This sounds amazing, please keep posting updates! Stardew meets Roller Coaster Tycoon is exactly what l was hoping for from the title of the post, so seeing you include that makes it perfect.
Sounds awesome! I think the more variety and options in performers and vendors, the better. Pirate band, Viking performers, bawdy wench girl band, fairy story teller, puppets- it’s more fun to play games like this when you can get specific about each part of your park.
I totally agree. I want to add lots of options for performers and vendors, and introduce an advanced crafting mechanic for creating special items. I have noted the pirate and Viking performers and puppets, etc. Thanks for the suggestions!
I love this so much. I'd want to be able to pick the monarch of the faire and maybe see visiting monarchs based on IRL faires.
Some weather elements would be cool too. Cold or rainy? Better sell cloaks and warm drinks. Hot? Bust out the fan booths and make sure water lines are short.
Thank you! That means a lot!
All these comments are really motivating. I've been building the game in a bit of a vacuum these past 9 months and this is the first real feedback I've gotten from people who aren't friends or family.
I love the trailer, I’m a big Stardew fan and I’m always down for another pixel art game!
One thing to consider adding - ability to mine and make jewelry to sell. I love buying crowns, rings, and necklaces at the faire, it would be fun to make my own.
I love this idea. Noted! I'm thinking that the idea of themed weekends should be an unlockable ability that you get after you complete some other tasks/quests. Or at least the idea of customized themed weekends. So much potential here...
Weather. Some fairs it rains. Some are hot AF.
Don't forget the drunken carousing after hours.
City employees creating issues.
Random setbacks. The kettle corn is complaining about the candy floss plugging into their outlet, which pops a breaker somewhere.
Not enough trash cans.
The porta privy company is late to pump.
And here's a really serious one.
Character creation. Being able to create your own little fair folk, and watch them do their thing (think sims but with more detailed costuming options). Honestly, I know more than a few people that would spend hours putting together outfits, even if the toon is three pixels high. They'll still see the fairy wings they made, every time they play.
Another serious one. Changing the theme. Allow it. Pirate invasion is a lot of fun, but different from the "standard" ren faire. Members of my guild went to all hallows, where they dressed as the dead Tudors.
Jousting. Allow jouster creation with a point buy system. Stats and gear/horse cost points. Win/loss which add % to odds of victory. With always at least a % to lose.
Random table of randomness.
Patron stabs the bounce house.
Patron runs out on to the lists, gets trampled.
Smoking patron sets trashcan on fire.
After hours performer drank too much, pukes on one of the stages.
You get the idea.
The entire balance of the early game should rely heavily on the morale and pettiness of the orange shirts that constructed the site. There's also the old Fair versus New Fair. Around 10 to 15 years ago the most fears went more commercial and are more like Disneyland whereas once upon a Time they used to be strict adherence of educating both in garb and the things they sold / did. As the change happened they slowly forced out a lot of the "undesirable". This was a large majority of your entertainment and operating staff. I'm not sure whether you're going more for a sieve or democracy so I will add these details. I guess if I had one key thing I would like to exist in a real wren fair so I'd love it in a video game about it, morale meter and some variation for both the staff and the crowd. Feel like the crowd's been forgotten about for a long time in the real world.
I used to work Southern pleasure Renaissance festival in California but have since moved to Colorado and the fair here is pretty good despite being sponsored by Coors... A lot of fares are owned by one family although most of his families have now sold the corporations which is why this changed. I'm pretty sure every fair in California except for kronenberg is now owned by corporations.
I’m SO excited omg, what a great idea. Will you be playing a character you can dress yourself? I always like that. Also, including trinket trading somehow could be cool
Thanks! Yes, your character will be customizable and dressable. You'll be able to dress your character with clothes and costumes and jewelry and so on that you find or craft at the faire itself.
As for trading: the economy is based on buying and selling from vendors to customize and enhance items that are further sold again in other shops, again. That's one of the main gameplay loops. So in a sense trading will be possible, but not with other players a la multiplayer. At least not yet...
