Forgotten Fields News

Hi!

The latest patch (v0.1.3a) brings some major gameplay changes to the demo. After taking player feedback, and working on later levels of the game, I gained a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the gameplay in Forgotten Fields.

For starters, the janky first person "mindspace" sections have been removed. It was obvious that these were the weakest parts of the game and were also difficult to polish. As I worked on the later levels, I added some story driven puzzles (almost "side quest" like in design) that had choices and could be solved in multiple ways with different solutions, that I felt made the game way more interesting, and I realized the demo paled in comparison to the new bits.

The demo now consists of one of these puzzles - retrieving the tools from the next-door neighbor is a more involving affair than just talking to him and responding to a QTE. Now the player must resolve a spat between two neighbors, and this can be done in multiple ways.

Here's some screenshots from this puzzle -








Try it out if you haven't yet! And let me know if this update has brought up any unforeseen bugs.

-Armaan

Hi!

The latest patch (v0.1.3a) brings some major gameplay changes to the demo. After taking player feedback, and working on later levels of the game, I gained a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the gameplay in Forgotten Fields.

For starters, the janky first person "mindspace" sections have been removed. It was obvious that these were the weakest parts of the game and were also difficult to polish. As I worked on the later levels, I added some story driven puzzles (almost "side quest" like in design) that had choices and could be solved in multiple ways with different solutions, that I felt made the game way more interesting, and I realized the demo paled in comparison to the new bits.

The demo now consists of one of these puzzles - retrieving the tools from the next-door neighbor is a more involving affair than just talking to him and responding to a QTE. Now the player must resolve a spat between two neighbors, and this can be done in multiple ways.

Here's some screenshots from this puzzle -








Check it out if you haven't played the demo yet!

-Armaan

Just a quick update to let you guys know that Forgotten Fields is a part of the Yogscast Tiny Teams festival! If you haven't played the demo yet, try it out now! Or if you have, go check out some of the other great games and exclusive demos that are a part of this festival: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/tinyteamsfestival

The demo for Forgotten Fields can be found here- https://store.steampowered.com/app/1296980/Forgotten_Fields/

See you next time!



Armaan

Hi!

Welcome to the first devlog for Forgotten Fields! During the development of Rainswept, I kept quite a regular and detailed record of development through posts like these (24 of them!) and they were great not only for sharing information about my development process, but were also a great way of arranging my own thoughts about the game and feelings about the game's development. Kind of like a journal.

Development of this game has been quite different from that of Rainswept in many ways, and the lack of devlogs this time is one of them. I've just had my mind completely on making the game, and haven't had the time and energy for the other important bits like sharing progress on social media and here, through devlogs. Being only a handful of months away from release, we may not get more than a half dozen posts out, but something is better than nothing!

After wrapping up a successful Kickstarter campaign, I've hunkered down and put myself completely into making progress with the game. At the end of the demo, Sid reaches his friend Ethan's house - he's supposed to pick up some papers here, for his childhood home that's about to be sold off.

This area is much bigger than the previous two scenes, and is one where I feel like the game really shines. There's a few "quests", some interesting gameplay, and some warm, peaceful areas to explore outside Ethan's house as Sid waits for the paperwork to be finished.

But more importantly, you can pet the dog -

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Apart from being a fun feature that everyone loves in games, and one that improves any game, I feel that having a pettable dog really adds to that warm, cozy and homely feeling that I'm going for with Forgotten Fields.

Another cool, fun feature that has been added to this area is a couple of NPCs playing football in the streets. If you've ever been to Goa, you'll immediately relate to the goal posts being indicated through bricks and slippers! Is this something you do in your part of the world too?

Here's a video showing the step by step process of how I went about adding details to this -

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Finally, this devlog is numbered 0 because I wanted to keep this first, intro devlog short and focused on the introduction while also compiling the above (previously shared on social media) couple of clips here. I'll be posting the next one a few days after putting this one up, but I didn't want to merge the two as that would make it too long.

See you in the next one!

Armaan

Hi everyone!

Just a short update to let you know that the demo for Forgotten Fields is now live on Steam! Try it out and let me know what you think of it :)

Hope you like it!

Armaan