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I'm creating my own Animal Crossing-inspired game!!

What should I add next?


  • Total voters
    30

Elias_

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Hi everyone!
I'm currently making a life simulation game:


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Here's a trailer that I've made over the past few days:


For almost the past year, I've been working on my first larger game. When I started working on it, I was extremely hyped for NH and as New Leaf is in my top-three-favourite games of all time, I've always wanted to create a game in the life simulation genre. The first Animal Crossing game I played was Wild World and I've played every entry that came out since. I'm a huge fan of the series as well as of Stardew Valley and I've played quite a few Harvest Moon entries. Game development is a passion of mine, but making a complex game like this was always a little frightening, especially since it is only a hobby. The game definitely isn't perfect and there's still a lot that has to be worked on. I'm working on this in my spare time and thus progress is really slow, but I really enjoy working on it every couple of days and playing it a bit myself. Basically, you start with only a couple of tools and your first carrot seeds on an uninhabited island. By farming, you earn money to purchase decorations and new abilities. You'll be visited by NPCs that might even move on your island, you get new daily tasks as well as collectibles to find every day. Moreover, you can collect different kinds of insects and fish and participate in smaller challenges. I wanted to streamline some parts of the gameplay, so e.g. shaking an apple tree or catching a fish immediately gives you money.

The first iteration of the game focused very heavily on farming. Over time, I decided to add features such as:
  • Decorating your island
  • Catching bugs and fish to fill your encyclopedia
  • Talking to NPCs, some of the challenge you to e.g. a fishing tournament or sell items
  • Daily tasks for you to tackle
  • Adding collectibles that give you rare items
  • Interacting with some of the items
  • You can purchase the ability to dig up water and rocks and "plant" them somewhere else
  • You can purchase a dog
  • Every day, there is the chance of a new NPC visiting your island, new collectibles spawn, etc.
The game features a day-and-night cycle that is tied to the clock of your system. There's a dynamic weather system that can switch from sunny to cloudy, rainy or stormy. Plants also grow in real time, which might not be visible from the trailer. Some plants enter their next state within a couple of minutes, trees on the other hand take a couple of hours. They also grow while you are not in game, you just have to make sure to water them again after they enter their next state.
Although this is not shown in the video: You can choose to play as a girl, enter your name as well as the name of your island.
(Oh, and in case you're wondering: The d-pad is supposed to look a little bit like a life ring to fit the island-theme. I'm not sure whether I'll keep this. But that's why it's white and red.)

I'm currently working on:
  • NPCs can stay on your island permanently
  • New NPCs, some of which will provide smaller challenges
  • Upgrade from tent to house
  • Maybe adding clothing and hairstyle options

The game is still far from finished, but after such a long time of working on it, I wanted to ask for some feedback and just show it to some people that might be interested in it :) I would love to hear your opinions and suggestions on it. If you have a feature you'd be interested in, please let me know. I just can't promise to add it to the game as that depends on how difficult it is to implement and how long it would take.

I would love to hear what you think about my game and maybe get some feedback of things you like and dislike. I really appreciate any comments. Thanks:giggle:
 
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this looks so cute!! you can definitely see the influence of AC/SDV but it's an awesome combination. personally I'm always a fan of minigames (tortimer's island in NL was tons of fun) but having a variety of NPCs can be good too! i'm excited to see how you develop this, and massive respect for you to having the ability to do this in the first place
 
Hey:) I'm so happy about your answer and I'm really glad you like it!
I absolutely agree about tortimer's island, that's probably my favourite feature of New Leaf! In the long run, I would love to include both, new NPCs and minigames. Thanks again for your reply:giggle:
 
I've added some GIFs to the original thread. They show some the features in the game and its atmosphere. What do you think of them?
 
This looks really cool. What game engine are you using?

Thanks for your reply, I'm glad you like it!😄 Do you have anything in particular you like or something I could improve on?
I'm using Codea, which is an iPad app that lets you program in Lua. I've built a small engine on top of it to make the game.
 
Do you have anything in particular you like or something I could improve on?

I voted NPCs as they will help shape the world you live in, and make you not feel so lonely in a game. There are some little things too that may go well, such as hidden easter eggs/references to other games and pop culture (memes?), and some kind of collectables and/or milestone system. Those little things are the things I enjoy experiencing in games.
 
I voted NPCs as they will help shape the world you live in, and make you not feel so lonely in a game. There are some little things too that may go well, such as hidden easter eggs/references to other games and pop culture (memes?), and some kind of collectables and/or milestone system. Those little things are the things I enjoy experiencing in games.

