 No One Can Stop The Farm Pioneer
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First off: thanks for taking the time to read the readme! All too often I go unread. :'(

This game was made for the Video Game Name Generator competition at TIGSource (www.tigsource.com). For more information, see http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=1214.0. It's been a mad-dash sprint the whole way (I'm writing this with 2 hours and 2 minutes before the deadline!), and lots of stuff got removed - we wanted to have the children animate, the branches fall off the tree one by one, multiple planet types with different effects, there actually being a *point* in "collecting" children, etc, but hey. We're pretty happy with it!


So, a few tips:

First of all, the controls.

Cursor keys are movement. When you're in the the spacetruck, up thrusts in your current direction and left/right turn the truck.
Ctrl is for picking things up and dropping them. If you press it next to the truck while you're holding something, it'll put it in the truck. If you press it while in the truck, it'll drop the last item you put in.
Space is for using things. Press it while holding wheat or meat and you'll eat it. Press it while holding wood and you can build your house, repair or refuel your truck, or build a fence.
Alt is for killing things! You can harvest wheat from crops, wood from trees, and meat from cows.

How everything works:
Note: Don't read this if you want to discover the game for yourself! There are a few hidden surprises.

Wheat and trees just sit there and grow, and eventually drop seeds and spawn more of their kind. You can spread the seeds around to different planets to grow more.
Cows eat wheat and produce meat. The hungrier they are the leaner the look and the more their ears sag. If they're hungry at all and they get into your wheat, they demolish it quite quickly! Build fences to prevent this, or put them on different planets!
Your house takes wood to build. Once it's finished you can visit your wife, which brings a beautiful baby into the world. Which you have to take care of.
Children eat wheat and meat. They have to eat to keep alive - meat gives them three minutes of life, wheat 90 seconds, the same as for you - and they need meat to grow. They can grow three times, the first needing one meat, the second two, etc. Once they reach the top age they're almost as tall as you and they count as your "score". Keep as many of them alive as long as you can!

General tips:

Flying your spacetruck can be tricky, but it makes farming work much easier. Don't hold down up, use short bursts. Often flying perpendicular to your planet can be the best way to get around, using the gravity to pull you along. Use it to feed cows quickly by stocking up with wheat and dropping it over the pen. You can use it shift lumber around to build your home, or bring back meat to the home planet for the kiddies' dinner.

When cows give birth they can shoot their babies out over the fences. Kinda stink for the farmer, but it's really funny. You can build extra fences outside the main fences to catch them.

Female cows have a mating cooldown but male cows don't - so the best way to farm them is to butcher the excess males and keep a couple of studs alive to service their ever-growing harem. Lucky for some! Don't let the females get too old though, or you'll end up having them die off and cost you valuable meat.

Trees can take care of themselves quite easily, so it pays to get a few acorns early on and deposit them on your moon or a nearby planet. You can do this with wheat as well.



Thanks a lot for taking the time to play!

From the developers:

Jamie Churchman
Peter Curry
Robert Curry
Lloyd Weehuizen

Thanks to disassembler for the music. Check him out at: http://8bitcollective.com/members/disassembler/

Also huge thanks to all the friends, girlfriends, and wives who put up with our strange obsession that took over the last three weeks! I promise next time to not undertake a game competition while moving house.


Send any feedback, comments, abuse, cheques or money orders to robert.curry@wanderingmonster.co.nz, or post on the TIGSource forums.