Preparing to Exhibit my Indie Game at Gamescom!

Hello everyone and welcome to another devlog video for Homegrown. This video is part one of two videos that I'm going to be doing about my trip to Gamescom last month. In this part, I'm just going to show you the 3 weeks leading up to Gamescom and all the preparations that I was doing. And then in the next video, which will be out in a few days time, I'll show you the event itself and all the craziness that happened there. But before all that, let's go back to the beginning of August and have a look at how I was preparing for Gamescom. So, it is 9:00 on the 1st of August. Gamescom starts on the 20th, so less than 3 weeks to go now and I've still got a lot of stuff to prepare for the booth and also stuff that I want to polish up in the game as well. So, I'm going to be very busy over the next few weeks. And um I'll try and film as I go along, but this deog video might be a little bit more hectic and unstructured than usual, but I'll do my best. I've still got a few little things that I want to implement into the game before Gamescom. And I've started off this morning with this sledgehammer tool, which is long overdue. This is a tool that allows you to essentially pick objects back up from your farm. So like I can use it on the well here, and that removes the well, puts it back in your inventory. Um, obviously I need some effects. So I'll implement that next. So here's the sledgehammer in action with the effects. Now I added a particle effect. I added a little shaking effect for when the object's getting hit. Here's the code for that. And I also found and then edited some sound effects for when you're hitting the object. Um, I still need to do a bit of work on some effects for when the object actually disappears cuz right now it's a little bit sudden, but other than that, I'm pretty happy with the results. This evening, I'm just trying to design a kind of postcard like thing that I can give to people at Gamescom. So, I'll print this out onto a postcard. This will be the front and then the back will be something like this. I'm still trying to work out the design. Um, I was thinking that actually I could maybe replace this with a 3D render and have like some objects from the game and then have the uh the QR code on the sign like this. But, I'm still just trying stuff out at the moment. So, here's how it's looking now. It's still not finished, but I've got the 3D render in there, and I think it looks quite nice. Um, maybe I should do that more often cuz I'm really not good at making 2D art, so maybe I should just stick to doing more 3D stuff and then use that in my 2D designs. Um, I think it's worked quite well there. Um, so it's the next morning already. Sorry, I told you this would be a little bit chaotic, this video. And today I'm going to be mostly just working my way through this list of little to-dos of things that I need to clean up in the game. I've just had a little bit of a wild idea. I was working my way through all these tweaks and I just started thinking, is anyone really going to notice this? maybe a more impactful thing to implement at this point. Would be a whole new distinct fun feature that people can try out at Gamescom. I just feel like that's going to mean more to people probably. Maybe. Anyway, I was just brainstorming it and I think I might be just about to implement maple trees and maple syrup production, which is something I've had planned for a while. I just wasn't planning on implementing it yet, but maybe I should. So, I finished implementing the functionality. I haven't done any work on the artwork yet. So, lots of placeholder art at the moment, but I have now added these maple trees to the game, which you can grow in your farm. And when they're fully grown, you can attach these syrup tanks and they automatically attach themselves to the tree. Bit hard to see, but you can see it there. And then over time, they will slowly fill up with syrup. I'll just speed that up so we can see that happening. And then when you're ready to harvest, you can get these empty bottles and you can just fill them up from the tanks with the maple syrup, which you can see here. Now, I must admit, I got halfway through this update and I suddenly thought there's no way that you just stab a tree and maple syrup comes out, right? So, I Googled it, which I probably should have done first. And of course, there's another step. You have to boil the sap to get the syrup. So, I might have to add that extra production step in at

some point, but for now, we're just going to have to imagine that these tanks are somehow also boiling the sap. Anyway, I'm going to implement all the artwork now. So, all the artwork's finished. I've got all new models for everything, new icons as well. And when you harvest the syrup, I've added a nice effect. In the last video, I showed you these pins that I'd ordered to give away at Gamescom, and I said I wasn't particularly happy with the quality because they're essentially just a bit of paper with some clear plastic over it. So, I tried again and I ordered some proper enamel pins this time and they have just arrived and I love them. They're so cute. This is much more what I was expecting when I ordered the first lot of pins. So, really, really happy with these and I've got 150 of them to give away at Gamescom. I spent most of the day today finalizing the design for the card, which I found quite difficult. I'd much rather be programming. I'm not very good at 2D design, but I think it turns out okay. This is the front and this is the back. So, that's done and I can send that off to be printed. Now, it's a couple of days later now. Preparations are all still going well. I've mostly been spending time on implementing one final feature that I think would be good to get in before Gamescom, and that's to do with temporary boosts that you can get. But I'll show you that working once it's finished. I've also been doing a lot of work on the Steam page because obviously I need to get that up before Gamescom. So, I've just been getting together all the images and screenshots and making the gifts that I need for that. And that's really nearly finished now. And then this morning, I also just made a quick video about the maple syrup update so that I can post that on my social medias. I finished the buff system now. So, let me give you a quick demonstration. So, I've added these cookies into the game, and there's lots of different types, and each type has a different temporary buff associated with it. And you'll be able to get these cookies from various different places in the game, mostly as rewards from some of the town features. And then you can activate this boost whenever you want. And you do that by eating the cookie. So, you'll probably want to wait till a good time to activate it. And then once you've eaten it, the buff is active. You can see it up here on the left and it tells you how much longer is left of the boost. And this particular cookie gives you double items when harvesting. So, if I now go and harvest some vegetables, you'll see that I get twice as many. Doing something a bit different next day. Uh, I'm just about to film an instructional video showing how to grow broccoli micro greens because one of the things that I'm giving away at Gamescom are these little seed packets. Um, they've got a label on. This is just a draft one and that's going to have a QR code on it that will lead to this video um so that you can get instructions about how to grow your seeds. Just finished work on the homegrown steam page finally. That's a big weight off my mind. I've sent that off to Steam now to be reviewed. Hopefully that will be accepted in the next few days. Um, and obviously by the time this video goes out, the Steam page will definitely be live, so you can check it out now. And if you can, it would be fantastic if you could wishlist Homegrown on Steam. It really does help out a lot. So, I'd be very grateful. So, due to a bit of unfortunate scheduling, I actually have to go to hospital today to have a bit of surgery. very minor. Nothing serious at all, but I'm probably going to have to stay overnight because it's under general anesthetic. So, a bit annoying, but I'll take my laptop with me and maybe I can get some stuff done while I'm there. So, back to work today after my little hospital break. Surgery all went fine. Um, but I didn't get anything done while I was there. I was just a bit sleepy from all the medication. So, I'm a little bit behind schedule now and uh I need to try and get a lot done today. So today I've been editing that micro

