A Day in the Life of an Indie Game Developer
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- čas přidán 21. 07. 2024
- Devlog video about "Homegrown", a casual farming game I'm creating using my own engine.
Support the channel on Patreon and get access to the code for this game and the city-builder:
/ thinmatrix
My previous game "Equilinox":
store.steampowered.com/app/85...
You can follow the progress of the game on my social media:
Twitter: / thinmatrix
Instagram: / thinmatrix
Facebook: / thinmatrix
Trello: trello.com/b/W3zkIJTM/farm
Email: thinmatrix@gmail.com
Background music by Jamal Green:
open.spotify.com/artist/50jTM...
Outro music by Dannek Studio:
/ dannekstudio
#devlog #Homegrown - Hry
As a dev, I liked that small insight into the code and class implementations! Would be up to see more of that in future.
I agree with this, I remember your tutorials from back in the day. It's always nice to gain some insight into how the tech actually works.
Agree, it's the most interesting part. I'm always urged to scroll around a little.
Agreed!
I have to ask, how do you line up the monitor camera transitions so well XD? Is it really just holding the camera precariously at an angle that lines up the monitor bezels and then moving it out? So well done.
Haha thanks, I'm glad you like them. Mostly it's done during editing - I just expand and rotate the camera footage so that it matches perfectly with the screen footage at the moment of transition, and then add an animation to slowly undo those changes in the few seconds after. But having the camera reasonably well lined up with the monitor helps as well.
THANK YOU for having asked ! The answer is a obvious and clever as I never thought about it ! ...I will keep the idea, thanks to our host, and thanks to you !
@@newf_gg1230 probably a translation error
@@newf_gg1230 host is referring to the channel owner.
You motivated me to start being more orderly, to have plants and to eat healthier. I really like your routine and I'm trying to improve mine as well. Soon I will also enter patreot. I really appreciate what you are doing.
That's awesome ^^
@@ThinMatrix can you add something to equilinox son I mean it have bin yers since last time
I love these calm, relaxing devlogs! Keep it up! :DD
Thanks!
I feel like enjoying your healthy daily routine, more than the coding part XD. I like how you mix designing, modeling, coding and life style content in your dev logs, great content !
This game feels way better to me now that you've chilled out the tool usage. A really good and subtle change to the vibe.
Great update! Love your focus on the little details that ensure this game will be a relaxing experience for players. On an unrelated note, I look forward to the day when I can eat dinner without my puppy needing to go in the crate :P
You could also start a cooking channel. Your food looks incredible delicious!
I’d very much like to watch that, I’m just a mess at cooking right now and could definitely use some nice soft spoken guidance!
this is an amazing idea lol
Your videos are such a treat to watch. Always excited when a new one is posted. Keep up the good work! The game is really coming along nicely!
Thank you! :)
Your meals look divine. 😋😋
The game is progressing nicely.
Always enjoy seeing you post again and again since you're basically the og game dev vlogger that started the genre lol
I like how Dwarf Fortress implemented the "clicks" on sections of the land - you select a rectangle (which you can then edit by adding or removing the sections) and after you submit the selected area, it is put in the queue so that when the dwarves are available, they will come and do something about that selected area. Until then the area is just there, in the queue, nothing really happens to it. And you can remove it from the queue anytime you want.
Loved the update. I really enjoy seeing your whole routine, I feel that life bleeds into the things we create and vice versa. Thanks for giving us a window into that!
That Curry looked amazing
really nice video. its always relaxing and inspiring watching your dev logs! something that i would love to see more of though is more showcase and explanation of the actual code. thats always interesting :)
For the digging clicking issue, I would suggest making it so that if you hold Shift + click you can drag a rectangle across a section of land. However, the time it would take to do each cell individually is added together and you need to hold down the mouse button for that long.
It is important for your player to not get bored and I can imagine that having to hold down on every single cell can get fairly boring after a while.
I think contents like yours is the main point of the CZcams and best part of it.It does what social media contents must do.You're one of the bests.Keep on this way.❤❤
I am already getting really excited to play the game! Brilliant solution with making interactable objects; definitely will make the whole game feel very fluid! Keep up the great work!
Thank you! :)
Loving your game dev journey. Your videos are always so relaxing and emphasize the importance of living a well balanced work-life which can be especially hard as a game dev! Thank you!
