Rootbound

[Joy]

Mike,I need you to keep an eye on my condo for a while.
I just got a call, mom is in the hospital. I need to take care of her
farm and my little sister until she recovers, I'm not sure how long...
Sorry about all this,
Theresa

Story

You take on the role of Theresa, a self-made businesswoman living the urban dream. She has a condo downtown, a successful business and a lively social life. All of that has to be put on hold, however, when her mother falls ill and someone must step up to take care of the family farm. Despite never wishing to return to her childhood home, she is the only person who can keep the farm going until the matriarch can return. Adding to the family's troubles, is the tension between her and her young sister, Isabelle.

Theresa must try to keep the farm's finances afloat while seeing to all the daily troubles that a small family farm can throw at her. As if that weren't difficult enough, she must also once again become a part of her hometown community and rekindle old friendships if she is to succeed.



Screenshots
Not much here yet...we'll see more soon!

Crops

Plus 16 more field and vineyard crops and 15 orchard crops to discover and unlock!

Animals

Features

Most of these are still in development.

48 crops to plant, including large scale crops such as corn and wheat, orchard trees and vineyard crops.
Cooking system to put those farm fresh ingredients to use.
Plenty of hobbies to fill your time between planting and harvesting, including beekeeping, canning, fishing, cheesmaking, brewing and fungiculture!
Raise Cows, Chickens, Sheep and Pigs
Complex personal interactions that truly affect gameplay
Equip five utensils to have everything you need right at hand
Seasons, weather and festivals galore!
A grown up story, examining the trials and values of family. Most importantly the story examines the relationship between a mother and daughter, the value of second chances and the difficulties in doing the right thing.



Credits Thus Far

Graphical:
Celiana - Lunarea - neko - Soruve - Ayene - Ying - Mack - BenBen

Help Wanted

I can handle all of the graphical, story, database and eventing workload, but I desperately need a team scripter. This game requires several custom scripts, and for it to flow smoothly, I can't just pick up a handful of scripts from other makers, modify them to purpose and make it work as fluidly as this sort of game will require. I will make a request thread in a few days detailing all of the main scripts I require, but I figured I'd not hit the ground begging!

I currently have all of the main story and crop/livestock/secondary products data all worked out, and am about 70% towards completion of graphical resources, so this is not some new endeavor I am going to abandon. I want this game complete, and will put any scripting work to good use, giving the community a grownup harvest moon style game.

Please shoot me a PM if you have the time and desire to lend a hand, I would appreciate any help immensely!

 

[Levi]

Welcome!

This game sounds awesome!!

By the way... are you the tile-set artist?

 

[Joy]

I did several edits, but all of the root tiles came from others, in the posted screenie, about 60% are Celiana's, and the house bits are a combination of Xp tiles and BenBen's edits. I'll have to look in my notebook to see who did the well also..

 

[Indinera]

Looks very pretty!

 

[SolarGale]

Looks very pretty!

You can say that again, wow! It really is looking great there joy, good luck with the project, and hope you find the scripter you're looking for. :3

 

[mlogan]

Looks fantastic! Can't wait to play it!

 

[Reverie Raven]

Yay, another Harvest Moon game in development! This one looks like it has a lot of depth, though, and I'm really looking forward to it.

I hope that you can find a scripter soon!

Also, do you think you'll be posting any information on the cast in the near future? I'd love to hear more :3

Good luck!

~ Matty

 

[Joy]

Now that I finished the last few bonus crop data, I'm going to start work on nailing down town locations and associated NPCS, so...soon! I may not have graphics for a little while, but I can at least add some text bios. I will be having an element of courtship to the game, so there will be suitors!

 

[Reverie Raven]

S-s-suitors...? : Now I'm even more excited to see what you've got in store for us!

 

[Joy]

Thought I'd post a couple WIP images here as well, Since this is getting such a warm response!

The first draft of the farm, I need to re-do the map and rearrange the buildings. I decided to add some features after I did this that will require map space (mushroom house, orchard, beehives, ect) and I also want to rearrange the pasture and large fields.At this point you can't see the central large field plot from the main yard, that's no good! (spoiler cause...big)

Spoiler

Also some custom sprite work, making a tractor! Need to do up and down movement bases and the wheels still:

 

[Reverie Raven]

Wow I am really loving that farmland, and that's the first draft of it? Hnnng. It's beautiful.

And that tractor is great too!

From the sounds of it, there'll be a lot to keep you busy throughout the day, especially if you add all the other stuff you want to. Would you have to upgrade at all to get all that good stuff or do you actually start with everything? Just curious!

 

[Norstad]

You can tell a lot of love has been put into this work. Kudos to you.

 

[Joy]

Wow I am really loving that farmland, and that's the first draft of it? Hnnng. It's beautiful.

And that tractor is great too!

From the sounds of it, there'll be a lot to keep you busy throughout the day, especially if you add all the other stuff you want to. Would you have to upgrade at all to get all that good stuff or do you actually start with everything? Just curious!

You'll start out just with the basic, hand tooled field, maaaybe the orchard and livestock possibilities. You'll also be able to cook and do basic canning from the start, and a basic fishing pole is fairly cheap to aqquire early on. The larger field is unlocked later (your sister has the key to the machine shed and won't give it to you at first, gotta earn her trust), and the beehives, mushroom house, brewing kit, advanced canning, and cheesemaking kit are unlockable later either through quests, purchasing or a combination of both. Also, any crops beyond what is on the image up there are either time unlocked or quest unlocked.

I wanted to make sure to not overwhelm the player with too many options at first, and the incentive of adding these bonus features will drive interactions with your family and townspeople.

Norstad: Thank you! It is a labor of love. I spent most of my free time as a child on my gramma's small farm, I also have a huge love for sustainable farming, cooking and brewing, and I have a degree in biology, so the ecology of traditional farming is fascinating to me!

 

[T.Bit]

So basically, a Harvest Moon style game for a more adult crowd. I love it. Your tiles all seem to mesh fairly well and the farmhouse is gorgeous.

I have one question for you though: Do we get to drive the tractor? *insert hopeful optimism*

 

[Joy]

Thanks!

Well, still working on the specifics, I don't know yet if I will have it so that you directly control the tractor or simply proc a "drivin' the tractor around" scene when you access the large fields.

 

[vociferocity]

hnngh this game is so pretty and awesome-sounding! I hope this project goes well

 

[Jaide]

Holy cow, I cannot wait for this. :3 I love your use of the graphics. Where did you get that pig?

 

[Joy]

Holy cow, I cannot wait for this. :3 I love your use of the graphics. Where did you get that pig?

Thank you!

The pig just comes from XP's RTP graphics actually.

 

[Joy]

Just a post to say I have not given up on this project, I'm just a bit limited on what I can do until I get a scripter on board and know from working with them what is actually feasible. I desperately need a scripter willing to give me a hand and make this more than some buggy, generic mess. I know a farm system is being worked on in VXACE, and I'm not against switching dev to ace, but I really need an onboard scripter and preferably a system more customized to the specific needs of this game. Shoot me a PM if you're interested in joining as a teammember.

Some eye candy:

The house! This is the fully upgraded house interior.

Bees! Also compost pile and mushroom hut.

Four of the five plot types. Regular field, raised beds, vineyard and orchard. Still WIP, need to tweak shadows and whatnot.

 

[mlogan]

Still looks incredible!  I wish I knew more about scripting to help but I don't.  Have you posted in classifieds?  The help needed part might get more notice there.