Alright, so I’m gonna walk you through this little project I tackled recently – a “2 horse farm.” Don’t get any fancy ideas, it’s not some massive agricultural undertaking. It’s more of a personal learning experience with, well, two virtual horses. Let’s dive in!
It all started with me wanting to get my hands dirty (figuratively, of course!) with something new. I was itching to apply some of the concepts I’d been reading about, and this “2 horse farm” seemed like a manageable scope. The idea was simple: simulate a basic farm operation with two horses, focusing on resource management and basic interactions.
Phase 1: Getting the Lay of the Land
- First things first, I needed a space. I didn’t want to start from scratch, so I hunted around for a basic environment template. Found a decent one with some rolling hills and a pre-built barn. Score!
- Next, the horses! Sourced two simple horse models. Nothing too fancy, just something that looked the part. Rigging them up for basic animation was a bit of a pain, but nothing I couldn’t handle.
- Then, I set up a basic “day/night” cycle. Just a simple directional light rotating around the scene. Makes it look a little less static, you know?
Phase 2: Feeding Time! (and other resource management)
Okay, so now we had a scene with horses. But they weren’t doing anything. Time to give them some needs! I implemented a very basic hunger system. Each horse has a “hunger” value that decreases over time.
- I added a “feed” action. When the player interacts with a horse (think clicking on it), they can feed it.
- Created a simple “hay bale” object that acts as food. When a horse is fed, its hunger goes up, and the hay bale disappears (or reduces in quantity).
- Had to add a UI element to display the horses’ hunger levels. Just a couple of bars that deplete over time. Simple, but effective.
Phase 3: Adding Some Interaction
Just feeding horses gets boring fast. I wanted to give the player some more agency. So I added a very basic “grooming” system.
- Created a “brush” object. When the player interacts with a horse with the brush equipped, it triggers a grooming animation.
- Grooming increases the horse’s “happiness” (another stat I added). Happy horses are more likely to… well, I haven’t implemented anything for that yet, but the groundwork is there!
Phase 4: Bugs and Tweaks
Of course, nothing ever goes perfectly. I ran into a few snags along the way:
- Horses getting stuck in the barn. Had to adjust the collision boxes.
- The day/night cycle was too fast. Tweaked the rotation speed of the directional light.
- The hunger bar UI was overlapping with other elements. A bit of UI fiddling fixed that.
The Result?
It’s not exactly “Red Dead Redemption,” but I’m pretty happy with it. I’ve got a basic scene with two horses that need to be fed and groomed. The player can interact with them and manage their resources. It’s a small, self-contained project, but it was a great learning experience.
What’s Next?
This is just the beginning! I’ve got a ton of ideas for expanding it:
- Adding more horse breeds and customization options.
- Implementing a breeding system.
- Adding a simple economy – maybe selling hay or horses.
- Improving the horse animations and AI.
This “2 horse farm” project was a fun and practical way to learn about game development. I encourage anyone looking to learn something new to just pick a small project and dive in. You’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish!
