Homegrown 0.1.8 Download - Tool Update

Hey everyone!

We're slowly getting closer to the completion of version 0.2 of Homegrown - only one more update to go now! Over the last month I've been making some important changes to the way tools work in the game, plus a lot of changes to the structure of the tool system in the code to make it easier for me (and hopefully one day modders) to add new tools to the game in the future.

The big changes this update are as follows:

• Almost all actions in the game now require you to hold down the left mouse button on the relevant tile or object. When doing multiple tiles you don't need to click again on each tile - just keep the mouse button held and move the cursor to the next tile when the action is complete on the previous tile. No more constant clicking!
• Actions now take time to complete. The amount of time depends on the type of action you're doing and how good your tool is. I realize that the current lack of visual effects makes this seem slightly unintuitive at the moment, but the graphical update is coming soon and then I'll add things like particle effects and visual cracks growing on the tiles while you're digging them, for example. Then it will hopefully feel less like arbitrarily waiting for the action to complete, and more like you're actually in the process of digging the tile (think of how digging works in Minecraft, for example).
• Some objects in the world can be interacted with directly, without needing a specific tool, by right-clicking on them. Examples of this include right-clicking on the house to access your storage, or right-clicking on the compost heap to roll down the tarp to start the composting process.
• Some tools have a secondary action, which you can carry out by shift+left clicking on the relevant object/tile with the tool equipped. The only example of this in the game right now is shift-left clicking on a compost heap/bin to empty your compost bucket contents back into it.
• The inventory is now on the left side of the screen instead of along the bottom. This allowed me to increase its size without covering up more of the central part of the display (assuming the player is using a wide aspect ratio. Perhaps I'll have it switch to the bottom of the screen for cases where the display height is greater than the display width).
• The currently equipped tool is shown next to the cursor to make it a bit more obvious what tool you're currently using. You can press esc to unequip the current tool.

You can try out the game by downloading it here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FwFh8D2hZ2WUipi-AbuDhR0QwL8qvlrx/view?usp=sharing

Unzip then run the relevant jar file to launch the game. You’ll need to have Java installed on your computer for it to work.

Next up I'm working on a small update to implement different quality levels to your fruit and veg, so that healthier plants give higher quality produce which you'll be able to sell for more money. This will provide some benefit to looking after your plants properly. After that, it's the big graphical update!

Thanks as always for the support!

Karl