Fantasy Farming - Orange Season

[Hudell]

Edit: The information here is about an older version of the game and isn't true anymore.

Thanks for playing it!

I now have a pretty good idea of what people go through when they first play it.

Grammar mistakes should've all been fixed with today's update thanks to user culai03, who read through all messages on the game.

I'll add tutorials and fix gamepad support within a week.

 

[Culai03]

Well, I have't fixed all of it. I'm still looking through to make sure I didn't miss anything.\

If you notice any other mistakes, please PM me and I'll fix it.

 

[Makio-Kuta]

This is certainly a well executed farming simulation - one that’s very faithful to it’s Harvest Moon inspirations. However that I found hurt it just as much as it helped it.

When making a clone of something, it’s nice to try to bring some new elements to the table, but this game followed the style almost identically. Especially early on I found myself asking, ‘why am I playing this when I could be playing Harvest Moon?’ It might be nice to shake things up from the genre a bit, add some new gameplay elements that separates the game from rest and allows it to stand out.

Putting that aside though, I’ll talk about the game itself, starting with controls. I was really happy to see there was a way to customize your controls. While the ‘A, S, D’ system was fine, not being able to use ‘Spacebar’ for confirm continually confused me! So I’m glad there was a way to add it. Switch out your A and S tools is a bit cumbersome (unless I missed an easier way to do it: D to open the menu, pick what you want, press Z, pick which hands) that’s a lot of keys if you want to switch tools often. These style games you like to be able to optimize your time, so it might be good to find a shorter way to do this. (or fill me in if there is one and I was just missing it!)

The movement controls felt clunky to me. Eventually I narrowed that down to the fact that pressing the arrow key makes the character turn before it makes them walk. I never really got used to this even after two hours of playing. But, I can see where that sort of command system would be useful during farming. (I don’t know if there’s a way to disable it when you are off of the farm?)

The people around town were amusing. They never had too much to say, but it was enough to get a glimpse of what they are like and how they all play off one another. It made talking to everyone fun, just trying to piece together what hairbrain event of the day had occurred. ((I have to wonder, is there anyway to actually talk to everyone in town? There’s a lot of NPCs that I can’t seem to talk to, and a few whose names are ‘ERROR’ and stuff.)) A map or a way to be reminded who lives where would be nice though!

I’m not sure if the game has had any solid beta testing done, but there’s quite a few easy little errors to catch and fix. Like I said before, there are a few NPCs who give Error as their name or dialogue is error codes. You can open doors if you are standing in front of them and press ‘enter’ even if you are not looking at them. (this causes the character to open the door and then walk away from it to enter the building! That gave me a good chuckle, and I’ll admit I started doing that on purpose everywhere) For some reason, talking to some NPCs seems to turn off the autorun.

Visually this game is very nice looking. The maps can be a bit empty or too large at times, but that’s nitpicking. The hud is nice and clear and easy to follow, and the same can be said about the menu! The music is fitting - presentation wise, this game is turning out very nice! It’s certainly one of the nicer looking (and feeling) Harvest Moon inspired games. I really look forward to where it goes in later builds to see how it all comes together and what other systems are in store. (and what that large map to the northwest of my farm is!!)

Keep up the good work! I’ll certainly be looking forward to the next update.

 

PS. The teleport back to your house from the menu is REALLY AWESOME <3 (and I'm curious how to interact with my dog?)

 

[Hudell]

Edit: The information here is about an older version of the game and isn't true anymore.

Thanks for the review!

I've been doing a lot of features that already exists on previous harvest moon games, but I have a lot of new stuff planned too.

I hadn't realized the spacebar wasn't assigned to confirm by default, I'll fix that. There actually are easier ways to change your equips:

If you hold something on your hands and you press the "use" button, you get a few options: "equip" and "keep" are two of them. "Keep" could be better named, but it will put the item back on your backpack.

If you want to unequip a tool, you can hold the L or R button (Pg up or Pg down) and press that equip button. So L + A and L + S will unequip the tools while L + D will put the item you're holding back on your backpack.

To equip something when there's nothing equiped, simply press that slot button (A, S, or D) and a quick window will open.

This is only explained on the launcher's settings. I still have to put this information inside the game.

NPC's called ERROR were fixed a couple of days ago. There shouldn't be any of them anymore.