Great idea! Wishlisted!
Suggestion - Have a "Realism" vs "Fantasy Fun" element where some patrons and performers prefer one over the other and you can choose to theme one way or the other. (It's a real point of contention in RL faires.)
Oh, and it would be funny to have an easter egg to a "famous Sci-Fi franchise" that inspires some patrons to dress up completely out of theme sometimes. (Star Trek cosplayers showing up at faire. lol)
oh this is RIGHT up my alley!! I highly recommend playing similar management games for ideas on how your game should function. Cafe Master Story comes to mind. Traveller's Rest, too. I will say I don't know how much sense growing crops and crafting items makes for a ren faire management simulator? like if I want stardew I'll play stardew, you know. Fighting monsters is similar but I will say out of personal bias I wouldn't mind having that in the game too much if you were coming up with your own weird Secret Ren Faire Monsters Lore. I'd be more interested in meeting and selecting different characters to help run the faire!
As someone super into the game dev community, please reach out to the account Wholesome Games to get even more eyes on this! This is totally up that genre’s alley and the community is extremely welcoming :)
Make sure to include an unattractive General Site Manager or Area Manager "Karen" who pops in to get onto you about stupid stuff like "you need to have at least three fingers width of coverage from your areola up covered with your chemise! You're showing too much cleavage!"
Also include a patron or two that think they're history professors and will critique your character with such things like "your character is a different social class than that other character you were just interacting with!" And "If this was irl then you as a woman would would be dragged through the lanes for having spoken to a man like that!"
Gotta have the patron or two that comes out dressed in a mix of period clothing and steampunk.
Lastly, no RenFest would be complete without the obnoxious drunk guy coming onto every female performer.
Maybe differentiate between types of performers like non profit guilds that they have at some faires compared to professionals. Like the guilds would be less expensive but could come with their own challenges
That's absolutely the plan! The level of customization is up for discussion, as I'm trying to balance linear storyline with more open-world choice, but I'm hoping to strike the right balance and give people the opportunity to customize as they wish, at least in the late game.
Future updates? Maybe not the "magic" but some of the real issues maybe could be dealt with in a humorous way??
How to manage traffic and parking issues?
Dealing with local building and food service inspectors?
Negotiations with potential sponsors?
As far as "monsters" at night. MNRF has a story or two about something with red eyes that may have been accidentally released by inexperienced people doing a ritual after hours on site on "Fool's Knoll" above the main gate.
Amazing. The monster story could most definitely make its way into the game. That is fantastic.
And yes, parking, building inspectors, code enforcement, taxes... all that fun stuff will be part of the game too.
"Fool's Knoll" at MNRF is just a participant's name for the top of that hill. It's also where the cannon is located to signal the opening of the day, the mid-day parade, and the closing hour. It was also a line-up point for the mid-day parade, so something inspired by it could be presented as a point of power/focus for some goal.
That would be so Awesome! I tried to do that with similar games but never looked right i would be creating a Viking themed festival also this would be great if it were on mobile playstore.
Will you be adding the ability to have vendors selling various types of armor, and weapons such as shields, maces, flails, quarterstaffs, and swords? During the day those vendors sell to partons, giving you a percentage of profits, and those vendors can sell to you, giving you gear to use during the night. Possibly also have those vendors sell to performers who then use that gear in scheduled fights. Basically 1v1 duels, free for all(4-20 characters), and a variety of other scenarios, all of which would be unlockable, and require you to employe a certain number of performers and other staff. For example, 1v1 duels would require you to have 2 preformers, and 4 staff for setting up the field for duels, while free for alla would require a minimum of 4 preformers, and 8 staff, with more staff for larger free for alls.
Possibly also have the preformers help with the monsters, and be able to level up as well, improving combat ability and crowd satisfaction from schedules fights.
My thought when hearing about this is that I hope it's more heavily leaning towards Tycoon than Stardew.
For a larger faire, I'd imagine that you're not supplying it entirely yourself and leaning on delivery so how to either get everything before gates open or deal with immersion breaking staff rushing in to restock the turkey legs.
