Build notes from CropCorp, written as the work happens. Balance data, bugs worth the retelling, and the occasional thing that only broke because it was funny.
The game had a first act and then a cliff. It now has a second one. Clear a chapter and the field itself grows , in every direction, like a ring on a tree trunk — and the new ground is dressed as won…
Two of the day's jobs were the same bug wearing different clothes, which is becoming a theme here. Villagers steer directly with no pathfinding, so a worker who ended up on the wrong side of your own…
Up to this point CropCorp was silent, and a silent tower defense is a spreadsheet with a camera on it. It now has music that knows what phase you are in: one village tune, arranged four ways — prep,…
Capping hero aggro let a wave reach the granary for the first time, and that one change pulled three long-standing numbers out into the light. Each of them had been quietly calibrated for a game that…
The run had no shape. Every measurement said the same thing: a flat line and then a cliff. Nothing happened for fifteen days, and then the granary fell in a single wave. That is not a difficulty…
Until this morning the farm was decoration. Turrets arrived free, one a day, whether or not the village milled a single plank — so the entire economy sat beside the tower defense rather than feeding…
CropCorp stopped being a defence prototype tonight. There are villagers now, and they work for themselves. You do not order individuals about. You set how many bodies go on each job — woodcutter,…
Mechanics being correct and a game feeling good are different problems, so the next pass was entirely about impact. Swings now land with knockback, a very short freeze on contact, a camera shake that…
The prototype went from an empty project to a playable wave in a single session. The whole thing is C++ with essentially no authored art — every object on screen is an engine cube tinted from a…