Homegrown Update 0.4.8 - New Icons!

Recently I developed an icon generation system that can programmatically create the item icons in Homegrown. Not only has this allowed me to quickly update a lot of the old icons, but it also allows for tool icons to update when you upgrade their stats!

Gamer Tier+ patrons can download and play Homegrown here.

And for Programmer Tier+ patrons the code is available here.

Gamer Tier+ patrons can also try out some simple mod creation here.

Upgradeable Tool Icons

The new icon system assembles a 3D model of the tool behind the scenes and renders it to a texture to create the icon. The tool model can be assembled and coloured in different ways, leading to many variations for each tool icon. This allows me to generate a slightly different looking icon for every possible stat combination for that tool, so now when you upgrade your tools you'll see the icon changing to reflect that!

For a full explanation and demonstration of the system, check out my latest devlog video.

This new feature will go some way to making the upgrade system feel a bit more satisfying. Plus, with your tools physically changing with every upgrade you should hopefully feel an improved sense of progress. You start of with rather dull, broken tools, but as you progress through the game and spend more money on them, they become more and more impressive.

I've spent quite a while making model variations for the tools, but I haven't done them all yet. Most of the tools currently have visible changes up to around tier 6. I also haven't quite figured out how to use the colour changes yet. For many of the tools the tool material is controlled by the speed stat, so as you upgrade the speed of your tool you'll see its colour changing. This is probably what I'll do for all of them in the future, but there are currently a few exceptions.

Other Icons

Many of the other icons in the game have also been updated. They now have a cel shaded look and a dark outline. A definite improvement over the old icons!

A few haven't been changed yet though; mainly the seeds and the fertilizer items. These icons are slightly trickier as they have an image on them - a picture of the plant for the seed icons, and the tier number on the fertilizer icons. These icons currently can't be generated by the new icon system so I'm still working on a solution for them.

Coming Up...

This week I'm starting work on the final UI that needs to be overhauled: the upgrade shop. Just a few improvements to make there, and then the entire UI update will be complete! Then it will be back to gameplay for the next few months :)

Thank you as always for your continued support!

Karl