Congrats on the release!
I think this is the first time I see a no-music option for download:
FactoryFarming_v1.pdx.zip 19 MB
FactoryFarming_NoMusic_v1.pdx.zip 390 kB
Very interesting to see that size difference! Worth considering for future releases, possibly automated with a bash script to empty the music folder, for example
Thanks, and yes when you break it down, its a huge difference. These are uncompressed numbers.
Game: 152k, sound effects: 216k, graphics: 19k, fonts: 12k, music (6 tracks, mono ADPCM WAV): 22,400k.
There was a little bit of extra code needed such that the game can handle the music files not being present without crashing, but worth it. At release it then is indeed as simple as deleting the music folder from one of the zip file, so easy to automate - yes!
I finished my end-project writeup of the development process of Factory Farming, you can find it over on my site
I still had some small areas I wanted to work on post-launch, and I found a way to further improve the game's performance on the hardware, so I just pushed a v1.1 update.
There are now graphics for conveyor belt corner pieces!
Plus lots of other new features and improvements, full details on: Factory Farming v1.1 Update - Factory Farming (Playdate) by timboe
One more thing - I just released the free Factory Farming Technology Demo! (based on v1.1), you can download it for free on the itch page (just above), I attach it also to this post, here:
FactoryFarmingTechDemo_v1.1.pdx.zip (19.6 MB)
In this technology demo you can explore one of my facilities, see what the game is like and how it performs. You can walk about, interact with buildings and cargo. You can also earn income via selling cargo, and visit the shop. The only things you can't do are build new buildings, demolish existing buildings, or save the game.
You can install the Technology Demo even if you have bought & installed the main game, it's classed as a separate PD application and will get its own entry in your list of games.
Here's the demo-facility I put together. It's not the most sophisticated factory complex - but I wanted to limit myself to using primarily factory buildings and crops up to Tech Tier 3, so as not to spoil the mid- and late-game progression too much.
I expect this will be the final big update here, at least for a while... This has been a fun project but I'm now considering it to be completed.
Huge thanks to Panic! Not just for the device but for all the tooling surrounding it. The C-API had almost everything I needed (thank you for the efficient rendering sprite system!) and I encountered minimal bugs/strange behaviours from it.
I was really not at all sure early on if the PD could run a simulation like this on the sort of scales needed to make a meaningful automation simulation game. Not just due to concern about spare CPU cycles for the sim part, (outside of rendering lots and lots of moving cargo), but things like cache access too - there is quite a lot which could have quickly started to cripple performance.
But in the end the little box more than exceeded my expectations, it's a real joy to be able to plan out then build large-scale processing facilities - all on the tiny little thing!
I have another (non-Playdate) project which is at something like 90%-done levels and needs finishing next. After that... I do have another project in mind (something completely different), unsure yet if it is going to be for PD or not.
