The alternative UI style you were showing off looks really good! I’d switch, it looks less flat than the current UI which fits with the art style better

@Lolboy30

5 күн бұрын

you got me in the first half, i seriously thought the spiffing brit commented x)

@noafro1991

5 күн бұрын

Agreed. The darker accent UI colours really help prioritize what's what in the UI and make it stand out a bit more. I recommend switching!

@LVWattsPlays

5 күн бұрын

Agreed

@klaxoncow

5 күн бұрын

+1 on switching to the new style.

@malglove

5 күн бұрын

Totally agree! I think it better fits the art style of the other parts of the game!

One way to add a lot of personality to the shops is to have the shopkeeper visible on the side somewhere, maybe reacting when you buy something, and greeting when the menu is opened. I kinda like the current simple villager designs.

@ThinMatrix

5 күн бұрын

I'm planning on making it possible to talk to the villagers soon! Mostly to give you tips about how to use the town features if you're unsure.

@Jinado1

5 күн бұрын

@@ThinMatrix yes sort of how they do it in the Viva Pinata games! I've always found that to be kinda cute. If you haven't played any of the games yourself, you could probably find a video somewhere where someone uses a shop in a playthrough or something :P Bascially, when you unlock a new shop, the shopkeeper kind of announces themselves and when you then visit their shop for the first time they'll tell you a little about themselves and what products/services they offer. After that they'll always be visible on the side of the screen when you're browsing their catalouge and make little facial expressions or just do some silly idle animation when you're buying/scrolling.

maybe back behind the shops you could add some houses for the villagers that obviously serve no purpose to the player, but would be a nice touch to add more life back there.

@Onepiece0752

5 күн бұрын

Yup and also farmers farming❤

Nice town! As a suggestion: Wouldn't be nice to see the town evolve with player? I mean, like new shops opening as u progress and the town visually grrowing in npc numbers and infrastructure. Like, the bridge turning from a rusty wooden bridge, to a new good look and fancy bridge!

@ThinMatrix

5 күн бұрын

Thanks! And yes, I have a few plans for things like that :)

Looks great! Maybe add the possiblity to scroll through the town with scroll button aswell? Still with the fixed camera positions.

@ThinMatrix

6 күн бұрын

Thanks, good idea :)

You can add multi layer of mountain range in the background, I think that may look better as a back drop for the market place

New shop layout is cool instead of only moving left to right you could have the layout be like an upside down U. You still only have tow arrows but instead of only going right it does a turn this will make the world feel nice and connected it could even move in a L shape. The map could wrap around and see the back side of the town if you are in one spot.

@ThinMatrix

5 күн бұрын

Interesting idea, thanks for the suggestion!

The new UI does a much better job of presenting the information in a hierarchical format (e.g. big text = more important, same size text = approximately same importance). It looks so good!

Changing the camera view in the town was a good move! Someone else mentioned a similar idea, but I think it'd be really nice if the town shops become available slowly as to not overwhelm the player. Personally when playing these types of games I get very overwhelmed with areas like this until I'm more familiar with the ones I currently need. That could look like the town itself expanding, or just some way to guide the player to only the shops they need when starting out

The new UI for the shop looks better IMO. The darker background behind the item icons makes it appear differently than just an inventory of stuff that you already have. this distinction is very important for intuitive UX design

Love your updates! One suggestion: make the village area arrows closer to the center of the screen horizontally. If I don't remember where a particular shop is, I might want to click e.g. left arrow and then immediately the right one (because I realized the shop in question is not on the left), which requires me to move the mouse all the way to the right and breaks the flow. This is of course a tiny nitpick, though :)

@the-pink-hacker

5 күн бұрын

Maybe have them be on the left and right sides of thee inventory button. The part of the screen feel a little empty now that the hotbar is gone. Also, it's more noticeable that the buttons are now on the screen meaning players are more likely see that they can move left and right.

An issue with fixed positions is that the screen aspect ratio comes into play as to what you'll see in those positions. You could automatically adjust the FOV so that no matter the aspect ratio some designated safe zone is guaranteed visible. Not sure what the best solution is, just something to keep in mind with 3D menus !

@ThinMatrix

5 күн бұрын

I've already done some work on this, you can see at 8:55 when I change the window to a wide aspect ratio that the correct shops are still shown. Doesn't work so well with very narrow aspect ratios, but I'm not sure if I need to worry too much about that.