The movement delay seemed like a good idea at first, but I realize now that it wasn't, even though it helps a lot when you are farming. On the latest update (released yesterday), I've changed it so the delay is only there when you're near your plants. I'll improve it even further in the next update to try and guess if you are farming or just passing by.

I didn't know about the problem with the doors, but it makes sense. I'll fix it soon.

I've seen the autorun disable itself before and I don't know how it happened, but I changed it on the last update and it may or may not have fixed the issue.

There're currently only two interactions with your dog: Taking him for a walk (use a collar on him) and playing ball (equip and use the ball standing 2~4 tiles away from him)

I'm curious about what version were you playing. 0.13.6 and up should be quite stable, while 0.13 and 0.13.2 had a lot of problems for english speaking players.

And thanks again for the review

 

[Makio-Kuta]

Ah, I don't have the collar or the ball yet, that explains why I couldn't do anything with my dog.

I downloaded the game from the website yesterday. I downloaded the "for Windows" one not the launcher. Next time I load up the game, I'll screenshot which NPCs were giving me ERROR for their name. They were both in the same house.

I remember for certain that autorun turned off after I got the free chicken from... Olivia? (was that her name?) well, the chicken lady. For some reason losing autorun after that event sticks in my memory. This isn't a terrible thing, as it's easy to turn it back on, it was just strange - since I'm not sure what would be changing the characters speed in a dialogue based event.

I must have downloaded it just before the movement delay change! That's good to hear you've modified that though.

Thanks for the tips about the tools! And I'm, again, very interested to see what sort of other systems you'll be rolling out further down the line

 

[Sato1999]

Where can i download the portuguese version?

Well, my natural language is the same as your so i can play it.

 

[Hudell]

Where can i download the portuguese version?

Well, my natural language is the same as your so i can play it.

The portuguese site is orangeseason.com.br

But you can change the language on the installer even if you download from the english site

 

[Clord]

The story premise reminds of those "labor camps" kind of.


Basically, if you don't get educated for your country and get a job, it is a labor camp for you.


I check this game out.

 

[Clord]

Okay, it has been enough days so I can post again on this thread since nobody else bothered to reply in a meantime.


Well, here's my "review."


First off, I like business themed games where you run your own company. Since game is still under development, I don't really go to "negative" points of it.


So let's focus on what I actually liked about the game.


Town is nice and well enough detailed. Main character meets people who know the said protagonist and are full of exposure to give you a clue of basics of the story. They also don't lock their doors at night and town custom seems to be instead tell "good night" instead of question why you entered their house past midnight.


My character was flat broke until I got a chicken quest and suddenly I had a lot of money. I went and named chickens Chicken, A and B. Then I wandered off as the game told that chickens somehow takes no maintenance which makes my farm quite damn advanced (or maybe there are gnomes or something like that working from shadows.)


I found out that farm related maps are quite bare and simple compared to most maps in the game but that is probably due it is not done yet. Also intro that you can skip before it would begin also had this small problem of showing you in real-time how characters walk all the way into my character's farm. Some music to that scene and things to happen around them as they walk would make that a good scene.

 

[Hudell]

Edit: The information here is about an older version of the game and isn't true anymore.

Actually, the doors should have been locked at night. Most of them, at least.

And yeah, I still have a lot of stuff to add to the farm as I develop the game, so there's a lot of empty space.

Chickens require no maintenance because I've not made their food system yet.

And I still have a lot of stuff to change on the intro scene.

Thanks for playing it!

 

[Clord]

Yeah they lock their door but usually people lock their doors at evening.

 

[Hudell]

Edit: The information here is about an older version of the game and isn't true anymore.

It's been two months since the last game version. I've never kept it on the same version for so long, so there'll be a new update next weekend. This update will bring:

* New town;

* Farm fields is now five times bigger;

* Gamepad support;

* Farm system improvements;

* NPCs will now walk around town on time based paths;

* Improved tools will have stronger effects;

* Improvements on the player movement;

* You can now jump down from places in any direction;

* Created an option to skip some long dialogues;

* You can now save anywhere;

* Improvements on the kitchen and restaurant systems;

* New tool: Hammer. You can use it to break rocks and to clear a tilled soil;

* Seed level system: If you keep sowing the same kind of seed, you'll be able to harvest more products from it;

* You can now declare your love for an NPC;

Meanwhile, the game website was redesigned: www.orangeseasongame.com

There's also this new facebook page for the game, only for english content (the previous page is for portuguese content)

The portuguese and english website were integrated and will now show a single download counter. And that counter just hit 2.000 earlier today!

