Aussie Farm Story will be a farming simulator video game set along the Murray River. In the game you have inherited the family farm located along the Murray River, it is now up to you to make sure that the farm continues to produce and sell your goods, while managing the water you get from the Murray River without running out. How will you survive and keep the family farm going? This game is intended to inform and demonstrate how the climate is affecting farmers in the Australian country, while shining a light specifically on the dangerous nature of water trading.
The game’s setting will be at an old family farm you have inherited in the northern section of the Murray-Darling Basin that must faces constant danger from droughts and floods. From the farm you will be able to travel to a small local town to sell what you produce and buy anything you might need, from feed for animals to new tools to help improve your farm. This town will feature characters you can build relationships with and will offer advice on your farm.
The main loop of the game will be similar to that of Stardew Valley as you slowly build up your farm, with more resource management especially in regards to how much water your farm uses. You will be able to choose what your farm grows, with different animals and crops requiring different amounts of resources. For example, if you grow maize it will require about 600 litres of water for every 1 kg grown, but if you instead decide to raise cows you will need about 50000 litres for every 1kg. You will also need to be able to provide enough space for your chosen production to grow, as cows will require more land to be raised than it would take to grow soybeans. The higher the cost however the more you will get when it comes time to sell back in town.
This focus on water management will also present the main obstacle for the game, as when the environment begins to change overtime you will need to deal with new problems such as floods and droughts. An issue that is has been shown to come up many times in the North Basin. You will be able to participate in water trading, allowing you to buy and sell water for the farm. The price for water will change depending on the act of the game.
The game will feature 5 acts. The 1st Act will be used to establish and teach the mechanics of the game and will be the shortest of the acts. The 2nd Act will be the baseline for the game, as you set up your farm and establish the routines. The 3rd Act will feature a drought with the 4th featuring floods. The final act will be rebuilding after the tougher 3rd and 4th Act.
The 3rd and 4th Act will bring interesting game play challenges, the drought will limit the water you are able to use to grow crops, forcing you to either use the water trading system or sell what you can’t grow, otherwise you will risk running at a loss and losing the game. The 4th act will feature the opposite problem, as the floods will take away the available space you can use to grow crops and raise animals.
The game will use a 16-bit art-style similar to Stardew Valley (pictured below), and will use colour palettes to help differentiate the different acts of the game. The first 2 act will feature bright colours which will contrast the next two acts which will use a dryer palette to represent drought and a much colder palette to represent the floods.(pictured below)
The game’s soundtrack will attempt to evoke SNES era games with a country tinge. A sample of the musical style is embed in this outline. The music will be intentionally cheesy to attempt to set a more fun tone for the game. The music will have several different variations to fit with each Act.
The game will attempt to bring awareness to issues that face farmers in the Northern Basin region, as they deal with droughts and floods. These issues will obviously be the focus of Act 3 & 4, but another issue the game will look at is how the Government attempts to “help” the farms. A character will move to the town early on in the game who is a current member of parliament, and was formerly quite high in the government.
This character will be involved in the water trading aspect of the game, and can be influenced through gifts. He may then help the player with better prices for water. All the characters in the game will have a reputation system attached, so if your character acts badly towards the community the prices of items in the store may go up, and you will have to sell your produce at lower prices. If you befriend certain characters the opposite might happen. These characters can also help you during the 3rd and 4th Act by providing water or helping you prepare your farm for floodwater. This reputation system is to demonstrate to players how close communities can be in the country.
The Government will also try to implement changes through its yearly budgets to help certain crops and produce that can be of great benefit to the players and their farm. To win the game is to survive all 5 Acts and turn a profit on your farm and the government will help you achieve this.
Aussie Farm Story is slated to come out in 202X for all available platforms.
