Games we made
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Farmerama — casual game
Farmerama is a farm-inspired simulation and is Bigpoint’s flagship casual title. Players cultivate the land and raise a variety of animals to continuously develop a prosperous farm whilst building fruitful relationships with other players to generate trade. Farmerama has incredibly close links to its community to the point that they have an active role in influencing the development roadmap. An example would be voting for which potential new features should be implemented.
Project Overview
In an industry where player engagement and technological agility are paramount, the case of Farmerama serves as a testament to innovative community-driven game development. Tasked with transitioning the game from Flash to Unity, we not only preserved its cherished core but enhanced its framework for future-proof operability.
Our commitment extended beyond mere maintenance; we spearheaded integrating novel events and mechanics, fostering a robust and engaging user experience. This case study chronicles our journey in fortifying Farmerama's legacy, ensuring its evolution without compromising the foundational values of community, enjoyment, and inclusivity that Bigpoint champions.
Challenges Faced During Development
During the ambitious transition of Farmerama from its original Adobe Flash platform to a robust Unity environment, our team encountered a multifaceted array of challenges:
- Discontinuation of Adobe Flash support. Due to its discontinuation, the strategic shift to Unity required a significant adaptation effort.
- Transition to Unity. This was required due to Unity's comprehensive platform support, optimized performance, advanced gaming capabilities, and large, active development community, which presented a multifaceted challenge.
- Porting results. Despite positive outcomes, the process involved overcoming technical hurdles to retain core mechanics, add new features, and improve performance metrics such as loading times and frame rates.
- Client and user feedback management. Ensuring the enhanced stability and enriched user experience was well-received and matched expectations.
- Documentation and legacy code. The challenge of incomplete documentation necessitated reverse engineering solutions and consultations with QA teams to understand and test legacy Flash mechanics.
Solutions and Approaches
In the evolution of Farmerama from Flash to Unity, our team's role was multifaceted, focusing on development and ongoing maintenance to create a seamless player experience aligned with Bigpoint's core values of fun, fairness, as well as accessibility.
Porting Process
We initiated the project by reviewing the Flash-based game, understanding its mechanics, and planning for its replication or enhancement within Unity. The team’s proficiency in Unity streamlined the transition, negating the need for additional training.
Maintenance and Development
Our ongoing maintenance was pivotal in ensuring the game’s continuous evolution. We carefully modernized the core logic to integrate subsystems efficiently, which enabled the successful addition of new features without compromising the game’s stability.
Event Management
- Regular Event Creation. Our team continues to devise 5 to 7 events weekly, elaborating on a pipeline that can handle rapid development and deployment.
- Mini-Game Development. We introduced innovative mini-games within events, such as Tetris-like puzzles and path-finding challenges, to diversify player engagement.
Optimization Techniques
From the technical perspective, we applied advanced optimization techniques, such as:
- Addressables System. Managed game assets dynamically to improve loading times.
- Sprite Atlases and Asset Bundles. Reduced memory usage and draw calls.
- Object Pooling. Minimized the overhead of instantiating and destroying objects, especially during events.
The results of these concerted efforts were not only technical successes but also manifested in positive client and user feedback, reflecting the enhanced game quality and performance. Our solutions and approaches helped strengthen Farmerama's market presence, contributing to sustained sales and downloads and reinforcing Bigpoint's values through our committed teamwork.
Gameplay
Technology Stack
In modernizing Farmerama for Unity, our tech stack was curated to enhance the game's performance and maintainability:
- Unity. This software allowed us to integrate 3D capabilities and many features.
- Visual Studio. Used for robust C# coding and debugging.
- Docker. Ensured consistent environments across the development pipeline.
- Git and SVN. Managed our source code versions and collaborative workflows, essential for tracking changes and coordinating a distributed development team.
- Adobe Animate. Helped transform Flash assets to Unity, maintaining the original game's aesthetic.
Game Trailer
RESULTS
The thorough porting and maintenance of Farmerama, bolstered by a carefully selected technology stack and strategic development approaches, yielded outstanding results:
- Game Mechanics Preservation. We successfully translated all existing game mechanics from Flash to Unity.
- New Feature Implementation. Post-porting, our team was able to add fresh mechanics and enhance existing ones, extending the game's longevity.
- Event Creation. Our team's capability to generate 5-7 new events weekly led to an ever-evolving gameplay experience, keeping the community engaged.