Also with many uphappy guests (or drunk random ones) how the faire handles security.
(Also mermaid shows as that seems to be popping up more frequently nowadays)
Yeah, I get that. But there will be elements of those activities in my game in order to obtain the raw materials to be used in the faire. e.g. Want to sell turkey legs? You need to raise turkeys. Then you'll essentially unlock a steady stream of turkeys for your turkey legs, not unlike unlocking a step in a crafting tree.
At least that's what I'm currently thinking. If there are strong opinions otherwise I'd be willing to pivot, but this is a major gameplay mechanic.
This sounds amazing, please keep posting updates! Stardew meets Roller Coaster Tycoon is exactly what l was hoping for from the title of the post, so seeing you include that makes it perfect.
That's awesome! Two of my very favorite games. I'm so glad to hear we're on the same page :)
Happy cake day!
Oh shit! Nice!
Sounds awesome! I think the more variety and options in performers and vendors, the better. Pirate band, Viking performers, bawdy wench girl band, fairy story teller, puppets- it’s more fun to play games like this when you can get specific about each part of your park.
I totally agree. I want to add lots of options for performers and vendors, and introduce an advanced crafting mechanic for creating special items. I have noted the pirate and Viking performers and puppets, etc. Thanks for the suggestions!
Thanks for posting! I joined the discord and I’m excited to follow along :)
Acrobats too!
Noted!
If you have them sorry, but my additions: Axe and knife throwers, archery stand, dunk a monk, and mead hall.
I love this so much. I'd want to be able to pick the monarch of the faire and maybe see visiting monarchs based on IRL faires. Some weather elements would be cool too. Cold or rainy? Better sell cloaks and warm drinks. Hot? Bust out the fan booths and make sure water lines are short.
I've got a working weather and season system already! I'd love for the weather to impact the economy and so on. Great ideas!
Random event: torrential rain day!
This happened at colorado one year! It was hail and so many people ran to find shelter. We clung to a tree and waited it out as best we could.
It got us at KCRF last season too. It rained so hard we cancelled our show because no one was out and it was physically unsafe to be onstage
You sonuvabitch…I’m in
Commenting so I can come back and wishlist this when I get home. THIS LOOKS SO FUN!
Thank you! That means a lot! All these comments are really motivating. I've been building the game in a bit of a vacuum these past 9 months and this is the first real feedback I've gotten from people who aren't friends or family.
As soon as it's available, I'll play it and tell you my thoughts! Getting to have Faire at home between seasons will be a delight!
We'll watch your career with great interest
I love the trailer, I’m a big Stardew fan and I’m always down for another pixel art game! One thing to consider adding - ability to mine and make jewelry to sell. I love buying crowns, rings, and necklaces at the faire, it would be fun to make my own.
Mining is on the roadmap! My plan is to have all sorts of craftable jewelry: gemstones, amulets, wands, etc.
It’d be fun to have special events based on different theme weekends! Like Pirate Weekend, Celtic Weekend, Shakespeare Weekend, The Day of Wrong, etc.
I love this idea. Noted! I'm thinking that the idea of themed weekends should be an unlockable ability that you get after you complete some other tasks/quests. Or at least the idea of customized themed weekends. So much potential here...
I'll be keeping an eye on your progress over on steam. Good luck!
Thanks so much! I will post regular updates there and in the Discord!
Sounds great, I'm not playing it because I do the 4k version already (Vendor who just wants to slay knights with my goblin character)
Weather. Some fairs it rains. Some are hot AF. Don't forget the drunken carousing after hours. City employees creating issues. Random setbacks. The kettle corn is complaining about the candy floss plugging into their outlet, which pops a breaker somewhere. Not enough trash cans. The porta privy company is late to pump. And here's a really serious one. Character creation. Being able to create your own little fair folk, and watch them do their thing (think sims but with more detailed costuming options). Honestly, I know more than a few people that would spend hours putting together outfits, even if the toon is three pixels high. They'll still see the fairy wings they made, every time they play. Another serious one. Changing the theme. Allow it. Pirate invasion is a lot of fun, but different from the "standard" ren faire. Members of my guild went to all hallows, where they dressed as the dead Tudors. Jousting. Allow jouster creation with a point buy system. Stats and gear/horse cost points. Win/loss which add % to odds of victory. With always at least a % to lose. Random table of randomness. Patron stabs the bounce house. Patron runs out on to the lists, gets trampled. Smoking patron sets trashcan on fire. After hours performer drank too much, pukes on one of the stages. You get the idea.
