Harvest Moon Forever: Creativity and Art in Farming

Friday, July 30, 2010

Creativity and Art in Farming

Crop Circles, where some force cuts a swathe through ripening grains or other Crops in order to create a symbol or pattern have been the subject of much discussion and even a film or two. Likewise, there are patterns in different locations throughout the world that can be seen only from the air and include both the Crop Circles and Nazca symbols. Ancient chalk figures in England such as the Uffington Horse and Cerne Abbas Giant can be seen from the ground but the best view is to be found from a high hill or from the air.

Oddly enough, it is when playing a farming simulation game that ordinary individuals can construct landscapes or patterns in a similar fashion. A friend of mine who played Rune Factory Frontier declared his intention to plant flowers in every field, including the dungeons, creating a landscape that would be extraordinarily beautiful. I sadly suspect he never had the time to complete this wonderful plan but it captured my imagination even if I never was able to find the time to do it either.

My first personal experience with creativity in gaming was a Level Creator tool in a PC game named Claw. With virtually no expertise in computer programming, I was able to create my own custom levels for the game. One could place bonus coins in any location for the Character, Captain Claw to reach. I loved creating patterns with the gold coins and in fact, wrote 'Freya' in the sky in almost every level I created.

The creation of any custom level was a time-consuming business and I doubt very many people even play Claw now. Nonetheless, I discovered some of the aesthetic pleasure in creating patterns with Crops in Fantasy Kingdoms, Lovely Farm and Farmville.

The Magical Crops in Fantasy Kingdoms are the most stunning and unusual and each has different stages of growth. The appearance of the Seeds when first planted is almost as beautiful as the Crop when it is ready for harveest. What surprised me, however, was the discovery that the Crops in Lovely Farm likewise have a number of different stages and are very beautiful at each stage. The Crops that are available at Level 1 are not the most beautiful on the whole and it is only when players raise their Levels that they can work with a number of different colours, textures and patterns not only in Seeds but in spouting Crops and Crops that are almost ready to be harvested.

I truly enjoy taking the time to plot out patterns on my field in Lovely Farm. In Fantasy Kingdom, I have become more involved in the magnificent buildings and decorations lately but aesthetics rather than cash flow always determine my choice of Crops there as well.

One can create beautiful patterns on the field in Farmville and indeed, some of the Flowers are lovely, but the game drives players to grow Crops in large quantities. The Co-Op Jobs and the Crafting (which requires Bushels that are randomly generated by harvesting a particular Crop) are all geared towards mass farming. It adds strategy to the game but makes it less of a Zen meditation exercise. I enjoy my visits to my Lovely Farm and Fantasy Kingdom far more for the most part, despite the addition of a magical carousel to my Farmville estate.

There are those who rake the sand in a Zen garden each morning and/or evening. For me, creating a beautiful pattern with Crops and Flowers has the same effect.

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For all Harvest Moon fans and players

As Freyashawk, I have written about 150 guides for games, most of which have been guides for Harvest Moon games. These are published on IGN. IGN has given me the title of 'Mistress of Harvest Moon' and I strive daily to earn the right to maintain that title. Although there is a link page on IGN that lists all the guides published there, they are not organised by game, but rather given in alphabetical order. I therefore created this page in order to provide links to the guides I have created for each Harvest Moon game. If you access the General Guide for any game, links should be included to all other guides for that game in a section at the end. I will try to add links to ALL guides as time permits, but until I do, you always can refer to my user page at IGN for the complete list.

I wrote the Official Strategy Guide for Tree of Tranquility for BradyGames as well.
Harvest Moon Forever!

How to Use my Guides

I write three different basic types of game guides. I usually write a General Guide for every game, which is fairly comprehensive and deals with all aspects of the game. It may or may not be in the form of a Walkthrough, dealing with game aspects as they occur. My Innocent Life General Guide is an example of a General Guide that is organised as a Walkthrough.

After writing a General Comprehensive Guide, I often write a Calendar Guide giving birthday and festival dates, with additional information that may be helpful, such as favourite gifts for each individual. For all Harvest Moon games, I usually write a number of 'mini-guides', such as Events Guides for each year of gameplay, or Recipe Guides that give all recipes one can make. Fishing, Mining, Shipping or Item Value Guides are other mini-guides that can be very useful when playing Harvest Moon. Character Guides give detailed information about every character in any specific game. My Courtship and Marriage Guide is devoted to all aspects of Courtship and Marriage, including schedules of Heart Events, Rival Heart Events and the likes and dislikes of every Eligible Girl and/or Bachelor.

Although this site is devoted to Harvest Moon, I have included links to game guides for other games. I created a separate link section for Animal Crossing Wild World as well, because I wrote more than one guide for that game.

N.B. All my game guides are published by IGN. This webpage has been created simply to allow players to find links to all my guides more easily.

Copyright Infringement Warning

It is really sad to discover that there are individuals who are willing to steal my guides and to attempt to publish them under their names. Fortunately, there are many players who recognise my guides when they see them anywhere on the internet and who are willing to alert me when some one tries to steal my material. I want to thank all those players for their help in these cases.

Some one stole one of my guides and tried to publish it on Gamefaqs under his/her name. The guide has been removed and the poster has been banned. I now have a contact in the Legal Department at CNet. I spend many months sometimes writing a guide. They are available for the private use of any individual without cost, but they are not available for theft!
If you want permission to include a link to one of my guides on your site, please contact me directly.

Friends of Mineral Town and More Friends of Mineral Town

You will notice that I wrote far more guides for More Friends of Mineral Town than I did for the original 'Friends of Mineral Town'. At some point, I would like to publish more specific Events Guides for Friends of Mineral Town, but players should be aware of the fact that ALL Calendar Events Guides for MFoMT can be used when playing the original FoMT. The Events are the same in most cases in both games. If, therefore, you are playing FoMT and you wish to know the events that can be experienced in the third year of gameplay, refer to the 'Third Year Calendar Events Guide' for 'More Friends of Mineral Town'.