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[auratummyache]

Story

The Last Craftsman is a life-sim game about becoming the Craftsman of a small town.  The town was recently set back after the previous Craftsman attempted to destroy it and then mysteriously disappeared.  As a Craftsman your job is to take care of the town's wants and needs by completing contracts and raising your ranking within the Craftsman's Guild, while also trying to piece together the enigmatic fate of your predecessor.

I originally started this project just to show someone how easy it is to create a character controller in Godot, but then I really started liking the engine, 9 months of on/off development later and now I have a playable demo.

Features

• Maintain your workshop property by clearing trees, rocks, and weeds
• Create items with an open ended crafting system
• Build machines to refine materials and automate tasks
• Grow plants
• Go fishing
• Make friends with over 20 villagers
• Customize your abilities with tool modifications
• Discover the secrets of Gear Springs

Itch Page

https://tummyache.itch.io/the-last-craftsman


Screenshots

[auratummyache]

I wasn't super happy with the old UI, so I started completely redesigning it.

Originally, my only goal was "Kind of technical looking dark color scheme".  That didn't go great.  The UI was functional but lacked personality and none of the colors felt like they fit together.




So I started thinking about how, in the game, the UI is a representation of a tool that the player has.  So when you are looking at your inventory, it's really the character in the game referencing a screen on the tool.  So I wanted the UI to be some kind of digital interface.  I also arbitrarily made the game take place in the year 2000, and even though it's a fictional fantasy setting, I looked at references of digital interfaces around that time period.

Eventually I landed on the Gameboy and those old Tiger Electronics handheld arcade games.  I remember my parents getting me a 101 Dalmatians game as a kid and the way the screen worked was kind of mesmerizing.  In particular, I liked the pale green colors and the very subtle drop shadow that the pixels created on the backdrop.




In the end, I'm really satisfied with it.  I think it clashes a bit with the rest of the high-saturation pixel art, but it has a personality and it's a clear cohesive direction that I definitely did not have before.

[auratummyache]

The Last Craftsman v1.1.0 is now live!

https://tummyache.itch.io/the-last-craftsman

The new UI has been implemented on all screens, and the whole thing feels extremely snappy.  I also received a lot of feedback about how the start of the game feels empty with nothing to do, so I've sped up gameplay a little bit and added some side objectives that can be completed when the game starts.

Along with those big changes, I've been moving forward with some general features like character customization.

I also had a lot of fun last week by redrawing a sprite and posting about it on reddit.



I was trying to demonstrate how more details doesn't really equal higher quality.  Interestingly, a lot of people disagreed and thought the old sprite was a lot better.  I think I managed to convince some people with a final updated version and changed the item description as tribute to the discussion.



I also updated several other sprites to be more consistent and easier to identify.

[auratummyache]

I always intended for my game to have kind of Factorio-lite automation.  Nothing like fully automated mega-factories, but just some minor automation.  I want to make it so you could feasibly ignore automation for people who don't like that kind of gameplay.

I had been putting it off for months because I figured it was going to be a major hurdle for me, but I kept the idea in mind while I developed all the different machines and inventory systems.

Turned out, I was worried for nothing, and all that time I spent preparing for it was well worth the effort.  It only took me like 2 days to add in item transporters so you can automate moving items between different storages.



I wanted to keep people free to design their environment without the hassle of pipes or conveyor belts, so instead the transporters can move things freely between any inventory within their range.  Here I have Lumber piping into Coke Ovens to produce Coal Cokes, the Lumber is also piped into the Advanced Furnaces on the bottom to fuel Iron smelting, then Iron Ore is pumped in from the bottom chest, the resulting Iron Bars and Coal Cokes are pumped into the Blast Furnace to make the final Steel Bars which are inserted into that final chest.

Each machine has a fairly large internal inventory, so filling them up manually is still a totally viable way to obtain steel.  Using the transporters just turns a process with several steps into a simple task of keeping those input chests full.

Pretty sure I'm going to hold off on submitting a new demo for a little while so I can add even more new features, but it's an exciting addition nonetheless.

[auratummyache]

I took some time away from new features to go back and visually overhaul the environments.



