Hello degens. It has been roughly a month since the last devlog, so it seems I am (sorta) getting back into the once a month updates. The project is going smoothly so far!

Project Pages

First, I have published official pages for Fertile Hearts on Itch.io and Ci-en now! These are both outlets to help spread the word and build some initial interest. I want to work on this game for as long as I can, but we are getting to the stage that, by the time I get a first early-access demo out, I need there to be some metric of demand to make sure it is worth it.

There is a tech demo available for download that lets you play around with Miyuki and the farm! > https://zero-senpai98.itch.io/fertile-hearts

So please be sure to follow on the platform of your choice!

Itch.io > https://zero-senpai98.itch.io/fertile-hearts

Ci-en >https://ci-en.dlsite.com/creator/39174

Meet Mei Furukawa (and Miyuki again!)

We have done the initial design work for Mei Furukawa – Miyuki and Hiroshi’s cheerful daughter! Her and the player used to be real close friends as kids, so now that you’re back in the valley, it’s your chance to reconnect and nurture your relationship!

I also got a promo card set up for Miyuki, please take a look!

I have Mei’s sprites in the project and some of the early dialogue work is done:

Menus

The menu currently available in the tech demo was the first-attempt. I had a lot of the artwork separate to try and control animations individually via code, but it was just not working to get it connected right, and resolution adjustments down the road would break it. So, I have took to Aseprite to piece together some awesome sprite assets into a new, cohesive menu:

The whole book and tabs are now one, frame-animated sprite and in my opinion look much better. It isn’t in the screenshot, but I have implemented a move and trash option for your Inventory too!

The tools page is here too. Tool inventory is separate, and they do break, so a separate bag just for them should help you stock up on tools!

Other updates thus far:

• Emotes on over-world sprites for more immersion
• More planning and direction added to Master Design Document
• Bug fixes in multiple places
• Player Name variable now inserts into dialogue

I have some good stuff cooking up towards the 0.0.1 early-access playable demo. Still need to do the weather system, get art for Hiroshi-san, finish up initial dialogues, and implement the Options system and the big one: Save File system.

I will be cross-posting these blog posts over on itch.io and ci-en, so I would greatly appreciate if you’d follow and interact with the pages and help spread the word about the project!

Peace peace~