Family Farm Manual

Get ready to farm!

The game interface presents the farm in a god view with ability to zoom in and out. The game world is tile-based, so you can easily plan fields, corrals, orchards and other game objects.

Timing of seasons is limited and activities take place in real-time, so you have to manage your workers efficiently. You have to cook meals for them and watch out for fatigue otherwise morale goes down. Family members improve in skills which make them faster and increases chances of critical success (ie. multiplying yields). Yields are determined by properties of crops in relation to soil fertility, weather and additional work.

A workforce can be hired, but it is costly, but if you upgrade the house enough, perhaps a new baby will be born. As your family grows you can expand your farm and focus on long-term investments such as livestock or orchards.

Starting your game

The Family Farm game launcher shortcut is located on your desktop and in the Start Menu under Family Farm. The launcher checks for updates and clicking Play will start the game.

When you start the game, click ‘New Story’. Then select a land and story you want to play.

The game features an Auto-Updating mechanism - it checks for a new version each time it's started and keeps itself updated (requires internet connection).

Select your Profile

Each profile is a separate save slot of in-game progress. If this is your first game, you will have to create a new profile. Name your profile and select it. You can then change active profile from main menu.

Main Menu

• continue: Continue a previous game.
• new story: Play a new story. You will need to select a land and then a story to play.
• custom story: Play a custom story. Set up story parameters you find challenging and fun to play.
• manual: Open an Internet browser and view the on-line manual.
• credits: These people sweated to bring you this farming game!
• options: Alter system and game related settings.
• leave game: Pressing ’Leave Game’ will exit the game back to your Windows desktop.

How to Play

The gameplay is really simple. When you start a new season, you are in Manager Mode. You can't do everything in Manager Mode, so prepare yourself for Planning Mode, Decorating Mode and Animal-Moving Mode.

Manager Mode

This is the main game interface. You will observe what's happening on your farm and command workers.

Your money is shown in the top-right corner. You are allowed to go into debit, but only when planting crops, hiring workers and cooking lunch. For example, you can go to debit by planting vegetables but not by upgrading your house or buying animal. Be careful, the bank will want you to pay back your debt...

Time flows naturally in this game. The season is represented by a day. It starts at 8 A.M. and ends in 6 P.M. Current time and season is shown in the bottom-left corner. Workers will get hungry as the day goes on. See Cooking for details.

Workers will leave the house at the beginning of every season. Select a worker by clicking on the character. Character details will show up in the top-right corner.

Hire additional workforce when you see men standing near the Work for Hire sign. They will cost you money in exchange for the additional workforce. Labourers you don't hire will go away in the morning, so don't take too long to hire them.

Switch to other game modes by clicking on the buttons in the bottom-right corner.

Manager Mode controls

Planning Mode

Every tile on your farm can be of a different type.

• 
  field: Plant field crops on the field. Two tiles across. You can plant different crops each spring. The field loses fertility over time, you need to re-cultivate it.
• 
  tree orchard: Plant tree on the tile. One tile across. One tree per tile. The tree grows as time goes by. Larger tree means larger crops.
• 
  vegetable patch: Plant vegetables on the patch. One tile across. You can plant different vegetables each spring. Vegetable patch loses fertility over time, you need to re-cultivate it. Weeds sometimes spawn on the patch.
• 
  animal corral: Build corral for animals. Two, four or six tiles across. The larger the corral is, the more animals you can have. Beware, the wood costs money.
• 
  chicken coop: Build a coop for hens. One tile large. Beware, the wood costs money.
• 
  park: Parks can be used as spots for different game objects, such as food, cradle, bucket with water, etc. One tile across. Every park has flowerbeds to help your farm look better.

When you assign a type to a tile, it's not ready yet. There is usually some work needed to use the tile. For example if you mark the tile as a Vegetable Patch, your workers will need to hoe the patch in order to plant vegetables there.

A question mark on top of the tile means it's empty and ready to use. Click on the tile, browse the catalogue and select desired content.

If you decide to clear the tile, click on it and select Clear Tile.

Clicking on tile shows information related to the tile.

