Farmily Business - Game Overview

Left in charge of their uncle’s farm, 1–4 unsupervised kids tend crops, feed animals, and race to fill deliveries as farming spirals into ridiculous chaos.

Farmily Business follows a group of kids who head to their uncle’s farm for a vacation only to realize- he’s the one going on vacation! Unfazed, our kids eagerly care for the farm as they make business deals, expand their land, unlock crops, and learn new farming skills. Who better to take care of things than one (to four) unsupervised children?

The simplest way to describe Farmily Business is that it’s the gameplay of Overcooked, on a farm, with a bunch of Roguelike elements.

My Work

This game is a solo-dev project made in Unreal Engine 5. The art and audio is largely assembled using various asset packs with all the gameplay systems created by myself using Blueprints.

Some highlights include:

• Architected core interaction systems, including item pickup, depositing, and tool use

• Designed enemy and neutral AI with reusable AI tasks, decorators, and services

• Used data tables, interfaces, and parenting to templatize creating new crop types

• Created modular systems for difficulty levers and upgrade progression

• Established game mode round flow with open hooks for dialogue and other events

• Hooked up character models, animations, Niagara FX, SFX, music, and UI widgets

Gameplay Loop

The gameplay loop consists of grabbing seeds from a barrel, planting them in dirt patches, and using watering tools to make them grow.

When a crop finishes growing it can be harvested and brought to the processor machine for packaging into baskets. Once basketed, crops are rushed to the market stand for sale to cars lined up on the road.

The game is round based with a time limit and a quota. Meet the quota- get some candy! Before starting the next round select new crops, open up areas of the map, and unlock tools by spending that candy. Each round ramps up in intensity, challenging players to manage more at once and be efficient until the quota is inevitably missed and the run ends.

Item Towers

A unique feature is that players can pick up multiple items of the same type, creating a tilting tower that sways in the wind. Collecting stacks of items in quick succession is a feel-good tactile mechanic that adds to the goofy tone of the game. This item tower system also helps scale gameplay through progression as farms get bigger and more crops are farmed at once.

Animals

Co-op games like this one are all about optimizing tasks to find efficiencies. Map modifiers disrupt the player’s found efficiencies and challenges them to adapt to new circumstances. Enemy animals are a perfect example of these modifiers as they can knock the player down or eat their crops.

The Turkey for example roams the map. Each time the player gets close, he roles a die to see if he'll attack. If it fails, then the odds go up until inevitably he chases, knocking items out of the player’s hands if he catches up.

The Buffalo targets the closest crop lying on the ground and slooowwwllyyy walks towards it. If she's left unattended she'll eat all the crops in sight, so every once in a while she needs picked up and relocated.

Animals are treated like modifiers that can change each playthrough so replaying maps provides new experiences and challenges each run.

Tools and Upgrades

Upgrades like new farming tools and crops add further replayability to each level. At first attempt, the farm may only have a humble water bucket, but by the 5^th attempt player's could be watering crops over the fence with a supersoaker!

The intent is to create tangible, approachable upgrades. Players gain a new tool, or a variant of a crop with an obvious benefit- they shouldn't need to be comparing stat sheets or evaluating incremental benefits.

An upgrade can still be a simple stat change, but it's presented as a new item with a clear differentiator. Like the Watering Can which works the same as the bucket, but can water 4 crops instead of 1 before needing to be refilled.

Objective Unlocks

Unlocking new levels, crops, and tools are the primary motivation for players to progress through the game. These are earned by completing objectives in each level, a little like Vampire Survivors.

There are several objective varieties:

• General objectives, like "Reach Round 5", which are displayed as a goal before starting the level, and could unlock the next farm. OR "Unlock the gate to the chicken coops", which could unlock Eggs as a crop for all levels.

• Hidden objectives, like "Feed the Turkey some corn", aren't telegraphed but could unlock a new turkey-charming type of crop.

• Discovered objectives, like "Fill the silo with grain", which can then be used as an unlimited source of animal feed in future playthroughs.

These objectives are implemented as modular Data Assets which are assigned to levels. As they're completed, new levels, crops, and tools are unlocked and the game progresses. It's still worth revisiting old levels in Farmily Business because a new unlock could grant access to new objectives. The whole game can be structured using this unlocks system with dialogue being paired with completion events for an added reward and sense of progression.

Challenges

This game evolved over time as it has found its identity. The core intent of "Goofy farming roguelike" has stayed true, but systems have been written and re-written as the design has been iterated on and my knowledge of Unreal has deepened. One particular mechanic I wanted to highlight is the game mode itself.

When I began this project the game mode was structured around a big line up of cars demanding specific crops, and the player had a healthbar and lives. The idea was to create the mode as if it were Hades or Binding of Isaac. Cars were like general mobs, and cargo trucks wanting piles of items were like boss fights. Miss an order, and take a hit to your health. This was fun in concept, it fit the goofy tone, and I can see a version of the game that leaned in to that self aware farm-game parody. In function though, it didn't play right. It was more complex and punishing than the style of game let on, and it became difficult to communicate mechanics to anyone unfamiliar with the game.

So it was simplified. The next version took inspiration from Overcooked and PlateUp!. 4 minutes per-round with a quota to hit. Beating the quota earns bronze/silver/gold stars which translate into more meta currency for upgrades. This version is where the game really found its stride, and I'd say 80% of the mechanics were build thanks to this foundation for the game mode. This is where I established an intent that I wanted the game to be fun to play for anyone- regardless of if they typically play games.

Much later in development, when I started to add progression and upgrades, this mode needed a change. I thought to other roguelikes and what Farmily Business was missing was the power to speed up the early runs- to feel that contrast in power from the early game.

The next iteration was a simple one as I didn't want to reintroduce unneeded complexity. The 3 stars mechanic was kept, as was the quota. However, instead of having to play the full 4 minutes of the round, it ends as soon as the quota is met, and bonus stars are instead earned based on how much time is remaining. This way, as the player gets more powerful, the early game gets quicker. The gameplay felt recontextualized to be about going FAST instead of just surviving so this change enhanced the pacing and brought forward more of the chaotic tone that fit so well.

Conclusion

Working on this project and playtesting with those around me has been an absolute blast. I have gotten to work on areas of game development like 3Cs core gameplay mechanics which I haven't had much opportunity to in my roles at studios. I was able to transfer my technical knowledge with proprietary engines to strengthen my understanding of the Unreal Engine 5 toolkit. This work has given me a more complete understanding of all the pieces of the game development process, and all the unique challenges that come with each one. If you made it this far, or skipped ahead, thanks for reading!