Wild Season - KICKSTARTER IS LAUNCHED!!!!

[Googaboga]

@Goo

I have only really seen those things in Rune Factory to be honest. Tale of two towns for instance felt like a big step back in terms of game play. They added a better online feature to ANB but it broke the game so now instead of fixing it they're removing the feature. They seem to be trying but they can't decide which features to use. The most irritating of these is the most simple: camera position, for the non hand held games they've had a different camera layout almost every game and didn't listen when people complained.

It just seems like they're focusing too much on making each game different rather than making each game BETTER. People have been screaming for FoMT and MFoMT to have an updated version but they aren't even really including those key features that made the game more fun. IDK, I will always love HM and will always buy their games but it's just frustrating when I don't see a clear improvement between games.

I agree. Tale of Two Towns is my least favorite HM and I've played nearly every game. But I can still see an effort. They let you get new outfits and trade stuff with people, they added that dating feature, they added a request board, they made in a quick way to water crops, they had two places you could live in, and some of the guys even had reverse proposals. So I can see they were attempting to give some of the things that players had been wanting/seemed to like. But I didn't enjoy the game play >.>.

Rune Factory I think is helped by the fact that it doesn't have the image or stigma that HM does. HM is a family friendly children okay game and they've done things specifically to keep that. So now there are things they just can't do without it seeming like a big deal. And since HM is known as (for the most part) just a game about farming people can be pretty harsh about each game being the same thing over and over. I guess I can see where they are coming from. It can be hard to imagine ways to make working on a farm new and interesting with each installment. That is probably why they want to make it as obvious as possible that each game is an individual. And then of course one of the biggest issues with HM is that so much of it is simply opinion based. Like how do you decide whether befriending friends/family is a marriage requirement or not? Or how do you decide what types of festivals to have? Or what about spending time making different colors for animals, is it worth it? There is really no best way to do stuff like that. Which could be why they do things like make IoH and then come out with SI. The games are very similar but they make changes that players seemed to have wanted (it doesn't always turn out better than the first one though). Of course they can't stay the course forever though. So after two or three games they have to start making really noticeable changes again or people might get bored. So HM never really has time to work things out fully. They have to keep making changes, which opens them up to make issues, they may try to fix the issues while adding new ones, but they can't stay with the same thing for too long, so then they've got to make big changes again to keep things new, and so on and so on.

So if one game is a hit and the next is a miss I don't really mind. As long as I can see that they are attempting to do something good I can let it slide even if I don't personally enjoy it. After all some people consider ToTT as their favorite HM game. That just goes to show how much impact those opinion based features have on someone's experience.

[sbalani]

Hi Guys! Sorry i've been away for a while, being the founder, ceo, writer, game designer and community manager can take its toll! Especially since the number of places we're present in is increasing, my backlog takes a little longer to get thru! But rest assured, you guys are not forgotten! :D

It all looks great! I'm happy the game is progressing well.
I like the design of all characters so far. Just a quick question; does the mayor actually have a name? Or is he simply called "mayor"? I would like him to have a name because it just seems strange xD

I also wonder if we would have more varieties of farm animals. Since the game has mystic sacrifices and darker tones, I'd think it's probably a good idea to incorporate animal sacrifices?

RE: The Mayor, i'm leaving that to be discovered in-game . Regarding your other comment, I'm unable to make any comments about that at this time. All i can do is tap my nose and wink....*wink*

I think I know something you guys should REALLY talk about on your kickstarter : Kids. One on the reasons people enjoy HM is that you can make a family. So, if the player can have kids, you should really mention that soon.

We're still fleshing out the details of this so we dont want to say stuff that wont be in the game, but thanks, we'll mention it as soon as we're able

if you have mining use the magical melody mining and none of the refining garbage and are the tools upgradeable? if so have it one metal per tool or if the minings easy you could have 2 or 3

But the mining and tool upgrade system im animal parade sucks in my opinion and i hope yours will be diffrent if you have one

and another tip if you have things like butter makers and the like LET US DO STACKS
thats the bane of my existence i mean doing 500 flax one ta a time into yarn ... well is several unmentionable things.........

also if you have diffrent types of farm animals dont make choose as i like 2 of everything .

ill think of more later ..........

