Harvest Quest: Initial Design

Initial Design Process

Harvest Quest was conceptualized while brainstorming about how to combine two very different game genres. I was already very familiar with JRPGs and Farming Sims, as those are two genres I have played extensively since I was young, so I decided to attempt to combined those two. One of the most necessary things to a JRPG that is actively missing from Farming Sims are enemies to fight, so I had to decide on what the player would fight. Games like Rune Factory already introduced the concept of fighting fantasy monsters in a farming sim, but I wanted to try and create enemies that would blend with the farming sim better. That is when I thought of the crops! That is when I thought of the crops! After settling on the idea that the player would fight the crops, other ideas like making the townsfolk your party members came naturally!

From there, I developed ideas on how to expand upon the gameplay loop. I knew that JRPGs and Farming sims often attract very different players, so I needed to take this into consideration when trying to improve the gameplay loop. The solution I designed was to have the player control the difficulty of the enemies they fought. Through various ways like giving the crops fertilizer, players would be able to make the crops stronger! To encourage this, the player would receive extra money when selling crops that were more difficult, but this would be a completely optional aspect of the game. If farming sim players wanted a more relaxing experience, they could ignore it and fight easy crops at their own pace. If JRPG fans wanted to min-max their build and defeat strong enemies, they could make the crops as difficult as they want for extra money. This idea of giving the player complete control of the enemy encounters and how difficult they are is also a novel concept, so I want to expand upon this idea further in future projects.