New and wanting to make a farming game

[Sakutama]

Hi everyone!


I just joined up! I am here because I have an idea for a farming game that I REALLY want to bring to life. I have no programing skills at-all, so I'm hoping RPG maker will help me where my skills are lacking. I can create the graphics and music, I just cant put it together. I would like to create something similar to Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, but with a twist.


I plan on purchasing RPG Maker in the very near future, but I'm not sure which version I should buy. Also, I wouldn't even know where to begin to make a farming game. Are there farming starter kits you can customize? Will I need to learn a little coding?


I hope its ok to ask all my questions on this forum as I find my way trying to make this little dream come true. Thank you for your time!

 

[Cadh20000]

Welcome to the group!

Sorry, I don't know much about making a farming game, but I do know that there are quite a few people around here that do so a little searching on the site should help a lot. The search bar is near the top of any page on the site.

 

[Rikifive]

Hello!


There are some people working on farming games ~ there are even some scripts available. Knowing how to code would help a lot ~ but perhaps tons of events would work as well. ^^


Good luck and welcome to the herd! (=

 

[Zortik]

Heya, welcome to the forums.


Since you're completely unfamiliar with the program I would strongly encourage you to make 1 or two very very short throw away games (5 - 30 minutes in length). A project of this scale can still take a hundred + hours (and that's not even counting rework as you learn the tool, making your own resources, making your own database, etc.)


There are a number of tutorials (including a farming one) here in the forums and I'll provide you a link. The farming one is a higher level tutorial than one for beginners though, so that's why I encourage you to make some short games.


http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/forum/123-tutorials/


Good luck

 

[Sakutama]

Hello everyone! Thank you very much for taking the time to reply to a newbie like me.  


Yes I'm sorry, I'm completely new, but you guys are helping me find my way. Thank you for being patience with me! I'm sure you get newbies all the time. 


I didn't realize the farming games were an advanced form of game creation on RPG maker, I'll take your advice and try creating something easier first. I think I was just overly exited about being able to create a game at all, thank you for the reality check!


Out of curiosity, would a more simple game involving multiple choice questions and answers be a good newbie project? One of my core ideas is to create a fun game that also teaches Japanese at the same time. I wanted to plug this into a farming game with a story I have in mind, but now I understand it would probably be better to try something less complicated first. Could someone new like me create a simple adventure game where the only way to progress is to learn little snip its of Japanese that you can collect in a little in-game book? Or something of that nature? It would probably be a great game to work on as a pre-runner to the farming game I'm dreaming of.


In all honestly, I wish I could code myself. And I'd love to learn someday. It's just one of those things I'm terrible at, like math and science. My strong points are more towards art and music, so I'll be able to create those with little hassle. But I hope learning coding is something I can do down the road when I find the right person to hold my hand through the process until I finally get it.


Thanks everyone! 

 

[Andar]

If you have not decided which maker to use, then I think your basic options (for different advantages) are either Ace or MV.


Ace is older and (especially on a sale) a lot cheaper than MV - you can get it at sales with 80%-90% off on steam several times a year if you're willing to wait. The second advantage is that it has (due to its age) already a big list of scripts available to use, and in the shop the "Rural Farm Tiles" would be perfect for a farming game.


MV is newer and doesn't have a specific farming add-on yet, but it is the only maker that can deploy to other operating systems than Windows and use larger screens than 640x480 (which is the maximum for Ace), and you can expect that farming plugins and tiles will be added over the next one or two years.

 

[Cadh20000]

Out of curiosity, would a more simple game involving multiple choice questions and answers be a good newbie project? One of my core ideas is to create a fun game that also teaches Japanese at the same time. I wanted to plug this into a farming game with a story I have in mind, but now I understand it would probably be better to try something less complicated first. Could someone new like me create a simple adventure game where the only way to progress is to learn little snip its of Japanese that you can collect in a little in-game book? Or something of that nature? It would probably be a great game to work on as a pre-runner to the farming game I'm dreaming of.