@vigorsol6534

3 күн бұрын

@@ThinMatrix I'd personally just care about aspect ratios down to 1:1 and if it gets any narrower than that the player most likely uses only half their monitor. You could lock the aspect ratio of the town to stay at 1:1, scale the size down from there on and add more sky space vertically to support weird window sizes like split screen or something. Tbh most of the UI will not work with very narrow window/screen sizes but with this at least the correct shops stay visible. Keep up the amazing work!

As I am making my own farming game, this series has been super insightful. Home grown’s success feels like my own and I am so proud to see the project getting all the love. Well deserved ❤❤

I preferred the town overview as it is much easier to navigate. With my disability, I am much more mindful of the muscle cost of moving hands on and off mouse or keyboard, which also incurs head and eye movements, and repositioning delays. The side view in town might be nice as a scroll-in option. But with a zoomed-out by default town option, I could move arrow no more than 2/3 distance from center to screen edge with a single hand movement, and click once to select a shop. That said, I do appreciate the experience of the side view, and should maybe be mandatory for unlocking shops or using foundations, etc. But the shortcut option as default would be a huge usability bonus for me.

The new design no doubt! Looks much more cozy and I feel really represents the game! Keep up the good work!

For the villagers - I think a style similar to the game 'Untitled Goose Game' could work, as it has a similar art style to Homegrown! 😄

Okay, I haven’t watched this devlog yet, but I just wanna say that every time it comes to your videos, I take my playback speed off of 2x, back to normal speed, I ask my wife if I can have some uninterrupted time to just properly sit down and focus on your videos, I love them so much 🙌🏻🎉 keep up the good work

Looks awesome. This is definitely a pre-release polishing idea but I think having the camera move inside the shop when you click on it would tie this update together very nicely and give the player more of the impression that they’re actually going shopping in the town

I like the alternate UI. Richer colors, a little darker and cozier. The inset inventory feels cozier as well.

The changes are really coming along. I love the perspective shift for the town menu. When you navigated to the "empty space" and mentioned you had some plans for that later on.... my first thought was a rotating space for community events. Certain seasons could have different events related to the growing season and you could participate with what you've grown in your garden. I'm imagining a harvest festival in the fall or a flower competition in the spring. Anyway, love what you're doing, amazing work! Looking forward to playing the game when it's released.

Your videos feel so cozy always, they are very enjoyable to watch.

What better way to end the day than watching this! Love the videos!

I like the way you designed the new town. Suggestion: After the empty spots in the shop you could return the player back to the farm. It's like you are leaving the shop and going back home

The 2nd UI design creates a visual-logical link between the particular item you're viewing in the shop as well as the rest of the shop's inventory, which I think is better.

new design for the buying UI looks a lot better. Especially the colors are awesome! Maybe you can add a minigame for in-game boosts which you can access in the town.

Yes! I’m excited for the town changes, I think it’ll add a lot more depth to the game to have some farmers markets and potentially other things to look forward to outside of the regular flow

I have total admiration and respect for how you started with an idea and managed to stick with it for so long, I keep checking on your progress since the beginning when you decided on the graphic library to pick, it was lwjgl if I remember correctly. You're fulfilling the dream of many of us.

The new town looks awesome, i wasn’t sure about the new perspective at first but now I’m sold

I am so happy when you make these vids. Love to see your progress. Keep up the good work dude!

Think it's really sad that you've restricted the town to be a side scroller - Loved the idea of a full 3D town that you could fully navigate. I get you see it as a menu, but in my head it's a perfect opp to add some personality into the game and meet NPC's - Perhaps you could haggle etc with grump shop owners! Love the dev updates! Keep it up!

@clonkex

5 күн бұрын

I disagree, I think it's much more interesting this way

5 күн бұрын

Same. I think the main issue is that the player is just an omni present entity, hence everything is just a menu. Maybe if there was an actual character following around the mouse, doing what we clicked, the 3d town center would be better. I think that is what is missing here

Great update as usual mate, thanks for making these videos I really enjoy them

The game is coming along very nicely! Thank you for sharing the process with us.

That second UI looks amazing, I think it's worth switching because it looks so much more unified and complete.

This town looks super cosy! Strech goal to have daynight cycle affect things in the town? 👀 I also think that alternate UI style is super neat, adds some contrast to the icons and the backgrounds, I'm a big fan!

I really like the larger icons on the UI more visible + contrasty and if you play with a touchscreen easier to click!

