itch.io

Hey Emily, I'm really sorry for the VERY late reply here, I missed this comment and I feel awful about that. I took a pretty extended break from working on the game because my life got pretty busy and wasn't in a great place mentally. Recently I've been able to get back into working on Haystack again consistently; I've got a list of changes/bugs that I've been working through and it feels good to work on this game again. I'll post an update soon!

Hello! Just messaged you on twitter. You are correct that I'm pretty inactive on there, but I still use it for messaging haha.

Hey Emily! I thought I had replied to you earlier but just realized I missed it. Not to mention it looks like I missed one of your questions from your previous comment. Shame on me! 

"Edit: In the book about Ashanna, Haystack Village is referred to as Harvestville. Is Haystack Village a smaller location within Harvestville or was the latter an old name for the area?"

Oh wow, that needs to be updated. Harvestville was the placeholder town name I used for a while. For a while the game's title was "Harvest Festival" but I decided to change it because of the title similarities with Harvest Moon.

"Understandable, I also like rescue dogs! I just asked because I might try drawing Huxley and wanted to look up reference pictures of his real life counterparts. It's not an issue, I'll find something convincing!" 

Oh, gotcha! If you're looking for a point of reference, I would say a beagle-lab mix is the closest to what I had in mind for Huxley. Something like this. But since he's just pixel art for now, don't feel like you have to be confined to that.

"Speaking of art, I've been working on some potential Marion dream drawings/fan art and I'll let you know when they're done!"

That'd be amazing, I'm looking forward to seeing your fan art!

"Out of curiosity, do Ron and Pamela keep a futon in their drawers or behind their counter during the day? If not, is there a bed in an inaccessible room?"

So, I imagined the door to their room being on the side of the wall (and inaccessible) but in future references I'd like to make each house more personalized. 

"After Millie tells you how to break the boulder and your objective is updated, other NPCs will still discuss the boulder question."

Ah, you're right! I'll update that.

"When Colby responds to the boulder question, he says, "I'd help you break that boulder but my muscles aren't quite what they're used to.". I'd recommend changing it to something like, "I'd help you break that boulder, but my muscles aren't quite what they used to be"

Good catch, thank you! As always, it's a huge help and I'm very grateful for your insights. :)

What part of the game are you in? What does your current objective say? Hopefully I can help you! 

"Understandable! Which type of beagle mix do you think he is?"

To be honest I haven't given it too much thought! I like leaving it a bit ambiguous, I've had rescue dogs where you could see a primary breed but then there's a mix of a few different other breeds that are too hard to pin down. So in honor of them, I'll leave it ambiguous (for now).

And thank you for the grammar/spelling corrections! Those are incredibly helpful. Keira is the correct spelling, so that's a pretty major issue considering that's her name label! Good catch. 

"When you think of what you'd like the updated dream images to be in comparison to the current ones, do any particular details come to mind?"

I'd probably want to keep a more pixelated style but more detailed than the sprites that I'm using, similar to the character portraits that are in the game. I'll likely add an effect that shifts the image around to give a hazy "dream-like" effect. 

"Understandable! My guess was that when children were present, little goodies may have been occasionally hidden for them. Since the village had been lacking children for years and Colby treats the village like family, I thought he might view the player as a newly adopted child of sorts. Perhaps Colby wanted Michael to experience what everyone else did when they were young."

Oh wow, I really like that! I think it adds a lot of much needed characterization for Colby. Would you mind if I used that?

"Edit: Does this seem like a good time to mention any noticeable spelling or grammatical errors? I've seen a few before, but wanted to focus on the more important things first."

Absolutely! If you've noticed any spelling/grammar errors, I'd be interested to see them.

"As for the credits, I forgot to mention that my name is Emily Wise."

Noted! Thanks, Emily!

"Also, which dog breed or mix is Huxley?"

I imagined him as a beagle mix. I grew up with a beagle so I'm biased. :P

"When it comes to additional help, I don't think that I'm a good enough artist to contribute, sadly. Even if I was, I'm sure I'd be rusty. However, I've been wanting to try making fanart for fun. If any of it turns out to be surprisingly good to the point where you'd like to use it, then you'd be more than welcome to! Just out of curiosity, which assets are still needed and for lack of a better term, which characteristics would make them technically and/or thematically addible?"

