Bountiful Life - An Upcoming Farming/Life Sim Game

All other video games not related to the main farming series - Pokemon, Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and other indie-developed games.
Hysuka
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Post  Posted:

Hey, guys! I've been a long time fan of Farming & Life Simulators like Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon, and Story of Seasons and a long time poster here at Fogu. :) Some of you have probably seen me around here once and a while.

For the past three years, my team, Alcinous Studios, has been working on a Harvest Moon inspired game called Bountiful Life. The team and I are all hardcore Harvest Moon fans and set out to make the farm sim game that we've dreamed of since we were kids. So here we go!
Image
About Bountiful Life:


Bountiful Life is a farm life sim game in which you play as a character who's just moved to Jubilee Village. Your time in Jubilee revolves around the three core aspects of life; your work, your friends and family, and your faith.

-Work-
As the newest farmer, and member of Jubilee, you have a personal obligation to rejuvenate the farmland back to its former glory. Utilize a wide range of forms of labor such as the husbandry of farming crops and raising livestock, foraging, fishing, mining, and other mechanics.

-Friends/Family-
Jubilee is home to over 30 unique villagers who all have their own personalities, hopes and dreams. Getting to know the villagers better can “grow” into close friendships enjoyed over bonding activities and common interests. Investing time into these relationships can lead to a fruitful outcome, such as marriage. You then have the option to raise or adopt children.

-Faith-
An integral part of Bountiful Life’s story is determining your faith. You can choose between the two main factions, an old-world style faith, and a traditional western based faith. Alternatively, if you choose to side with neither, you can follow a more agnostic approach to your time in Jubilee or dedicate your life to scientific exploration. Each path of faith on the road to life will have fully fleshed out events tailored to your playstyle and choices.

*More About The Faith*
Spoiler:
(This part seemed to cause some initial concern)
The "faith" aspect of the game is more akin to what I would just call background lore. The "religions" aren't anymore integral to the everyday story than the Harvest Goddess. We've even been apprehensive about using those two terms(faith/religion) as we're only using them to draw inspiration ( for designs of the magical beings and architecture, for example). :) Not to send any kind of political or religious message. We're definitely discussing names and even rethinking ways to make it so natural within the world that we won't even need names. Like many of the initial responses have said, we're wanting to stray away from any direct real-world parallels as everyone on the Bountiful Life dev team are from different religious and non-religious backgrounds. Doing so would take away from the lighthearted and wholesome atmosphere of the game. :lala: (if you have anymore questions about it, feel free to ask!)
Core Gameplay Mechanics:

-Farming-
The player will manage an upgradable farm. Upgrade your tools and skills to make your work more efficient.

-Fishing-
Spend time at the beach or river catching a variety of unique fish and other sea
creatures native to Jubilee Village.

-Mining-
Discover new gems and ore for the sake of monetary gain or filling the libraries of the village's Observatory.

-Relationships-
Each villager has their own unique personality, weekly schedule, and events. You might even stumble upon a special event with a villager which might increase your friendship with them.

-Festivals-
Jubilee Village hosts multiple festivals each month! Players will participate in engaging mini-games that test the players skills.

-Music-
Hours of original music professionally made!


What Makes Bountiful Life Unique?

-Co-Op-
Alcinous Studios is avoiding the pitfall of making their game single player from the ground up and then being forced to redo the entire project just to implement co-op gameplay mechanics. Bountiful Life is being developed with the end-goal of a cross-platform co-op experience tailored to all mediums gamers will utilize for the most enjoyable experience.

-Best Friend Mechanic-
Romance is not the only reason to pursue relationships with others. In Bountiful Life, players can also unlock special events and dialogue that lead them to maintain a unique best friend relationship with one villager.

-Mini-Games-
Players will use engaging mini-games to work part-time jobs, win festivals, fish, and cook.