I love the new town and the different UI that you showed off. Great job, very nice work!

I liked the old town, but I understand that it probably only maked sense if you had a character to control and move around the town like in Stardew Valley

Great video as always! My only suggestion is to be able to use A and D to move through the town (in addition to arrow keys) as I typically prefer that movement, but overall great work!

@ThinMatrix

5 күн бұрын

Thanks! And that is already possible :)

@DannySmoka

5 күн бұрын

@@ThinMatrix Might I also suggest being able to move through the town with the scroll wheel. It would improve mouse-only gameplay.

I love the new town and the alternative UI design too! Well done man 👌

The amount of progress since I last watched one of the devlogs, I wish I would make as much progress xp

I really like your new UI design, feels chunky and comfy!

That new town looks amazing! You're so good at this

Hmmmm. Another idea for scrolling mechanic on the town screen, maybe add farms you can scroll to and sell some crops to other farmers for livestock, etc. Also, yea the back of the town needs some decorating if you're going to stick with the side-scrolling idea.

Really liking the town! I think the town square buildings would be more interesting if they weren't arranged in a perfectly straight line, I quite like how you broke up the repetitiveness in the other areas by angling them, having them at different distances from the camera and so on

Very pleasant to follow this new step. As usual !

That shop UI is amazing, you can also make the inventory UI something like that. Also it would be great to play with a controller and maybe on consoles

The fixed positions are a cool idea. Reminds me of Myst. Such a cute game you’re making.

Nice upgrade. I like a bit more the new UI, is more colorful and the other is kinda plane. Also, I think that it could be nice if the shops were more unique, like with different silhouettes and colors. Like the seed shop could be a greenhouse and the tool shop could be like a shed. I really like your videos. Have a nice day!

Looking good!!

Yes!!! I love your gameplay logs!!!

Looking really amazing so far.

Its so great to see how far this game has come!

love the ui changes and new town is so good

the UI you were messing with I think reads way better. the contrast allows the icons to pop more with the dark background :)

For the shop UI, I prefer the one with the scrolling wheel. Seeing everything in one big box is a bit overwhelming. The one on the right with the smaller box and scrolling wheel felt cozier.

I think that you should go back to the former village layout for the shops, because the new "chain of shops" look a littlebit blunt. But you are right in that you should restrict camera movements. You could create a fixed cam position for each shop, where you can see a bit of the village while keeping the corresponding shop at focus. Only when you press the left or right arrow key, the cam should follow a path to switch smoothly between the fixed positions.

It's probably unfinished, but I think adding more buildings, roads, trees, villagers behind the central shop node would allow them to seem integrated in an actual town. Great videos.

If you ever add any sort of online leaderboards or the ability to visit friend's plots, that sign post on the far left would be a great "button" to do so!

New UI style looks great!

Babe wake up, thinmatrix uploaded

I like the new UI better. It has a softer, cozier field and matches the game vibe more

awesome progress friend

To be honest top down view of the town gave me a "Visiting the town" vibes. Maybe making changing to a rotating movement and placing the player at the center of the buildings would keep it. Each time you click to next button it would rotate instead of sliding. Which might keep the feeling of being inside of the town. Just an idea. Love what you are doing keep it up 👍👍

Just throwing it out there; if you're considering future plans for home grown, perhaps a restaurant as a minigame or a expansion later that would allow you to convert your farmed things into dishes for a different money making method. Just to give a little different vibe to the flow. Farm and Feed if you will.

Maybe add some "sidequests" for the homes. So that villagers give you a required amount of items necessary and give you something in return. Maybe the player doesnt have to know what he might get for resolving the quests, but will be surprised.

@DzDesignHD

5 күн бұрын

You could also add some exlusive items / seeds or something like that, that the player might get earlier by solving the quests than he would normally

HUGE TIP: Do all your UI design in Figma... my god is it wayyy better than any photoshop or ps-clone... So easy to group together assets and export all at once

The new town system is really nice, I like it! For the town center, maybe it would look even better if the buildings were row houses? Or have the gaps between buildings look more like alleyways leeding to more of the town. Right now the free standing buildings look a bit odd so perfectly lined up like that, but that might just be me.

