Harvest Island Inspired by Games Like Stardew Valley
Hello!
Harvest Island
Hello, I’m Yobob. The developer of Harvest Island which is inspired by games like stardew valley, animal crossing, harvest moon, rune factory, and graveyard keeper. Wow, that’s a lot of inspirations to take out from. I’m also taking inspirations from other games as well like the legend of zelda in creating puzzles. This game is very story focused and has a mix of a lot of different elements taken from the list of games above.
Harvest Island Story
Harvest Island is about a young boy, Will, who lives with his father, Greyson, and his little sister, Samantha, on an island. Will, the main character, thinks about what’s on the other side of the ocean. Are there people besides him? Is the world small or big? As a young boy, he seeks an adventure and is willing to go to dangerous places of the island to find his answer. Samantha tags along with Will and reluctantly he takes her along. As they explore the island together, Will and Samantha will collect many unusual things from the island such as horseshoe crabs, shrimp, iron ore, and most commonly of all, twigs. Every now and then, Will and Samantha will offer what they collect to the gods for Bless which is required by the family. Sometimes these items will help Will find his answers and sometimes these items are just for the gods. Follow Will’s adventure as he looks for answers beyond the island.
Harvest Island Music
When I first started developing Harvest Island, it was in April for the Steam Summer Festival. I had two months to finish and publish a demo. That was a lot of work for a solo indie developer. I say that because I have to work on the art, programming, music, and just about everything that makes a game, a game which I spend about 10 hours a day. I don’t even take breaks off during weekends because I just love game development a lot.
While I was working on Harvest Island music, there’s this piece that I wrote and couldn’t stop listening to my own work because it sounded so relaxing and nice to listen to.
A Peaceful Place In The Nightly Woods
The piece is called “A Peaceful Place In The Nightly Woods” and it took me nearly 3 days to write. This is a piece that I love so much. It has a playful charm to it. Most video games now when you explore during the night, the music becomes creepy, or ominous, and the speed of the music slows down. Or there’s rarely anything exciting in the music. We’ll just hear the background sounds like the crickets chirping or the owl hooting. I took a different direction with this and decided to have the music drive the player to explore into the night without being too afraid of the dark. Which fits very well with the main character, Will, who really likes to go out and explore. There’s a lot of relaxing music in Harvest Island. Enough to go to bed with it leaving it on! Ohhh that’s a good inspiration for me to write my next piece! A song that you can fall asleep to.
I’ll keep adding music to Harvest Island and share them with you as the game progresses forward. Maybe I should take musical inspirations from games like stardew valley. I’ll keep you updated!
Harvest Island Screenshots
These are the screenshots I’ve took from the game. It’s brand new and isn’t on my steam page. If anyone had gotten the chance of play Harvest Island during the steam summer festival, you’ll notice that that there’s a little bit more content. The new god statue that Will is offering to the gods and more areas where you can fish. I’ve added tons of different spices of fish that you can catch in different parts of the island and each fish will be easier to catch or harder to catch depending on the rarity the fish is.
With all that being said, there’s still a lot of content I want to add to Harvest Island and I’ll keep you updated on those!
Game Development World Competition
My game has been featured in GDWC. That’s big news for me! Being a solo indie game developer, it’s difficult to market your own game when you don’t have the budget to spread to the world. I’ve been developing video games for 3 years now and not a single game has gotten me that success level I wanted but I’ve learned a lot as a game developer from those games I’ve made: what makes a good game, how to publish a game, and learning how to market a game. I even learned how to web design! Such as this blog! You should check out Yobob Games I’ve published.
I’ve spent 3 years on developing games. With all those years I have, making games is a lot easier compared to when I started for the first time. At first, I spent my summer trying to learn how to put art into my video game. Yeah, the very basics. After months of figuring out a lot of things, I find it easy to create games. But not marketing. That’s very difficult.
When I first started marketing my game, I was shouting out into the world just like the other indie devs that started out at first. Now, I’m taking my time to build my fan base. I think it’s important for people to understand that it takes a lot of time to get your game out into the world. I’ll be doing blogs about Harvest Island’s features, updates, inspirations that I took from games like stardew valley, and whatever I think is important for you guys to know such as this important information about Harvest Island being in a contest!
One important big news I want to share is that Harvest Island was featured in GDWC. Basically, GDWC is a competition to see what indie games are the best. I’ve also applied to IndieCade which is another video game competition. Fingers crossed on the outcome!
I’ll keep you guys updated on this!
GDWC
Praying to the indie gods that I'll win this Game Development World Competition
The 5 Month Marketing Marathon
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Here’s where everything will start. Where this blog is the beginning of the 5 month marketing marathon. I call this movement the 5 month marketing marathon because it’s the beginning of Harvest Island’s marketing strategy where I do blogs about harvest island, promote it on social media, and doing anything I can to get the word out. It’s difficult alone, and I could use your help! Just say, hey, there’s a new game that’s being developed and apparently it’s inspired by games like stardew valley! And it has a focused story!
Learning from my previous mistakes on how to get my game known, I’ve decided to put a lot of spit and shine to make Harvest Island stand out and hopefully it’ll shine just enough that someone can see it and say, “wow, that game looks fun.”
I’ll keep doing blogs like this and update you guys on what features I’ve added or anything that’s very important to the game development. So, add me on all the social media and wishlist Harvest Island on Steam!
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