green growing instruction video that I filmed the other day and that's now finished and uploaded. So I can now print out the proper labels with the correct QR code. And I've just been working a bit on name tags because I'm not going alone to Gamescom. I'm going together with my partner and a few friends who have very kindly taken time off work to come and help me. So, I'm very grateful about that. And um I've just been making our name tags. So, I'm back working a bit more on the edible buffs now. I've just been creating a few different cookie models so that I can add some new buffs to the game. And I've also just been working on this model here. This is going to be for the traveling salesman shop. And this is where you're going to be able to buy some of those cookies. Um, this is going to be a shop that appears now and again in the town area and every time it appears it's going to have a random selection of items for sale and they're items that you can't get from any of the other shops. Just finished implementing it into the game now. So, the traveling salesman turns up every Wednesday in the town. He comes to this field on the left here. And for now, he just offers you a random choice of two cookies every week, and you can choose whichever one you think will give you the most benefits at the time. I've just been implementing a simple music system for the game so that I can have some background music playing. And I'm working together with Jamal again for Homegrown. Jamal made the music for my previous game, Aquinox, and he's already got started on the homegrown soundtrack. So, I've just got his music playing in the background of the game now. The cards have finally arrived. The ones I was designing earlier in the video, hundreds of them. I can't remember how many I ordered, but there are loads here. Definitely going to have some left over. Um, but it looks really good. I'm really happy with the quality of the prints and um relieved that they finally arrived cuz there's like less than two days before we leave. So very happy with that. Just been back implementing a few new types of cookie buffs. So I've added the sprinkles cookie. This one allows you to water entire vegetable beds in one go while it's active and it lasts for 2 minutes. And then this one, very powerful. It guarantees that you get premium quality produce when you're harvesting. Um, it only lasts for 5 seconds, though, so you've got to be pretty quick to make the most of it. So, my partner's just got back from printing all the seed labels. We've got 100 empty seed packets here and then two big bags of seeds. And we now just need to put it all together, which is probably going to take a while. We do actually have some friends coming around in a bit though, but I don't know. I can't put them to work on it, can I? So, the preparations are almost over. It's the final evening before we set off tomorrow. Just been putting some polishing touches to the game this afternoon and also just sorting out everything that we're going to take with us this evening. We're actually having a little team meeting with the friends who are coming with us to Gamescom. Just going to be telling them everything they need to know about the game and just discussing what the plans are for Gamescom. And then yeah, tomorrow we'll be setting off on our little adventure. So today is the day that we set off all of the preparations. Pretty much done now. We had a really nice evening last night, the team evening. Um, played a lot of homegrown. Also, one of my friends who came, Peter, he has a 3D printer at home, and he's been using it to make these really cute models from the game, uh, which we're going to use for decoration at the stand at Gamescom. He also made these lovely golden coins. I don't know if it comes across on camera, but they're really shiny. They look very cool. And um he's actually made loads of these, so we'll probably be able to give some away. Um he's also been very busy cuz Peter's also helped make the website, which is looking amazing. So a big thank you to him for that. The Steam page is of course now live. So if you can please do wishlist the game on Steam, that would be amazing. And then yeah, let me show you all the other stuff that we're taking with us. We've got lots of stickers. the new pins, of course. I love these. Then we've got some t-shirts. These are just for us to wear, not to give away. We've got 100 seed packets at the moment. I would like to make some more. Um, but I ran out of bags. I've ordered

some more. If they come in time, I'll make some more. Then the cards of course, some knitted vegetables for decoration, the uh the name tags, and then throat tablets, which we were recommended to bring because you have to talk so much at Gamescom. I've actually already been using them cuz my throat has been very painful since my surgery last week, uh, which has been a bit annoying. You might be able to still hear it in my voice. I'm hoping it's going to get a bit better before Gamescom starts, but we'll see. But anyway, that's not going to stop me from enjoying it because I've been preparing for this for a few months now. I'm very excited that it's about to start. So, yeah, let's go.