Yeah, something like that should be fairly easy. Good to start out with. There are a few different ways to go about making that book, personally I'd take a more artistic approach rather than a technical one and use different images for the pages with switches and variables telling what ones to use, but that would also make it larger since the image files would have to be included. The more technical method that would result in a smaller file would involve a single blank page image and overlaying that with text that changes depending on what they player has "learned". Unfortunately I'm not quite sure how to go about doing it, though if I take the time to try a few different things I could probably figure it out without too much trouble...

 

[Zortik]

@Sakutama


That seems like a perfectly fine way to use the engine. Before you start freehand, try and look over the tutorial section that was linked to you. (A direct link to a very good start tutorial can be found in Andar's signature). Watching a few youtube videos will be helpful as well.


Outside of those, start off with trying to make a few maps


A village (3-5 houses)


Inside the houses of the village


1 or 2 explorable spots (single maps) right outside the village.


Then you'll be on to using events to populate those maps (moving between them, NPCs, tinting the screen, etc.)


and each event will have their own workings.


Just keep it very simple. Even the game your proposing now has the potential of becoming very grand in scope. Scope creep is the biggest enemy of any game developer and it's particularly brutal on the indie/amateur side of the fence.


Instead of teaching japanese. What if each japanese word/phrase was how spells were learned? And the main character wanted to learn magic. Then limit what they learn to something to pass a test at school (3 or 4 spells maximum). Even a simple project like this can create gameplay that lasts for 10-60 minutes. On the other side of the coin you can spend a LOT of time putting it all together.


If you look at the recent thread for Birthday Bash entries you'll see some commentary for how much time people have put into creating a game that lasts at least 15 minutes. My project is only about 20 minutes long but I spent around 50+ hours on it. And none of that time was brainstorming the concept since it was already something near and dear to me. I also skipped a LOT of corners with database work and map/pathing with the style I took. I could've easily doubled or tripled that time for the same amount of gameplay.


I'm at risk of rambling now though. Best of luck!

 

[Henryetha]

Hi Saku ^-^


Maybe you like this video of a Farming Tutorial!


Have fun making your game & Greetings :3

 

[Sakutama]

Hi again everyone! Again, thank you so much for your thoughts on my project! I appreciate it a lot! 


I will learn my way around the software by making mini games like you suggested, and also follow some tutorials. When I feel more comfortable with the software, and can work my way around coding, I'll make an attempt at my Japanese farming game idea.


I think you are really onto something Zortik. I haven't elaborated on all the details I have in mind for my game, but I think you could already see how grand in scope it could be. I imagine the player starting out with basic greetings, which would unlock a tutor who visits and teaches you a snip it about Japanese that gets saved in a book. You'll need to farm and get money to pay for your tuition, and to buy seeds and other basics. Along the way every vocabulary word you learn is saved in a book alphabetically that you can reference later. It will take some patience, but you'll eventually memorize the words to save the trouble of looking them up each time to understand the NCPs. And you'll need to understand them, because they will sell you seeds, upgrade your farming equipment, or be your characters future husband or wife. Also, the plants, fish, and items will be in their Japanese names.  I'd also like to plug in a bit of culture, teaching things about Japanese life. And maybe a splash of fantastical elements like finding a kappa in a pond, for example. I have many many more idea details, but I won't bore you with the, all.


The idea came to me from my own personal frustrations learning Japanese. I suddenly had the idea that it would be great if there was a farming game that you could gradually learn Japnese on. Like a simulation of trying to do real life things - like mail a letter, go to the doctor, go on a date, buy food, all sorts of things that people often do in Harvest Moon games. It won't teach you the whole language, but it might teach you enough to function on a basic level, which is what I really need.


But you like you said Zortik, I really need to get to the basics first. To be honest, my idea is so ambitious, I'm worried if I'll even be able to make it. But I'm so in love with all my ideas and the basic story I've come up with that I'm willing to work towards it.