Garden Explorer

[onekit]

I’m starting this devlog to share my progress on Garden Explorer. Development began in February 2024, but I’m logging it now to make the journey more engaging.

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The game is about creating and managing your own garden. Pests will try to attack your crops, so you’ll need to protect your harvest. Players can also explore different areas and interact with others.

I’ll announce when there’s something to test. For now, here are some highlights of what’s been done!

Garden Explorer demo highlights #babylonjs

I have a staging server here. I can’t guarantee it will always be online, but the most daring ones can occasionally take a peek and, for example, test the FPS in a specially demanding scene where 300 diamonds burst out of a chest.

Gardener

How to play

Keyboard & Mouse

[ W, A, S, D ] = Moving

[ LeftShift ] = Run

[ X ] - toggle lay down mode

[ C ] - toggle crouch mode

Items interaction

[ E ] - pickup item

[ I ] or [ scrollButton ] - inventory

Communication (network game)

[ Q ] - push2talk for voice cast

[ N ] - turn off radio

[ Enter ] - Chat

Camera controls

[ V, B ] - switch camera

Combat controls

[ Ctrl ] or [ LMB ] - shoot/punch or pickup item

[ LeftCtrl ] or [ Double LMB ] - Kick

[ RightCtrl ] - Punch & Kick

[ 1 ] - choose combat mode (hide shotgun)

[ 2 ] - choose shotgun

[ 4 ] - previous sound track

[ 5 ] - next sound track

[ R ] - reload shotgun

[ Z ] or [ RMB ] - zoom / aiming

RTS Camera

[ LMB ] - click to move or interact with objects

[ RMB ] - cancel action

[ MMB ] - hold and drag to pan camera

[ Mouse Wheel ] - zoom

[Move mouse to screen edges] - pan camera

Other

[ F ] - toggle Flashlight

[labris]

Nice visuals and UI!
I have a feeling that the running speed could be a bit higher.

[onekit]

Do you mean the difference between walking and running? So that there is a noticeable difference between regular walking and running. The thing is, if you eat mushrooms little by little, your speed increases. But you must eat at a rate no faster than 2 mushrooms per 15 (in-game) minutes. If you eat one mushroom and then another after some time, your speed and attack power will increase, but you will lose a bit of health. Also, if you kick while jumping, you can accidentally kill yourself by hitting any obstacle. The impact strength scale for fly agaric mushrooms hasn’t been added yet, but it does exist. The effect of the fly agaric wears off over time, returning the player’s speed and strength to normal.

If you eat an apple and your health is below 100%, it is automatically consumed to restore health. But if your health is full, the apple goes into your inventory. When picking up mushrooms, they always go into the inventory and can only be consumed consciously from there, never automatically. The inventory currently contains only three types of items.

Upd 26.02.2025: Since version 0.1.69 was increased speed for running as recommended by @labris

[onekit]

I completely forgot! You can also toggle “lying” mode by pressing the “X” key. When crawling on all fours, the character moves much faster but only in a straight line. If you need to escape quickly, you drop to all fours and run. The “C” key toggle crouch or stealth mode (the “ninja” mode).

We drop to all fours to run faster

[Deltakosh]

so nice! I love the mood!

[Deltakosh]

Did you add it for ou 8.0 video?

[Deltakosh]

cc @PirateJC

[Deltakosh]

Love it!! dude this is good!

[onekit]

Garden Explorer Gameplay 0.3.1

Made a bit of progress on Garden Explorer development. Successfully migrated to AudioEngineV2, although in some places the spatial sound still jumps abruptly from ear to ear. Made picking up apples and mushrooms funnier. Added cheat codes: press Enter in-game to open the chat. Type “hungry” and press Enter to get mushrooms and apples. Or type “idkfa” to get a flashlight, shotgun, and ammo. The game now has an MVP — meaning there’s a beginning and an end. I’m finishing up the game engine and then moving on to creating art and level design.

Also, take note of a small bug: after certain actions involving an impulse, some movement may continue for a while. You can see it at the 2-minute mark in this video: https://youtu.be/lIUN-44B_j4?t=118

I really hope you’re interested in the new updates — especially the upcoming networked version of the game. However, online play isn’t ready yet. For now, you can only try out the single-player mode, and even that is limited to test levels.

[inteja]

I love that it’s initially got a casual vibe … then the shotgun comes out

[AncientA]

Awesome job!

I really loved the portal idea to jump between scenes!

The only suggestion I have is to make the scene a bit brighter. I could barely see anything in the first scene and during sunset in the second scene.

Other than that I enjoyed playing the game, very wholesome

[roland]

Hey! It looks cool in the videos, but the gameplay is way too dark — like, really dark. It makes it hard to see what’s going on.

[AncientA]

Okay so, not just me then

[Aylos9er]

Cool! Let me know if interested but you could add a quantum crystal tree or forest and harvest crystals/token’s which you can combine . I made it so they come in rainbow colors that match chakras and frequencies correspondence. Check my Aylos9er (Jeremiah ) · GitHub.

[onekit]

Yes, it will need to be brightened. But I intentionally did it that way to justify the need for a flashlight and to create a Doom-like atmosphere from the times when gamma couldn’t be adjusted yet.

[AncientA]

Nice, I love flashlights in games! Jump scares are more frequent for sure

[onekit]

Here’s a brief update on the current state of my BabylonJS project Gardener game 0.6.52.

• Isometric camera view with mouse-based controls
• Added drag panning and edge panning for better camera navigation
• Mouse-based object selection
• Point-and-click movement and action system
• Shader-based ground fog using GPU via WebGL
• Custom font for improved UI readability

Several bugs were fixed along the way, though new ones were also introduced with the latest features.

The project is still very early and not yet ready for public testing.
But stay tuned — I’ll post an update once it’s in a more playable state, with proper levels instead of placeholders.

A short demo video is included below, where I also talk about how I randomly discovered the fog effect while browsing the forum.

And yes — sorry in advance for the darkness! @roland
I’m still on the dark side of the Force… but working on the lighting
“There’s hope for my return to the light… eventually.”

Ground-hugging fog in BabylonJS

[withADoveInOneHand]

looks great

[roland]

Yeah, particles render for “free” — as if the GPU bends to our will.

@onekit

I’m still on the dark side of the Force…

Ah… but the shadows are where true power lies. We are the lighting, you just haven’t embraced it fully yet. Stay in the dark… it’s warmer than you think.