-Artstyle-
We have implemented a new standard in the creative direction of Farming and Life Simulators. We’ve noticed many AAA F&L Sims, while fun and creative, tend to be either pixel based or low-quality 3D creations. Our modern approachable artstyle allows our community to be fully immersed in our creations. A vibrant stylized environment with stunning characters and precise attention to atmosphere changes our project from just your typical run-of-the-mill farming game to a unique and enjoyable experience.

Screenshots and Official Art


-Default Player characters-
Image Image
(In the full game, your player-character will be gender-neutral and fully customizable)
-Jubilee Village-
Spoiler:
Jubilee Village town Square - the epicenter of Jubilee Village. This is where you'll find businesses to buy seeds, food, etc, and find the villagers going about their own lives.
Image

A view of the Lighthouse from the Observatory on the other side of Jubilee.

Image

The garden of the village temple where services are held every sunday!

Image

The town hot springs where you'll relax with the other villagers and regain some stamina.

Image
Social Media:
You can find a lot more screenshots and future updates on the game on our social media and Discord:
https://discord.gg/R3U2G8N
https://twitter.com/AlcinousStudios
https://www.instagram.com/alcinousstudios/




So.. As hardcore fans of the genre, I wanted to ask you guys for some feedback and ideas as to what you guys want to see!

And feel free to ask questions. I can't reveal everything at the moment but I'll answer as much as I can!

Image
Last edited by Hysuka on Feb 02, 2021 11:44 am, edited 20 times in total.
Areli
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Post  Posted:

oh well, even if you created the account to promote the game today is fine, it does not mean that you are new, it simply means that you created your account recently. I have been in this community for years and until this year I decided to create an account.

I've been following your game for a long time. It has been interesting to observe your progress.

By the way, perhaps you should reconsider the name of the religions, just for prevention and away from reality.

Successes with the game!
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Kikki
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I'm not certain how candid I should be, but I'll start by saying that I was raised in a family whose life revolved around religion. I went to 'church' (though we didn't have anything we actually called a church, it's the best way to put it) three times a week, and it was something that affected every day of my life. A lot of what is good about me is thanks to that. It's why I am as close to un-bully-able as a person can be, for one thing.

But almost everything that is completely and irreparably screwed up about me is ALSO thanks to that, to the point where I merely hear the word 'religion' and I cringe.

I think your idea sounds really unique and interesting, but at the same time, there's that automatic cringe, for me, knowing that a big part of it is about faith/religion. Makes me draw back a bit right off the bat. I'm not saying that as any kind of advice, but I thought I could at least respond with my initial thoughts and the reason why I did not reply yesterday. The content overall sounds great, since I am, of course, a big fan of farm-life sims. I like the art style too, between a cartoon and an oil painting, almost.

Sorry I can't be more helpful. If there's anything specific you want feedback on, let us know, maybe we can help. :)
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Liliana93
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Post  Posted:

One unique way to potentially handle religion is similar to a lot of games, rather than making it about faith, add creatures that are associated with each, rather than different events perhaps it's working with each one? that way it's less about religion and more about the player being involved with creatures associated (more in-depth than the harvest goddess and harvest sprites in story of seasons games) with each type of religion, including agnostic being some kind of technological creature.

It would also add that little bit of fantastical nature to the game without going overboard and would still allow you to interface with both people and the spiritual side of things.

Also another suggestion is please add rival marriage, I know it's difficult (I played around with it a little and stuff) Animal parade to this day remains my favorite story of seasons and every farming game that has come out always felt less in experience post marriage.
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Blue Rose
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Looks good, imo. The character art style is really unique and I like it a lot. However, there are two things that stand out to me about it; (1) it gives a more arid western-y kind of vibe vs the environment we've seen so far. The game environment we see in the screenshots looks like some kind of northern mountainous region. Both are very beautiful, but so far give off different aesthetics. (2) That plus the style of both the portrait art and the in game art is very different and with no example of character models I am curious/mildly concerned as to how they're gonna look.

