November 2019 – April 2020, Unreal Engine 4.23. Out now on itch.io https://farmed.itch.io/farmed-and-dangerous
Farmed & Dangerous is a competitive farming game that pits two rival farmers in a produce lobbing food fight. Plant seeds, grow crops, and destroy your rival’s farm with a variety of explosive fruits and vegetables.
I arrived onto the project at the beginning of November as the Level Design and Economics Designer. At this stage, there were talks of considerations and features that would be implemented for April’s deadline for Toronto’s Level Up Showcase:
- When being showcased, each game should last about 3-5 minutes
- Some fruits and vegetables with the lob mechanic throws over defenses
- The player will need enough time to learn all of the controls and mechanics
With this into consideration, I created some rough sketches of what the level could be, among other ideas that could be implemented. Most importantly player space.
In the original vertical slice there were 5 x 7 (minus the bases space) worth of grids where the player can grow plants. The trouble with this was a visibility issue of every object in the game. To improve upon this, I came up with a 4 x 6 grid space and increased base’s size to increase the chance of the base being hit, to improve the speed of the game.
The style was inspired by the traditional farmlands of Ontario. Having the view of the field feel balanced to the eye was an on going concern. Player 2’s yellow barn had to be toned down multiple times until it felt just right.
As the art evolved, so did the necessity to ensure that the player understood every object in the game. With new player testers, we needed them to understand where you buy, where you sell and where you attack. Different models were replaced, but most importantly, we required a tutorial for the player.
With ten weapons in the game, we decided on a ‘weapon load out’, where you can select 4 of the fruits and vegetables before the start of every game. Where this could have been used in a UI select screen, we found the best approach was to have the load out tie in with the tutorial to gather and throw. This way, all plants can be tested out before hand, and we could also group the fruits into categories, based off of power and cost.
The final look of the tutorial had the selected load out as UI and the trucks. Throwing fruit at the trucks would confirm your selection. Though this was also an object to sell to in the main level, the player could still identify this as an object to throw items to.
With the design challenges, time and resources involved, I learned that teaching the player is the utmost concern. Everyone skips through informative slides and text instructions. Having every model translate easily to the player can remove confusion and ensure better flow.
Though ‘Level-up Showcase 2020’ was cancelled, my team and I were happy to show off our game at ‘Eat Play Mingle’ among a small portion of game developers showing off demos and previews of future games.
Spencer Preiditsch 