I would love to see fanart! In terms of fanart that would thematically work in the game, I was planning on re-doing the dream images of Marion and Ashanna, since currently it's just distorted versions of their sprites. But if you do decide to make some fanart I can find some way to incorporate it into the game, regardless of what you makes. :)

"Edit: For some reason, I'm still struggling to decipher 15 10. I've tried using both the door and the ghost as starting points for different combinations."

Ah, sorry, it sounds like it's bugged. I'll do some testing and determine why it isn't working, thanks for your patience.

"Secondly, I found some more money in a tree by the river! Who keeps hiding money and why?"

Haha, there's no reason narrative reason, as of now. I thought it'd be fun to hide a few things for the player to find. :)

"Thirdly, how long should it take for sick animals to recover? Do they need to receive all of their missed feedings or do they require less than that?"

The animal feeding system probably needs to be re-worked a bit. Animals start out with a "mood" rating of 5. Each time they're fed, their mood improves by 1. Missing a feeding decreases their mood by 5. As long as their mood is >= 5, they'll stay healthy. What I likely need to do is add a cap on mood rating and cause the animal to die if they aren't fed for a couple days in a row.

"Fourthly, Orwin tried to give me a burger from a messed up order, but he accidentally gave me pumpkin seeds.

Fifthly, after you dig in the lower right corner of your farm, you can still receive hints about that.

Sixthly, long after the story has ended, Millie will still occasionally invite you to take refuge in her home if needed. Parker will also talk about how the library might have a secret."

Duly noted! Thanks again, I've compiled quite a list of things to fix with your help. :P

"It's alright, neither of those things were an issue!

As for making the sunstone easier to find, perhaps the last five hoe strikes could produce spreading marks like the breaking boulder? "

That's a good idea! I'll write that down.

"When you answered the Marion question, I wondered if that may have implied plans for an "Ashanna Route" and a "Marion Route"?"   

It is not something I've but much thought into, but I do like that idea. 

"As for stamina, I thought 500 was already the maximum because of a notification that says you can no longer lift weights?"

Just checked and you are correct, I forgot I'd set a maximum. So I'll have to look and see why the text is getting distorted once it reaches the maximum.

"When you answered the dating question, for some reason, I started wondering if someone will eventually make a mod in which Marion is dateable or could be forcefully adopted like a pet, lol."

Marion as an adopted pet would be hilarious! I love the idea.   

"I also had some questions about the dark figures in the maze. Were those also villagers? If so, why would they do that and how did they enter before the player?"

They are supposed to be all of the villagers under Marion's spell. Them entering before the player is something I've considered but haven't found an elegant solution for yet. Perhaps I could make the rest of the villagers unable to be found and all of the houses locked during that portion of the game.

"As for the comment about Rusty's house, that came from my second save file in which I already knew to visit at night. Something similar I just noticed was that when I read NALBA on the second save file without having the dream, the secret room won't unlock."

Yep, similarly to thing you noticed about Rusty's house, I added this to prevent the game's sequence from breaking. But it's something I'll put thought into changing.

"Edit #2: I also forgot to mention that if you break into the mayor's house after Joe's memory cycle (for lack of a better term) and touch her dresser, her disembodied voice will still ask you to stop.

Edit #3: Even after you start dating Rusty, he might ask if you're interested in being more than friends."

Both good catches, thanks for bringing them to my attention!

Edit #4: In the first save file, Orwin and Joe died. In the second one, it was Orwin and Ron. Are any other death combinations currently available? Speaking of death, the only downside about resurrection for me is that the villager deaths currently seem to be less important. Are there any disadvantages that I haven't noticed yet?

This is another thing I've gone back and forth with because I want to be able to allow the player to play "normally" after the completion of the story and keep working on their farm but I agree that it does cheapen the deaths. It might be worth coming up with another disadvantage.

"Secondly, I'm having trouble with 12 9. Should I keep moving and digging in different combinations like the other tasks or am I missing something? Does it require more than six strikes?"

It should only require 3 strikes. I just looked at the location and I'm not sure why the clue suggests 12 9, as it's been a while since I worked on that portion. 15 10 seems more accurate, 

"Thirdly, I was wondering how many secrets are left to be discovered."

It sounds like you've discovered a lot what the game has to offer, but there might be some random easter eggs that you haven't found. If you haven't yet, try striking a tree repeatedly with an axe. :)

"Lastly, which types of project assistance would be beneficial? I doubt that I could help with anything else, but some other people might read about it and become interested."

