Friday, March 30, 2012

Ol' MacDonald Had a Farm

Hi Family Farmers! We just closed the name giving contest for Family Farm's old man. Here at the developer's desks, we always called him "the Old Man", but that changes today.

We are amazed by the number of participants in this contest! In just 20 hours time, almost 750 Family Farmers took the trouble of entering a name. If you missed it: check the names here for yourself - we wish you a good few hours of reading all of them! :-)

In all these hundreds and hundreds of names, there was one that just was impossible  to ignore. If you have an old man on your farm - especially when he is the one introducing you to the game in the tutorial - there is only one name possible. Dear Family Farmers, meet Ol' MacDonald! Yeehaw Yeehaw Hoe!

Ol' MacDonald of Family Farm.
Ten of you have entered this name in the contest, so they all get the 10 RC reward. The winning farmers are: Doris Hutto, Lesley Jayne Robinson, Anni Sorensen, Steven Carroll, A Karine Marin Dumouchel, Sherry June, Kris Kelsey, Journey Basic, Steph Follmuth, and Wes Reed. Congratulations to all of you! Check your farm and discover that you just got richer! :-)

Dear farmers, the response to this contest was so massive that we will definitely do stuff like this more often! Keep an eye on our Fan Page, this Blog, and the official Family Farm Forum!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

The Cropinator Makes Your Farm Life Easier

Dear farmers, life on the farm can be hard work. That is why we introduce... The Cropinator! This mean machine can harvest or plant all your plots in just one mouse click.

How does this work?
First, buy the machine for 800 coins in the Store. You can find it in Farm Aides, at the Automation section. However, the Cropinator needs Gasoline before it can work. Gasoline is for sale in the Store too, also at the Automation section. Gasoline is available in 3 quantities: 12 gallons for 10 RC, 50 gallons for 35 RC, and 100 gallons for 50 RC.

To get the Cropinator to plant, be sure you have empty plots in your ranch. Best is to have a lot of empty plots, as each round of Cropinating will cost you 10 gallons of Gasoline, no matter how many (or how few) crops you plant.

To get the Cropinator to harvest, you have to have at least 1 mature crop in the farm - but again, best is to have a great lot of them!


Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Known Issue: Can't Send Gifts

Update March 30: The problem is fixed. Thanks to everyone who provided us with useful information about this issue!

Hi farmers, a number of you are experiencing problems in the gift system. The problem is: can't send any gifts, either through normal gifting or by sending back, and also can't send requests (wishes) for gifts to any neighbors. However, it is still possible to accept gifts.

We are currently investigating this problem. Our engineers are working hard to fix this issue.

Many of you took the trouble to mail us about this problem. We are grateful for that. Unfortunately, it is not possible to get back to everyone individually. So we will keep you posted in this blog posting.

Update: The problem seems to appear especially when you are using Internet Explorer. Switching to another browser may help get rid of this problem!
(Thanks to Kim Ferrare-Earwood for the tip.)

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Know Issue: Captcha Security Code

Hi farmers. Upon sharing an achievement or accomplishment in Family Farm with your friends on Facebook, a number of you is now prompted to enter a security code. This is a Captcha code, consisting of some numbers or letters, that you have to enter to confirm that you are a real person, and not a spambot of some kind.

According to reports from our players, this problem has come up in Family Farm since yesterday. We are aware of the problem and are investigating it.

So far, the conclusion is that this seems to occur with people who have many Facebook friends. The Captcha is prompted not by the game itself, but by Facebook. Therefore, it is impossible for us to fix this ourselves.

We advice farmers who experience this problem, to contact Facebook about this. We will try to do that too. In the meantime, the only advice that we can give is, not to publish anything for the time being (or keep entering the Captcha security codes).

We apologize for the inconvenience and will keep working diligently to find a solution.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Announcing the Winner of the Prettiest Farm Contest Player's Award

Hi farmers! This is a great moment in the history of the Family Farm Community: the announcement of the winner of the First Family Farmer's Players Award! This award comes with a prize of 25 RC for the winner!

