Farm IdleGame Info

Farm Idle · version 0.1.0

Prove up a Nebraska homestead, one season at a time

It's 1870. You have 160 acres of unbroken prairie in northeast Nebraska, a family of four, a worn wagon, one yoke of oxen and about three months of supplies. Live on the land and farm it for five years, and the Homestead Act makes it yours. The work rates, prices and history are real. Here's how it plays.

BrowserWindows1870s NebraskaReal historyPause any timeSaves as you go
The main screen in December: the season calendar, the family on the left, the plat map of the claim with ripe sod corn and walked tiles bordered by ground quality, the region map, and the tile panel on the right.

Chapter 1

Get the Game

Two ways to play, the same game. It's an early version: your feedback shapes what comes next.

  1. 1

    Pick how you'll play

    Everything is on the game's page. Each version keeps its own progress.

    In your browserPress Play in Your Browser. Best on a computer with a mouse, in an up-to-date browser, with nothing to install. Your farm is saved in that browser.
    WindowsDownload farm-idle-0.1.0-windows.exe and run it: nothing to install. If Windows asks, choose More info, then Run anyway.

Chapter 2

Your Claim

  1. 2

    Choose your county

    A new game starts by choosing where to settle: Pierce, L'Eau Qui Court (Knox), Antelope, Madison, Wayne, Stanton or Cedar. The history notes follow your county, and the region map shows its towns as they're founded.

    The county picker, listing the seven counties with a line about each.
  2. 3

    Read the history as it happens

    Notes open on the real dates: the Homestead Act, the Easter Blizzard of 1873, the grasshoppers of 1874, new towns and the railroad. The clock waits while you read. Each note ends with Learn More links to History Nebraska, the Park Service, Wikipedia and the 1882 county histories.

    The Homestead Act note with its illustration of a family at the land office, and Learn More links.
  3. 4

    Walk the ground

    Ground quality starts hidden. Select a tile and press Walk the Ground: it takes that person's day while everyone else carries on. Good ground yields 10% more, poor ground 15% less. A land locator in Norfolk can report on every tile for $5.

    A tile selected on the plat map, with the Walk the Ground button in the tile panel.
  4. 5

    Set up the homestead

    Pick a prairie tile for the homestead site. The wagon camps there, and later the sod house and the garden go there. That tile isn't farmed.

    The Set Up the Homestead Here button on a selected tile.

Chapter 3

Working the Land

  1. 6

    Put people to work

    Pick a person in the family list and then a tile, or pick a tile and choose Who from the tile panel. Break sod from late May, plant corn and sow wheat in their seasons, then husk and harvest. One yoke of oxen breaks about an acre a day.

    • Click a tile someone is working to lend a hand, five times a day.
    • A second yoke of oxen from Norfolk lets two people break or plow at once.
    Johann breaking sod on a tile, with the yoke of oxen drawn on it and the Who picker in the tile panel.
  2. 7

    Watch the seasons

    The season calendar shows every working season, today's line, and how many days are left. Corn wants cultivating three times between June 1 and July 15, or the weeds take a share of the crop. The clock pauses when a season opens or is about to close; you can turn that off in Options.

    The season calendar with Corn Husking in amber, 6 days left.
  3. 8

    Feed and warm the family

    Food and fuel run down every day, three times faster for fuel in winter. Click the chips in amber rings for fuel and prairie chickens and wild fruit in green rings for food. When store food runs out, the family eats its own corn and wheat.

    Chips and a prairie chicken in coloured rings on the plat map.
  4. 9

    Do the chores

    The chores bar holds the daily work: Gather Fuel, Tend Stock, Plant and Harvest Garden, Butcher Hog and Thresh Wheat. A chore takes the person's day. After five times, a chore can be assigned to that person, and practice makes it bring in more.

    The chores bar at the bottom of the screen.
  5. 10

    Drive to Norfolk

    Norfolk is as far as it really was: about 10 miles from a Madison County claim, over 50 from Knox, Cedar or Antelope. At an ox team's 15 miles a day a trip takes 2 to 8 days, and the person, the oxen and the wagon are gone the whole time. Load shelled corn, corn on the ear (it takes more room) or wheat before you set out.

    The trip popup: how far Norfolk is, how many days, when you'll reach town and be home, and what to load.

Chapter 4

Town, the Road and the People You Meet

  1. 11

    In town

    Sell what's in the wagon to Herman Brauer, the grain buyer, and buy what the farm needs: rations, shoats, a milk cow, a corn sheller, lumber for a corn crib, fencing for a hog lot, oxen, a bigger wagon.

    The Norfolk dialog: prices, the load in the wagon, and things to buy.
  2. 12

    On the road

    Now and then something happens: a broken wheel, a slough, snow, a storm soaking the load, good dry going. Some ask you to choose, like fording a swollen creek or going around. Nothing ends the game, and some of it helps.

    A road event: the creek is up, with Ford It and Go Around.
  3. 13

    People and introductions

    Selling, helping on the road and word of mouth build a name. The people you know introduce you to others: a blacksmith, a hog buyer, a freighter, the neighbors and new settlers. The People button lists who you know and what they can do.

    People You Know: the grain buyer, the hog buyer and a freighter, with an offer to send a load.
  4. 14

    Corn walks to market

    Corn rarely paid to haul by wagon. Feed it to hogs instead: a shoat fed corn gains about 10 lb a bushel, and the hog buyer comes by about monthly to pay by the pound. Watch for hog cholera; a hog lot helps.

    The hog buyer offering a price for two fat hogs.

Chapter 5

Controls

ActionMouseKeyboard
Pause or resumePause buttonSpace, Numpad 0 or Pause
Speed 1×, 2×, 4×Speed buttons1, 2, 3 (or the numpad)
Select a tileClick it–
Lend a handClick a tile being worked–
Pick a personClick their name–
See who you knowPeople button–
Read more about a noteLearn More links–

Chapter 6

Good to Know

Proving upTo own the claim you need a house on it, 10 acres under crop and five years of living there. The checklist under Next Steps shows how you're doing.
SavingThe game saves every week of game time and when you close it. The clock only runs while you play, or as far as your assigned chores can carry the farm.
FeedbackSend to Pixel copies a short summary of your run to the clipboard, sized to paste into a Discord message.
Real numbersWork rates, yields, prices and dates come from USDA reports, History Nebraska and the county histories. Where no source was found, the game uses a marked best guess.