Casa Del Cactus
A relaxed idle game concept for a 14 day long Gam Jam. Grow cactus’ and sell them in your shop - upgrade to buy more spots to grow!
Initially we had intended just a window sill, then quickly noticed we would run out of room to expand!
The second concept brought in more of the rural Mexican lifestyle, but needed more depth to showcase in 3D.
Plotting the perspective to ensure plenty of space for pots to sit was an interesting challenge. I used this perspective to showcase better to the 3D team what we were aiming for.
The original house design when vetted with a Mexican native, was deemed too stereotypic and poor to represent the culture well.
The newer design made the house larger, with more opportunities for pots and a less stereotypical colour scheme.
Call outs for the 3D artist on textures
Further details on the door inspiration and how to build the trellice in 3D.
How the frames of the windows and the flooring were set up. Sadly these were not able to be created in time
I illustrated the areas that the cactus pots could sit and the expected frame of gameplay.
To keep it manageable for the 3D artist, I did x3 types of edible cactuses, with very different shape language, but similar shaped fruits. The seedling stage is the same for all, to keep it easier.
Some examples of pot designs and how to combine the two types of textures and patterns - sadly we ran out of time for these.
I designed the UX for the items, the shop and the alerts to prompt the user to use resources, buy more, or upgrade the house.
The shop design I kept fairly simple, as it was intended to be expanded later with different techniques to boost plant growth.
I wrote how to play the game and designed the mechanisms.
I helped work on some of the 3D. We did run out of time at the end due to some mismanagement of time within the 3D end. But I hope to complete this house at some point in the future for display purposes.
I am happy with where we managed to get in just 14 days. I think the IP has legs with expansion of mechanics and better styling with more development time.