For the town area, you could take inspiration from AgeOfEmpires3. They have a hometown implementation where you have a main view, and when 'selecting' a specific building (in aoe3 for choosing cosmetic changes), the camera zooms and moves towards that building. By that design, you don't have a 1d (left to right) horizontal town. It might give you more room to create a nice lively town

Great work, keep it up, it's great! 👍😉

I'd say the new design is better. Also think about maybe doing a dark themed UI instead, with warm grays? It's a cozy game and I really dislike when I'm chilling out and every time I open something my eyes get lasered.

The one suggestion I would make is keep the current idea but shift things out of being in a straight line. For example you could lay things out more dynamically but still have the camera flip between. Like you start on the entry screen from the farm. Then with the first click the camera goes down a curved path to the outskirts area with the upgrade shop. Then the next click goes over a hill to the town square. To switch to the restaurant area the camera could spin around to look opposite of the shops. Thin it zips off to the otherside of town for the farmers market area. I bit more work but I think this would give a more natural feel to the location and a bit of a stylistic flair rather than the camera just sliding to the left and right.

You should consider customer "quests" and maybe town challenges or rare vegetables / seasonal vegetables to add some external influence to the gameplay loop 😁

Finally!!! Took you long enough to add people to the game

Love it!

I liked the first idea more, one idea could have worked: having only two fixed camera position and you can transit between the two of them (or you could have finally add a higher places to the game and you can fit all buildings at one screen)

The Artstyle and the new town reminds me of the cartoon "Bob the builder" from the 90s and early 2000's

The new shop UI design looks great!

Fantastic work - I love the little emergent zones you're getting with the town loads of possibility for narrative / progression, perhaps the more money you put into the town, the more shops unlock, travelling traders come into town. Have you thought about a day night cycle and weather at all? Buying bamboo sticks for your plants to grow up, avoiding a strong wind event could be neat or a particular shop that only opens on the outskirts of town in the dead of night. Anyway, love the progress mate, you're an inspiration!

You've created such a cute little town!

What if you arranged the shop buildings along the circumference of a town circle? Then the camera can be placed in the middle and rotate to view different portions of the town. It would allow the player to loop through their shop options instead of moving all the way to the left and then realizing you need to go to the restaurant. It was just a thought. I'm impressed by what you're making, keep up the good work!

I am going to watch the video, but I already know it's going to be Awesome!💕💕

@MathsMyself

5 күн бұрын

It was awesome!

I'm glad you are doing well

Add a small waterfall to the right side, maybe some mountains and pine trees too

@liv919

5 күн бұрын

Great idee!

Keep up the good work! I'm happy with how far you've come. I have a suggestion: the trees seem a bit boring. Instead of clicking the rows, having the player walk around the city and buy items would be cool.

That UI that you showed really looked nice

Brilliant video bud. With the inventory in the shopping area, It may be better to have an inventory box open when you click on the shop. So you don't have to jump between windows to track what you have and need. Less clunky.

I think that the new Ui is better cause it adds a more cozy feel to the game

I think the clouds would look better as groups stark white spheres that maybe wobble a bit. Definitely could do with a more cartoony vibe.

I really like the name and thumbnail of the video, it is catchy and fun

Always wait to hear CaffeineCoder at the end feels like a tradition lol

@riwan436

5 күн бұрын

For me it's Alexander Chávez, happy to see that I'm not alone. Today, I was stressing out because his name was near the end :p

Good solid update ! The far left of Town needs to be a special events are.. if I remember you have seasons planned.. so in Dec Carrots can be sold for Snowmen for Extra profit $$, and you can but Christmas Tree collectables. in Oct Pumpkins for Halloween, special clover Spice for st Patics day and so on :)

this game is looking good!

Hide the left / right arrows when you show the inventory in the town, it seems like they will navigate the inventory

The new town is much nicer, love it. 😊

I can't wait for this!!!!!!!

You show show a navigation for the town, Icon what part of the village your are at and all the parts you can click on to move about as well.

Have you considered instead of a menu feel, a player character that you can walk left and right along the shops? I think that will help as you can fix the camera to the player and will help maintain immersion.

@ThinMatrix

5 күн бұрын

You don't have a controllable player in the home area though (and I don't plan on adding one because it doesn't fit with the gameplay) so it might feel a bit strange to have one just in the town area.

I was imagining not having a set of shops visible, but only one, with arrows on either side, using that (or the keyboard) you can scroll between the shops That also gives you the opportunity to make it more specially dedicated to a specific shop, with additional widgets on the screen that are tailored to that shop

Man I love ThinMatrix.

Great one!