Been a while since I had content for a wednesday post here! I've been hard core gardening (which is bad for my release schedule but great for irrigation and companion planting research, which are both mechanics that I'm planning to put in the game now :)
These are the npcs for Seasons Turning, an exploration-based farming sim that I'm 4 years deep on solo-developing, and plan to release next year. I was already an artist going into this but portraits have never really been my thing, so they took longer than expected and I hope they turned out okay (let me know if there are any glaring problems).
The game itself takes inspiration from the world exploration of the old 2d zelda games, where the world is full of secret areas and treasures (and in my case, also rare plant seeds) that you need to solve puzzles or find special items to access. I'm going very heavy on the environmental immersion (the wind passes realistically through the trees, with location based sound effects that really make it feel like you're in a forest).
There are four (puzzle-based) dungeons but no combat, and no romance system. I know I'll lose some players for this decision but I've always found romance systems in this genre a little awkward, and don't trust my rather unromantic self to do a good job of it xD. However, the npcs are all well fleshed out characters with schedules, connections with each other, unique personalities, goals, and emotional problems to work through.
The game also just passed 1k wishlists, which is a good chunk due to this reddit group, so thanks a bunch !
Here is the link in case anyone's interested :)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3105040/Seasons_Turning/