Oh and you might see if our web goddess would give ya a mention on the fogu.com/hm page ... since theres not much going on but another 2/3ds game

We will have tools ,and tehy will be upgradable :D, although we'll check out magical melody for your suggestion

Stacks: YES deff will have stacks :D

Animals: No plans on limitations :D

Pantless game developers ... hmmm.

Well nice to see you! Hi!

I noted you listed the same « Chicken Hugging » relationships are in. This may get a lot of new players as that's always what's asked for on these forums. I would ask however that it can be avoided either as a pre-game option or isn't triggered without an obvious advance. Many have raged about how in Dragon Age 2 certain companions would get angry at you for wanting to be straight after being nice to them. I have friends that are « lame turnip » and they never once thought I was hitting on them for just being nice. I try to be nice to everyone.

Yes we will have a "trigger" to initiate romance, particularly for same « Chicken Hugging » characters since like you said, characters may not realise you have an interest in them.

The vid and scenes are good. Curious how the 2D sprites will change if you change the clothes and hairstyle of your character.

8 total Bachelors and/or bachelorettes or 8 each? Four apiece is fine if they are well done. Just curious.

8 a piece

I like the name "Friend Zone Engine". Certainly sounds more complex than the "give a gift a day" routines we are used to.

Mystic Sacrifices???

Initial Animal List: Cows, Sheep, Goats, Chickens, Ostriches, Penguins, Llama, Horses & dogs.

Ok, I'm just going to say that Penguins seem WAY out of place on this list. I grew up on a large farm in Colorado and I can say that (in the US anyway) our basic pets are Dogs and Cats. Your basic livestock are Cattle, Sheep, Horses, Pigs, Chickens. Your exotic animals are Llama, Buffalo, Goats. I did know someone with an Ostrich farm so that's not too far out there (I actually had a pair of Ostrich skin cowboy boots!). But a Penquin? I can't even begin to think of how those would be kept considering the upkeep it takes to keep them alive in the zoo. But I guess you have a plan for them. Just odd, but anxious to see how that works out.

Well this is a game after-all so some quickyness is okay :D. Quite honestly including penguins is an extremely personal easter-egg. I just love penguins, but yes we will be having a plan for them

I really like the idea of becoming an important farmer in the region and due to that fact being asked to join the town council. That just makes a lot of sense. Being hard at work on the farm I can't see myself doing a lot of cooking, but it would be great if my spouse got good at it. I would fully support my spouse entering cooking contest and winning because she used the great produce I grew and used some nice recipes that I found for her.

Whilst your partner would cook (incase you marry a male character ), I had not thought about encouraging them to join the compeitions if you didnt want to cook! That's going in the game notes, as a feature to see how we can squeeze in :D

Yeah I know a lot of people would want to do the cooking themselves, but it would be great if the spouse did some cooking, raced some horses, etc. Getting the run down daily greeting and a free meal a day is not the kind of spouse I really want. Being able to help develop the spouses skills and let them enter contest and do things would be great and as far as I know completely new to the HM type games.

Interesting:

no comment

I just stumbled across the kickstarter whilst in the RF4 gamefaqs board. I am now more excited than I have ever been for a new farming game. So far this seems to have everything I have ever wanted in a HM or RF game. As soon as I get paid tomorrow I will be contributing to this.

My one suggestion though as mentioned by someone else on the previous page: PLEASE make everything stackable. Nothing frustrated me more (okay, maybe Walking slowly in Animal Parade with the crazy camera angles) than running out of room in your rucksack and storage areas. I admit, I am an item hoarder, but I just never know if I'll need such and such random item later in crafting D:

We will strive to be backpack friendly! :D

You need to back the kickstarter, register, and then mail them on kickstarter what your username is so they can activate you. They're making the forums a backers only incentive. It said it was on the second tier contribution level from the beginning. I'm in there right now and can post, you just need to be activated.

Wow, that really makes little sense to me. They came here to get some 'outside' feedback, now they close the doors and leave all the game discussion in a private session. I don't know if that's a common practice or not, but it's enough for me to never bother with Kickstarter again. I guess I'll check on this game a month from now and just see where they're at.

We changed up the forums to accomodate the backer exclusive forums, but due to my lack of background with php & phpbb (i'm more of a C#/JS/RoR Guy), I made the backer forums, but the public forum is not showing up. I've been busy with content creation for the kickstarter the last week, so this has been sitting in my backlog, but I promise to get to it this weekend

...
It's only like 5 bucks to have access to helping design the game *shrug* and it won't be charged until they hit their goal on December 27th. The info about what's already been included is on the kickstarter page itself, you can read the comments section there for additional.