Tiles are grouped into Tilesets. Tiles in the same Tileset share initial Field, Tree Orchard and Vegetable Patch fitness (which represents suitability for planting crops on the tile type). These are only initial values and can be boosted by regular work on the tile.

Flower symbols outside of tiles represents flowerbeds. They can be decorated with flowers and other decorative objects. Clicking flower symbols enters Decorating Mode.

Cycle through Tilesets with arrows in top-right corner. Exit back to Manager Mode with large X.

Decorating Mode

There are six icons in the bottom-right corner. The hand lets you re-plant flowers or move decorating objects. The other five represent the palette and contains (or can contain) flowers and decoration objects you have bought from the catalog. If it's empty, click on it and buy something.

If you find some of your flowers or objects boring, pick them with the hand and store them in an empty palette icon for later use. Or sell them, your choice.

If you run out of flowerbeds, make sure you have all Tilesets cleared. Each tileset contains at least one flowerbed. If it's still not enough for you, make a Park on one tile.

Cycle through flowerbeds with arrows in the top-right corner. Exit back to Manager Mode with large X.

Animal Moving Mode

When you enter Animal Moving Mode, you can pick up to 9 animals and drop them in any corral you want (if it is not full). If you want to leave the mode and you still have picked animals, you will be given the option to sell them. In case you don't want to sell them, drop them first.

Rank

Cooking

Remember that people on your farm are human beings like you and thus need to eat.

The right part of every house is the kitchen. You can recognize it with the kitchen bell on the wall. Clicking on the kitchen opens the cooking menu and sending people to the kitchen means the cooking shift for workers has begun.

Depending on the level of your house, there are a number of spots in the kitchen. A larger house has a larger kitchen, which means more cooks can cook, which generally means more food will be ready sooner.

Some meals have a critical effect. They have impact on your workers (can temporarily boost attributes, skills etc.), but the scale of the effect is determined by chef's skill.

Making the meal is divided into two parts. Preparing and Cooking.

• preparing: Any number of cooks (that can fit in the kitchen) can prepare a meal. More cooks means quicker preparation. When meal is prepared, everyone except the chef leaves the kitchen.
• cooking: Only the chef cooks the meal. He/She is the most skilled person in the kitchen at the time of preparing. If the food has a critical effect, then the scale of the effect is determined by chef's skill.

Different meals have different requirements for preparation time and cooking time. Some are more difficult to prepare, some to cook. You can decide the number of portions to prepare.

Growing the family

The family that lives on your farm needs to sleep somewhere. And that's in the house. More beds can fit into a larger house, hence your goal is upgrading to larger house. Think carefully, materials needed to upgrade your house cost money and workers need to do the work.

Clicking on the house opens the House Upgrade menu, this gives you a perspective on current and next level of houses. Larger houses can accommodate more people and usually covers kitchen upgrade too.

When there's an empty bed in your house, you are given the option for your family to have a baby. Click on the cradle in front of the house and confirm that you want the baby.

Content catalogue

All game content is displayed in the catalogue. The catalogue is invoked when purchasing content for a tile (by clicking on question mark symbol on tile). You can open the catalogue manually from Manager Mode. Content is filtered only to show content you can use in the current story.

The catalogue is divided into tile content types, decorating items and foods.

• 
  field crops: Price shown is "per work spot" (3 steps), not for a whole field. Field crops have different needs for sunshine, soil fitness and additional work, which has an effect on yields.
• 
  trees: Price shown is for a young tree. Trees have different needs for sunshine, soil fitness and additional work, which has an effect on yields.
• 
  vegetables: Price shown is "per work spot" (1 plant), not for a whole patch. Vegetables have different needs for sunshine, soil fitness and additional work, which has an effect on yields.
• 
  animals: Price shown is per animal. There are male and female animals. Breeding is possible only if male and female animals of the same kind are in the same corral.
• 
  hens: Price shown is per coop.
• 
  parks: Price shown is for whole a tile.
• 
  flowers: Price shown is for one flower (catalog opened manually) or for desired amount of flowers (catalog opened from Decorating Mode).
• 
  decorations: Price shown is for one decoration object.
• 
  foods: Price shown is for one portion. Meals with a special effect are indicated.