Lots of items now have shadows, the ground is more textured, there's more diversity in the ground tiles, and water now has a nice reflection on it rather than the old repeating textures.  Rocks got some love and look a bit nicer, but I still have to touch the trees up a little bit.



I also added new effects when gathering materials.  Before you just kind of clicked on things and they exploded, but now there's a visual beam that shoots out from the player that does a better job at showing what's happening.

Starting to prepare for an early access launch next month, but I never feel like it's ready, so we'll see what happens.  

EDIT: Oh I should note these updates are coming in the NEXT update, on the 27th of December.

[auratummyache]

Version 1.2.0 is now live!

The new version adds a series of quests to the game that kick off the events relating to the eponymous last Craftsman.  He's got a brand new plan to destroy the town and you'll have to navigate your way through the Ruins to catch him.

Inside the Ruins, you meet a new robot friend named Theseus.  You discover that the last Craftsman is currently on a very slow course towards the magma pools below town in order to trigger an eruption and destroy the whole town.  Luckily Theseus is capable of navigating the maze-like ruins and can use Punch Cards to make his way through the malfunctioning ancient robots that dwell within.

The new update contains a new deck building CCG mini-game, new materials, improved visuals, and many many bug fixes (and a few new bugs  .)



This is the last free demo, Steam page is in review right now and next month I go into Early Access.

[auratummyache]

More progress shots on this beautiful Screenshot Saturday!

Initial stats show that most people are tapping out around the 10 minute mark of the demo.  Haven't received any feedback about why exactly that is, but I have a hunch that the game just isn't terribly interesting to look at when you first start.  So I'm going around to the starting areas and trying to fill in some content so that people have a better impression right from the start.


BEFORE ^
AFTER v



BEFORE ^
AFTER v



BEFORE ^
AFTER v


Along with that, I'm also adding a broken machine at the train station right where the player gets off.  Hopefully people will notice it and it will peak their interest enough to try and fix it.  Once fixed it will allow players to purchase a pack of materials, which arrive the next day in their mailbox.

Finally, I've also added electricity as a mechanic to the game.



Once players achieve Craftsman Rank 3, they'll start unlocking electric machinery.  That way they can just feed fuel into a few generators and can do some more advanced automation.

All this and more when the Early Access releases in February.

[auratummyache]

After crunching hard for a few weeks, I've finally released the game on Early Access!  Which I'm excited and terrified by.  Initial reviews seem very good, so at least I have that going for me.

In this new Early Access update...

• 2 New Craftsman Ranks (With tons of new craftable items)
• 2 New floors to the Ruins
• New crops to farm
• New fish to... fish
• Players now get sick when staying up too late
• The hot springs now restore energy but you have to fish all the junk out first
• Each villager has a unique gift when becoming friends
• New electrical equipment
• Loads more new stuff

I still suck at marketing though, so I'm gonna have to take a little break to try and get the word out.

[auratummyache]

Wish I had more time to post updates, but I've been super busy lately.

I released a ginormous update in December that added a bunch of new content and mechanics.  Players could upgrade their house, manage livestock, progress further in the story, and loads of new items to craft.





A few people picked up the game and played the absolute HELL out of it, some for over 70 hours.  They were super active in the discord for a bit and gave me a bunch of notes about things the liked and stuff to improve, which was really sick.

Since then, I've been taking some time to improve the visuals in the game a bit.  In January I figured I could use a little practice to try and improve my pixel art.  So I took a bunch of portraits that people tried to generate using AI on TikTok and I redrew one per day.  I compiled them all into a single video.





It was a really fun but tiring experience, I underestimated how much work it was to draw every day for about an hour.  It paid off though, because I redrew all the character portraits in the game soon after and I think they came out really good.



I've also updated the character sprite so it has more frames of animation and looks a little less goofy.  This allowed me to totally refactor how the player character is constructed as well, which means new customization options are much easier to produce!


Doesn't stop there though, because I'm also adding a lot more detail to all of the areas of town.  There are lots more little things to play with, new types of foliage and more of it, everything just feels a lot more lived in.



The tile sets also animate slightly now, which really brings the environments to life.



On top of all of that, I'm adding a few new features in next month as well.