In the past week, many of you have visited the Prettiest Farm Contest Player's Award photo album on our Facebook Fan Page. You have liked your favorite farm(s) for this award, and here are the results.

In third place, with 63 likes: Bernadette Goodwin from Hopewell Junction, New York.
In second place, with 98 likes: Tina Bertrand Jones from Ontario.

And, the first place and thus winner of Family Farm's very first Prettiest Farm Contest Player's Award, the one that gets the 25 free RC, with 116 likes, is.... *drum fill*

Peapod Pixie from Southwater in the U.K.!

This is Peapod Pixie's winning farm:
Many thanks to all farmer who took the trouble of sending us their farms! And, of course, many warm congratulations to the winners of the Jury Prizes and the winner of the Player's Prize! 

Be sure to participate in the next contest!

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Apart From the Easter Eggs, This Is What We Updated Too

Hi everyone! We hope you are enjoying the happy Easter Eggs that we introduced. If you haven't seen them, go to the store and find the Hypno Egg, the Electric Egg, the Spotnik Egg, the Retro Egg, and the Hippie Egg! Be sure to get them in time, for they're limited editions!
Hypno, Electric, Spotnik, Retro & Hippie Eggs, available in Mini and Maxi size.
Also, at the limited items in the Store, we got rid of the letters saying "Limited". Instead, there now is an icon of a clock that indicates that this is a limited item.


Apart from the Easter Eggs, we uploaded some other things too. We introduced two new screens: maybe you have noticed that both the Level Up Panel and the Mission Award Panel have undergone a make-over. We hope you like it.
The new Level Up Panel.
And last but not least, our engineers also contributed to the update. We uploaded a technical change that should take care of a significant bug in our gift system. We won't bug you (wink wink) with the technical details, but if you still experience gift problems, please let us know. Describe your problem as accurate as you can! (Does it concern 1, multiple, or all gifts, does it concern sending and/or receiving, does it concern 1, some or alle neighbors, and so on.)


You can contact us from your game screen. Scroll all the way to the bottom and click the link to contact the developers. Include your e-mail, and tick the box to let us know who you are, this is vital!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Hints to the Easter Missions Part I

Hi Family Farmers! As you have seen in the game, Easter has arrived in Family Farm! To help you a little in the missions - or to help you decide if you should do these missions or not - here are a few explanations and suggestions about them. Hope you find them useful!

In general
  1. To be able to complete these Easter Missions Part I, you need to be level 14 or higher. This is because it involves a Bakery, which you can get only if you've hit level 14.
  2. To complete these missions the cheapest way possible, you need to spend 6 RC. You get 3 RC back as a reward.
  3. There is a timer on the Easter Missions, so you know exactly when they will end.
1. Harvest 20 Daffodils
Nothing shocking here: just plant, wait 5 hours, and harvest.

2. Collect 4 Easter Eggs
Collect these from your neighbors.

3. Buy a Chocolate Easter Bunny
You can buy this in the Store, for only coins; no RC needed.

4. Produce 60 Pink Easter Eggs
For this, you need the Easter Egg Machine. The machine costs 1,100 coins, but you still need to finish it. The materials are 12 Gear, 10 Screws, 1 Paint Tube, and 1 Brush. You can get all of these materials for either RC or as free gifts from you friends, except for the Brush. The Brush costs 6 RC. When you complete this mission, there are 3 RC in the reward, so you get half of you RC's back!
The machine can produce 1 Pink Easter Egg per minute, and the eggs sell for 126 coins per piece.

5. Build an Easter Basket
You can get the basket in the Store for 900 coins. All necessary materials you can get for free as gifts from your neighbors, so no RC are needed here. The materials are: 12 Flowers, 10 Paint Tubes and 12 Bamboo Rings.

