Play game
The Chicken Farm's itch.io pageGame Title
The Chicken Farm
Developer Name
Leslie Zeng
Short Promo Blurb
A text-based game made with Svelte.js that simulates the ecosystem of a chicken farm.
Full Description
The Chicken Farm is a text-based simulation game made with Svelte.js for IndieCade Climate Jam. It simulates the ecosystem of a chicken farm that has chickens, eggs, corn, and manure. Players must sustain the chickens, recycle waste, and steadily grow their colony. The game promotes the idea that waste can be turned into treasure, such as composting chicken manure into fertilizers to boost the corn production or converting it into biomethane for electricity.
Promo Image(s)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LYW0NdskQpSt_hWQ_7-ufsCvIZiQwYZz/view?usp=sharing
Promo Video
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R1UydRlvMIdhG01ZaW-7uzwj5QWbVLWt/view?usp=sharing
Artistic Statement / Use of Theme(s)
I connected the theme of climate change to game system design. A game can sustain its game flow through mechanics and user interactions, similar to how ecosystems function. In my perspective, any game can incorporate climate change themes because they share the same underlying principles.
I chose a chicken farm setting because I have two parrots: a cockatiel and a green-cheek conure, which I consider to be chickens. Greenhouse gases are produced not only by burning fossil fuels but also by farming livestocks. Compared to fossil fuels, I believe livestock farming has a greater potential for converting waste into green and sustainable energy, such as biogas.
Development Summary
I work as a solo developer. My initial plan was to focus entirely on system design and gameplay. For visual design, I intended to concentrate on the user interface. Therefore, I chose to develop my game using the lightweight JavaScript framework Svelte.js, instead of a game engine.
During the ideation phase, I created a game flowchart and defined the core elements and their relationships: chickens, eggs, meat, and corn. In the prototype phase, I implemented the basic functionality based on this flowchart. During the production phase, I added the final core element: manure. In the last week, I incorporated audio into the game based on the feedback.
Release Plan
I would be interested in releasing the game on Steam, Apple store, and Google Play.
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Comments
Fun farm management game. Unlike most management games it is not about making money, but instead the goal is just sustaining the farm. This means there is not really any point of the farm, besides staying alive, which turned out to be pretty hard. There is no clear connnection to neither climate change nor the theme. Unfortunately, the game does not work on Firefox and Mac. So I tried it on Chrome instead, where it works fine. Sound and graphics are effective but limited.
I only wish the game was longer - the management was terrifyingly brilliant until I found my rhythm - at which point there were no more challenges or surprises.
I never thought an unfolding incremental clicker game would force me to face the horrors of chicken manure. the minimal presentation leaves a lot to the imagination, but even imagination struggles to frame the scale of this crap. towards the end¹ I could not keep up with the shite, but it wasn’t really a problem as new eggs hatched faster than sick chickens died.
this is a great example of how a seemingly simple game can illustrate the absolutely terrifying reality of exponential growth.
¹: not that there is an end, I just mean the end of what I could stomach. I think the lack of an ending really drives home the point.