I've been watching your day in the life of videos for years, and I have always loved them. You're exactly how I wish I was day to day as a stay at home dev, so productive! haha
You're making me want to start vlogging about my day as well, not because I want to share them with anyone but because it seems like a great way to hold yourself accountable and reflect on how you're spending your time. Great inspiration :)
Its been a real pleasure to watch the progress over the years. its impressive that you are making games using your own engine made in Java. That's not an easy task. hope you are doing well
Love your vids , probably my favourite cooking channel on CZcams! I joke of course I really enjoy your Dev vlogs, they are so nicely paced. I hope you're doing well these days too
Love your content. Cant wait to play the game. I open Equilinox from time to time and leave it open in one of my monitor, it give me an odly satisfying ASMR.
Loved it! Thx ThinMatrix! Great Content!
Love your videos! The new tool behavior seems a lot better
Thanks!
It would be great to perhaps see a short video on how you manage your Trello boards, I'm always curious on how others use the tool.
These videos are really cozy feeling
I'm not a developer (yet), but I'm somehow always drawn to your videos. They are so relaxing ☺
holyshit your still active xD i was indiedeveloper+ a few years back nice to see your channel still up lol
Loving the look and feeling of the game, It's so cute :3
Keep up the good work!
Not only is this man a good dev, hes also a good cook... your dinner at the end made me so hungry haha. Keep up the amazing work
Your devlogs are always so cute
man the transitions are awesome :D
It would be awesome to see events in the game like rainy days or drought days.
OOOh that transition at 5:28 was sooo smooth!
Great to see you improve the farming to have multiple spades and whatnot!
Nice video as always. Maybe you could make a farmer model that does the actions you do - like when you dig, the farmer goes to that tile and a dig action commences. I also think that having to wait till you finish digging each square is still a very tedious thing to do. Maybe you could click and drag and select an area, and it takes time to dig that whole area rather than tile by tile. Maybe some shovels can dig in bigger areas faster than others. Nice work though!
Was literally about to comment the same thing!
Thanks for the feedback! I get what you mean, but it's just not the sort of feel I'm going for here. I want the player to player to feel like they're doing the gardening themselves, rather than assigning it to be done. Think how farming works in Minecraft or Stardew Valley for example, rather than in more of a simulation game.
Perhaps it's the 3rd person camera or lack of character that makes it feel like it should be a simulation game - I'm still thinking about changing that. But I am fairly set on having the farming work this way.
After watching a little more, maybe it could be cool to make this mechanic a late game feature - A tractor or a piece of larger equpiment where you draw out the plot of land by clicking and dragging and it gets on with it as you do other things :)
@@ThinMatrix Maybe you could make a farmer model that does the actions you do - like when you dig, the farmer goes to that tile and a dig action commences.
@@ashleyedwards9523 Yes I agree with that, and that's the direction I plan to go in. As you progress through the game you can invest in making aspects of farming more efficient. To start with that would just be getting faster tools with larger areas of effect, and then later there will be some possibilities for automation, such as sprinklers for watering and things like that. To start with you'll only be able to look after a small garden - but later in the game with improved tools and some methods of automation you'll be able to efficiently farm a much larger area.
Good to see a new video from u
Your office look amazing!
Feel like I was having a jog and came across someone’s dream house.
You're a legend for creating your own game engine, solo, in 2022!
It would be great to see how you are working with version planning etc. Great videos - they are always inspiration for me to work on my project :D
It's crazy how much work you fit in a day, I'd burn out very quickly if I tried to be that efficient
Mate where do you get your cooking recipes? I am literally drooling over the food you are making.
Good advice the multi selection!
This is starting to look pretty promising, looking forward to playing it myself.
Great video. I Love the focus on a relaxing experience. There should be more games like this 🧘🏽also, your lunch/dinner looks really good 😋
Thanks Falco ^^
Looking forward to your next one. A fun addition to your game would be adding some unpredictable events. For example: weather events. Rain (can overwater plants, ruin compost that is not covered, fill well for watering, wash out weed whackers), wind (can damage certain crops, damage compost cover), hot weather (some crops benefit, others don't, dries water faster), seasonal events (seasonal crops). Maybe introduction of a greenhouse (since you are working on rendering - include transparency) with open/close interaction on objects. Include daytime with day & night mode (optional speed increase with buttons) and, if its not an overkill, real growth scale.
Keep up the good work :)
Rufus seems so happy :)
Small suggestion that also works with your current system.
It would be nice if you could use dragging with a key to define a area and then hold the mouse when it started digging and it slowly digs out the entire area.
Reduces mouse movements too, and allows easier planning since most of your plots will be most likely rectangular in the first place.
And the addition of making tools decide the actions instead of reverse sound like a good idea.
Cool dev log.
