Harvest Moon is a popular series of games with an interesting hybrid genre: farming sim/relationship sim. (I have sometimes seen this game labeled as an RPG/sim, but it has no monster fighting, very few quests, no travelling - the only vaguely RPG-ish elements it has are talking to NPCs, buying items at shops, and upgrading tools, all of which can be filed under one of the two types of sim, so personally I won't call it an RPG.) Anyway, suppose we want to design an ideal farming(or settlement building) sim/relationship sim. What should we include, what should we avoid, and why?

Having played many of the Harvest Moons, I'd have to say the ones with simpler controls were better, probably the best being Back to Nature for the PS. The Gameboy ones suffered from not enough buttons to do everything so you were constantly in menus. The Game Cube one, you were constantly messing with the camera and that just ruined immersion.

For the actual game play elements, one thing that turned me off in Harvest Moon 3 for the Gameboy was that you had to go back to the mainland to do some things, which made things a hassle, especially considering this was a portable version where being able to pick it up and put it back down was at a premium.

Actually, why I just save us all some bandwidth and say that Harvest Moon Back to Nature was practically perfect, core gameplay wise. There are of course things I'd liked to have tweaked like making Karen somewhat more accessible, getting rid of those stupid blizzards and hurricanes, making it possible to visit people on festival days, and maybe some cows that wanted to be eaten.

Personally, I thought it was really frustrating to have a very small vegetable-carrying capacity, which means you have to pick ~8 veggies, then walk ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE DROP OFF POINT, sometimes on the other side of the farm. I think Back To Nature fixed this by giving you a >30 veggie capacity, if you upgraded it, but, I think my favorite idea was the saddlebags--basically, your horse acted as a mobile drop off point with unlimited capacity.

One thing that I always thought was kinda lame, story-wise: in most of the games, you inherit the farm from your dead grandpa. And it's ALWAYS in really cruddy condition. Why is it that Grandpa is automatically assumed to be a loser, and neither he or his son did anything for the place for about ten years before he kicked the bucket?
I designed an HM clone (never went through with it, tho), that started in the summer, in the middle of a drought. Your character had everything he needed--really nice farm, crops all planted, maximum tools, a wife (but no kid). there's about a week, where the player learns how to work the farm, then he loses everything in a fire (including wife :( ). He then waits ~6 months before re-opening business. This would explain why a)the farm looks like crap b)the farm starts with zero good tools, even after >30 years of previous occupancy, and c) why the house isn't upgraded worth crud.

Just a thought.

What kind of time are you planning to set this in? Present day? 1500's? I think that would be a major determining factor.

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Original post by Cannibal_Coder What kind of time are you planning to set this in? Present day? 1500's? I think that would be a major determining factor.

Who, me or Brokenimage? I was thinking fantasy setting myself. Or maybe modern humans dropped onto an island without any tools.

Fantasy would be really interesting depending on whether or not you would mind putting in a little bit of RPG into it all.

*Evil dragon Smog steals 3 sheep*

Kinda thing.

Mayhaps have to hire someone to watch over your livestock at night to protect against wolves or thieves. There is alot of possibility.

Something I forgot to mention in my original post...
Another must is a hot key to put whatever you're carrying in your pack, and, maybe another to pull the first thing out.
Otherwise, you spend a massive amount of time loading/unloading your pack.

Sound interesting sunandshadow, and rather similar to a game idea I've been designing this week (mostly in my mind at this stage though!). Although my idea is more of a fantasy RPG village simulator than a farming sim/relationship Harvest Moon type game, although it would have farming and romance in it.

But regarding Harvest Moon, the better versions of the game that I've played managed to get enough variety in it to keep it interesting. A good pattern of gameplay went something like: a few days of farming, then a festival, then a few more days of farming, then a different festival, then a few more days of farming, then a change of season. Repeat for the rest of the game.

The game got a bit dull once you had a good set of tools, a good spread of livestock, and were just farming for weeks on end.

Oh, and if you can, I'd put a bit of variety into the 'special events', so they can play out differently depending on the player actions (and the element of chance). It would increase my interest, the replayability of the game. Plus interactivity and customisablity are my interests in game development, so I like to see more of them around.

Maybe I'm too competative but Harvest Moon got a little stale for me.

01: Wake Up
02: Open Barn
03: Milk Cows
04: Collect Eggs
05: Process & Sell Goods
06: Sleep
07: Close Barn
08: Sleep
09: Wake Up...

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Original post by GroZZleR Maybe I'm too competative but Harvest Moon got a little stale for me. 01: Wake Up 02: Open Barn 03: Milk Cows 04: Collect Eggs 05: Process & Sell Goods 06: Sleep 07: Close Barn 08: Sleep 09: Wake Up...

Dude, you totally forgot the wooing the women part.