Harvest moon style farming sim tutorial?

As stated above, i want to find a tutorial for a farming game in the vein of the harvest moon franchise.

3D with sprites preferred, but anything that teaches from the basics to the actual features of flowing time and the plants growing and harvesting etc.

i have tried to search google and the unity asset store but keep finding facebook game styled games.

please help me out.

 

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Like any programming task, the first step should be to break the project down into smaller parts. This not only gives you a way to plan the project, but it makes it more approachable and in this case, easier to search for more relevant results.

So to do a Harvest Moon-like game, you'd need:

• Tile-based landscape
• Modification of landscape with various tools
• Plantable/growable/collectible resources
• NPCs of various types (humans, animals, optional cave gnomes)
• Dialog system
• Shop system for buying/selling items
• Day/Night Cycle
• Calendar Progression (Day of week, seasons)
• Much much more

When you look at it that way, it's easy to see that Harvest Moon isn't as simple a game as it first appears. That shouldn't discourage you, though. Instead, try playing the game while thinking of its systems at play. Consider what the most important elements are, or how to simplify some of those systems, and start there. When you have something in place, add a new system.

It's also pretty obvious from that short list that a lot of these systems depend on each other. For example, NPC behavior during different times of day, or plant growth over time. So while you're building, make sure you keep things clean and maintainable, as you'll be extending each code file over and over again.

And of course, if all of this seems overwhelming because you're just starting out, it would be wise to put this idea on hold for the short-term and make sure you hit up the tutorials.

 

i know full well that a HM style game wont be all that simple.

and i really should have thought of breaking it down into smaller points.

is there any good tutorials you know of that would make good starting points of this style of game?
if i can make something i can run around in and interact with objects ill be able to use that as a starting platform.
then its just adding in elements.

the tutorials section is pretty daunting.

another issue is i want it to be a 3d world, but i want there to be sprite based elements in it for characters and other objects.

 

Learning anything new is always a bit overwhelming at first. That shouldn't discourage you from attempting it, though. Learning using the official tutorials (which goes piece by piece, starting from the very basics) will be way less daunting than some tutorial that just jumped right into what you're asking for.

I don't want to come off as belittling or anything, but I think you're trying to start at Step 10 here, when you should be considering Step 1 still. It's going to be very difficult to make the game you're thinking of without understanding the fundamentals pretty well, and while it's possible to make a game without knowing how to write code, to pull of what you're talking about you'd have to learn the ins-and-outs of something like Playmaker really well, which is in itself a daunting task.

Also, consider it a good thing that there are no tutorials to make the game you want to make... If there were, the market would be flooded with HM clones!

 

ill definitely be giving some of the tutorial projects a go,

the tutorial im after doesnt even need to be close to harvest moon.

im mainly after a tutorial that shows how to set up a level where you can run about and interact with things, just like a basic RPG type deal.
Even if its just making a box slide about and talking to other box's and picking up things.
I have been looking for the last 4 hours, and have come up with nothing.

its frustrating to the point where im losing confidence and maybe just giving up, but i really dont want to.


i could probably do something with the 2D stuff, but i want a 3D world.

 

Again, programming is all just breaking things down into smaller parts. Think about a player character talking to an NPC. What does that look like at its most basic level?

1. Player is detected near NPC
2. Prompt for dialog is shown
3. Player pressed button
4. Text is displayed on screen
5. Player presented with dialog options
6. Player selects option
7. Text is displayed on screen
8. Dialog is over, text cleared
9. Player resumes normal play

This lets you search for specific tasks you'll need to code like "How to detect when objects near each other" or "How to get player input" or "How to display text on screen".

Additionally, each of those tasks is pretty elementary and are covered in some form in the tutorials.

 

so there is tutorials for what i need but its all in small pieces that ill need to assemble myself.

well if thats the case, when it finally get something that behaves the way i want it may be worth my time to make my own tutorial for others to use.

i have always been someone who learns best from following along tutorials so thats why i was after a step by step.

hell i learned most of my action script 2 back in highschool from downloading demo projects off of learning sites and reverse engineering them.

i took a basic platformer that demonstrated gravity simulation and half turned it into a kirby game, i had health pickups, death zones, enemies that hurt you, health bars and even a level select stage.

i was trying to do the same here, get a tutorial on how to set up my foundations then expand on it into what i wanted.

But i guess ill need to adjust my style, maybe just use the roll a ball as my foundations.

Another question for you, in terms of the C# code ill most likely be using how clear is it just from reading the code handles is it as to what you can do with it?

will i be able to find certain code types by searching key words to find one that behaves how i want?

 

You might checkout my book Unity in Action. There isn't a tutorial about Harvest Moon in it, but the projects do work up to a generic action RPG framework (click to move, pickup items, move between levels, etc) that you could then customize into your specific game.

 

Your book sounds cool, but its way out of my price range for learning materials.

too many other expenses to justify that outlay at this stage to the missus.

 

@Okottekoneko @Okotte-estudio Are you still working on this?

 

I've been working on a Framework that addresses most of the issues you mentioned:
Maybe you will find it interesting: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/rpg-farming-kit-121080

I can also say that these kind of games are certainly not very easy to make, a lot of overlapping systems are required to get the results. Time affects crops, energy etc. But also NPCs. And then you have to save those states as well. It can become messy very easily. That's why I've decided to challenge myself by making a kit.

 

@Lowscope This looks like a complete Stardew Valley knock-off. I mean, even the sprites look like you just ripped them from the original, or copied them one to one. Highly questionable that something like that is even on the assetstore in my opinion.

 

I know this post is a bit old, but if anyone is reading this and is looking for a Unity template to create a Farm game, you can check this:

It's a new template just released this month, based on a previous asset I made (Survival Engine), but reworked for a new genre by adjusting mechanics and adding soil plowing, plant watering, livestock animals, growable fruit trees, merchants (sell/buy) and much more. People on my Discord group seem to enjoy it a lot. Here is the package link:

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/systems/farming-engine-191881