Devlog #1: Life at Pixel Farm

A GameDev.tv Game Jam Adventure 🌾

Hello fellow game developers! I’m excited to share my first devlog for my game entry in the GameDev.tv game jam . The game I’m working on is called “Life at Pixel Farm,” and it’s going to be a casual VR farming game built in Unity. Let me give you a quick rundown of how things have been going so far.

Struggles with the Theme 🤔

When I found out that the theme for the jam was “Life in 2 Dimensions,” I must admit, I was a bit stumped. I mean, how do you create a VR game that revolves around a two-dimensional concept? But thanks to the brilliant ideas shared during the GameDev.tv live stream, my creative juices started flowing.

Taking Inspiration from Paper Mario ✨

I recalled that during JS13K, there were flat skeletons that looked pretty 2D, and it made me think of Paper Mario. So I figured, why not take inspiration from it? Instead of trying to force a 2D concept into VR, I could simply embrace the pixel-art style and make everything look intentionally flat. Now all I need to do is draw A LOT of pixel art to turn this idea into an enjoyable game.

Rosie, My AI Chatbot Assistant 🤖

Speaking of turning ideas into reality, let me introduce you to my AI chatbot assistant, Rosie. With her help, we’ve managed to put together a draft of a game design document—a whopping 1500 words! It might be ambitious, but the plan is to build this game in just one week (I know the jam runs for 10 days, but let’s be real—I probably won’t finish within seven).

Day One Progress 🛠️

At the end of the first day, I’ve got something up and running in Unity that can run on my Quest. It’s not much yet, but it gives an idea of where I’m heading with this project. I’m especially happy about getting the XR Interaction toolkit working.

Regarding assets and frameworks, I’m aware we’re not allowed to use paid assets for the jam. Paid tools are okay, but frameworks fall into a gray area—so instead of using VRIF (a paid framework on Unity Asset Store), I decided to go without it. For now, I’m utilizing free and CC0 assets.

Day Two Progress: Planting Ideas 🌱

Day two brought some progress! Crops can now be placed and harvested as they grow in iterations of three seconds (for testing purposes). However, attaching a menu to the left controller proved more challenging than anticipated.

After fiddling around with it for quite some time, I finally managed to attach a sprite. Now all that’s left is getting UI or Canvas elements to show up properly.

As for teleportation within the game world, players can only teleport to paths between fields rather than using white teleportation pods. This adds an extra layer of strategy when expanding your farm.

I also tried my hand at drawing a farmhouse – turns out it’s quite tough! But hey, at least my tree looks good! 😄 Shovel, rake, fence, and hay bale sprites were inspired by Kenney’s awesome sprites.

Wrapping Up 🚀

That’s it for now! There’s still plenty of work ahead with polishing and building on what’s already working. But overall, I’m happy with how “Life at Pixel Farm” is shaping up so far.

That’s it for my first devlog! As my adventure with “Life at Pixel Farm” continues, stay tuned for more updates. Let’s see if we can bring this casual VR farming experience to life within this limited timeframe. Wish me luck! 🌱👩‍🌾👨‍🌾