You've provided a lot of assistance to me already, and I'd like to include you in the credits for the game, if that's ok with you. As far as additional help, the main thing I'd need right now would be an artist for the game's scenes/items/characters or somebody who has some experience with C# and/or Unity. Let me know if you think you could help me there! I can pay but unfortunately it wouldn't be much right now.

"Hi, again! This is the same user from the comments section of Nino Kito's video. I was just wondering if you were notified of my last comment. If not, here's a copy of it in case any of it might be helpful: (spoilers)"

Hello again! Sorry I missed your comment on the Youtube video, I've been out of town. Hopefully it's ok that I answer you here.

"Note: Never mind about digging for the sunstone, I just got it! Also, when I tried to get the staff and was caught again, I restarted the day with that item and my objective was still to pass the barrier. I was also wondering if it's possible to uncover more about Marion's backstory and if the main story will eventually be expanded in some way. "

Glad to hear you eventually found it! I'll have to look for ways to make it easier to find in main releases of the game. I recently had somebody else mention a bug they ran into with the staff so I'll have to double check on that. Marion's backstory will definitely be expanded upon, I'd like to make him a more tragic character.

"Edit: I just noticed a glitch in which the word day and the number overlap on screen. It happened sometime after I started raising my stamina to the maximum by waking up, lifting weights, sleeping, and repeating until 500 was reached. It remained for several days before temporarily disappearing, eventually returning, and so on. "

Oh, good catch! I might end up putting a cap on max stamina but I haven't seen that bug so thanks for finding it.

"I noticed another glitch or oversight in which you can't meet Rusty after 8:00 p.m. unless you've noticed that his door is locked and spoken with Elizabeth about it."

I did want to make sure the player tried to enter Rusty's house first and met everybody before continuing the story, but I agree that it needs to be done in a smoother way. 

"Also, when I let Rusty catch me just to see what would happen, the restarted day still had my crops watered and the rocks near Orchid's cave cracked, but the money I earned disappeared and the affair-ending cutscene eventually replayed."

Thanks for catching that. It would appear that the "game overs" present some issues with resetting the day. 

"Yesterday, I forgot to mention that the objective reminder tends to run off the esc screen. Ex, "Find a way to break the boulder in front of the".

Ah, I'm guessing it perhaps isn't correcting properly to different resolutions, I'll make note of that.

"My character is also racing to date everyone, lol. When the option to play as a woman is added to the game, which players will become datable?

(Note: The edits were made to the YouTube comment, they were just mentioned here. These notes were the actual edit to this comment.)"

My plan right now is to have Orwin, Isabella, Fred, and another character or two that hasn't been added yet to be dateable as a woman. A couple characters might be slightly re-designed to make them more appealing lol.

“I find this game so incredibly fun! The characters are all lovely and the overarching storyline is very interesting. The little tree joke was a pleasant surprise, hehe.”

Wow, thank you so much, that makes me so happy to read! I’m very happy you found the tree joke! Just to confirm, did you keep trying after the tree asked you to give up? If not, I would recommend it. :P

“Sadly, I am not able to fund the game right now, but I do hope to see it finished someday, and would love to be able to keep up with updates on it. :)”

Don’t worry at all about funding game. This is just a passion project for me, not a way to make money, so  knowing people are playing and enjoying the game is enough for me. 

“Though I do seem to have found myself a little bit stuck on the "where the red rock and small tree meet" riddle, meaning that I basically have no clue how to go about it :,) I'm not sure if I'm silly or if it hasn't been implemented yet, both of which are perfectly alright :p “

It has been implemented, although I will test tomorrow to make sure it isn’t bugged.

Hint: You’ll need to dig to find it, and look for objects on your farm that stand out. (If you want any further hints/clarification, I’m happy to oblige!)

“But even though it's just an alpha release, I will be sure to replay it to try and advance quicker and to romance a different character (current girlfriend is Susie Jay, she is so lovely).“

That would be awesome. If you have any suggestions/comments, I’m always happy to hear them!

“I also have a question! :D In the full game, will we be able to decide the character's name, gender and appearance? Or is this Michael's story to tell?”

Yep, you will be able to decide all of those things in the full game. Michael is more or less a stand-in character, I want to make sure that in the final version of the game, players can customize name, gender and appearance to create the main character they want. :)

(I plan on having more dateable options as well to appeal to a larger amount of people)

“Thank you for this gem of a game, developer, and thank you for your time if you spent the time reading all of this :)”

Thank YOU for leaving such a wonderful comment, it made my night. :)

Thank you so much, I love Cryptworlds so that's a huge complement! 

