-Story-

You are a new graduate of the Craftsman's Guild, an organization devoted to ensuring the mechanical prosperity of every town and city in the country.  Craftsmen are tasked with repairing machinery, supplying furniture, and generally maintaining the infrastructure of small towns and large cities alike by fulfilling the requests of its citizens.

You've been assigned to Gear Springs, a quaint little village out in the mountains.  Normally, this would be a very exciting moment in your life, but you're unsure of how to feel.  Gear Springs seems like a nice place, but rumor has it that something terrible happened in the town and the last Craftsman disappeared.

Oh well, it's too late to change your mind now.  The train is already charging towards your new home.


-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
  • Delve into the mysterious ruins and battle robots with Punch Cards
  • Make friends with over 20 villagers
  • Customize your abilities with tool modifications
  • Discover the secrets of Gear Springs


- Info -

This is an early alpha demo of the game.  I don't have the bandwidth to keep the demo up to date with the full version of the game.  If you'd like to support me and play the early access update to the game, it's available on Steam.

Or you can keep up to date with future announcements by joining the discord.

StatusIn development
PlatformsWindows, HTML5
Rating
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
(2 total ratings)
AuthorsTummyache, Robot Girlfriend
GenreAdventure, Card Game
Made withGodot, Aseprite
Tags2D, Crafting, Farming, Fishing, Godot, Pixel Art, storygame
Average sessionAbout an hour
LanguagesEnglish
InputsKeyboard, Mouse
LinksSteam, Twitter, Community

Download

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Click download now to get access to the following files:

TLC - Alpha (Windows) 1.2.0.zip 75 MB

Development log

Comments

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Hey! just got my new PC. Still got the chomebook, but I'm gonna try the new update on the main PC. From the looks of the peview images, you added combat!! 
Exited to see it, as well as the new items and codes and stuff. I'll provide feedback or ask questions as I go along (as usual...), so... i'll get to it!

Nice, yea the Steam build is slightly newer.  Day 9 is when the new card battling stuff kicks off.

(1 edit)

cool! looking forward to it! also, i'm sure your aware, but some of teh borders are broken, especially in the ruin(s) area.  it's nothing where you die or anything, but more where you can just get lost off-screen.
I love the story content, too! I was kinda expecting the old craftsamn to be 'ressurected' by something from the ruins (I.E he died and was brought to life) and had an even worse vengance, but this is sooo much better! kinda exited to see what the ruins will do later.


Edit: What's the best item for metal, as of tier one tiems/research? 100 metal is alot for how fast the smelters work as of now and haven't gotten the metal or the gold research done so I can hoard ores and get mroe smelters to smelt more than one metal ect ect
Is there a better way of getting metal than ores or cans?

(P.S, I figured out the riddle. Nice hiding trick. been scrounching around all the riddle areas for things like that...)

Nah, Gold and Copper Bars are the way to go.  It's just like a big part of the game so I thought it should have a big quest objective.  The bars double up as metal though, so if you use those you really only need to fill in 60 of some other metal.  Steel is worth the most, but Gold would be the fastest to produce.

The out of bounds stuff is a little embarrassing!  When I redid the tilesets, I missed a collision box in there, they're all getting fixed though.

good to know. Also, on the graveyard area (and in acouple of other areas too) there's this dark green 'moss' that crosses the path. It kinda reminds me of seeing a tree canopy from the top of a mountain.

Hi, I like this beautiful village!

However, I was not able to finish the Intro!!! If I want to play the game, I can just skip it, but I wanna get through the Intro. Can I get some tips? 

Thank you so much!

If you're stuck RIGHT at the beginning you need to go North from the town into the science lab, there you can get the omni-tool and begin harvesting materials.

If you're stuck on the fishing quest, there are a few options to get past that.  I'll give you one method and leave you to figure out the others if you want the extra challenge.  The most direct solution is through tool mods.  Beck's Tech sells a mod called Squanto 1, once you install that in your Harvest tool you will sometimes find random fish while chopping down trees or mining stones.  Beck rotates his stock of mods daily, so you may have to check back multiple times before it shows up in his store.

Thanks a lot!! I really appreciate it! 

I'm gonna try it again with your comments.

I'm just wondering whether I was not able to find a village map or you don't have it. 

Cus if there is a map, it would great helpful to find a way. 

Again, thank you so much  for your prompt and kind reply!!

Oh!! one more thing!!

How can I save my game?! I cannot find any save button!

The game will save automatically every time you go to sleep.

is there a better hint for the sign riddle?
"second from the right,
A life written in stone.
look at the row in the middle,
it's dangerous to go alone."

second gravestone from the right, central headstone. that's all i got or the statue. I don't need the answer i just need a bit.... better of a translation... i think...

The last line is important, you can't do it alone.

also, one last thing.... I haven't found a gazebo....

That one is kind of intentionally obscure.  It's an in-joke among my friends, because all of us happen to love a game called Wonder Boy in Monster World for the Sega Genesis.  Anyone who has played it will instantaneously recognize the puzzle.

The music door and the gazebo in town are references to the game.

 

(2 edits)

I wasn't even born yet to have a genisis (though, I wish I had/have one...). I'll look it up, unless you have another hint or two to spare... 


Edit: I feel like I should mention a bug I've encountered. When going into the crafting menu the game freezes and I have to back out (to this screen) and go abck in repeatedly. Might just be me.


Edit again: Also, with the coke burner, I can't seem to use it. I put wood, ores everyhting to get coal, but I can't get anything out of it. do I put dragon figh in it? also, a reccomendation for the '?' button, is that there should be a guide for the individual items/shops (if it isn't much of a hasle to do, anyway) to give machine/shop specific reccomendations or tips.

The Coke Oven is bugged in the most recent update, so that's it for the content currently.  A new update is going to release on Dec 27th that will fix that as well as add a ton of new content.

If you can spare the $1, Wonder Boy in Monster World is actually available as a virtual console download on Steam.  Perfect game to kill some time before the update comes out.  Otherwise I'm sure skipping around a youtube walkthrough would also get the job done for free.

Hye, it's unclear on how I fish without...fishing gear. I try talking to the guy to see if i can buy a hook or something (seeing the 500C) but no 'shop' option comes up. Mind helpin' me out?

Haha everyone has had a problem with it so far, I need an easier solution or some better hints.  The most direct route is to buy either the Squanto or Bacchus mods from Beck's Tech (then either harvest or gift items until you get a fish).  The easiest way is to research the Campfire at Etta's lab, cook some fruits or veggies that you've grown, and then donate them to the Potluck on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  The backup method is to repair the Food Stall below Pete's house, and Ryan will sell a fish food item on Fridays.

(+1)

While I did like the playing the game at first, there were parts that were to “unclear” on what I needed to be doing. The dev was always available to help me when I get stuck, but that’s not how I like playing games. So if it’s either be confused, keep asking “what do I do next?”… or just stop playing.

Fantastic point, I'm currently working on an update that should be ready in about a week.  I'll probably make a post about it before then, but I do actually like having a short period of time before giving the player a hard-line objective.

So instead of speeding up the introduction, I'm adding some time-insensitive projects for the player.  Completing all of them before the Requests Board and Researchler are unlocked would be unrealistic, but they will give some direction to the start of the game as well as unlocking new items and mechanics.

As a compromise to people who dislike the slow start, I'm also adding an option to skip the introduction.  Skipping it will unlock the Request Board, Researchler, and Fishing immediately.

Perfect plan. Having an option to skip would be great. Looking forward to trying the game again one day.