There's also a lot of new screenshots on both websites and facebook pages. Check them out!

And finally, thank you all for playing my game.

 

[Culai03]

Yes! A new update! And a big one!

 

[Hudell]

The game update is now live!

If you already have the game, just hit the update button on the game launcher. If you don't have it, you can download it here: http://orangeseasongame.com

 

[Hudell]

Edit: The information here is about an older version of the game and isn't true anymore.

Today, Orange Season is exactly 6 months old!
First of all, I want to thank everyone who played it. I certainly wouldn't have made it this far without your feedback.

Now, there's a new update for the game available for download: v0.15.
With this update, Orange Season now uses Effectus Performance Enhancer. On my tests, Effectus managed to increase the game FPS up to 7 times what it was with the previous anti-lag script. It can even keep a full farm over 50 FPS (I used to have less than 10 FPS in this situation).
This change may bring a few visual bugs due to some kind of incompatibility, but if I see anything, I'll fix them asap. And I don't think there'll be any game breaking bug because of it.

There's a few more things in this version.

First, there's all the stuff from update 0.14.2:

• The ability to invite NPCs to the party;
• The ability to take animals for a walk;
• You can choose if you want to keep animals inside or outside the barn;
• They won't eat the barn's food if you leave them outside;
• Animal's position won't be reset everytime you enter the farm anymore;
• Option to propose and date with NPCs;

And a little more:

• A lot of new characters. 17 are completely new and 5 just weren't there on version 0.14. Although some of the new ones don't really have any conversation yet.
• Credits screen;
• New opening;
• Simple tutorials;
• Party members can now participate in conversations;

Now that Orange Season is 6 months old, It'll start to change at a different pace. Instead of adding new features, I'll add more content to the existing ones.
Over the month of April I want to create a lot of new quests and conversations. I'll also add the festivals and minigames now.

And once again, thank you all for playing it.

 

[KanaX]

I have to admit that this specific genre of games has never been my area of expertise (unless Don't Starve can be included).

Nevertheless, from start to finish, I never stopped having a slight smile on my face.

Orange Season is basically a farming game, with an attention to detail and complexity that we rarely see in most RM games.

Our protagonist moved from Orange Town to a more rural area. After a small introduction, the world is open for you to explore, with little restrictions (except the Demo barriers, of course).

Your goal is basically to sustain yourself by farming, maintaining livestock, buying and selling goods and enhancing your tools and means. There are multiple seasons with multiple properties and multiple

weather effects that help, or hinder your progress. Outside basic survival, the protagonist can interact with the many NPCs of the huge area, learn more about the town, farming, their everyday life, cold pizza, etc. etc.

• The graphics, while plain, are colorful and well placed into the map.
• The music is soothing, happy and fitting to the theme of the game.
• The HUD system is beautiful, relatively well developed and convenient. No vanilla menus, graphics and sounds in general.
• There are a great many things to do, even in the premises of the demo.
• There are hints of a possible plot development, beyond the boundaries of the introduction. For lore freaks like me, this is delicious.
• Many NPCs with a lot to say. Even if the game is a "farming simulator", most of their personalities have a little something interesting, amusing, or cute.
• The basic farming is an easy concept to understand and it will make you want to invest time in it.
• There are some incredible details! From the fact that the protagonist cannot run when he's tired, to the weather forecast, you'll definitely see some small, but amazing touches that make the whole difference in quality between this and other games.
• A HUGE area to explore. Even in the demo.

