The Farm

Started by Funkpanzer, Thu 04/02/2016 19:33:22

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Funkpanzer



A gothic comedy tragedy set in 14th century France.

When Nicole's father takes ill she begins working for the De Fosse family on a neighbouring farm. There she is reacquainted with her childhood friend, Cecille de Fosse, and the rest of Cecille's family. Over the next few days Nicole's presence begins to have an effect on the De Fosse family, for better or for worse.


This started as a MAGS entry and quickly turned into a short passion project. While the story hasn't changed, the final release allows a lot more of Nicole's experience to develop, and gives the player more control over how they interact with the world.

One important element that has been expanded on is Nicole's morality. Depending on how you react to events, the members of the De Fosse family will begin to treat you differently. I don't want to get too much into how this plays out, but even though it's subtle, I think it adds a lot to the story. Nicole and Cecille's relationship was also meant to be at the forefront of the game and is now less vague. That is probably my biggest regret in releasing an unfinished version of the game. :~(


Features
  • Approx. 40 minutes to complete the main storyline
  • Branching storyline
  • 30 minutes of original music
  • Full voice acting

For those who know how the story goes or who don't mind being spoiled, here is a bit more on the game design.
Spoiler

The Farm operates under the philosophy that no matter what, we cannot change our fate, and the decisions we make along the way are merely affectations. No matter what Nicole does to earn the respect of Alaiz, or save her father, events play out in the exact same way. I have been thinking a lot about games in terms of how they represent time, especially in regards to death and permanence. You can play this game and simply let things happen, chose at random etc. or you can react directly to the environment.

These decisions are especially apparent in dialogue. Here is a mock-up of the first set of branches you will encounter speaking with Cecille over the first two days.


These branches will also be affected by how you decide to handle certain situations, and what order you inspect certain items. The fact that things always play out the same is definitely a limitation imposed by me and my ability to make games, but it's also the framework most of the games we play operate under. With this short excerpt, I hope to address this limitation, even if in some small way.

I know this is a simple adventure game, and the concept of morality in games is nothing new, but I hope it's a start for me to explore some broader concepts in my future projects. I also hope this shit is fun to play!
[close]
June 16th, 2016
- Completed music for the 1st act
- Nicole's base animations completed
- Main storyline completed

February 4th, 2016
- Moved game from AGS 3.3.4 to 3.3.5
- Improved UI
- Added dynamic cursor to make navigation and hotspots more obvious
- Expanded background art to fill screen width.
- Added three additional rooms, missing from MAGS version.
- Added walk speed setting to options menu.


You are obviously free to try the MAGS release of the game but as it is barely complete, I would recommend waiting for at least a beta. :)

Funkpanzer



Small update with a new main area, and final character art!



Things are steady and slow as I'm still mapping out the dialogue trees before I start implementing them.

Mandle

As a HUGE fan of the original MAGS entry, I'm soooo excited to see you continue to expand and develop this project!

Best of luck!!!

Rocchinator

Man I love your Art. Your games have that amazing pixel art. Taking notes on your technique if you don't mind. Congrats :smiley:

selmiak

sweet.
Still haven't beaten the collect the groceries puzzle in the mags game. stupid old lady not liking my soup!

Cassiebsg

This is looking so sweet Funkpanzer! (nod)
Am so looking forward to replay this one!

Good luck with the project.

selmiak... you do know that we have a hints & tips section with a thread devoted to this game, right? ;) Of course, if you rather have the satisfaction of beating the game on our own... good luck! (nod)
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

Mandle

Quote from: Cassiebsg on Thu 11/02/2016 08:10:48
selmiak... you do know that we have a hints & tips section with a thread devoted to this game, right? ;) Of course, if you rather have the satisfaction of beating the game on our own... good luck! (nod)

Not to mention that the game tells you everything that's in the soup if you just pay attention...Or does selmy-welmy need a "modern game" fetch-quest checklist of ingredients?! Waaaaaah....Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!

Spoiler
Hahahaha....just being an ass for once....Hey! It suits me!
[close]

selmiak

I fear I need an autoplay mode :P

Funkpanzer

Thanks for the kind words. I keep peeking in the Hint thread and taking notes. I'm hoping the added line work and detail to the backgrounds makes the hotspots a bit more obvious, and the text easier on the eyes. :)

@Rocchinator: I've been reading articles written by AGS members to get a feel for making pixel art to scale (as opposed to resizing larger digital or scanned images) that really helped. Every single one says the same thing about figuring out your light sources first and having that drilled into my brain has helped immensely.

The Journeys Down and Inside Backdrop Art from @theo, and How we make our graphics from @abstauber.

Rocchinator

Wow thanks! I'm trying to imporve my technnique and im thinking in redoing some of my backgrounds, make it more detailed. thanks again :smiley::smiley:

Funkpanzer

Nicole's home got a drafty update!



Progress is slow and steady, with a lot of time going into implementing new puzzles and locations. The dialogue trees are finally starting to take shape and the effect your choices have on the game world, while subtle, are starting to feel worthwhile! :cheesy:

Cassiebsg

Oh goody! Thanks for the update, it's looking nicely drafty in the for sure. (nod)
Was actually thinking about this game today while at work, wondering if you were still around working on it.

Glad you are!
keep up the good work!
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

shaun9991

Beautiful, really inspiring stuff. Loved the MAGS entry, cant wait for the full version! :)
Support Cloak and Dagger Games on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=460039

Funkpanzer

Been MIA for a while and wanted to share some progress so here is some new music to frolic to!

Hide & Seek (loop)

If anyone's curious about the instrumentation, I'm trying to find a balance between acoustic and electronic instrumentation to reflect the pixelart. It's a bit cheesy at times but I'm hoping that the game being short might help ease you into embracing it over the course of a playthrough... (laugh)

ThreeOhFour

This looks so good! :cheesy:

Matti

I thought I already commented on this one ???

I think the artwork is gorgeous, totally in my taste! Good luck with finishing the game, I'm really looking forward to it.

Cassiebsg

Oh neat, some info and happy to know you still working on this! (nod)
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

gameboy

The graphics are beautiful! Definitely looking forward to it.


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