??? They don't take the money until the 27th, and if they don't make the target the money is given back? Wouldn't it be better for them to just keep the money to they can go ahead and finish up the game? If they don't make the target does the game just die?

Not familiar with how kickstarter works but if I gave them $50 I would want them to use it to make the game, not give it back. Odd.

Unfortunately that's how kickstarter works. Its all or nothing, they dont charge your CC till the end of the campaign, and only if we're funded.

If we dont make the target, we know we have an audience out there, and we really believe its a simple matter of bad timing, due to the next gen launches and xmas, so we will try to do another run early next year , although we'd rather make it now, because doing another campaign will surely push back our timelines.

[LeBurns]

Hi Guys! Sorry i've been away for a while, being the founder, ceo, writer, game designer and community manager can take its toll! Especially since the number of places we're present in is increasing, my backlog takes a little longer to get thru! But rest assured, you guys are not forgotten! :D

Understandable.

RE: The Mayor, i'm leaving that to be discovered in-game . Regarding your other comment, I'm unable to make any comments about that at this time. All i can do is tap my nose and wink....*wink*

We're still fleshing out the details of this so we dont want to say stuff that wont be in the game, but thanks, we'll mention it as soon as we're able

Well got to keep something a secret right?

We will have tools ,and they will be up-gradable :D, although we'll check out magical melody for your suggestion

Stacks: YES definitely will have stacks :D

Animals: No plans on limitations :D

Well I don't mind some tool upgrading, maybe three. Some games kind of go overboard with it.

Yes we will have a "trigger" to initiate romance, particularly for same « Chicken Hugging » characters since like you said, characters may not realize you have an interest in them.

Very good to know.

8 a piece

Wow. Really wasn't expecting that. Now I have to figure out who the 16 are in this list:



I would like to point out that in every HM and RF game there is always some older, more mature woman that many wish they could have dated (I could make a list from each game). It would be great to actually have that ability now. Course the choices we know of now already look way more mature than the loli we are used to.

Well this is a game after-all so some quickyness is okay :D. Quite honestly including penguins is an extremely personal easter-egg. I just love penguins, but yes we will be having a plan for them

Ok, I'll give you that. :p

Whilst your partner would cook (incase you marry a male character ), I had not thought about encouraging them to join the compeitions if you didnt want to cook! That's going in the game notes, as a feature to see how we can squeeze in :D

Would like to see it. In all the HM/RF games the spouse's life seems to become very routine after marriage. Would like something to shake it up a bit. Maybe even have them have an affair on you if you don't give them enough love'n (if I can cheat why can't they?).

[Nightwing99]

Whilst your partner would cook (incase you marry a male character ), I had not thought about encouraging them to join the compeitions if you didnt want to cook! That's going in the game notes, as a feature to see how we can squeeze in :D

Would like to see it. In all the HM/RF games the spouse's life seems to become very routine after marriage. Would like something to shake it up a bit. Maybe even have them have an affair on you if you don't give them enough love'n (if I can cheat why can't they?).

Ooooooh I like this. Of course, that means I'm going to be sad and alone with my many penguins but it'll make really fun youtube videos and forum stories! :D

[Mecha-Lollipop]

So far everything I've seen interests me. It's really just down to after marriage life and stuff involving kids for me to decide if I'd want to play it or not.

I'm just definitely against robo children. How boring life gets after marriage always bothers me in games because I focus so much on the social aspect and then it feels like a let down when every day is the same and there isn't much interaction with my family. I've really loved games in the past where your spouse or children could be asked to do chores to help out.

[Harvestfly82]

Definitely heading over to the kickstarter page for some last minute pledging, but I do want to suggest one thing in regards to marriage/life after marriage. I hate that I am forced to have children in HM. In real life, I've personally chosen to not have kids, and I hate that the HM games force me to do it. Often, I woo a marriage candidate but either avoid getting married, or never upgrade to the biggest bed just so I can avoid having kids. Its silly but thats how crazy I am about not having kids. It would be nice to have a choice about whether or not my character has a child or not.

