Mendelian Fields

Hello all!

I am new to game development and to TIGForums, but I am excited to learn more!
This is my first solid game idea. It is about plant biology and punnett square-type stuff.
My game idea is pretty simple (although I'm sure it won't be simple to make). The concept is a bit like Stardew Valley and a bit like Dwarf Fortress, and mostly similar to Gregor Mendel's experiments with pea plants.

I imagine a ASCII-style game (like Dwarf Fortress and Brogue) where the player looks at different plants in a field. Each plant will have certain characteristics that are described, and the player can choose to harvest different parts of the plant and replant certain parts of the plant as well. Depending on which traits of plants the player chooses to plant as well as hidden recessive traits (the player will only know the phenotype of plants, not the genotype) and rare mutations, the field will eventually end up with plants that are totally different.

I want to start out with real plants, preferably ones that are native (I live in New Jersey, but I would love to make versions for different areas). Then, I want the gene-based descriptions to be computer-generated, and eventually result in plants that aren't real. I also want to give players the option to rename plants/name new plants.

Now, keep in mind that I have very little experience with coding. I can assign variables, do calculations, and once in a blue moon I create a simple function; but I can't format anything and I'm generally just really bad at the whole thing. So, I don't expect this to be an easy or quick project (especially because Dwarf Fortress is similar and has taken so long, even though DF is much bigger and better).

I also doubt other people will find this to be a fun game or idea. I'm mostly doing it to see if I can, to learn new things, and to have a game that I personally can enjoy. I'm making a devlog to keep track and for anyone out there in the void who might be interested.

That being said, if you are interested please do leave a comment! Like I said, I'm new here, so any starting tips for navigating forums and stuff would be helpful (although I do plan to read the tutorials).

Thanks!
Noah