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Havenroot Vale

Havenroot Vale is a game that will focus on a life and farming based experience that includes a mix of realism and fantasy. The game will be in a 3D, first person view, and will focus on a mix of exploration, material production, and community. Discovering and conquering new areas, cooking and crafting items to keep or sell, and meeting and creating relationships with different characters are more specific examples of this, though I have a lot of goals for how I'd like the game to end up playing and to keep it unique within the genre.

As an artist who loves playing games, I've always loved making my own. So, from today, the game with the tentative title of 'Havenroot Vale' will begin logging its progress! Throughout the month, I will be posting screenshots, videos, and concept art here and on other websites as well. Near the end of each month, I will be making a blog post summarizing what's been completed or worked on in more detail.

I may have lots of personal ideas and goals for how I want Havenroot Vale to turn out- however I want potential future players or anyone who's interested in following the development of the game to make their opinions known too! I want the game to be something that a community can enjoy as well as me, so any feedback or requests will be taken into consideration when developing mechanics.

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havenrootvale.com    ||    @CPhoenixGames

Oct. 20th, 2021 

This month has been a lot of fun sharing and working on the game! Some concept art sheets have been posted over Twitter and Instagram that represent crops and an animal type that I’d like to include- bees!

I’d like interactions with bees to go more in depth in terms of harvesting honey and wax. For example, when you capture the bees, you have to put them into a purchased/built hive. After they start making honey, you have to scrape off the top layer of wax, which can be used as a material, and then bottle the honey by hand. Later, the player can buy a honey spinner to do it automatically.

Other than art, progress like movement and interacting with objects is pretty much done, though it will evolve as the project gets bigger. Plant growth for crops is in progress and a template for growing a crop over time has been made. Something I need to add is allowing the player to till the ground where they want and then adding in the seed. Also, a visual way to water it- right now, you just click and it waters the plant. See more of this at the Havenroot Vale blog.

Along with this, I’ve been working on one of the refining machines for the player to use: a flour mill! The player will need wheat to activate it, but it should be able to produce flour bags once the wheat has been ground on the wheel. Once this is in a more finished state, I’d like to move on to either chopping items/crops or adding in a mortar and pestle mini-game to mash/crush smaller things.

As I worked on the basics, like movement and other code, it was nice to take breaks or do the smaller aspects, like tiny creatures, to help with world ambience.

Most objects I’ve made so far are mainly being used for testing. I’ll keep updating them as I think of better designs and I hope to make things look as best I can in the end.

havenrootvale.com    ||    @CPhoenixGames

Nov. 20th, 2021 

This month has been more of a focus on programming for cooking mechanics and fleshing out how I plan for them to work, as well as some concept art.

Plant growth has been worked on more, and it’s getting to a point where I think it’ll be a good template for other crops too. Of course, there’s still some things like animation and other visual effects that I think will help pull it together more, but it’s getting there!

One of the cooking mechanics I’ve been working on specifically is the mortar and pestle! Right now, it’ll work as something to crush smaller items and plants into a powder/paste depending on what it is.

I’ve also been working on the chopping mechanic, where the player can take whatever they grew and cut it into smaller pieces. However, I haven’t decided if it should have more dynamic cutting, where the item can be cut into whatever shape the player wants or to have pre-cut pieces. If you think one over the other would work better, any feedback is welcome!

The other planned cooking parts are baking, frying on a stovetop, juicing, and garnishing. Baking relates more to pastries and bread while the stovetop will give more savory foods. The juicer will most likely be worked on next, where the player can put a crop they have into a juicer and make juices to sell at the marketplace.

There are a few other things I’m interested in getting done for this next month too, such as getting bees and chickens to work in their environment, like a coop and beehive.

That’s been November’s work! I’ve been thinking of posting more often, since things feel like they are progressing quickly, to keep people more updated. But, if you’re interested in more frequent posts or are interested in the project, the @CPhoenixGames twitter tends to have weekly content and videos!

Thank you so much for reading!

havenrootvale.com    ||    @CPhoenixGames

Dec. 19th, 2021

December has been a busy month! There’s been a lot of art progress as well as programming! Coming onto the team is a new programmer, Mysgym, who’s been helping work on a 3D style inventory.