Thank you so much! I'm currently working on another project right now but I should be returning to this soon. It will be completed! :)

Thank you so much! The praise is very appreciated, and we definitely hope to expand on the game.

Thank you for playing! Glad to hear you enjoyed it

Thank you for playing! We're glad to hear that you liked it. I really like the ideas you presented for adding the powerups into the boss fight, that's something I tried for a bit but had a bit of difficulty adding it in a way that it didn't soft lock the player. But with a bit more time I think it's something I'd love to add into the game. The feedback is much appreciated. :) 

Thank you for playing! I'm glad to hear you liked it, it means a lot. :)

Thank you for playing! We really appreciate the praise. :)

Very cool, I like the idea a lot. When I was doing the baking, I kept getting a screen saying "End" even though I thought I'd hit all of them, but perhaps I was missing something. Keep it up! 

Excellent! I love that you continued introducing new mechanics all throughout the game, the amount of gameplay that you did was very impressive. The gameplay is very smooth and satisfying. I managed to beat the final boss and it was a great challenge. I'd love to see any future versions of this game that are added. :)

Very creative use of theme. The art and sound fit together really well and I enjoyed this. Nice job!

Very fun game! I love the customization options, was great to play around with. Keep up the good work!

Sorry to hear that, we have heard that the boss battle is too difficult and that is something we’ll have to keep in mind in the future. Thanks for playing our game. 

Great job, I love this! The fire effect was spectacular and the atmosphere of traversing the dimly lit body with the heartbeat pounding was very eerie in the best way. RIP Spleen indeed. 

I had a lot of fun playing this!  Loved the upgrading system, it gave a great sense of progression.  I might have the player move with the platforms that they're standing on to make the platforming a little easier. Keep up the good work!  

This was a lot of fun! Loved the game concept and it was a good challenge. The freezing effect on the UI was a nice touch. I might add in some in-game objectives/instructions to help nudge the player in the right direction. Great job overall!

I love this! Great level effects and the different enemy animations are fantastic. The mimic chest and creature that popped out of the hole were some of my favorites, the latter even gave me a legitimate scare the first time I saw it. Great job :)

Very original game concept, great use of the theme! I loved the characters and animations on the planets. I'd love to see a few more game mechanics added. Well done!

Very cute and fun! I like the feeling of being able to explore the town and make money. You put a lot of work into this and it shows. I think this has a lot of potential to be something that could grow into an even bigger project.

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it and we appreciate your feedback. :)

Great job! Fun concept that's easy to pick up immediately. I had trouble on the level in which you have to get a key in the top left corner of the map (I believe level 4?), but I really enjoyed this.

I love this! Opening animation and music were great, and the game was very fun and creative. The jumping between blocks must not have been easy to program but you did very well with it. There were a couple times on level 4 that I wasn't able to jump to the place that I was intending to, but you did a great job with this

Great job with the art and music design, the pixel art and world object animations were fantastic. I know somebody else already mentioned the issue with soft locking which I experienced as well but these things happen when making a game in such a short amount of time, you've got a great foundation to build from here so keep it up!

Hey everybody!

Over the past couple years I've been learning game development while working on this game. It is still in alpha but it is free for anybody who wants to try it. 

https://jakegosche.itch.io/haystackvillage

Thank you! All comments and feedback are appreciated. :)

Very cool game! I like the sprites and game aesthetic. Had a hard time getting the ball in the air, but perhaps that was just me. Great job!

Very nice game! I liked the multitude of different things that can be done at once, never a dull moments. It might be cool to add some powerups that appear around the level (Better gun, bomb that destroys all humans on the planet, better speed, etc). Keep it up, I liked this entry a lot. 

Cool game, a lot of potential here. The minimalist style really fit the game and gave it a pleasing appearance. I struggled to find the relation to the jam theme, though. Keep at it, I'm interested to see the levels you add.

I like this! Simple but effective. I would recommend adding some alien customers and some background music. The game sprites are great! Keep up the good work

 Wow, this is excellent! The dialogue was great, particularly Commander Randy's constant derisions. The random events added a lot of fun to the game and kept things really interesting. I ran into a few events that gave me a game over, was that due to my previous actions or were they random? This is a really great game, well done!