Second, I think the focus on religion is a unique approach, and it makes sense for a genre often focusing about small towns. However, do note that you could be potentially walking a thin line that could cross as offensive or just cringey depending on how you play it out. My only real concern is "the based off of Abrahamic religions" bit. It's one thing to have a church/priest/pastor/whatever running around but them to worship an entirely different deity (we see that in Bokumoni games) but if you use too many explicit parallels/references that is gonna potentially ruffle some feathers if you're not careful. This applies to "old religions" too depending on if you're basing it off of something specific (pagan religions, indigenous religions, etc). I'm sure it'll be fine, but what little to go off of Id thought I'd mention that.

Also, while I like that there is a third option for those who aren't in the spiritual/religious scene; religion and science aren't mutually exclusive. This may be necessary to frame it like that based on how the mechanics of the religions (or lack of) are tied in, but I thought I should mention that.

Otherwise, it looks good. The scenery looks really nice especially. Looking forward to hear about it some more!
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freckles
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Post  Posted:

My opinion is practically the same as everyone else's in this thread, but to chime in on the religious aspect: depending on how similar these will be to real-life denominations (which, is very likely, since nothing is completely original), take extra care not to write in something potentially offensive. I'm sure you're aware of this, so I don't mean to sound pedantic. But already we've got some comments displaying concern because religion is a hot button topic.

If you've played the Dragon Age series, there are diverse political factions with their own culture and religion. I thought Bioware weaved in religion rather deftly, but that's because religion was added as a part of culture. I'm not sure how, in Bountiful Life, this will pan out if it's considered one of the game's main aspects. It might put undue pressure or emphasis on it...? And therefore create an artificial, awkward experience. It's hard to avoid bias with religion as well. I don't know the background of those on your team, but a diverse group of opinions and faiths would do well to make sure this isn't lopsided. Religion is highly personal after all, even in fictional environments.

I really like the character art. I second that it seems different from the 3D graphics so if you have more to share, that'd be great!
Hysuka
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Post  Posted:

Whoa, thanks for all the responses!

I'm seeing that the "faith" part has caused some concern so I'll try my best to answer.

The wording itself may have been a little vague. But the "faith" aspect of the game is more akin to what I would just call background lore. The "religions" aren't anymore integral to the everyday story than the Harvest Goddess. We've even been apprehensive about using those two terms(faith/religion) as we're only using them to draw inspiration ( for designs of the magical beings and architecture, for example). :) Not to send any kind of political or religious message. We're definitely discussing names and even rethinking ways to make it so natural within the world that we won't even need names. Like you guys have said, we're wanting to stray away from any direct real-world parallels as everyone on the Bountiful Life dev team are from different religious and non-religious backgrounds. Doing so would take away from the lighthearted and wholesome atmosphere of the game. So I hope that clears some of that up. :lala: (but if you have anymore questions about it, feel free to ask!)
Areli wrote:
I've been following your game for a long time. It has been interesting to observe your progress.

Successes with the game!
Where did you first learn about the game? :shifty: We've tried to be really hush-hush until recently. lol
Kikki wrote:The content overall sounds great, since I am, of course, a big fan of farm-life sims. I like the art style too, between a cartoon and an oil painting, almost.

Sorry I can't be more helpful. If there's anything specific you want feedback on, let us know, maybe we can help. :)
I was waiting for your post! lol you're literally everywhere. No, I really appreciate the feedback!

Could I ask if there's anything in particular you've been wanting to see in a farm-sim game?

Liliana93 wrote: Also another suggestion is please add rival marriage, I know it's difficult (I played around with it a little and stuff) Animal parade to this day remains my favorite story of seasons and every farming game that has come out always felt less in experience post marriage.
We are absolutely on board with rival marriages! That's actually something I wanted to get a gauge on from you guys. I've seen posts from people here who don't like them because they feel bad about taking characters away from each other (Candace and Julius in Tree of Tranquility! :( ) or not liking the idea of having to compete for a character's affection. Would rival marriages be something a lot of people would want back?