When watering plants, you definitively could leave your tile concept and apply watering depending on the coverage from the watering can onto the tiles.
The maths for this would just be linear formulas: deltaWater = max(0,1-2*abs(tileCenterX-mouseX)) *max(0,1-2*abs(tileCenterY-mouseY)) * flowRate
Moving away from the tile based approach would completely change the game though. For example certain plants could probably need different amounts/frequency of watering to grow well. So making it harder to water specific tiles a certain amount would be frustrating more than anything.
@@Ash_18037 I don't think so. You just need to have the plant info tab open while watering them, and then could water until they are perfectly happy.
I am not thinking of an x seconds operation here, but one where the duration is completely user controlled.
As a fellow game dev CZcamsr, I think your editing is amazing!
Thanks! :)
was already missing ur vids
Can't Wait for the next one :)
You should check out Anno 1800. It has one of the most sophisticated systems in terms of tile placements. The way Anno 1800 implemented tile placement using drag and drop (for example farm fields or building streets), is borderline perfect. Everything feels so natural and intuitive. It makes it incredibly comfortable and efficient to play.
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out!
Loving it! :D
Don't know if its on your planned todo already but if you're still wanting to reduce the amount of clicks it could be nice if some of the tools on the hotbar can be assigned number keys so you don't have to constantly go back to it everytime you want to swap tool, eitherway really nice watching all this come together!
Thanks, and yeah, I'll be implementing hotkeys soon :)
WE NEED MORE RUFUS :CCCC
greate video as always!
Amazing video. What a dream life
Wow, that was very smooth. 5:28
you can use a dragging system similar to the city builder game where the user can highlight the area of land they want to carry out an action on, it can still take a certain minimum time but i thinks its a nice balance between gameplay convenience and speed.
So an idea: You can buy and place a water tap (or there could just be one on the house). On this you can attach hoses of different lengths and diameters. You can right click to pick the hose up and left click to water the plants. As an extension you could maybe even attach a garden water sprinkler to it. The thing is that the hose is limited in range so the length would limit how far you can get with the mouse.
This would require quite some programing so probably a feature creep at this stage, but thought it would be cool!
I like that idea a lot and it's something I've already been considering :) It's on my ideas list but, as you mentioned, it's definitely something for much further down the line.
I can't believe literally no one is talking about how satisfying Nice tutorials voice softs.
Nice progress! Love how the game has a very simple game loop that you can build on. Do you plan on having multiple locations, such as a shop or another farm, or do you want it to just revolve around the one farm? Also, is the economy going to be a simple as this or will you think about dynamic features such as weather, season, or supply/demand curves. Not trying to rush you, just wanting to see how far you think this game can go?
Thanks! Currently I plan for there to be one other location which will be the town where all the shops are. You'll go there to sell your produce and buy new tools and equipment for your farm. I'm also considering that there could be a farmer's market in the town area once a week, but that's definitely something for much further down the line.
I don't think the economy will be too complex, but I could certainly imagine having some sort of price fluctuations which could be based on seasons or supply/demand. Would make the decision of what crops to grow a bit more interesting and dynamic.
As you mentioned, it's a very simple core game loop but I think that the possibilities for adding more content and complexity to the game are almost endless. I can definitely see myself initially releasing the game perhaps next year with a decent amount of content, but then continuing to update it and add more content for a long time after that.
You should really make a cook book of some sort because every time you cook it makes me hungry cuz of how delicious is looks and I would love to try some of those recipes myself xD
Didn't know you also watch Better Call Saul, glad to see you're a man of culture :P
Here's a suggestion! As you click and hold your mouse to carry out an action, you can already start dragging over all the tiles you wish to perform that action on. It would then automatically do them one by one in order unless you let your mouse button go in the middle of it.
I have an idea that would probably make digging for example more satisfying:
Make a 3d shovel appear and do a basic animation while you are digging
I agree and it's something I actually already have on my ideas list. I like the idea in theory but it would certainly give me more work to do as the developer - for a start for every tool I'd need to make a 3D model and at least one animation (right now I just need to make an icon for each tool). Certainly do-able, but I'd like to keep things simple for now. I'll keep it in mind though!
@@ThinMatrix I know it's extra work and it may not be worth the effort.
When I make games I have to admit I almost always go the easy route and only do basic particles for effects
And hopefully you are able to finish this game without feeling burnt out by the end
7:17 about the compost heap:
I might have missed this in an earlier video, but why do you need to "start" the composting at all? Shouldn't it just convert constantly (at a certain rate) if you give it plant matter? The real life example would be that you add compostable matter at the top and remove compost soil from the bottom. At least that's how the compost heap at my home worked.
