Basic Gameplay Instructions for Beginners

General Introduction to Farming Simulation Games

Family Farm is a Farming Simulation Game and all Farming Simulation Games tend to be based on the same fundamental principles.  The farmer usually is assumed to be a novice rather than some one who has been involved all his life in the business of tilling the soil and therefore must earn experience in the form of 'Experience Points' or 'XP' in order to unlock more sophisticated crops and new options.

Tilling the soil, planting Crops and then harvesting them is at the heart of Farming and depending upon the game, each of these actions should give the Farmer Experience Points as well as raw ingredients that usually can be used to create products.  In FarmVille and FarmVille 2, there are Kitchens or other buildings such as a Spa, Winery, Bakery and/or Workshop with Recipes that use Crops harvested from the land as well as Animal Products such as Milk and Eggs.

The Industrial Revolution

Family Farm was created by some one who obviously felt the Industrial Revolution was a fantastic giant step for mankind, as Machines that transform raw ingredients such as Crops and Animal Products into Goods of various types, both edible and non-edible.  There are simple Machines that transform Milk of different sorts into Cheese and that squeeze Fruits both from Crop harvests and Tree harvests into Juice.  There are more sophisticated Machines that weave Angora or Camelhair into cardigans as well as a Toy Maker that uses Wool and Hair to make miniature Toy Animals.  In the Toy Machine, Camel Hair becomes a Toy Camel; Angora becomes a little toy Rabbit.  Blue and Red Teddy Bears are made from different types of Wool.

Machines can be used in one of two fashions.  One can load the machine manually with the ingredient or ingredients needed to produce the final Product.  Ingredients for a total of three Products can be loaded at once into any Machine.  Using the manual approach, one can refill the Machine as soon as a Product appears in the Product Tray or one can wait until all three Products have appeared.  It is important to note that, until the finished products are collected, the Machine will not be able to produce any more even if the ingredients have been added.

The second way in which machines can be operated is through automation.  This is a rather fascinating aspect of Family Farm and goes hand in hand with the general focus on Industrialisation.  It is here that OP becomes vital.  OP stands for 'Operation Points' or 'Operating Points' and must be earned either by completing specific Quests or through attainment of specific Achievements.    A Farmer's total OP is shown in one of the graph bars at the top of the screen.  Without OP, one still can use any Machine MANUALLY but one cannot set a Machine to Automation.

At the top of the screen, the Farmer will find the icon of a pair of cogs.

Quests and Missions

In any of these Farming Simulation Games, the Farmer basically can do as he/she pleases, ignoring all Quests or Missions offered by the game.  Missions and Quests usually are found on the left and/or right side of the screen in little icons that constitute links.  They tend to be a sequence of actions, each of which gives a separate Reward.  In other words, one need not complete ALL tasks in the Quest sequence in order to gain a Reward.  Each completed step will give some sort of Reward, but the most significant Reward is obtained only by completing the entire sequence.  Often the final Reward will be a special Item that cannot be obtained in any other fashion.

Some Quests and Missions are restricted to players who have attained specific levels of Experience.  Others are available to every one.  In Family Farm, the Quests that appear on the left side of a novice's screen tend to be game tutorials.  Completing these Quests not only will raise Experience Levels fast, unlocking more interesting options and new Crops and Animals, but also help the beginner to become familiar with all aspects of the game.  Even if they appear slightly tedious, they are worth the effort as once a Player reaches higher Experience Levels, he/she will be in a position to structure the game according to his/her own specifications.   One can do that even at the start, but a novice will be very limited in the Crops, Animals, Trees and Decorations that are available at the beginning.

The Achievements Option

Both in the original Family Farm and its mobile sister, Family Farm Seaside, one will find that specific totals in performing a Task,  harvesting a Crop, Tree or Animal Product or using a Machine to create a specific Item will have its own Reward in the form of an Achievement Trophy/Reward.  Achievements are 'housed' in a little building in Seaside on the top of the screen.  In the original game, one can find a link in the Menu  at the lower right corner of the screen where other options involving game settings Tools and the ability to move or store Items can be found.

Some Players focus on Achievements more than Quests or Missions.  Achievement Rewards usually consist both of Coins and XP (Experience Points) and there is a Machine in Family Farm that can plant or harvest an entire field with a single click of the mouse.  It is the Cropinator and will be introduced to the Farmer in one of the earliest Quests.  A field planted with a variety of Crops can be harvested in a single click by the Cropinator, but if the Farmer wishes to PLANT a variety of Crops, that must be done manually.

There are five levels of Achievements in any one category.  For example:

In the Crop section:

For the Forget-Me-Not, a flower that is found in the Special Items section of the Market, one must harvest a total of 60 in order to obtain the 1st Achievement Trophy that carries with it a Reward of 32 OP and 16 XP.


I personally am one of those Players who prefers Quests to Achievements when defining goals.  Achievements will occur naturally in the course of gameplay and it is more interesting to grow a variety of Crops and to use different Machines to make a variety of products rather than concentrating on a single Crop and a single Machine until the ultimate Aehivement is given.