Blue Rose wrote:Looks good, imo. The character art style is really unique and I like it a lot. However, there are two things that stand out to me about it; (1) it gives a more arid western-y kind of vibe vs the environment we've seen so far. The game environment we see in the screenshots looks like some kind of northern mountainous region. Both are very beautiful, but so far give off different aesthetics. (2) That plus the style of both the portrait art and the in game art is very different and with no example of character models I am curious/mildly concerned as to how they're gonna look.

Otherwise, it looks good. The scenery looks really nice especially. Looking forward to hear about it some more!
Thank you! Character models are being worked on currently. We're actually testing out different styles of character models. What style are you thinking would fit the atmosphere of the environment?
freckles wrote: I really like the character art. I second that it seems different from the 3D graphics so if you have more to share, that'd be great!
Almost didn't see this
Thanks! Our character artist was really nervous about whether or not people would like her style. We're still playing around with the artstyle of the character models for the final game. So I guess I'll ask you the same question as above. What style do you think would fit the best? I'm partial to the models like Rune Factory Frontier or myself. :wink:
Last edited by Hysuka on Aug 03, 2020 7:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Kikki
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Post  Posted:

Hysuka wrote:
Kikki wrote:The content overall sounds great, since I am, of course, a big fan of farm-life sims. I like the art style too, between a cartoon and an oil painting, almost.

Sorry I can't be more helpful. If there's anything specific you want feedback on, let us know, maybe we can help. :)
I was waiting for your post! lol you're literally everywhere. No, I really appreciate the feedback!

Could I ask if there's anything in particular you've been wanting to see in a farm-sim game?
Ha ha, yeah...I'm pretty chatty on FOGU. :) Well, for features I love in farm sims, you could check out the make your perfect Bokumono game thread.

About rivals...opinions are pretty divided, but I think being able to play matchmaker in post-game (not necessarily LATE game or end game, but after marriage, anyway) would be awesome. Have a really great marriage with someone and be good friends with the other candidates and I think they'd trust your opinion and be interested in your relationship advice, lol. And it'd add a fun thing to do when a lot of people tend to quit playing Bokumono games after they get married. Add some match-making...maybe each candidate is capable of getting into a relationship with 2 or 3 others and you can be the one to nudge them toward one or the other of them...and have each couple able to have a unique child/children. If the main story is not long or if it's possible to complete most goals quickly, maybe there could even be late-game content about the children themselves to add more goals/story to the game. It would add extra replayability, too.

Of course, that's just me :)
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This definitely looks promising!! The portraits have a neat rustic feel to them - they kind of remind me of the character art for the board game Ticket to Ride of all things, which is definitely a good thing! And I like the look of the scenery too, it reminds me of places I've travelled to on the west coast of North America. :)

I admit I was similarly skeptical to hear about the "faith" aspect, but your additions to that topic have eased my worries slightly. I don't usually have an issue with religion in games when it's purely fictional and makes sense in the world, I'm just kind of meh on real life religion so that's where I'm coming from.

For rival marriages I think I'm one of the few that are relatively neutral on the topic, but one thing I've heard mentioned often here is the addition of an option to toggle rival marriages on and off so that people can customize that aspect of the game to their liking.

Also, it's cool to hear about the player character being gender neutral and customizable! I'd like to hear a bit more about that sometime. Does this also mean that marriage candidates will be available to romance regardless of gender as well? That's always a big feature for me in farming sims with romance elements.
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Blue Rose
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A lot of western players are more receptive to/and or want rival marriages. I think if you could have it where it's character controlled to at least where it doesn't potentially interfere with the character's wooing ambitions, it should be fine. Triggering after marriage is one option, although not everyone is into marrying but may want others to do so. If you're wiling to invest resources into it, giving characters a handful of "rival marriage options" and having a matchmaking system (such as FE's) could be popular. But that is something you'd definitely would want to consider how much you really want to invest in. It might be better just to stick to pre-made couples. If you do choose the rival marriage option, rival kids would be a great tag-along addition.

