Cow Breeder

INTENT STATEMENT:

For this project, I wanted to create a system that encourages friends to use each other as resources, allowing them to obtain grandiose objects.

RESEARCH AND INSPIRATION:

For this project, I  created a small version of a cow breeding simulator.  As I looked at social games such as Farmville, I saw that there was the giving of resources, but usually, there was only one person on the receiving end of receiving rewards. For example, in the social Facebook game Game of Thrones: Ascent, the player can send rewards and bonuses to their friends. However, unless their friends send something back, it is only a one way street. Unless friends give to one another, it can become a one way street of gifts.  Therefore, I decided to find a way that both friends could use each other for resources. As I looked at Farmville, I realized how for a game about farming, there is little to do about animal breeding. It seemed really odd for a game about farming not to have anything about animal breeding in the game.  Having decided on the background, I suddenly realized something else to make this more like Farmville, was to get players to want to spend money.  I was influenced by the popular digital distributor Steam, which will tell you about games your friends have bought.  I decided to explore this idea as well and tell the player how much their friends have spent on the game currently. From a gameplay perspective, I hope that this will make the players say “Oh, my friend spent this much money on the game, and he’s a sensible guy, maybe I should spend some money on this game.”

MECHANICS DESCRIPTION:

In this prototype, players are able to breed cows with both themselves and their friends. Players click through the interface in order to breed cows with friends. Players are also allowed to breed alone, but it is far less profitable. Whenever you breed a cow, there is a chance that you will get a rare cow. This chance goes up when you breed with friends, especially if they have more rare cows. However, you only have a limited number  of times they can breed with their friends a day.The game will also occasionally tell you that you could spend money to continue, tempting you by saying that your friends have spent money on this game, giving you incentive to spend money as well.

 

STORYBOARD:

CONTROLS:

Point and Click using the mouse

POSTMORTEM: 

Overall, I think I created something interesting. As my programming skills were still shaky when I began this project, I tried to keep the scale low.  I spent the majority of the project creating the background programming and system balance, so the GUI and art were put to the wayside. However, I still think that the point of the prototype comes through, even with the simple art. I received positive feedback about the idea from my peers, many of whom agreed that that they could see the system I had designed being implemented into  a game like Farmville. Continuing onward, I would try to implement more art in the game, create more ways of player feedback(such as a way of letting the player know they got a rare cow), and add audio cues.