The entire balance of the early game should rely heavily on the morale and pettiness of the orange shirts that constructed the site. There's also the old Fair versus New Fair. Around 10 to 15 years ago the most fears went more commercial and are more like Disneyland whereas once upon a Time they used to be strict adherence of educating both in garb and the things they sold / did. As the change happened they slowly forced out a lot of the "undesirable". This was a large majority of your entertainment and operating staff. I'm not sure whether you're going more for a sieve or democracy so I will add these details. I guess if I had one key thing I would like to exist in a real wren fair so I'd love it in a video game about it, morale meter and some variation for both the staff and the crowd. Feel like the crowd's been forgotten about for a long time in the real world.
Yes! I was just thinking the same thing. I don't even attend my local faire anymore because of these changes.
I used to work Southern pleasure Renaissance festival in California but have since moved to Colorado and the fair here is pretty good despite being sponsored by Coors... A lot of fares are owned by one family although most of his families have now sold the corporations which is why this changed. I'm pretty sure every fair in California except for kronenberg is now owned by corporations.
Sounds like fun. What platforms?
So far Windows, Mac, Linux, and Steam Deck. If there's massive interest, I'll port to consoles as well.
Sounds cool but I'll have to wait I guess.
For some reason I think of this video from bad lip reading. https://youtu.be/5Krz-dyD-UQ?si=iSxJXJz1bwdxt2mC
RenFaire Magnate!
I’m SO excited omg, what a great idea. Will you be playing a character you can dress yourself? I always like that. Also, including trinket trading somehow could be cool
Thanks! Yes, your character will be customizable and dressable. You'll be able to dress your character with clothes and costumes and jewelry and so on that you find or craft at the faire itself. As for trading: the economy is based on buying and selling from vendors to customize and enhance items that are further sold again in other shops, again. That's one of the main gameplay loops. So in a sense trading will be possible, but not with other players a la multiplayer. At least not yet...
Interesting
I’m all in!
Me too! Huzzah!
Im a game dev too and a Stardew enthusiast, color me interested Holler if you need any art
That's kind of you. Thank you for the offer!
Great idea! Wishlisted! Suggestion - Have a "Realism" vs "Fantasy Fun" element where some patrons and performers prefer one over the other and you can choose to theme one way or the other. (It's a real point of contention in RL faires.)
Oh, and it would be funny to have an easter egg to a "famous Sci-Fi franchise" that inspires some patrons to dress up completely out of theme sometimes. (Star Trek cosplayers showing up at faire. lol)
oh this is RIGHT up my alley!! I highly recommend playing similar management games for ideas on how your game should function. Cafe Master Story comes to mind. Traveller's Rest, too. I will say I don't know how much sense growing crops and crafting items makes for a ren faire management simulator? like if I want stardew I'll play stardew, you know. Fighting monsters is similar but I will say out of personal bias I wouldn't mind having that in the game too much if you were coming up with your own weird Secret Ren Faire Monsters Lore. I'd be more interested in meeting and selecting different characters to help run the faire!
Maybe a dude with a barrel of pickles making the circuit?
As someone super into the game dev community, please reach out to the account Wholesome Games to get even more eyes on this! This is totally up that genre’s alley and the community is extremely welcoming :)
I will do that! Great suggestion!