[daikiraikimi]

Definitely heading over to the kickstarter page for some last minute pledging, but I do want to suggest one thing in regards to marriage/life after marriage. I hate that I am forced to have children in HM. In real life, I've personally chosen to not have kids, and I hate that the HM games force me to do it. Often, I woo a marriage candidate but either avoid getting married, or never upgrade to the biggest bed just so I can avoid having kids. Its silly but thats how crazy I am about not having kids. It would be nice to have a choice about whether or not my character has a child or not.

I like this as well.

Honestly, one part that I hate about it is that it just *happens* whether or not you're trying for a kid. So I'm like... Wow, why didn't we talk about this?

I think it would be super awesome if you could discuss big changes to your life, such as having a kid or perhaps a house expansion, with your partner before hand. Just models a good relationship dynamic and makes them more of a "person" than a bot.

Another cool thing, since you can cheat on your spouse... Perhaps an option to ask them for an open marriage (with some marriage candidates okay with this and others totes not okay with this) or if that's out, then the option to "confess" to them that you cheated, end the other relationship, and start improving on your marriage again.

I think that approach to relationships would definitely tie in with the "more mature" theme of Wild Season, and really appeal to poly folks since... I don't know any games that allow you to actually have a negotiated open relationship?

[Dark Angel]

Definitely heading over to the kickstarter page for some last minute pledging, but I do want to suggest one thing in regards to marriage/life after marriage. I hate that I am forced to have children in HM. In real life, I've personally chosen to not have kids, and I hate that the HM games force me to do it. Often, I woo a marriage candidate but either avoid getting married, or never upgrade to the biggest bed just so I can avoid having kids. Its silly but thats how crazy I am about not having kids. It would be nice to have a choice about whether or not my character has a child or not.

I like this as well.

Honestly, one part that I hate about it is that it just *happens* whether or not you're trying for a kid. So I'm like... Wow, why didn't we talk about this?

I think it would be super awesome if you could discuss big changes to your life, such as having a kid or perhaps a house expansion, with your partner before hand. Just models a good relationship dynamic and makes them more of a "person" than a bot.

Another cool thing, since you can cheat on your spouse... Perhaps an option to ask them for an open marriage (with some marriage candidates okay with this and others totes not okay with this) or if that's out, then the option to "confess" to them that you cheated, end the other relationship, and start improving on your marriage again.

I think that approach to relationships would definitely tie in with the "more mature" theme of Wild Season, and really appeal to poly folks since... I don't know any games that allow you to actually have a negotiated open relationship?

I think this would be a great idea! But if they get to their goal, then I'd opt for a divorce as well. Though I suppose if you had kids it would be hard... But didn't they go with their mother in HM AWL? I haven't played so correct me if I'm wrong. Bahhhhhhh! I want to donate, pledge, sell my soul whatever but mum won't let me... Maybe a friend would pledge for me if I get the money....? I just wanna be able to play the alpha and that's 44 in Aus dollars... *goes and does calculations*

[daikiraikimi]

I think this would be a great idea! But if they get to their goal, then I'd opt for a divorce as well. Though I suppose if you had kids it would be hard... But didn't they go with their mother in HM AWL? I haven't played so correct me if I'm wrong. Bahhhhhhh! I want to donate, pledge, sell my soul whatever but mum won't let me... Maybe a friend would pledge for me if I get the money....? I just wanna be able to play the alpha and that's 44 in Aus dollars... *goes and does calculations*

If there is divorce or separation, I think the kid should go with the spouse, not the MC.

Some reasons:
1. If the MC is female, they would keep the kid and if male they don't. Seems unnecessarily complicated. Much more easy to just make sure every marriageable person can move back in with their parents (or their own home) and take the kid with them. If you divorce multiple times, you could have a kid in every house-- whereas if you had to keep the kid then you would either not be able to have another kid or your house would overflow with children.

2. Reinforces the idea that women are somehow "more parental" than men. Why should the woman always get the kid in a divorce? That's ridiculous.

[Dark Angel]

I think this would be a great idea! But if they get to their goal, then I'd opt for a divorce as well. Though I suppose if you had kids it would be hard... But didn't they go with their mother in HM AWL? I haven't played so correct me if I'm wrong. Bahhhhhhh! I want to donate, pledge, sell my soul whatever but mum won't let me... Maybe a friend would pledge for me if I get the money....? I just wanna be able to play the alpha and that's 44 in Aus dollars... *goes and does calculations*

If there is divorce or separation, I think the kid should go with the spouse, not the MC.