As far as models, I'm not sure what would be a good example to cite but I think as long as you stick with the same style/approach you did with the background it should be fine.
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LeBurns
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Okay, a couple things just pop out at me that I'll mention.

Course the Faith thing can be an issue. My concern there is making it such that one Faith is 'right' and the other is 'wrong', while both reflect something similar in real life. I recall playing one game where when I thought I was picking the morally 'right' choices, the game made sure to make me feel like an idiot for choosing that. In other words, if I come out of playing your game and know how YOU feel about faiths, well then it's not a game, but a method of just preaching your ideals to others. Just not what I play games for.

Mini-games. Don't like them because ... I'm not good at them. And I'd hate being forever cut out of content in a game I bought because I can't do a mini-game right. Problem is if you make it too easy then those that are good at mini-games would wonder why you even put them in. Best solution IMO is just to not have them. HM never needed them IMO.

Co-op. No interest. If I had friends I wouldn't be playing games like these.

Big yes to rival marriage and any other features that add life to the other villagers after you've gotten yourself hitched. I really hated the HM and RF games where after you picked your bride the others women are just expected to be spinster's for life cause you didn't pick them.
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Shan O 123
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....Nope I’m not going to open the ‘can of worms’ you call faith lol, I have enough of that talking to my mother.




Gameplay looks good but yeah, I suck at mini games so I’d personally leave them out. Yes, rival marriage please and while we’re on the subject of game suggestions, please please please for the life of me make the player’s child grow up past 3 years old and they actually can do something. DO NOT do the most stupidest thing ANB did with the growing up candy X.X
Areli
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Hysuka wrote:Where did you first learn about the game? :shifty: We've tried to be really hush-hush until recently. lol
Around 2016 on Reddit. And yes, when you unveiled your website and tweeter the following year, you almost only appeared to greet each beginning of the year and rarely anything else, but at least it helped me to know that the project was still alive. Now the website that you gave back then no longer exists.

Regarding the rival marriage, to be honest, whether or not it is. It is not relevant to me.

If you really want to implement it and after reading about it here and there, if you don't want to walk in swampy waters then (maybe):
  1. First group of players (The "easy" part): Avoid the predefined pairs and make sure that no one ends up alone.
  2. Second group of players (This is another topic): They want to feel that they compete with another character for the affection of a character and to be able to win ... solving that is another topic. (The truth be told, I do not envy at all the position that you as developers are at the moment)
With the theme of faith, perhaps you might be interested to see how My Time at Portia implemented it, it is exactly the same concept and they did use the church without generating drama. What I liked is that the player was not forced to choose, you could be on both sides without penalty as far as I remember.

Maybe in your game you could change it to "branches" or something like that, develop on the side of nature or the scientist.

By the way, the link to invite discord indicates that it is invalid.
Hysuka
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Kikki wrote:Ha ha, yeah...I'm pretty chatty on FOGU. :) Well, for features I love in farm sims, you could check out the make your perfect Bokumono game thread.

About rivals...opinions are pretty divided, but I think being able to play matchmaker in post-game (not necessarily LATE game or end game, but after marriage, anyway) would be awesome. Have a really great marriage with someone and be good friends with the other candidates and I think they'd trust your opinion and be interested in your relationship advice, lol. And it'd add a fun thing to do when a lot of people tend to quit playing Bokumono games after they get married. Add some match-making...maybe each candidate is capable of getting into a relationship with 2 or 3 others and you can be the one to nudge them toward one or the other of them...and have each couple able to have a unique child/children. If the main story is not long or if it's possible to complete most goals quickly, maybe there could even be late-game content about the children themselves to add more goals/story to the game. It would add extra replayability, too.