It was more an issue of how to show that in the game - I want the player to be able to look at the compost heap and instantly see how much compost/plant matter is in there, or how long they'll have to wait for it to be compost. I wasn't sure how to do that with both plant matter and compost in the same heap; and not just that but also some sections of the plant matter would then be closer to becoming compost than others. For simplicity's sake I decided to clearly separate these different states.
Thinking about it a bit more...perhaps with a cube-shaped compost bin it would be doable - then you'd be able to see the multiple layers from the side (one layer for every time you added a load of plant matter to the bin) and I could just vary the colour to show how far decomposed each layer is. But I don't know how I'd do that with the current compost heap model - I don't think layers would look very natural there.
I like how you solved the shovel clicking "issue" for players, but one thing that stood out was how buying a better shovel means you can do 2x2 area quick, would it be a possibility to have the range be changeable? So you can use the best shovel to dig a 1x1 quicker, feels like having to go back to an old tool just dig a single square might get a bit annoying.
Also the transition when watering a tile is so satisfying! :D
That's a very good point, I think that would make a lot of sense. Perhaps I'll make it so that pressing shift cycles through the available ranges for that tool. Thanks!
@@ThinMatrix Yeah maybe shift! Or if it's not in use the scroll wheel perhaps? Keeps all tool usage on the mouse that way! :)
@@GamesBySaul Hmm, I'd prefer scroll wheel but that's currently used for zooming the camera in and out. I'll have to think about it!
@@ThinMatrix ah! Yeah that makes sense, I mean it's one of those things, play around see what feels good when you play and doesn't feel like you have to do too much :) !
Hello i have a small idea for the mouse action instead of keep hovering at each tile to do action, you can let player select an area and this area will take the 1 tile action time * area tiles, so for example if 1 tile takes 1 sec to dig in it, an area of 10 tiles will take (Number of tiles) * 1 sec, because in my pov clicking each tile might be boring when making a big land.
Btw your game is amazing and you give me motivation to work on my game.
Thanks
I notice with the large shovel that it takes just as long to dig out 2 squares as it does to dig out all 4. might be a nice QoL change to make a smaller dig take less time.
I would love if you shared your recipes with us. I always want to cook them, they seem so delicious
Dream setup 😍
you’re also a better call saul fan? haha that’s one of my favorite shows! also i love your dogs name, i know most people think rufus is a basic dog name but i always loved the name rufus for a dog! such a cute lad too 😊
AN IDEA;
You can add boulders to randomly generate in the field that needs a pickaxe to be removed. It would stop the player from planting crops on that land until the boulder is removed using a pickaxe. The item that can be obtained from the boulder can be stone and the player can sell it in the market place.
Id love if rather than holding over a tile, that you could drag and select an area to get worked on, release to start the work.
Then you can have a certain time to completion per tool and plant depending on tool quality and plant type.
I think that would yield in a better UX.
Thanks for the feedback! I get what you mean, but it's just not the sort of feel I'm going for here. I want the player to player to feel like they're doing the work themselves, rather than assigning it to be done. Think how farming works in Minecraft or Stardew Valley for example, rather than in more of a simulation game.
Perhaps it's the 3rd person camera or lack of character that makes it feel like it should be a simulation game - I'm still thinking about changing that. But I am fairly set on having the farming work this way.
@@ThinMatrix i think the problem with the current implementation is that actually just clicking takes no time, so the timer feels very artificial. Stardew valley avoids this with prolonged animations, to hide the timer. Hiding the timer from the user seems like a pretty crucial ingredient.
@@azyrael96 I completely agree with that - as I mentioned I'm planning on adding many more visual and sound effects to the actions so that they feel more real. With enough visual cues that would remove the current need to show the progress bar.
@@ThinMatrix Gotcha, yes that would more be the game working than you working, a different feel for sure!
man, for the tools, you should do selection areas, like in strategy games, you just select a tile, drag until you cover all the tiles you want to work on, and once you lift the click, all the tiles are worked (they still take time, but the ones you wanna work on are selected)
Thanks for the feedback, but I'm not really trying to create a strategy/management game here. I want the player to feel like they're doing the gardening themselves, rather than just assigning it to be done. Similar to how farming works in Minecraft or Stardew Valley, for example. Perhaps it's the lack of character or the 3rd person camera that makes it feel like it's more of a strategy game, so I'll think more about that. But I'm pretty set on this method for farming.
