Farming Simulator 16-Bit: Interview with Renzo, our Retro-Dev!

How far has Farming Simulator come since 1989, right? Well, if your favorite agricultural simulation existed back then... If you weren't around then, or just missed out on the reign of the fourth-generation consoles and the glory of the 16-bit era, you can go back in time and play Farming Simulator 16-Bit Edition right now!

Let's talk to our retro-loving developer Renzo, Lead Level Designer and Co-owner of GIANTS Software. He has been with the company almost since the beginning, back in 2008. Fun fact: this is almost as far from now as the year 2008 was from the 16-Bit era. Some of you have the right to feel old now... 

Farm like it's 1989!

You can get it on our shop for PC or included in the Collector's Edition - no need to get a dedicated 16-Bit consoles from the basement or flea market.

🎮 Authentic 16-bit Experience🎮

🎮 Retro Backgrounds pixeled by hand🎮

🎮 Soundtrack by Chris Hülsbeck🎮

🎮 Digitized Engine Sound Effects🎮

🎮 3 Maps to play simultaneously🎮

🎮 14 Machines with pre-rendered sprites 🎮

Talking to Renzo

Lead Level Designer & Retro Lover

Renzo, tell us a bit about you and your position in the company!

Hi, I'm Renzo. I'm the lead level designer and co-owner of GIANTS Software. I've been with the company almost since the beginning in 2008.

What motivated you to create the retro version?

When the idea for a Mega Drive version came up, I knew it was a unique, almost once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As a retro gamer and hobbyist retro developer, I just had to jump at the chance to not only contribute to the game, but actually make it.

This motivated me to create an early prototype over the course of a few weekends. I had never made a Mega Drive game before, and my last forays into C coding had been years ago, so the prototype also served as a benchmark to see if I was up to the task.

What do you personally associate with that 16-bit era - what does it mean to you?

While I'm old enough to remember the era, I never owned a 16-bit console back in the day. I had a C64 in 1990, which was already ancient technology then. I used to enjoy looking at the screenshots of 16-bit console games in print magazines, and I was a little jealous of how much better the graphics were compared to what my C64 could display.

A decade later, I finally got to play the 16-bit console games I had seen in the magazines, and seeing those still images come to life, so to speak, was very nostalgic for me. The first time I played those games is now over two decades ago as well, so I feel doubly nostalgic for the 16-bit era. And I'm feeling old.

How did you create the game - any special software, programming language, etc.?

I programmed the game in C and used SGDK, an open-source development kit specifically made to create Sega Mega Drive/Genesis games. SGDK took care of most of the low-level stuff, allowing me to concentrate on the game.

For the map background graphics, I used Aseprite, a pixel art editor that had recently introduced tilemap layers. This was perfect timing because the graphics of the Mega Drive are all tile-based.

As for the vehicles, I took the 3D models from the main game, simplified them, and rendered them in Blender.

What aspects of classic 16-bit games (in general) did you try to capture in this game?

I chose an isometric perspective inspired by the Strike series of Mega Drive games (Desert Strike/Jungle Strike/Urban Strike). The controls are similar to many isometric games and work well with the Mega Drive's standard three-button controller.

I hand-pixeled the background graphics while using pre-rendered 3D models for the vehicle and tool sprites. Doing these by hand would not have been feasible in the given time frame. Several Mega Drive games use a similar combination of styles, and this lends the game an era-authentic look. Graphically, I didn't do anything that couldn't have been done back then; I could just do it faster thanks to modern software tools.

Tell us about the music!

Another important aspect is, of course, the music! Industry legend Chris Hülsbeck composed the game's soundtrack, and when I heard the first tune, I was immediately transported back to the heyday of 16-bit consoles and computers.

The music alone lends the game an authenticity that makes you believe the game was actually released in the nineties.

How did you choose which gameplay features to adapt to fit the retro style?

Since we wanted the game to have a shop, we created a list of vehicles that would cover all the basic farming steps (cultivating, sowing, etc.) and also offer noticeable upgrades within each category. This dictated the features I had to implement.

I couldn't make the fields as high-resolution as in the main game, so I had to determine the size of a field chunk, the smallest changeable part of a field. It needed to be large enough for all fields to fit in memory but still small enough for wider tools to make a difference. If you buy a larger seeder, you also expect to sow a larger area. This, in turn, determined the size of the fields and, on a larger scale, the overall dimensions of the maps.

The game is not in real 3D, so I simplified how vehicles move and how attached tools work. Because the Mega Drive's regular controller only has three buttons (plus Start), I could only put the most common functions, like switching vehicles, on the buttons. I had to offload all other functions, like access to the shop and garage, into a separate menu.

Were there any challenges in creating a version with retro hardware limitations?

Oh, yes! Over the course of the project, I realized that memory management is the bane of a retro developer's existence. The Mega Drive's memory limitations mandated many design decisions.

For example, I couldn't fit one large map into the console, so I made three smaller ones that could be played simultaneously. I also had to limit the number of vehicles that could be on a map at the same time. To alleviate this, I added a garage where vehicles could be stored and moved from one map to another.

Anything else you’d like retro-lovers or Farming Simulator fans to know?

For even more authenticity, play the game on a CRT monitor. If you can still find one. ;)

Stay tuned!

Next up: Interview with legendary composer Chris Hülsbeck.

Until then...