However, as minute as they are, I noticed some things that may cause a detriment to the good experience of the player:

• In the intro cutscene in saw one of the cows having its head on the roof of the barn they where living in (because they overpass the classic 32x32 graphic size limit). Nothing special though!
• While the jump feature over a simple obstacle is fun, it can be a wee bit annoying when you are doing farm work. I'd think that players would have a happy trigger finger with the controls, spamming directions and the "A" button to work the field, to do it as fast as possible. When the actor comes in contact with the obstacle though, he/she will jump over it, perhaps even multiple times. This "method breaking" is gonna make the most neurotic players lose patience. Believe me I have seen some of those. It's not pretty, they mash the buttons like they want to just get over with the experience and when something goes wrong they just want to punch the screen, or ragequit.
• On the topic of obstacle jumping, right after the removal of the weeds or breaking of the rocks, there's still a time window where the player can  jump over the obstacle, even though it's gone.
• You should have a limit, as to how much "cooked and eaten" water can restore your vitality. Otherwise you are going to have some people just abusing the system.
• While interesting and cute, I felt the need to see some characters work around their houses and move in general (excluding the streets of course). I could make some spritesheets for you with people working on a farm, eating apples, drinking, exercising, etc.
• I appreciate games that are open and leave you to find out their secrets on your own, I really do! But I think the player might need a bit more help at the beginning. Perhaps a more full inventory, or more money and ABSOLUTELY a quick introduction to the town's shops. The new player won't know where to go, for what need. This is where trial-and-error will happen so you shouldn't be too unforgiving. I couldn't find the seed selling shop at first, so I blew all of my (very little) money on food. Then, I had to make do with the 3 initial seeds the protagonist had for 5-6 days! I was quite literally stuck in poverty and famine (because I bought 6 apples)
• Speaking to characters to find hints about the town, or farming is a precious little treasure hunt. But learning which seeds grow better in what season, is not something you should learn through random NPC interaction. That piece of knowledge, along with others, belong in books (library, or home) or very stable NPCs, so that the player can run back to them, if he/she faces any problems. Have random NPCs focus on more obscure tricks!
• Same thing goes for the initial button instructions (C spammers)
• You shouldn't have NPCs talk bad about cold pizza. It's a very sensitive matter. Cold pizza is the best pizza.

Overall

A true work of high quality. No bugs, clean, enjoyable and perhaps addicting to some. It would be a mind blowing experience to those that enjoy the genre, but I also HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who is having a bad day and need a little joyful distraction. In every aspect it is above the average game and it may even excel. The previously stated issues are literally nothing to the potential entertainment the game will bring to you. Try it! And you'll see that you'll have a little smile too.

 

[Hudell]

Edit: The information here is about an older version of the game and isn't true anymore.

Hey Kanax, thanks for the review!

I'll change the jump feature to only jump over rocks/weeds/plants when you're dashing, so the character will stop jumping "on it's own". I also fixed the problem that would let you jump over an object you just destroyed. And the cow with the head on the roof too.

About the water: I'll add a cooking minigame at some point, so even drinking some water would require a little effort. I imagine people won't abuse it as much then. And I'll change the "Cook and eat" string to "Prepare and eat/drink", differentiating foods and drinks, so it'll make more sense.

About characters moving around: Some characters already walk on the street, but configuring their routines requires a lot of time, so I've only done it for a few characters for now. Inside their houses I hadn't really thought about making them walk. I'll add this to the list. I didn't do any sprite edit yet because I would need a lot of time to make it properly.

I appreciate games that are open and leave you to find out their secrets on your own, I really do! But I think the player might need a bit more help at the beginning. Perhaps a more full inventory, or more money and ABSOLUTELY a quick introduction to the town's shops. The new player won't know where to go, for what need. This is where trial-and-error will happen so you shouldn't be too unforgiving. I couldn't find the seed selling shop at first, so I blew all of my (very little) money on food. Then, I had to make do with the 3 initial seeds the protagonist had for 5-6 days! I was quite literally stuck in poverty and famine (because I bought 6 apples)

I see where you are coming from, but I'm still not sure about how much help I'll give to the player at the beginning. I think one of the reasons I enjoyed my first Harvest Moon so much was that I didn't really understand most of what was going on and made a lot of mistakes (I didn't speak english at the time), but always managed to move on. That game even had an NPC that would go to your farm on day 2 and try to convince you to spend all your money on useless apples. It's amusing that you bought exactly the same thing!

But you made me realize that I need to explain one thing: There are many ways to make money and get back on your feet even if you waste all your initial money: Currently, you can pick oranges on the forest and sell them at the market. You also have a high chance to get a few coins everytime you break a stone and, if you wander around, you may find a shovel and a pickaxe. Those two items can let you make a lot of money on the cave and on the mine. After a few days there's a quest for a fishing rod and a quest for an axe, both items can help you make money too. You can also get a free chicken when meeting the bird lady for the first time.