Of course, that's just me :)
That is a really good idea! I don't think that's ever been done before in any of the other ones. And yeah, one of my biggest gripes with other games has always been that the kids, no matter who you marry, always turn out the same. Different parents should yield different results!
Code_Name_Geek wrote:This definitely looks promising!! The portraits have a neat rustic feel to them - they kind of remind me of the character art for the board game Ticket to Ride of all things, which is definitely a good thing! And I like the look of the scenery too, it reminds me of places I've travelled to on the west coast of North America. :)

I admit I was similarly skeptical to hear about the "faith" aspect, but your additions to that topic have eased my worries slightly. I don't usually have an issue with religion in games when it's purely fictional and makes sense in the world, I'm just kind of meh on real life religion so that's where I'm coming from.

For rival marriages I think I'm one of the few that are relatively neutral on the topic, but one thing I've heard mentioned often here is the addition of an option to toggle rival marriages on and off so that people can customize that aspect of the game to their liking.

Also, it's cool to hear about the player character being gender neutral and customizable! I'd like to hear a bit more about that sometime. Does this also mean that marriage candidates will be available to romance regardless of gender as well? That's always a big feature for me in farming sims with romance elements.
Thanks! I think toggling rival marriages on and off is a good idea. Perhaps we could even have an in-game event that lets the player decide if they should happen or not. Like the mayor comes to you and says "Hey, now that you're married, could ya help the other villagers out? They seem a bit shy or outright oblivious when it comes to romance." lol I'll have to check with the programmers to see which would be more viable.

And yessss :) I'd love to talk about the gender customization I'm so glad you asked. lol

More About Gender
Basically, when creating your character in the full game, you start off with a base character. The game, programming-wise, will not recognize your character as male or female like in most Farm Sim games. The hair options, face meshes, body types(torso, legs, arms), and voice will all be available to mix and match to your liking. So all marriageable candidates will be available to you. And when you're wedded, your spouse will ask if they should call you their "partner," "wife," "husband," or a customized title. :heart:
Blue Rose wrote:A lot of western players are more receptive to/and or want rival marriages. I think if you could have it where it's character controlled to at least where it doesn't potentially interfere with the character's wooing ambitions, it should be fine. Triggering after marriage is one option, although not everyone is into marrying but may want others to do so. If you're wiling to invest resources into it, giving characters a handful of "rival marriage options" and having a matchmaking system (such as FE's) could be popular. But that is something you'd definitely would want to consider how much you really want to invest in. It might be better just to stick to pre-made couples. If you do choose the rival marriage option, rival kids would be a great tag-along addition.

As far as models, I'm not sure what would be a good example to cite but I think as long as you stick with the same style/approach you did with the background it should be fine.
Matchmaking would be really fun! Pre-made couples would give us a really solid foundation to flesh out the writing for the rival kids though. So both of those are really good ideas to consider.

Hmm.. could you say more about rival kids? That's something I've never thought about.
LeBurns wrote:Okay, a couple things just pop out at me that I'll mention.

Course the Faith thing can be an issue. My concern there is making it such that one Faith is 'right' and the other is 'wrong', while both reflect something similar in real life. I recall playing one game where when I thought I was picking the morally 'right' choices, the game made sure to make me feel like an idiot for choosing that. In other words, if I come out of playing your game and know how YOU feel about faiths, well then it's not a game, but a method of just preaching your ideals to others. Just not what I play games for.

Mini-games. Don't like them because ... I'm not good at them. And I'd hate being forever cut out of content in a game I bought because I can't do a mini-game right. Problem is if you make it too easy then those that are good at mini-games would wonder why you even put them in. Best solution IMO is just to not have them. HM never needed them IMO.

Co-op. No interest. If I had friends I wouldn't be playing games like these.

Big yes to rival marriage and any other features that add life to the other villagers after you've gotten yourself hitched. I really hated the HM and RF games where after you picked your bride the others women are just expected to be spinster's for life cause you didn't pick them.


