oh no get well soon! glad to hear you're still working on this. here's some ideas, just throwing it out there:
- I'd mainly love more variety in shapes of tracks, they don't all have to have a gimmick necessarily though they can be fun too. Like, a bit of chaos like the fire or sludge is fun, but honestly, I don't enjoy the ice one and the slot machine, because I like planning ahead a bit and kinda get into the "zen" of it, and those throw me off too much 😅
- omg the "short cut" with the spikes on the sludge level is soo hard, maybe I just suck but I rarely ever get the timing right, and when I get stuck in there the game is basically over because I can't accelerate fast enough.
- The visuals could also be themed more strongly, maybe different crops in different levels (just visually) like wheat, turnips, potatos, idk), some more distinct colour schemes
- I'm not quite sure if I understand how the neighbour bonuses on the billboards etc work. is the thing itself stronger when the neighbour is there? or does it make the neighbour stronger? maybe some visual feedback, like a little "crop up!" symbol appearing when I place the barn next to the haystacks or whatever.
- if you want to make it more complicated: different crops with seperate prices, bugs and you have to spray insecticide (but maybe the crowd hates it xD), farm animals (cows, sheep, chickens) randomly crossing the street and being in your way. chickens sometimes lay eggs and you can collect them (to sell) with the right vehicle/tool/upgrade but it you run over them otherwise the eggs break. you could even feed the animals with the corn harvest (okay I think I'm straying too far from the original 😂 ignore that)
- vehicle upgrades: spike-guard (single use) that protects you once like a shield
I'm doing a lot better -thank you!! :D
1. I was afraid it might be too lazy to just make different shaped tracks without something unique -but knowing that I will definitely add some. And ha the ice one is one of my favorites (it kind of forces you to plan ahead and stagger your crops farther apart so you leave paths for yourself when it freezes -but I could see how that could mess with the zen vibe too!
2. Good to know!! I will make it so the spikes are a bit easier and stay down for an extended time after a hit until player is far away before resuming their spiky ways!
3. I have some sprite sets for other crops that I have yet to use -thought I might be over complicating by adding crop varieties into levels but maybe just as a cosmetic option would be a better approach.
4. neighbor bonuses double the effect of the property when they have that neighbor and a little "x 2" appears on each property with a neighbor bonus everytime you make a lap -there is a lot going on on the screen though so it's easy to miss -I should probably make neighbor bonuses stick out more
5. I'm not sure if more complexity would go over well or not :s - insecticide and crowd hating it is brilliant and made me actually laugh out loud xD lol As far as animals on the road, I considered that! I looooove the chicken egg idea! That sounds fun -especially trying to scoop em up without breaking them -awesome idea!
6. Will consider single use upgrade / items -maybe as perma upgrades that you buy in a main menu -like one unlock that gives you one shield at the beginning of any course.
Anyway, thank you for all the excellent feedback and ideas -I will definitely fix and implement some of these! I have a bunch of other ideas and unreleased experiments for this game that strays a bit far from the normal game play that will hopefully turn out fun in the finished version! :D