three sections: brainstorming, building, and resolving. First, we began brainstorming for a 2D farming game idea with the following features: 

-various mini games within environment

-no obvious winning / losing but more exploratory + relaxed experience

-bright and colorful bitmap style visuals (we will make them)

-happy and cheerful background music

However, rather than being set back with the idea of mini games, we decided to move further with the farming features and the chores that are related to farming. Once we had a clearer direction, we began to approach the game with 3 different stages of agricultural processes as such: preparation of soil for sowing, collecting + harvesting ripe crops, and storing crops before they go bad. Within each stage are obstacles, such as untamed sheep or hungry crows, that can harm or bother the player. As a group, we contacted each other with updates and offered comments for improvement. 

After receiving feedback during the play-tests, we realized we had many aspects that needed attention from minor visual asset changes to game interaction issues. We tackled one problem at a time in order to organize our asynchronous work process. These improvements will be discussed later in the following paragraphs.

Design docs, development images, notes

We decided to approach the three agricultural processes as the following:

Stage 1: Preparation of soil for sowing

The player must clear the field by moving the rocks into the wheel barrow. The untamed sheep, when you come in contact, will trample (kill) you. Only once the field is clear of stones, it will be ready for seeding and for crops to grow. 

Stage 2: Collecting ripe crops

The player can collect ripe crops, which are the dark green plants. However, the player must compete with hungry crows that will eat the ripe crops as well. The crows do not hurt the player but they are greedy and hungry! Here the player can install a bird cage/trap with SPACE to catch the hungry crows. Once all ripe crops are collected, crops can be harvested for long-term storage. 

Stage 3: Storing the crops

In the final stage, you can test your skills as a farmer! Before the crops go bad, the player must quickly collect the crops for storage. Crops that are left too long will turn bad and will deduct points from the crops value. When you collect crops in the right time, it will add points to crop value. The objective is to attempt to achieve a high score!

Playtesting feedback

Some of the feedback we received from playtesting were:

-visual aesthetics could be more consistent (sheep has too prominent outlines in comparison to others)

-sheep look too friendly (could benefit it it looked more intimidating)

-putting stones in a wood crate doesn't feel natural in a farm setting

-rocks don't fit into the wood crate and become an outlier

-layer issues should be resolved so that player isn't below certain assets

-pixelated eggplant as a button and its nuances can be misleading if not intended

-descriptions are confusing (word choice should be considered)

These points were taken into consideration in moving forward with our game:

We changed the wooden crate, which caused lots of confusion during play-testing, into a wheel barrow so that it is incorporated into the farm setting better. The box collider was also only at the top of the wooden crate, so stones that came in from the side were left abandoned. We enlarged the box collider so that the stones could be collected from any direction of the wheel barrow. 

Our sheep in the beginning had a dark outline which created a stark contrast to other visual assets. Also, they looked too friendly considering they trample on the player. Therefore, we created more intimidating sheep without the black outlines so they absorb into the environment more naturally. Moreover, the stones used to be same sizes with identical mass, but in the updated version, the size and the mass of the stones vary so that smaller rocks are easier to move around. 

We also changed our game UI buttons to pumpkin sprites in order to avoid delivering unintended meaning with our game! 

In addition, before there were instances where the player was behind the crops and other visual assets. We made sure to check the Z positions to make everything visible. 

Lastly, we changed our descriptions to make more sense because not everyone is familiar with farming vocabulary and processes. Clear the field was more understandable than "Plow the field" (our description before).