There's definitely no right or wrong. There's honestly not really a decision to be made. The player is allowed to explore the history and lore of Jubilee Village at their own whim by getting to know the villagers and exploring the world itself. Like I said, it's not at all at the forefront of the game's story. :)

:lol: Yeah, personally I love single player experiences. The option is just there for players who want to farm with those friend things that people always talk about.

I hated that too!! Perfectly single bachelors and batchelorettes would just walk around as if they didn't have aspirations of getting married and having kids themselves. It always makes it seem like everything stops after you get married which we want to avoid.

How do you think we should go about pairing villagers that you don't choose to marry?

Areli wrote:Around 2016 on Reddit. And yes, when you unveiled your website and tweeter the following year, you almost only appeared to greet each beginning of the year and rarely anything else, but at least it helped me to know that the project was still alive. Now the website that you gave back then no longer exists.

If you really want to implement it and after reading about it here and there, if you don't want to walk in swampy waters then (maybe):
  1. First group of players (The "easy" part): Avoid the predefined pairs and make sure that no one ends up alone.
  2. Second group of players (This is another topic): They want to feel that they compete with another character for the affection of a character and to be able to win ... solving that is another topic. (The truth be told, I do not envy at all the position that you as developers are at the moment)
By the way, the link to invite discord indicates that it is invalid.
Discord invite has been updated! Thanks for catching that. :wink: https://discord.gg/R3U2G8N

Reddit is actually the same way I found the project!

lol yeah, but we've got a really great programmer. He can definitely handle whatever we throw at him. Rival marriage after the player is married seems to be the happy medium between the two.
Shan O 123 wrote: Gameplay looks good but yeah, I suck at mini games so I’d personally leave them out. Yes, rival marriage please and while we’re on the subject of game suggestions, please please please for the life of me make the player’s child grow up past 3 years old and they actually can do something. DO NOT do the most stupidest thing ANB did with the growing up candy X.X
Hmm.. we'll definitely have to reconsider the mini-games then.

"make the player’s child grow up past 3 years old and they actually can do something. DO NOT do the most stupidest thing ANB did with the growing up candy X.X"

I FEEL THIS SO MUCH. :lol: In past games like these, the child is nothing but a prop after they become a toddler. I LOVED the way they handled it in A Wonderful Life where the child's personality is based on decisions you make when they're growing up. Then as a teen they have their own aspirations and problems with other kids.


^That's a really good topic!

How do you guys think the progression of the child should be handled(gameplay-wise and story-wise)?

And while we're talking about kids, our dev team has discussed how we'd handle the possibility of same-« Chicken Hugging » couples and children. We've decided that we'd go with creating an event in which the spouse asks the player if they'd like to adopt or have their own child. How do you guys feel about this option?
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Code_Name_Geek
Tubular Turnip Farmer
Tubular Turnip Farmer
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Hysuka wrote:And yessss :) I'd love to talk about the gender customization I'm so glad you asked. lol

More About Gender
Basically, when creating your character in the full game, you start off with a base character. The game, programming-wise, will not recognize your character as male or female like in most Farm Sim games. The hair options, face meshes, body types(torso, legs, arms), and voice will all be available to mix and match to your liking. So all marriageable candidates will be available to you. And when you're wedded, your spouse will ask if they should call you their "partner," "wife," "husband," or a customized title. :heart:
That sounds like an awesome system to me!! Nonbinary gender options are rare indeed in farming sims so it's exciting to see new games that are starting to try stuff like that. :heart:
Hysuka wrote:And while we're talking about kids, our dev team has discussed how we'd handle the possibility of same-« Chicken Hugging » couples and children. We've decided that we'd go with creating an event in which the spouse asks the player if they'd like to adopt or have their own child. How do you guys feel about this option?
That also makes sense in my opinion!

Oh yeah, and to throw in my two cents on minigames, I personally enjoy them as a bonus when they're not required for story progression. For example, some BokuMono games had minigames you could play with your animals that gave you bonus friendship points, but were totally optional otherwise. Maybe that's a good way to incorporate minigames so that players can choose whether or not to play them?
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