Most idle games have only one main “farmable” resource. It’s either just cookies, or eggs, or plain old money… you know how it goes. Back in 2018 I had this simple idea of making a small idle game where you could collect multiple resources, and use previous resources to unlock new ones. I named the project Tiny Acres.
In Tiny acres, you start the game with a rundown shack and a patch of grass. If you tap the patch of grass, you get one piece of grass. Eventually you get enough grass to patch up an old ax, which you can use to get wood. It’s the classic resource progression from other survival games, but this time these mechanics are in an idle game. As you unlock more resources, your shack gets visually upgraded until it is a cute, fully functional house!
There’s nothing revolutionary about it – at it’s core, it’s just an idle game I decided to make by myself. Even while being so small, the workload is quite a lot for a single developer. I can safely say that the bulk of development was made in mid 2018, while I was still somewhat free before my trip to the great white north.
After I moved the pace changed dramatically. With a new life ahead of me, having to attend classes, look for part time jobs, and generally survive in an alien country, I found myself with very little time to work on the game. Not only that but on one of the very rare times I could sit down and work on, I ran into an issue that made every new android build crash upon startup, and that made me put the project on hold.
Recently I found some time to work on it again, and decided that i’ll start by releasing a free version of the game on itch.io, and eventually release it on the google play store (also for free), now that I acquired a really good asset for mobile games. I just need to find the time to figure out how it works! As soon as things settle a bit i’ll do my best to release a first version on itch. Not sure how long that will take, as I still have quite a few art assets to make, but it definitely feels like this project is way overdue. For now, i’ll leave some screenshots here!
As with most of my personal projects, the entirety of the game is being made by me.
Igor Hatakeyama 