• Speaking to characters to find hints about the town, or farming is a precious little treasure hunt. But learning which seeds grow better in what season, is not something you should learn through random NPC interaction. That piece of knowledge, along with others, belong in books (library, or home) or very stable NPCs, so that the player can run back to them, if he/she faces any problems. Have random NPCs focus on more obscure tricks!

You can always get information about seeds with Mary. She knows everything there's to know about seeds. I don't remember adding any pice of information about seeds on another NPC, but I'll check. I also want to add this information to the library at some point, but I want to create a book system for that first.

Same thing goes for the initial button instructions (C spammers)

Instructions can be re-read as many times as needed during the tutorial. But I'll add an option to access it again after the game is already running.

You shouldn't have NPCs talk bad about cold pizza. It's a very sensitive matter. Cold pizza is the best pizza.

Unfortunately, some NPCs haven't realized this yet :/

There are hints of a possible plot development, beyond the boundaries of the introduction. For lore freaks like me, this is delicious.

There will be many short stories involving the NPCs, but those will begin and end within a week at most. I'm still not sure about doing any bigger story on the game.

Well, thank you again for playing the game. I'm glad you enjoyed it .

 

[KanaX]

Some characters already walk on the street

Yeah I know that and I noticed that their move route is customized! I was referring to the rest, those who are in the houses.

But you made me realize that I need to explain one thing: There are many ways to make money and get back on your feet even if you waste all your initial money

Now THIS I didn't know. If I knew that, it would make it much easier.

You can always get information about seeds with Mary.

Perhaps I met Mary on the street. Does she have a custom move route? Then I again, I didn't know who Mary is (as all the new players). I would say to you that you should make it easier for the player to understand where Mary is and why is she important, but since you can make money easier with other means (and the player knows it) let them explore a little to find her!

But I'll add an option to access it again after the game is already running.

That's what I meant.

I'm still not sure about doing any bigger story on the game.

It's not needed. It's not what the game is about. I just didn't think I'd see those little sub-stories (and the woman who said that she knows the protagonist came here as a punishment). I really want to find out what happened back in Orange Town.

 

[Hudell]

Edit: The information here is about an older version of the game and isn't true anymore.

Perhaps I met Mary on the street. Does she have a custom move route? Then I again, I didn't know who Mary is (as all the new players). I would say to you that you should make it easier for the player to understand where Mary is and why is she important, but since you can make money easier with other means (and the player knows it) let them explore a little to find her!

She does! She stays near the flowers in the morning and then walks to the square, where she meets with two other girls to go to the restaurant near noon. After that, they all go back to their homes.

It's not needed. It's not what the game is about. I just didn't think I'd see those little sub-stories (and the woman who said that she knows the protagonist came here as a punishment). I really want to find out what happened back in Orange Town.

Oh, Amy. One of my favorite characters, there'll be a lot of mysteries around her.

And Orange Town is the rural area where the player is now. He came from the city. The explanation of what happened is on the first post on this thread.

 

[literarygoth]

Okay, I've taken the time to start playing this. I'm afraid of getting so hooked that I stop working on my own game!

Seriously, you have a real gem here. I'm a huge huge fan of the Harvest Moon series.

I didn't get the chance to play too much, but here's my review so far:

- Animated title screen! Very well done, and the music fits the scene perfectly. It's happy, bright, and upbeat. This game also looks super cute.

- The basic intro was good, but I think it would have been good to point at the main shops.

- Speaking of shops, I did have a bit of a hard time figuring out who sold seeds. I'd recommend putting signs outside the shops that advertises what they sell. This is mostly for the new players.

- The mapping is great! It's a little too symmetrical but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The visuals are well balanced and pleasing.

- I really like that the player turns before walking, this makes watering crops much easier, but takes a bit of getting used to when you're just wanting to walk around.

- I really like that you put a basic interaction on everything (in the player house, at least), dev's that pay attention to detail are my favorite ^-^

- a little background information on your character would be nice. Why am I inheriting grandpa's farm? What happened? Is it well maintained or has it been left sitting?

I didn't get that far into the game, but I can already tell you've put a lot of work into developing this. I don't have many complaints aside from the water being too square, it looks unnatural and is a bit off-putting to the eyes.

Otherwise, I really look forward to watching this progress! I'm definitely following this.

Cheers!,

~Lit