Steam News10 January 20251y ago

Greenfeet Haven Dev Report - Happy new year 2025!

Hello, dear Greenfeet friends! May the grass be soft under your steps! Here's the development progress for the past month. This is a synthesis of my weekly blog posts.

Full notes

Full Greenfeet Haven update

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Repeated intro

Hello, dear Greenfeet friends! May the grass be soft under your steps!

What changed

0 fixes3 additions4 changes0 removals

Gameplay
Server

changedFuel SystemCampfires now consume items tagged as "flammable." Of course, some items are more desirable than others. Generally, you'd prefer to burn a log, but in desperate times, why not burn a wooden plank or even a wooden statue?

addedAuto ToolsThanks to playtest feedback, it became clear that the tool system was too complex to use. Manually managing equipment required too much micro-management and was hard for new players to grasp. What's more frustrating than a tree left uncut while the axe is lying right next to it?

addedUser Experience and ReadabilityTo make the game more readable and accessible, many small improvements have been added.

changedUser Experience and ReadabilityFor example, the menu has been redesigned to be more hierarchical and organized.

addedUser Experience and ReadabilityA new job evaluator has been implemented to clearly explain why a task cannot be completed by any Greenfeet. For example, it might be due to the lack of a necessary tool or the task being unreachable.

changedWhat's Next?I'm now fully focused on producing a public demo for the game. The deadline has been set to mid-february for a demo candidate, and it should be publicly available in march. You can already gain access to the game in its current alpha state : simply join the Discord server and follow the instructions there.

Greenfeet Haven changes

changedCampfires now consume items tagged as "flammable." Of course, some items are more desirable than others. Generally, you'd prefer to burn a log, but in desperate times, why not burn a wooden plank or even a wooden statue?

addedThanks to playtest feedback, it became clear that the tool system was too complex to use. Manually managing equipment required too much micro-management and was hard for new players to grasp. What's more frustrating than a tree left uncut while the axe is lying right next to it?

addedTo make the game more readable and accessible, many small improvements have been added.

changedFor example, the menu has been redesigned to be more hierarchical and organized.

addedA new job evaluator has been implemented to clearly explain why a task cannot be completed by any Greenfeet. For example, it might be due to the lack of a necessary tool or the task being unreachable.

Here's the development progress for the past month. This is a synthesis of my weekly blog posts.

Fuel System

Campfires now consume items tagged as "flammable." Of course, some items are more desirable than others. Generally, you'd prefer to burn a log, but in desperate times, why not burn a wooden plank or even a wooden statue?

Auto Tools

Thanks to playtest feedback, it became clear that the tool system was too complex to use. Manually managing equipment required too much micro-management and was hard for new players to grasp. What's more frustrating than a tree left uncut while the axe is lying right next to it?

Now, the Greenfeet will automatically equip themselves with the best tools for the tasks at hand. You can still specialize workers by setting restrictions: for instance, preventing a lumberjack from using a pickaxe.

User Experience and Readability

To make the game more readable and accessible, many small improvements have been added.

For example, the menu has been redesigned to be more hierarchical and organized.

The "Cut" and "Harvest" commands have been merged into a single "Gather" command to avoid accidentally destroying plants. Cutting down a bush instead of simply picking its berries happened way too often.

A new job evaluator has been implemented to clearly explain why a task cannot be completed by any Greenfeet. For example, it might be due to the lack of a necessary tool or the task being unreachable.

What's Next?

I'm now fully focused on producing a public demo for the game. The deadline has been set to mid-february for a demo candidate, and it should be publicly available in march. You can already gain access to the game in its current alpha state: simply join the Discord server and follow the instructions there.

Stay tuned for more updates, and don't forget to wishlist Greenfeet Haven on Steam!

Source

Steam News / 10 January 2025

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