03-06-2026
Farms and Animals
An overview of the newly developed Farm House and animal pen systems, allowing players to tame and raise livestock.
Up until this point, most of Highland Hearth's resources came directly from the world. Trees could be chopped down, bushes harvested, and materials hauled back to storage.
Farming introduces a different challenge. Instead of collecting resources once, the settlement now needs to maintain a reliable source of food and production over time.
The first step towards that has been animal pens.
Bringing Animals Home
Animals begin as wild creatures that exist throughout the world.
Once a suitable pen has been built, farmers can travel out, tame an animal, and lead it back to the settlement using a rope.
This was one of those features that immediately made me smile once it was working. Watching a farmer slowly guide a cow back through the landscape feels far more satisfying than having animals simply appear inside a building.
Building Pens
The farming system builds on the flexible building system introduced in an earlier devlog.
Rather than placing a predefined structure, players can create pens of different shapes and sizes depending on the layout of their settlement. This makes farms feel much more integrated into the village rather than existing as separate gameplay areas.
It also gives me plenty of flexibility as more animals are introduced in the future.
Daily Farm Work
Bringing an animal back is only the beginning.
Farmers are responsible for the ongoing work needed to keep pens running. Food must be delivered, animals need to be fed, and products such as milk can be collected and transported back to storage.
Most of this happens automatically through the existing task system, allowing farming to slot naturally into the wider simulation.
Looking Ahead
At the moment, the farming system is focused on the basics: pens, feeding, and collecting resources from animals.
Over time I'd like to expand this with additional animal types, breeding, population management, and more specialised farm buildings.
The next major step will be introducing crop farming. While animals provide one source of food and resources, crops will bring their own challenges around planting, growing, harvesting, and preparing for the changing seasons.
Together, these systems will form the foundation of the settlement's food supply and create new decisions around land use, storage, and long-term planning.
For now, though, it's exciting to finally see the first farms appearing within settlements and becoming part of everyday life.