BeetMods

Some background: Harvest Moon SNES was my very first Harvest Moon game, which I played obsessively until HM64 came out, and the rest became history.  I still have a ton of fondness for SNES, despite its shortcomings (wives completely losing their personalities after marriage, no fall crops, etc...) so I’m testing out my game-making abilities by creating a new version that basically makes it into my ideal (simple) Harvest Moon game.

Because I’m not really a modder, I’m actually rebuilding the game from the ground up (and learning about the ins and outs of game dev in the process), but it will function like a mod in being an expansion on the original game for fans to enjoy, not a totally new game.  

The SNES game is one of the few games in the series to allow you to have two kids, so I obviously wanted to keep that mechanic. I find it boring that in most games your kids don't progress past the toddler stage, so I also wanted to build in letting your kids grow up into...actual kids.

The basic mechanic for having kids in this game is, at some point after marriage, your spouse will ask you if you want to have a kid. You can answer yes, not right now, or never. If you answer "not right now," they'll ask you again in a month or so.

If you answer "yes," then they'll ask you how you want to have your kid: farmer pregnancy, spouse pregnancy, or surrogacy. Note that every spouse/farmer combination will have these same options: I wanted to make sure everyone's headcanons about gender, trans/cis status, etc, can work! Depending on what you choose, there will be dialogue related to the pregnant character or surrogate, and the birth scene will fit the option you chose.

HOWEVER: there is a second, hidden mechanic you can also use to have kids but avoid the pregnancy question altogether! If you are married OR you have already told the Harvest Goddess you are never getting married, then you can give her a specific item (I won't spoil more than that!) and she will give you the option of adopting a baby. If you say yes, the baby will show up in your house immediately.

The original Harvest Moon SNES was pretty marriage-focused, as you might remember: sure, you COULD stay a bachelor, but you couldn't get the best ending that way. I wanted this game to be more inclusive, so you have a few different options for marriage:

Use the traditional Blue Feather to propose to one of the marriage candidates (all farmers can marry all marriage candidates, no gender restrictions). (Note that all marriage candidates have something you need to complete before they will agree to marry you, usually bulletin board requests, events, or carpenter expansions. Many of these cannot be completed until at least Spring Year 2, making marriage a later event than in the original game.) Once you get married, you can fill requests and view events that will eventually lead to the rest of the marriage candidates pairing up, too. If you don't want them to pair up, then don't fulfill their special requests on the bulletin board.

Don't propose to anyone. None of the other marriage candidates will pair up if you don't get married first.

OK, you can't marry the Harvest Goddess in this game (sorry!) but if you show her the Blue Feather, she will give you the option to never get married. If you agree, then you won't be able to get married anymore, but then you can pair off the other marriage candidates in the same way you could if you got married first.