Jacob Santos

Farmer Sim PBBG

The concept of the persistent browser-based game is simple, you grow crops and raise animals to sell to the different markets. It is a basic simulation of farming, partially because I haven’t farmed a day in my life and I want to finish the project quickly.

There are a few features of play that need details.

1. The first is land, which will limit how much you can grow and, or raise. This also includes the amount of help is available to tend the land.
2. The seeds you can plant,
3. the animals you can raise,
4. and the amount the market pays for the animal and harvest crops.

Land

Every player will start out with set number of acres. The player can buy more land later in the game, when the player has the money for it. The player’s avatar can only maintain a limited amount of land, before the player will need to hire help. There will be several kinds of help ranging in how well the “help” works.

Cheap help will probably not do much for the player, but expensive help might not be what the player needs either. There will be a balance between the cheap help and the expensive help in the abilities. This is so that each kind should be used. The player should be able to get away with using all of one kind, won’t be as efficient, but will work.

The player will be able to buy land outside of where the player starts. The player will also be able to hire soil experts to test the land to see how well the land will grow crops. To make it simple, the land will either be suited for crops, animals, or both. The land each player starts with is suited for both.

The price for land will be set by how far or close it is to the cities. Having land close to cities has the advantage of being able to deliver supplies faster and receiving money sooner. To simplify the game, deliveries time will be set and can not be upgraded to shorten the time. This will allow for players to buy up land away from the cities for cheap and still grow or raise animals and not be limited for long to their set acres.

Land Attributes:

• Growth Type: crops, livestock, or both
• Distance From City
• Closest City
• Acres
• Player

In future versions, I want to have a grid for the acres for the number of cities and create new cities when new players exceed the range of the city. This simple attribute set will allow for unlimited amount of players to be the equal distance from the city, while also allowing for unlimited amount of land to be bought at different ranges from the city.

Worker Attributes

• Acre Limit: How many acres of land the worker can tend with the base efficiency.
• Crop Efficiency: How well the worker can tend crops within the acre limit.
• Livestock Efficiency: How well the worker can tend livestock within the acre limit.
• Hours of Work: How long the worker will perform their duties before ending their “shift”.
• Price: How much it costs to hire the worker.

Even the player’s avatar has the same attributes, so this will allow for easier balancing of the game. It will also allow for adding new workers in the future. I only plan for three other types other than the player’s avatar worker. I’m not sure if I’m going to tell the player all of the attributes, but they will be pretty simple to figure out in the first version.

The cities will have their own attributes, but those will be kept secret from the players. The land will also have a concept of taxes and overhead. This will prevent the player from gaining to much land and money too quickly. The player will need to make at least so much to prevent bankruptcy. Going over the overhead amount will give the player profit to enjoy spending on more land.

I’m wondering if the taxes and overhead can be built in to the market of buying seeds / animals and selling crops / processed foods. If the supply is too much then the player will make less than what was spent to buy the seeds. This can sort of work like gambling in that the player might lose money on the market or gain money on the markets.

Seeds

I’m going to limit the amount of seeds, but I’m going to develop the game to where I can easily add more later. The seeds will have attributes that will allow the player to predict and know when to plant the seeds and how long it will take.

Seed Attributes:

• Plant Season: When the seed should be planted, so that it can grow
• Growth Length: How long it takes before the seed is fully grown and can be harvested
• Base Price: How much the seed costs
• Sell Base Price: How much the crop goes for in the market. This fluctuates based on supply and demand.

The seasons will go by and the player will grow the seeds. The player will be able to grow crops many times during the different seasons, so that the player will be able to make enough money by growing enough crops during that season.

Seeds

1. Strawberries
2. Corn
3. Rice
4. Green beans
5. Cotton
6. etc

The problem is that each seed has to be researched, I want to have at least 10 or at least three that can be grown per season and several that can be grown all year around. It might come to it being that all seeds can be grown all year around and just have it to where next version the season are restricted to certain seasons.

Livestock

There will be only a few livestock that can be grown. The basic one of course will be cows to get milk and cheese. Chickens are another. You’ll be able to breed the animals to get more and there will be a lifetime for the animals.

The processing, for the meats, milk, cheese, etc will be automatic. In future versions, it will require processing buildings to process the animals. In the first version, it will be done automatically.

Markets

There will be a market for buying seeds and animals, and a market to sell crops and processed meats, cheese, etc to the cities. The buying will be a set price, but selling will be based on supply and demand. Also, the demand will be based on an algorithm that will change based on the “needs” of the population at the city. So each city will have different demands and once that demand has been reached the sell price goes down.

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