Homegrown 0.6.1 - Automation!

Apologies for the delay, but the first iteration of the automation update is finally ready! This introduces sprinklers, auto-harvesters, and auto-planters to the game. You can now give it a try using the download link in the usual place. As a one off, you'll start with a bunch of machines and sprinklers already in your inventory, allowing you to experiment with them from the get-go.

Gamer Tier+ patrons can download and play Homegrown here.

And for Programmer Tier+ patrons the code is available here.

See how I implemented these features in the latest devlog.

Sprinklers

The first of the new automation features is the sprinklers, which can take care of some of the watering for you. Just place them in the middle of your beds and they'll keep nearby tiles watered for a while.

They do however still need manually refilling from time to time. In order to properly balance the sprinklers I needed them to have some manual cost associated with them otherwise they'd be too overpowered. As you progress through the game and have more money available to you, you'll be able to upgrade to better sprinklers that need refilling much less often.

Automation Machines

After the sprinklers, I implemented the automation machines. These machines can be placed along the edges of a vegetable bed, and then they have an arm that extends out along the row, processing each tile in some way. Currently there are two types of machine: auto-harvesters that harvest plants from each tile, and auto-planters that plant seeds in each tile.

This feature took me the longest implement, as it involves several different concepts. I used behaviour trees to control the machine's actions, made use of graph theory to manage connections between machines so that adjacent machines can act as a group, and implemented animations for the moving parts of the machines.

In order to function, the machines need access to a container, whether it's to dump harvested vegetables in, or take seeds from. This is where the manual labour cost of these machines comes from, as the player has to periodically manually empty or refill the containers. You will of course be able to upgrade to larger and larger container sizes, to reduce your workload even further.

Harvesters and Planters

To set up automation for a vegetable bed, you need to place the machines on the soil tiles, preferably along the edge of the bed. Make sure they're facing the right way (I'll add some indicators soon to make this more obvious). Neighboring machines will connect together to form a group. Each group needs access to one container, which currently has to be placed on a grass tile (can't be placed on paths or soil right now, sorry!)

The auto-planters will start planting once all the in-range soil tiles are empty and there are seeds available in the connected container. The auto-harvesters will set-off once all the in-range plants are fully grown, as long as there's a connected container with storage space. For now, each group can only have access to one container (look for the visible connection between container and machine to see which one is actually connected).

Admittedly, the whole system still needs a lot more work to make it more flexible and convenient to use. There's also definitely lots of balancing needed, and although I've worked through loads of edge cases there are still many more to sort out. Also I'm not too keen on how the machines look right now - they're a bit of an eye-sore - but I have plans to fix that. Overall though I see a lot of potential in this feature, and I'm excited to keep refining it!

Coming Soon...

Next up, I'll be working on adding fruit trees to the game! You may remember apple trees being in the game once before, but it's time to implement them properly this time.

I've also started paying some attention to the marketing side of things, such as setting up the Steam page, and sorting out a website, cover art, and logo. Doing that has made me realize that I need to finalize some of the in-game graphics first, so I’ll be spending some time on that over the coming weeks as well.

Thanks as always for the fantastic support!!

Karl