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The first field with fresh soil and seeds
Picture of the day

Your first farm plot in our cozy pixel RPG

From crash site to home

When you first arrive on Veyl, you don't have much: a broken ship, a few things you picked up along the way, and the hope of somehow making a life here. This week we worked on the moment where that starts to change. You mark out a small patch of land, grab your hoe, and plant your very first field.

That first plot is small on purpose, nine by nine tiles. In our first playtest it was much bigger, and it was easy to lose track of where you were aiming. Now you can take it all in at a glance, and it feels like a garden instead of a construction site.

Till, sow, listen

Tilling the soil at the edge of the first field
Tilling the soil at the edge of the first field

You work the soil tile by tile with your hoe. One click hits exactly the tile you mean, whether you play with mouse and keyboard or with a controller. We spent a lot of time on this, because nothing is more annoying than a hoe that lands one tile off.

Freshly tilled soil is dark, somewhere between rust red and deep brown, so it stands out clearly against the red ground of Veyl. Your seeds sit in your backpack, three small pale grains, and you scatter them right into the fresh earth. What grows from them is something we'll show you soon.

We wanted every action to feel good in your hands. So now everything has its own sound: the swing of the hoe, the dig into the dirt, and sowing your seeds.

Dig wherever you like

With your hoe you can dig holes anywhere, in grass or in sand
With your hoe you can dig holes anywhere, in grass or in sand

While playing around we noticed something: once you're holding a hoe, you want to dig everywhere. So now you can. In grass or in sand, your hoe digs a hole in the ground, and you can fill it back in just as easily. Afterwards the spot looks the way it did before.

One thing isn't quite where we want it yet: right now your hero still swings the hoe like an axe. We're working on a proper motion where the hoe really strikes down into the ground.

What else is happening, more on that soon

  • We can now hide items anywhere in the world, behind a rock or in tall grass, and decide what a creature drops. If you're lucky down in the mine, you'll sometimes come across something special.
  • Our cliff walls are getting freer shapes and new rock colors, so not every cliff looks the same.
  • Your own houses and a house to start out in are in the works.

See you soon,

Tini & Marko