I absolutely love playing Stardew Valley, but its limited ways of making money often limit my urge to do more. In a farming game, what we usually do is make money and live a leisurely life. So I started thinking, can I not just farm the land, but rely on more ways to make money? Then, this prototype appeared.
Farming games usually set several directions: fishing, farming, animal husbandry, socializing, and more. I set up on this basis: Business (run your own workshop to make money), part-time job (work for others to make money), hire (hire people to make money for you). I have made a design that is closer to life in the social part. For example, if you make friends with the poor, they will be willing to work for you for one day for free; if you make friends with the residents, they will help you more and make the benefits of your work more affordable. Make friends with rich people, they will have a certain probability that they are willing to invest in you, and you may gain additional wealth.
All my designs are based on the idea of being “closer to real life”. Of course, due to the limitations on the card, I don’t have more space to write the original intention of my design, and I can only describe the most straightforward numerical value.
I added a backstory setting for this prototype. To make it playable, I needed to set a goal for the player to pursue. Of course, if this is a complete game with art and animation, then this background may only become a small branch in the huge game. There will be more goals waiting for players to pursue.
The feedback from players is generally: it is quite fun, except that there are more bugsā¹. Although this game looks simple, it actually takes a considerable amount of effort in the program.
Of course, the original theme of the game was: 18cards. But 18 different ways to earn money and socialize is just the tip of the iceberg in a farming game. I look forward to designing more free and fun ways to make money.
Play it here: https://lue2.itch.io/money-earning-simulator