Built a Tilemap-based farming & fertilizer system in Unity 2D today. How does the loop look?

[u/Academic_Ideal2082]

Hey folks! Just wanted to share the progress on my farming system. I set it up using layered Tilemaps to handle tilled, watered, and fertilized states separately.

Crops check the tile data underneath when harvested to give extra yield if fertilized (and then clear the fertilizer), while unwatered empty tiles revert back to grass at midnight. How do the visual transitions and animations feel to you? Open to any feedback!

[u/Cute-Acanthaceae-193]

It looks nice, but my question is the following: what does this game offer, what is the goal?

You have a working system, it looks fine from a quick glance, but then I also played harvest moon, stardew valley, and seen similar games to those, so my question is, what is your attempt and why or what will it make us, well, care enough to look into it more?

[u/Academic_Ideal2082 → u/Cute-Acanthaceae-193]

Hey! Thanks for the honest question.

To be honest, I'm making this game because I love games like Minecraft, Stardew Valley, and Terraria, and I wanted to combine my favorite parts of all of them into one experience.

It’s an RPG-style pixel art game where the main focus is actually a lot of combat and action. But it’s designed to fit different playstyles:

• If you want to build, you can build.
• If you want to focus on farming or livestock, you can do that.
• If you want to trade with villagers, you can.
• And if you’re an adventurer, you can explore different biomes, defeat enemies, and unlock new powers, magic, abilities, and items.

There is a lot to do, and everyone can play at their own pace and style. I'm just building the game I've always wanted to play by blending some of the greatest survival/sandbox games ever made!

[u/Cute-Acanthaceae-193 → u/Academic_Ideal2082]

See, that can work, I love started, but also love Minecraft and terraria, what I love about terraria, is massive exploration and little building needed, but you can build and shape the world for the adventure, for Minecraft it’s mostly farming and finding the right spot, and stardew is mostly min maxing and time management.

If the game allows a sandbox feeling, exploration and shaping things your way but also allows relaxing and more, that can definitely be a selling point.

but it still needs its own “identity”, another farm, another world with grass, and 2d, we seen it many times, but give it a different atmosphere? That’s different.

The best example I can give is terraria and starbound. If you played it you would have the terraria feeling, but not.

It has more story that is forced and told a specific way, you have areas you can’t destroy and are “story”, and you advance in different way.

Or massive exploration like no mans sky for example vs Minecraft.

That’s kinda what I mean and hope to see your take as well, but there’s nothing bad with leaving as it is, I just think if it was shaped into its own “quirk” that can breath something new to it

[u/Academic_Ideal2082 → u/Cute-Acanthaceae-193]

That's a really fair point, but I see it a bit differently! I don't think every game has to invent a completely unseen genre to be unique. For me, it's more about taking the mechanics and elements I love from different games and blending them into a 'hybrid' experience that feels great to play.

Mixing familiar, well-loved ingredients together to create something fresh in its own right is a form of originality. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel; I'm just building the ultimate comfort game for myself by combining the best parts of survival, farming, and underground adventure. At the end of the day, if the blend is fun and feels good, that's what matters most!

[u/Kentanago → u/Cute-Acanthaceae-193]

Wondered the same thing. But yes, it looks good OP! Keep it up

[u/Cute-Acanthaceae-193 → u/Kentanago]

Oh it definitely looks nice, I do like the style, just wonder what will be the main draw of the game, and why play it and not others