TomeSpire 07/01 Sprint Retro

We’re back! Did you miss us? Did you miss the soup? I understand some people look outside (if they’re in the Northern Hemisphere), see that the deadly space laser is ablating all exposed surfaces and think to themselves that it is not soup season.

Dear reader. It is always soup season in our heart and soul. If you believe in the power of the broth, forever and ever, ramen.

It’s been a month since our last update! You might ask yourself (is this my beautiful house?) whether we’ve gotten a lot done. No! That’s not how a vacation works! We spent the majority of it on a boat, enjoying beautiful places with beautiful friends and significantly less soup than I would have liked.

But what is the ocean if not the biggest, wettest soup?

Okay So What Did We Actually Get Done?

Signing a deed to buy a plot of land.

The theme of this first sprint back was economy. It’s all fun and games to make a Tome Menu, but a game lives or dies by what it is you actually do in the core game loop. For a game that’s trying to live in the same neighborhood as Cookie Clicker and other idle incrementals, it’s about one thing: number go up.

How, exactly, number go up? That’s what makes the game. The more ridiculously circuitous the path, the more interesting it’s likely to be. Thus: economy.

Each region coin now. Unlock plot, grow crop, get coin. Use coin buy thing. Thing make crop better. Yes. Good.
Use coin buy plot. Sign deed. More plot more crop. Yes. Good.
Use coin unlock region. More region more plot. More plot more crop. Different region different crop. Yes. Good.
Old game too many plot. 384 plot. Sad face. Now game less plot. 96 total. Yes. Good.
Old game too many region. Not many crop. Make at least 4 crop per region. Validate region system. Yes. Good.

The Broth, or The Foundation of Things, or What Would I Want To Have Known Before This Sprint If I Could Have Known Them

A pixel art garden plot contains rows of carrots, cabbages, and pumpkins surrounded by hay bales. A white border slowly flashes.

If it wasn’t for the last minute, nothing would ever get done.
- Wait. Does this validate the existence of deadlines as a methodology for motivating work?
- Fuck.
- Dude I hate that for us.
Game Feel is hard to get right. That’s why there’s a whole book about it. Unfortunately Ash isn’t allowed to read (it’s part of the contract), and I’ve been too busy. So it’s sitting on my Aspirational Pile of Game Design Books.

The Bread, or The Accoutrements, or Other Things That Go On The Side And Are Also Good Maybe But Aren’t Really A Meal On Their Own

A small patch of tilled soil contains young sprouting crops arranged in a grid pattern, bordered by a wooden fence. They wiggle.

There’s a shader to make it more obvious when crops are ready to harvest, but also it sort of makes them look haunted. I promise I had no influence on this design or idea.
There’s a tween so it’s visible when crops are growing. Don’t worry if you don’t know what a tween is. Just know that the crops can wiggle.
There’s toggles for the various action types you might want to take, making it easier to control what a click does or does not do. If you want to be able to plant and harvest but not till the soil, that’s possible now. Makes it harder to mis-click in ways you didn’t intend.

If the Ocean is a Soup, as I Think We All Must Recognize, is it a Stew or a Bisque?, or The Things Coming Next, or That Which I Naively Believe We Might Actually Be Talking About Next Time

XP’s still broke y’all. I could pontificate on this, but I won’t.

Hey. Did you know the prototype’s coming out soon?

WHAT?

That’s right. The whole point of this crazy experiment was time-limited prototypes, trying to deliver something interesting in a season, give or take. Twelve sprints, and we’ve only got two left!

That means what’s left is polish, and getting the game ready to go up on itch.io.

Now, because you love us, you might be asking yourself: “self, how can I help those nice boys at TomeSpire so they can keep writing unhinged update posts about soup, moths, and soup moths?”

Thank you for asking.

Tell people about us! Do you know someone who might like our brand of weird? Send them a link to our website, this blog, the discord. Put it in front of their eye spheres. Wiggle it around. Give it a funny voice. Tell them it will eat their dreams.
Sign up for our email newsletter! I’m working on the first edition right now. It’ll be filled with weird, fun stuff we’ve found. Listen, y’all, I know everyone wants into your inbox. But we’ll be real good, we promise.
Follow us on itch.io! Until we get big enough to have a Steam page (sighs wistfully), this is the place you can find the things we make. If you’re already on the itch platform, why not give us a follow there too?

This particular unhinged endeavor only remains possible through the support and generosity of the community of weirdos that continues to not hate us, for which I will be eternally grateful.