The idea of the game is that it's iterative - as you make more money you can reinvest it into your tools and equipment which will allow you to farm more efficiently with less effort and therefore make more money, which you reinvest. Eventually you'll be able to get some level of automation going (such as sprinklers for watering) so that you can manage a much larger farm. I think of it a bit like a Cookie Clicker game but for farming.
So cool to see you're a Better Call Saul fan as well! What do you think of the final season so far?
I think it's been fantastic! And now I'm really interested to see where they go with the final few episodes.
Nice work on those transactions from the computer screen to the camera :)
working fine thank you
we miss your tutorial videos very much and are waiting for the continuation
3:00 I think the speed of planting definitely should be increased for foster planting. 👍
Waiting with your mousecurser over a tile gets boring very fast. You could also click a drag multiple tiles and let them be dug one by one. While the tiles are being dug you can do another action.
Also actions can be canceled if you drag over them again. hope this gives you some ideas! keep it up!
The meals you cook always look incredible! I was especially interested in that curry + the homemade bread. Would love to be able to attempt some of them myself, do you follow recipes or is it all your head? If there's recipes I'd love to get my hands on them haha, it could even be a patreon reward
As usuall your videos are all worth for the wait. The new tool update is very good and I look forward to the future additions to your relaxing game. I am very excited for the new video. Oh btw just asking, is it your first time showing your face or it is just my first time seeing your face clearer at 3:21?
Thanks! And no, it's not the first time, it makes the occasional short appearance in some videos :P
@@ThinMatrix Oh maybe old videos or I just never noticed it. Tnx for clarifying because it shocked me Hahah :D
Very good video, it is always interesting to know how others devs do it.
Can you share some of the recipes you cook? They look very delicious.
Thanks a lot ;)
Maybe a reticulation system for a more end-game/advanced farm? I think it might help with a sense of progression, it's difficult for games like this to toe the line between effort put in to accomplish something and it becoming tedious. On that topic, maybe self seeding plants also
Yes, that's the plan! As you progress you can invest your money into your equipment to make farming more efficient and require less work. At first that will be you be upgrading your tools to be faster and have a larger area of effect, and later it will be investing in equipment that has aspects of automation, such as sprinklers for watering.
@@ThinMatrix sounds good! Have you considered ornamental pieces also? E.g. pretty flowers or other scenery structures which are mainly there to make the garden your own? In rollercoaster tycoon that element of the game ended up becoming one of the most popular aspects.
Looking really good!
I wonder though, if you have, say, a 4 square shovel, but you're only digging two squares, would it take half as long to dig those?
Thanks! At the moment no, it just takes the same amount of time no matter what, but perhaps it would make more sense if it worked like you said. I'll have to try it!
Maybe it would be more fun or interesting, if the factors that influence the plants health are visible on the plant. That would maybe help the immersion and make caring for plants more interesting (I don't really know how that would actually work). I really appreciate you devlogs and you allways motivate me to work on own projects. Thank you :)
Lovely update! Do you come up with recipes yourself for what to eat, or where do you find inspiration for recipes? I want to eat healthier but I find it difficult to find new healthy recipes.
loved this video, nice to see progress, your lovely dog and also nice to see you eating some real food in this age of fast food rubbish.
yo! What is the font called? It looks awesome
(love your devlogs and equilinox, how relaxing it is btw)
I think you should make a short series on cooking that great looking food. XD
Will we get tractors and other machinery like that? Or will it be strictly "home grown" and hand made ? Love the progress so far, regards from a fellow game dev :)
The gradual watering effect on the tiles is a nice visual QOL change, but there is a sort of strange edge case that happens now if a player moves away from a tile before completely watering it. I'm assuming that the tile sort of shows becoming watered and then pops back to being dry after the player mouses away. I wonder if it would just be nicer to show the level of wetness for a tile, or group of tiles, with the watering bucket tool and then you hold it down to increase the wetness of the selected tiles. This way you get the nice gradual change with a more real-life expectation of what should happen when you water something and move away.
That's not what happens; the wetness values of the tiles are actually increasing during the watering action. So if while watering you stop half way it just leaves the tile at half wetness. You can carry out the action on that tile again if you want to fully water it. So I think that's basically what you were suggesting anyway :)
@@ThinMatrix yep, that's what I was suggesting. As you were then.
For the watering: maybe you can implement a sprinkler plant to have automated watering after some amount of money.
Instead of the simple timer countdowm and a box...you could try do some small animation low poly shovel digging.... for like exactly how long the box countdown you put it.... same for other tasks...could be a nice touch
You should also have a faster shovel for only 1 tile, for the edge cases
Your code is clean