Workers

You can, as a player, only decide what will be on which tile and what workers will do. It's up to them when the work itself is done.

When a worker is selected, his/hers quick info is displayed in the top-right corner and a diamond-like object is shown above the worker's head. Clicking on a character's portrait (or clicking on the worker himself/herself again) opens a detailed character information window.

A worker's portrait, name, fatigue, hunger and morale are displayed in the quick info box. Fatigue and hunger (as well as some other things) affects worker's morale. You don't want to keep the people hungry or tired, as they work significantly slower when their morale is low.

Workers have 5 skills. As they perform work dependent on skill, they will get better at it. The higher their skill is, the better and faster they are finished.

• 
  tilth: This skill will come in handy when cultivating the fields, hoeing, etc.
• 
  hard work: This skill is handy when working with a hammer or axe, like upgrading the house, building corrals or coop, clearing wild tiles, etc.
• 
  plants: Workers need plant skill when planting or harvesting crops.
• 
  animals: This skill indicates how the worker can take care of animals. If the skill is low, animals may get scared when the worker is nearby.
• 
  cooking: This is the chef's skill. When cooking meals with a special effect, their skill level changes the scale of the effect.

Workers also have 4 attributes. Unlike the skills (that can improve in time), Strength, Dexterity and Vitality are fixed.

• strength: Determines worker's physical strength. Higher strength comes in handy with work depending on Tilth or Hard Work skills.
• dexterity: Determines worker's ability to improve his/her skills.
• vitality: Determines worker's disposition to fatigue and fatigue recovery.
• morale: Determines worker's resolution to work. Morale is calculated from worker's fatigue, hunger, environment and food eaten. Detailed morale breakdown can be displayed by holding the mouse cursor over a worker's portrait.

Goals

In addition to Story Goal, there's always a Seasonal Goal. Something you need to finish usually by the end of the year.

The Story Goal has it's own Trophy version. When you are good enough to fulfill a Trophy goal, you are awarded with the Trophy.

When there have been updates to goal information, the hand will pop on the To-Do List icon.

Time

Time flows naturally in Family Farm. The year is divided into two parts. The spring and summer, or if you wish, planting and harvesting. The season is represented by a day. It starts at 8 A.M. and ends at 6 P.M. The current season is indicated in the centre of the clock.

Later in the morning, when it's time for cooking, an empty plate is shown above the clock. If someone did not eat for two seasons, a red alert stays on top of the plate. If you do not feed hungry workers, the story will end in failure!

In the summer (or harvest if you wish), the weather affects your yields. Some crops are more demanding than others, pay attention to choosing the right crop in rainy areas. Current weather is indicated near the clock. There are 3 weather types in the game: Sunny, Cloudy and Rainy.

The normal pace of the game may not suit you. In that case, you can fast forward time (3x faster than regular speed) or completely skip the current season and go directly to another. Skipping a season is allowed only if noone is working. Time control buttons are in the bottom of the clock.

Work

Clicking on this icon will open a window with detailed information regarding the work - the skill needed for the task, how many workers can work there, difficulty of work and whether the work has any special effects.

Technical Support

System Requirements

Please ensure that your system meets the hardware requirements.

OS: Windows® XP / Vista ^32/64-bit / 7 ^32/64-bit
CPU: 1.6 GHz Pentium(r) 4 / AthlonT XP 2000+
RAM: 512 MB
Hard Drive: 0.2 GB
VIDEO CARD: 128 MB DirectX® 9 Compatible, Pixel Shader 2.0
nVidia GeForce FX 5200 or anything newer
ATI Radeon 9500 or anything newer
Intel GMA 950 or anything newer
Sound Card: DirectX® Compatible
DirectX®: 9.0c (June 2010) or Later
.NET Framework: 2.0 or Later

Uninstalling Family Farm

To uninstall Family Farm, browse to the Family Farm folder on your Start Menu, then select "Uninstall"

Alternatively, you can open your Control Panel, choose "Add/Remove Programs," select Family Farm then click "Remove."

Technical Support & Contact

If you are experiencing technical problems with this software, and you have carefully followed the instructions in this manual, you may find further support in the following places:

Credits