What is Homegrown?
Homegrown is a multiplayer game in which players grow and build up their own small islands, accepting other players as visitors. Players can open up shops to trade their goods and add behaviors to animate their in-game models and make them interactive. The game’s primary goals are to provide an escape from the real world into a calming, nonviolent atmosphere and to foster a sense of safety and community among players.
Note: Homegrown is very early in development, and while a few of the elements discussed below are implemented, the game is very far from being finished.
As a multiplayer game, this sense of community comes from other players sharing and interacting with the same game worlds. In Homegrown, a 2D side-scrolling game, each player will begin with a small, forested island and a dock. Players will learn the ropes of the game by collecting materials and building a boat for the dock. Once the boat is completed, players can visit other players' islands. (A player can receive visitors before their boat is completed, though.) Servers reward players for performing actions like visiting their islands and trading with them.
Players can build on their own islands, creating houses, storefronts, inns, parks and anything else they can dream up. Because players can create models (collections of blocks) and enchantments, they can do things like charge for a model or open a door (i.e. to a room in an inn). But islands are never totally under player control: players have a limited supply of resources and must either trade with other players or grow their own. Invasive plant species might also come with visitors, rapidly overtaking an island for little in return.
Homegrown should provide the foundations for a lively creative community while also allowing players to slip back to their own islands for relaxed, thoughtful building sessions.
There aren't any visual tidbits available yet since most of the work on the game thus far has been code-based. Sign up to get whole posts right in your inbox and stay tuned!