For 3D assets, I’ve been working on some models and textures for foods for the baking mechanic. This will eventually include mixing ingredients and putting them into an oven.

More items for chickens have been made, such as eggs, feathers, a coop, and more. There have also been more items made for bees; a bee house, honey frame, and an uncapping tool. Bee animations have also been updated to look more smooth and an idle has been added.

On the programming side, a 3D style inventory is being prototyped. When the player opens their inventory, they’ll take off the backpack and look inside to see all the items displayed as well as other things like a journal and a bug jar. Designs for this are still in progress.

It’s great to have more people working on the project, and I’m excited to see where everything will end up! 

Thank you so much for reading! There were some extra videos and images showing a little more progress on the blog page if you want to check it out!

havenrootvale.com    ||    @CPhoenixGames

Jan. 21, 2022 

This month we worked on more assets and inventory/crafting mechanics, as well as trying to expand on how each cooking station and workbench will work.

To start, wood and rock based items are almost finished and some parts are ready for testing! Things like logs, ingots, planks, and a smelting station.

With cooking and crafting in progress, some baking/cooking tools have also been made to prepare for the more complex parts, like eventually mixing ingredients and putting things in the oven/on the stove. In the upcoming month, there will be more food items worked on. It's mostly been baked goods in progress, but I'd also like to expand to more savory items too.

From the inventory concept shown last month, that's been expanded on more and we're getting really close to something that could look really cool! It's mixing a 2D and 3D style to help organize the different types of items that can be crafted or found.

 See more visual work for this month at the Havenroot Vale blog!

havenrootvale.com    ||    @CPhoenixGames

(Unlocking this topic at the author's request.)

Blog Written March 20th, 2022

February and March have been busy months both in the project and outside of it. There were a few complications with the programming, but things are up and running again! We’re working on smaller things to make sure everything is optimized for the future and can be extended for other systems.

There’s been some progress with different food models and cooking mechanics. Some berries and nuts you can gather while exploring the world have been added. They can come from bushes or grabbed off the ground!

We’re working on getting all of the machines for refining foods up and running- so far the flour mill is now working with the new inventory system. We’re also working on adding animations to the oven and stove. Of course some animations still need to be tweaked so things go together more smoothly, but it's exciting to get the stove process started!

For programming, we're still adjusting the inventory so things work a little better. Crafting on the work bench is also a work in progress, but we have a good idea of how it will all come together! The goal is to have it work similarly to the backpack with 3D items you can place on the main table. We also redid the workbench and added new textures and models to make it come together more!

See more videos and art for this update at the Havenroot Vale blog!

havenrootvale.com || @CPhoenixGames

April 26th, 2022

With this update, there’s been a lot of focus on the crop growing system and the parts it needs, along with revamping a few things.

We have a few new models for the items you can grow and harvest; carrots, onions, and cucumbers.

Another thing we’ve been working on is concepts for different machines, like the juicer and honey spinner. We’re going through a few designs and trying to settle on what version we think would compliment everything else best.

Otherwise with programming, there’s been a lot of reorganizing and we’ve decided to switch over to Unity’s new input system to make things a little smoother. A few scripts are also going to be rewritten so that everything can be more open and expandable for future things we want to add!

Thank you for reading!

See more videos and art for this update at the Havenroot Vale blog!

havenrootvale.com || @CPhoenixGames

Art Update

This is a short update on art assets! The labels are more of a wip and some will probably be replaced, but we've been working on a few jarred goods you can make and environment assets you can harvest in game!

Jarred Goods Video

(Unlocking this topic by OP request.)

September 23th, 2022

Though it’s been a bit since the last update, we still have progress to share! It’s been difficult to find a programmer, but we’re aiming for a small demo around the end of the year or near the beginning of next year.

The farming system is coming along better, and things are in a mostly working state- it just needs to be connected to an equipment/inventory system and that portion should be finished! Of course it will need polishing on the visual work but that will come later.

Harvesting materials is also being worked on and it just needs new visuals to bring it together more! At the moment, you can harvest rocks and tall grass. We’re also working on designing harvesting tools.

The farmers market concept is something we want to focus more on after the main systems are ready, but we have some art and models that you can use at your stall. Place things in baskets, displays, and set prices for what you produce!

That’s all for now and thank you for reading!

havenrootvale.com    ||    @CPhoenixGames