Pixel Burrow

• 

  Wheat Farm!

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  Nice stroll across the river

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  Forest

Inspiration

When choosing the gamedev track, we were tasked with making a calm and relaxing game, and what's more relaxing than a calm farming game with cute animals? Our initial idea was more about wind carrying seeds, but we later switched to a more animal-centric design. The game's current state is inspired by other farming sims like Stardew Valley and Story of Seasons/Harvest Moon.

What it does

This is a game in which you play as a bear, carrying seeds from the forest to barren plots of land and restoring plant-life to the area. Currently there is one map, several ambient sounds, a couple sound effects, and background music that builds as you restore more plots (up to 5 as of now).

How we built it

We used Unity to build the game, implement mechanics, etc. Our SFX and BGM were created in FL Studio for this project! Many of our ambient noises came from the BBC Sound archive. Our visual assets came largely from Itch.io (FARM by TibisGamesIndie, Voxel Animals & Items Pack by SonaSar, and Nature Fantasy Voxel Pack by Vedia Games).

Scripts were written in C#.

Challenges we had

This was the first time either of us had used Unity, so we inevitably ran into challenges related to the program and our repository. When setting up the GitHub repository, we encountered an issue in which trying to upload the entire project folder just wouldn't work because there were too many files. We then spent an hour trying to fix this before we finally got the repo setup. Our unfamiliarity with Unity's physics engine has also led to the player character floating slightly, and even to this point we don't fully know why.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud that despite our inexperience with our tools, we have a mostly functional game with some basic mechanics. I am also personally very proud of the BGM, how it builds, and the general soundscape we've crafted in this project.

What we learned

We have become very familiar with Unity, particularly prefabs, and the process of developing a game. I have learned the basics of C# enough to be comfortable writing in it. Through the many QoL features we implemented, I think we've learned a decent bit about prioritization and the importance of allotting more time to key features.

We have also learned a deep disdain for Unity.

What's next for Pixel Burrow

More levels, weather, terrain, probably more original assets, and a win condition. We would also like to add indicators so that players are not guessing how many seeds they have to add. More animal avatars. Expand Wildlife. Maybe a StoryMode.

Built With

• c#
• unity