Some more reasons:
1. If the MC is female, they would keep the kid and if male they don't. Seems unnecessarily complicated. Much more easy to just make sure every marriageable person can move back in with their parents (or their own home) and take the kid with them. If you divorce multiple times, you could have a kid in every house-- whereas if you had to keep the kid then you would either not be able to have another kid or your house would overflow with children.

2. Reinforces the idea that women are somehow "more parental" than men. Why should the woman always get the kid in a divorce? That's ridiculous.

I never said that the female gets to keep the kid. All I said was this kind of system has been implemented before to a point in Harvest Moon. It was just an observation. And in AWL you could only play as a guy so... That was my reasoning there.

[daikiraikimi]

I never said that the female gets to keep the kid. All I said was this kind of system has been implemented before to a point in Harvest Moon. It was just an observation. And in AWL you could only play as a guy so... That was my reasoning there.

Haha, I wasn't trying to jump on you, no worries.

AWL is actually one of my favorite HM games, so I know you can only play as the guy-- I was just pointing out why I think the kid going with the wife wouldn't work in this case.

[Mecha-Lollipop]

I would agree with the kid going with your spouse in that case. Depending on how much time you spend with the kid or other factors they could become bitter toward you over the separation or be relatively okay with it as well. Or some people's kids may just be more prone to be a little extra spiteful or a little more understanding to it. I'm not sure how they want to do the kids so I don't know if they'll have their own unique personalities based on the parents or not.

There's a lot that could be done with something as difficult as that. I'd probably never use that.. but having a polyamorous relationship while in the dating stage might be fun.

I also agree that certain marriage partners should be more open to things like that than others. Not every person in the world would be okay with that so I don't think every marriageable character should.

[Guest]

Regarding the kids, if they make their goal I'm pretty sure kids will be in the game. The reason for that is, they got into the Ouya "Free The Games Fund" so if they make it their pledges will be matched by Ouya.

They made a new post on the kickstarter saying that if they make the goal, the "Free The Games" money will go toward stretch goals and will cover most of them. I know having kids was a pretty popular feature, so I'm sure it's one of the priorities...

[LeBurns]

The problem I see with adding kids is if you are going to add them, you want to do it right (no robots). The developers are already biting off a big challenge to develop as much as they can the characters that are already in the game.

Adding kids ... man that is just a whole new dimension to the game. Questions like these have to be answered:

1) More than one kid?
2) Let PC pick child's « Chicken Hugging »?
3) Pick hair color, eyes, etc. or random pick from parents?
4) Start as infant and instant grew in a year or two?
5) Normal growth where kid is an infant and toddler for years?
6) Let other couples in game have kids so there's someone for them to play with?
7) Activities for the child?
School?
9) Death?
10) As already mentioned, if divorce who gets the kid?
11) Etc. and Etc.

That's just off the top of my head without really trying. If you are developing the game and having to design each detail, kids could be a nightmare to do right. TO DO RIGHT. That's the issue. You could always make the easy robot baby, but I think you would get more backlash from that than if they were just left out at all.

You also have to try to determine the real goal of the game from the designers viewpoint. Kids could just mess everything up. If the goal is basically farming and romance, then kids do not need to be included. If they are, I wouldn't care either way ... but I would want them done right. I've played enough games with robot kids.

[daikiraikimi]

The problem I see with adding kids is if you are going to add them, you want to do it right (no robots). The developers are already biting off a big challenge to develop as much as they can the characters that are already in the game...

That's true-- but they don't have to do it all at once. One of the awesome parts of Wild Season being on the computer is that they can add patches with more content later on.

For instance, maybe when the game is released your kid is permanently a little kid. But maybe later on the decide to do an expansion, which could update to your already existing game (keeping your save file in tact) that allows the kid to grow older.

Oh man, this is a pipe dream and I realize that-- but what if instead of releasing "Wild Season 2" they just added an expansion patch that allowed your kid to grow up, and aged all the folks in town. (And if there weren't enough babies to make the new set of datable characters, some folks would move in from the city.) That would be extremely cool. O.O Might not be practical at all, but I can dream! One town, developing as time went on, the company making new characters, buildings, and plot points in each update... *drool*