Dripleaf (Working Title): Devlog

Games
,
#1

Welcome to Dripleaf! A little town populated by cute little dewdrop characters. You play as Dewey, a basic gardener who cultivates and sells crops in their backyard.

This is very unfinished and I have LOTS planned for this game, but as to keep on track I'm trying to stick to implementing the basic features first. Therefore it will look quite bare-bones until I get everything I want into the game. In fact, here's a list I'll cross off as I go along. Has this idea ever been done before? Idk but probably! The point is that I made it though soooo-

Base Features
Functional Inventory - :white_check_mark:
Currency System - :white_check_mark:
Tools - :white_check_mark:
Crop Growth
Selling

Extras
Achievements
Recipes
More Crops
Decorations
Expanded Flavor Text
Cosmetics
Village/NPCs

Man, If Only
Vendors
Home Designing
Levels/Upgrades/Skill Tree

I realized while making this that it is similar to Stardew Valley, haha.

Here's a POC* file for Playdate Pulp:
Dripleaf.zip (4.5 KB)

A - Debug Room
B - Inventory

Feel free to test it on an actual Playdate device on your own time if you so please. I am accepting any and all feedback as long as it's constructive. And I'm aware this isn't a completely new concept, I just want to bring this experience to the Playdate in some way (even if it sits here as a POC forever).

*Proof of Concept

#2

says it can't find a top-level .pdx file. for the sideload

1 Like
#3

Yep, ya gotta open it in playdate pulp :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
#4

I Hadn't Provided A Playdate PDX, But On Second Inspection I Supposed I Should Lol
You Can Open The JSON File In Pulp But That's All At The Moment (And You Could Create Your Own PDX From There If You Wanted)
Next Update I'll Upload The PDX As Well, Though

2 Likes
#5

First Update! - May 31st - 1:43PM EST

In this update, I've completely revamped the inventory using label rather than 2 different sprites for every counter :smiley:
Yeah I spent hours messing with that only to actually read the documentation and realize labels exist. So that took up a good chunk of time. Oops.

Anyway in this update I've:

  • Completely redid the inventory
  • Added basic tools and functions to them
  • Sharon (she/her) who you can get your tools from
  • Corrected water bar
  • Created a working wallet inventory section
  • Made a door to actually leave the debug room
  • New font/dialog box

This is a very productive update so I'll call it v0.2 Productivity
Best name

Anyhow, in this update I'll also provide a full PDX for playdate owners who want to try it on the playdate (Sorry Aaron :laughing:)! Please provide me with feedback on how it runs there if you use it on a playdate so I could possibly alter some things for smoother gameplay.

D-Pad - Walk/Interact
A Button - Debug Room
B Button - Inventory

Playdate Pulp:
PULP_JSON_Dripleaf_v02_Productivity.zip (5.1 KB)

Playdate PDX:
FULL_PDX_Dripleaf_v02_Productivity.zip (41.9 KB)

Edit:
Sharon is probably temporary, or at least temporary in the form she's in now. She'll either be changed or completely removed in favor for some intro sequence at a later date.

#6

Second Update - June 2nd - 3:35pm EST

This isn't a full update, due to my many experiments with my newer project Sussy's Journey, but I am very happy to announce that after hours of trying to find a growing method and failing miserably, I finally got something worked out.

I think the funniest thing about this is it's not even a complicated solution.
Here's what I did:

on begin do
	waittime_s1 = random 5,10
	waittime_s2 = random 10,15
	wait waittime_s1 then
		frame 1
		wait waittime_s2 then
			swap "tomato_farmland_s2"
		end
	end
end

By making the second stage of the crop a frame of the watered crop, which I should've done before, I completely eliminated the need for any timing between two sprites which died down the difficulty a ton. Now everything related to growth is stored inside of one sprite, and the final crop in another so you can harvest it.

I even tried to make the entire growing process in one sprite, but forgot that all variables are global lol
Also 'begin' is called from a menu when you water the unwatered crop.

Anyway not much has been happening with this project, and its become a pain to look at and use when compared to Sussys Journey and how I set that up. Therefore you can 100% expect a rework of Dripleaf's inventory and textures.

That's all I've added this update, I know it's not much but more will come in the next one!
ALSO THE DEBUG ROOM IS REMOVED IT GOT ANNOYING AND I DIDN'T NEED IT ANYMORE LOL

Pulp Battle System Test
#7

Hey! Not an update, but if you have time I would love to hear any feedback on this new inventory system I have. Not sure if I want to completely switch to this or not, so I'd love to hear what you think about it !

image

#8

Heyyyy Yeah, Uh- Update 2.5 June 21st??? Eheheh

Yeah it's been quite a bit, a lot came up and I had to go somewhere for a week then I just got really busy and had a lot of personal issues but luckily they're half worked out now.

On another note, while messing around in Dripleaf, I had ended up triggering a bug. If I'm in a different room while the growing process moves to the next stage, it ends up swapping the x,y tile of that room with the next stage. Yeahhh oopsies! That lead me to be demotivated for a pretty long while and then all that stuff happened-

However I'm back! And I have. a new. plan. /ref
I know my plan for this project was sorta like Stardew Valley- and I think using this next method will make it even more similar.. to...... Stardew Valley...................
But it's a move I'm willing to make because I feel connected to this project and have already planned a lot of it out and would hate to see it go to waste over a simple limitation.

I had a different plan to use the Playdate SDK and then I thought- "I don't feel like it"!
So we're gonna do this woo

Expect more work on this project. And possibly a complete makeover, too.