Harvest Quest Game Design Document

This is the Game Design Document page for Harvest Quest. This document goes over in detail all aspects about the game, including game mechanics, characters, narrative, areas, items, and many more. 

Core Features of Harvest Quest include:

• Crop Combat
  Instead of simply harvesting crops in an average Farming Sim, players will have to battle them first! Players will be able to plant crops in their fields, allowing combat against enemy teams composed of 1 to 4 crops. Different crops will have their own specific abilities and classes which will reward players for defeating more difficult combinations of enemies.
• Dungeon Exploration
  Places to explore like mines are a staple in Farming Sim games, but Harvest Quest improves upon these areas by transforming them into JRPG dungeons! Players will explore randomized dungeon-like mines and other areas by themselves or with other NPCs to defeat monsters and gather resources.
• Townsfolk Friendship
  Players will be able to level up their characters by interacting with the Townsfolk. By increasing the Friendship Levels with the Townsfolk, the player will earn “Friendship Points” to be able to obtain new skills and strengthen their existing ones. Raising a Townsfolk’s Friendship Level will also allow the player to recruit them to help with Crop Combat or Dungeon Exploration as well as strengthen their own abilities.
• Difficulty Modifiers
  
Players will be able to have complete control over their enemy encounters and be able to adjust the difficulty of the enemies using various items and game mechanics. This allows players to approach enemy encounters at their own pace and decide if they want a casual experience or a challenging one.

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.

This document is currently a work-in-progress as I am working on this while finishing up college, but I have high hopes for this idea! If you would like to read more, feel free to download the document! Additions and revisions will be noted in the Devlog.