Sapling Wars

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A competitive PvP farming strategy game where players battle to outgrow, outfarm, and outsmart their enemies.

Overview

Sapling Wars is a competitive multiplayer strategy game that blends farming and combat in a fresh, chaotic PvP twist. Teams of up to four players battle to harvest resources, build defenses, and outlast opponents in a 16-player free-for-all.

Designed in Unity and currently available as a Steam demo, the game reimagines farming mechanics for competitive play and build your economy, defend your core, and sabotage others to survive.

I co-led design on Sapling Wars, crafting core mechanics, GDDs, and balance systems while directing documentation, iteration, and system design.

Project Timeline: 2023 – Present
Team Size: 2 (Gxplorers Studio)
Engine: Unity 6
Platform: Steam (Demo Available)
My Role: Lead Game Designer, Producer, Documentation Lead
Key Responsibilities:
- Designed the farming-combat economy and core gameplay loop.
- Created full GDDs, balance systems, UI wireframes, and flowcharts.
- Led playtesting and iterated based on player feedback.
- Balanced systems to support PvP dynamics and farming mechanics.

Currently available as a free demo on Steam

Full Game Design Document

Play Early Access

Gameplay Mechanics

Sapling Wars combines the relaxed pace of farming with the intensity of a battle royale. Players must strategize with their team to secure resources, defend their core, and outsmart opponents across diverse maps.

Farming

Combat

Defense

Hoe, plant, water, harvest. Crops generate gold and are used in combat upgrades.

Pitchforks, disguises, traps, sabotage tools — use PvP to gain the edge.

Build scarecrows, hay blocks, mines, and restore your Core's health.

Strategy

Environments

Teams must multitask and react fast, defend while farming and sabotaging.

Two Maps, Rain, night, fog affect visibility, farming speed, and tactics.

Design Process

Core Design Pillars & Gameplay Systems

I structured Sapling Wars around a clear, chaotic loop: farm, defend, sabotage, repeat, all under PvP pressure. The goal was to merge farming sim mechanics with strategic arena combat, ensuring constant interaction and zero downtime.

Core Design Values:

Fast-paced farming loop focused on PvP tension and territory control
Clear player goals with rapid decision-making and high replayability
Strong UI clarity, readability, and feedback during 16-player chaos
Emergent strategy based on weather, economy, sabotage tools, and map layout

Gameplay Systems I Designed:

Farming Economy: crop timing, growth stages, sell values, storage
Combat Tools & Mechanics: disguise system, traps, durability, cooldowns
Core Destruction Loop: team base health, win/loss logic, shield mechanics
Weather & Day/Night Cycle: dynamic changes that affect pace and visibility
Shop Tiers & Item Progression: unlock paths, resource costs, balance logic

Level Design Philosophy & Documentation

I built both maps: Breezy Meadows and Trustfall Island, to support strategic PvP tension, choke points, and dynamic movement. Each layout was iterated to push interaction over isolation, with heat zones, map affordances, and resource pressure baked in.

Level Design Goals:

Encourage player collisions via seed placement and map symmetry
Use terrain hazards (mud, fall zones) to increase map risk and skill expression
Design areas for stealth (bushes), mid-map battles (watermelon zones), and base defense

Documentation & Planning Systems:

Wrote the full GDD, spreadsheets, and stat breakdowns
Designed UI wireframes, system flowcharts, and mechanic sheets
Mapped all decisions to Unity Netcode-safe logic and Trello task tracking
Balanced values across tools, upgrades, structures, and seeds

Prototyping, Playtesting & Iteration

From early mockups to the current Steam demo, we worked through tight design sprints, iterating weekly based on live playtests. I led every round of feedback, updated tuning docs, and restructured systems and UI when issues surfaced.

Iteration Highlights:

Rebalanced crop timers and gold income to avoid early rush metas
Redesigned shop UI for clarity under pressure
Adjusted disguise and trap systems to improve counterplay and fairness
Tuned map pacing and fog-of-war to support stealth and sabotage

Tools I Used:

Unity engine with custom test scenes for map iteration
Google Sheets for live balancing and economy tuning
Trello for design pipeline and bug tracking
GitHub + Unity Cloud for version control and multiplayer testing

Challenges & Learnings

Multiplayer & System Implementation Challenges

Creating a real-time multiplayer experience with Unity Netcode was one of the biggest technical challenges. I had to adapt all gameplay systems to work properly in a multiplayer environment:

Core health and win condition logic for each team
Shop interaction and gold sharing
Trap placement, sabotage triggers, and object destruction
Syncing key objects like crops, containers, and player actions

It required a lot of trial and error, testing, and restructuring to avoid bugs and desync issues. I learned how important it is to design systems that are simple, consistent, and clear, especially when working with multiplayer logic. This experience made me better at identifying potential issues early and thinking about how every system behaves when multiple players interact at once.

Balancing Strategy, Economy & Replayability

One of the main goals was to make sure no single strategy would dominate the game. Some players just wanted to buy the strongest weapon and rush, so I had to design mechanics that pushed players to think and adapt.

I worked on:

Keeping farming rewarding and necessary for progress
Making sabotage tools useful for slowing down aggressive players
Ensuring defensive builds felt satisfying and weren’t left behind
Adding weather events that forced new strategies mid-match
Tuning shop prices and cooldowns to prevent overuse

This constant tweaking taught me the importance of pacing and flexibility, and how to spot where players might “break the game” or fall into repetitive behaviors.

Small Team Production & Testing Process

With just two people on the team, I had to take care of a lot more than just game design. I handled:

Writing and updating the full GDD
Building balancing spreadsheets, shop charts, and wireframes
Planning with Trello and managing weekly tasks
Running playtests, collecting feedback, and making changes right after

We kept improving the game week by week, focusing on short, fun matches and strong replay value. Working like this taught me how to stay organized, work fast, and still deliver solid, tested systems even in a small team with limited time.