Most of the NPCs right now serve some sort of purpose. For example, one of the characters sells flowers, another challenges you to a fishing tournament, and another NPC lost his parrot and you have to shake the trees to find it. I'm not sure, whether most characters should provide events like that or if most should only talk to you.

I'm not sure if references to other games are actually allowed, but a milestone system sounds like a great idea:) As of right now, there are only daily tasks, e.g. catch 3 fish, water 5 flowers and so on. But I like the idea of having more long-term goals. At the moment, the only long term goals are purchasing the abilities to dig up water and to dig up stones that you can then place wherever you like. (This will allow you to visit the second half of the island once you unlock it). Oh, and catching all types of fish and bugs.

In terms of collectibles, there are actually quite a few in the game. Everyday, you can find a suspicious spot on the ground. When you dig there, you find one of several rare items. Additionally, shells and mushrooms spawn every day and if you collect 5 of them, you get themed items you cannot buy from the shop. Are those the types of collectibles you mean?
 
Thank you, I'm really glad you like it😃

I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about this, but here's my current plan:
First, it will be released on iOS. The app I'm using to make the game only supports exporting to iOS and potentially Mac in the future.
However, it is possible to port the game to Windows, Linux and Android as well. This would take quite a bit of work, but if enough people would like to play it on those platforms, it would be possible. This works because there is a wrapper for another engine that can read the code written in Codea, but I don't have much experience with it.
 
I've added a time limit to the poll. I'll try to work on the most requested feature once it's closed. Thanks to anyone who participates!
 
Hey everyone!

I'd like to share two more gameplay videos. What do you think about them?
Designing the island - The first video displays shows how you can design your island:

Fishing tournament - The second video shows the game's fishing tournament:

Soooo, what do you think? Do you like the game? Would be glad to get some feedback!
 
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I really like the gameplay videos/gifs for the IslandCamper game a lot! It looks like it's definitely going to be a fun and entertaining game to play. The fact that there is so many content to look forward to in the game such as interacting with the NPC's and collecting various items around the island makes the game very interesting :D
 
I really like the gameplay videos/gifs for the IslandCamper game a lot! It looks like it's definitely going to be a fun and entertaining game to play. The fact that there is so many content to look forward to in the game such as interacting with the NPC's and collecting various items around the island makes the game very interesting :D

Thank you, that's really nice of you! I'm really glad you like it :giggle:
 
Right now, adding NPCs has the most votes. However, clothing and hairstyles are right behind. How about introducing a character that sells clothing and another one that sells hairstyles? What do you think?
 
Right now, adding NPCs has the most votes. However, clothing and hairstyles are right behind. How about introducing a character that sells clothing and another one that sells hairstyles? What do you think?

Any opinions on this? :giggle:

Also, if you aren't interested in the game, I'd be really glad if you could give me some feedback why. I would really appreciate to get some opinions on the game to know whether it is worth continuing the project and if so, which direction it should take.
 
Right now, adding NPCs has the most votes. However, clothing and hairstyles are right behind. How about introducing a character that sells clothing and another one that sells hairstyles? What do you think?

That definitely sounds like a safe starting spot for adding NPCs.
Are you going to be designing stores for them or have them roam?

The game looks very neat so far.​
 


That definitely sounds like a safe starting spot for adding NPCs.
Are you going to be designing stores for them or have them roam?

The game looks very neat so far.​


Thanks! Right now, they can either run around on your island or have a small market stall. My idea would be that NPCs will ask you to stay permanently and then receive their own store after visiting your island a couple of times. I'm not quite sure, how you can select a position for the store. Also, I'm not sure how you would be able to move the store, if you want to change its position. But I like the idea that after some time, you have a couple of stores on your island.
 
Thanks! Right now, they can either run around on your island or have a small market stall. My idea would be that NPCs will ask you to stay permanently and then receive their own store after visiting your island a couple of times. I'm not quite sure, how you can select a position for the store. Also, I'm not sure how you would be able to move the store, if you want to change its position. But I like the idea that after some time, you have a couple of stores on your island.

That sounds like a good idea to me! Having more NPCs actually on the island will make it more lively and more buildings will add variety to the scenery.

I have no idea how hard coding something like this is, but I'll be sure to keep an eye on this thread to see how things turn out. I quite enjoy seeing projects like these.​
 
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