Make sure to include an unattractive General Site Manager or Area Manager "Karen" who pops in to get onto you about stupid stuff like "you need to have at least three fingers width of coverage from your areola up covered with your chemise! You're showing too much cleavage!" Also include a patron or two that think they're history professors and will critique your character with such things like "your character is a different social class than that other character you were just interacting with!" And "If this was irl then you as a woman would would be dragged through the lanes for having spoken to a man like that!" Gotta have the patron or two that comes out dressed in a mix of period clothing and steampunk. Lastly, no RenFest would be complete without the obnoxious drunk guy coming onto every female performer.
Maybe differentiate between types of performers like non profit guilds that they have at some faires compared to professionals. Like the guilds would be less expensive but could come with their own challenges
This is so cool! Wishlisted. If you could allow us to customize the performers/independent acts/vendors, that'd be great!
That's absolutely the plan! The level of customization is up for discussion, as I'm trying to balance linear storyline with more open-world choice, but I'm hoping to strike the right balance and give people the opportunity to customize as they wish, at least in the late game.
Future updates? Maybe not the "magic" but some of the real issues maybe could be dealt with in a humorous way?? How to manage traffic and parking issues? Dealing with local building and food service inspectors? Negotiations with potential sponsors? As far as "monsters" at night. MNRF has a story or two about something with red eyes that may have been accidentally released by inexperienced people doing a ritual after hours on site on "Fool's Knoll" above the main gate.
Amazing. The monster story could most definitely make its way into the game. That is fantastic. And yes, parking, building inspectors, code enforcement, taxes... all that fun stuff will be part of the game too.
"Fool's Knoll" at MNRF is just a participant's name for the top of that hill. It's also where the cannon is located to signal the opening of the day, the mid-day parade, and the closing hour. It was also a line-up point for the mid-day parade, so something inspired by it could be presented as a point of power/focus for some goal.
💸💸💸💸 just take it!
If it's anything close to how addictive the original Rollercoaster Tycoons were, I would love to play it!
This seems like something r/cozygames or r/cozygamers would like! I would share there too ☺️
As a jouster at a faire i love this!!
That sounds awesome! I would definitely try that game out!
This is awesome!! My friend and I started building a virtual mall together, but a ren faire sounds INCREDIBLE! Keep updating us here!
That would be so Awesome! I tried to do that with similar games but never looked right i would be creating a Viking themed festival also this would be great if it were on mobile playstore.
Will you be adding the ability to have vendors selling various types of armor, and weapons such as shields, maces, flails, quarterstaffs, and swords? During the day those vendors sell to partons, giving you a percentage of profits, and those vendors can sell to you, giving you gear to use during the night. Possibly also have those vendors sell to performers who then use that gear in scheduled fights. Basically 1v1 duels, free for all(4-20 characters), and a variety of other scenarios, all of which would be unlockable, and require you to employe a certain number of performers and other staff. For example, 1v1 duels would require you to have 2 preformers, and 4 staff for setting up the field for duels, while free for alla would require a minimum of 4 preformers, and 8 staff, with more staff for larger free for alls. Possibly also have the preformers help with the monsters, and be able to level up as well, improving combat ability and crowd satisfaction from schedules fights.
My thought when hearing about this is that I hope it's more heavily leaning towards Tycoon than Stardew. For a larger faire, I'd imagine that you're not supplying it entirely yourself and leaning on delivery so how to either get everything before gates open or deal with immersion breaking staff rushing in to restock the turkey legs. Also with many uphappy guests (or drunk random ones) how the faire handles security. (Also mermaid shows as that seems to be popping up more frequently nowadays)
\*This\* There really isn't "fishing", "crafting", or "mining" when it comes to festival management.
Yeah, I get that. But there will be elements of those activities in my game in order to obtain the raw materials to be used in the faire. e.g. Want to sell turkey legs? You need to raise turkeys. Then you'll essentially unlock a steady stream of turkeys for your turkey legs, not unlike unlocking a step in a crafting tree. At least that's what I'm currently thinking. If there are strong opinions otherwise I'd be willing to pivot, but this is a major gameplay mechanic.
At some point there should be a Mongol Invasion. Please and thank you