6. Produce 120 Loafs of Bread
The Bakery that you need to bake the Bread, costs 6,500 coins. No materials are needed to complete the machine. But keep in mind that you have to be at least level 14 before you can buy it. To make Bread, use Flour and Eggs.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Announcing the Winners of the First Prettiest Farm Contest!

Hi everybody! The Prettiest Farm Contest has closed, thank you all for participating!! And now, the moment has come to announce the winners. After ample thinking and rethinking, with now and then an argument, the jury has reached their verdict. Here are the three winning ranches!

Third prize: 20 RC
Tina Bertand Jones is an advanced Family Farmer: level 75! The farm has different areas neatly separated: living area, crops, greenhouses, orchard... It all looks thought out and well taken care of. Congratulations to Tina and use the 20 RC wisely! :-)

Second prize: 30 RC
The 30 RC go to Lee Rossi. Lee is corrently in level 28, so this farm is still quite young. The jury likes the nice and simple layout and thought this farm was very cute. Not all farms have to be complicated compositions. Congratulations Lee, and enjoy the prize!

First prize: 50 RC
Unfortunately, we can only give 1 First Prize per contest. And that one goes to... *drum fill*... Auvrea Althea! Auvrea created a romantic setting, using the rewards from previous missions. She also used Crop Art to create a heart made of Red Roses. The jury agrees that this really is the Pretties Farm that has been entered into the contest. Warm congrats to Auvrea!
 

How this contest proceeds
Ok, so we have 3 winners. What happens next? Well, this: Tomorrow, we will put a few farms in one album on or Family Farm Fan Page on Facebook. These farms will then compete for yet another prize: the Family Farmer's Public Prize. And this time, the jury is you! 
Voting is very simple: just go to the album once it's there, find your favorite farm, and hit the Like button. You can vote for more farms if you want.
Whoever has the most likes on Sunday, March 25, at 8.30 PM (American Eastern Time), wins 25 RC!!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

How Do I Expand My Ranch?

Hi everyone! We sometimes get questions about how to expand your ranch. In this posting, we'd like to shed some light on this.

First, there are 2 different kinds of Expansions available: Standard expansions and Yard expansions.

Standard Expansion
  • The Standard Expansion has these characteristics:
  • You can place anything you want on it.
  • When you buy this, a stroke of 1 land plot wide, is added to the two bottom sides of your farm. 
Yard
  • The Yard has these characteristics:
  • You can place only trees, animals, machines and decorations on this - not crops.
  • When you buy this, a stroke of 1 land plot wide, is added to the two top sides of your farm.
All Expansions
  • The following things are the same for both kinds of land expansion.
  • You have to expand step by step: start with the smallest, and work your way up to the bigger ones.
  • To get the first standard Expansion, you need to either have 10 neighbors and pay 10,000 coins, or pay 10 RC (regardless of how many neighbors you have).The Yards are more expensive.
Here you can see what happens when you get a standard Expansion:
Before...
...and after!


Wednesday, March 14, 2012

How Do I Build a Duck or Goose Pond?

This is how you can build a Duck Pond or Goose Pond.

First, buy water. You can find water plots in the Store, at Animals, in the Ponds tag. Ducks need at least 2x2 plots, Geese 3x3. Place the water plots so that they form an area of at least 2x2 or 3x3.

Next, buy a Duck Pond or Geese Pond. You'll find those in the Gear tag in the Store.

 And finally, place the Duck Pond or Geese Pond on top of the plots of water you have just placed on your farm. Hover the Pond over the water plots, and click to place.
The Duck Pond on Felicia's Ranch.
If you want, you can add one more Duck or Goose from the store now. Remember: you can't mix different types of Ducks or Goose.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Help Us to Fix Your Loading Problem!

Hi farmers! Although most players have no problem accessing the game, some of you may be experiencing some loading problems. If you have loading problems, please first try the solutions below. If these do not help, please contact us, and answer a few questions that I will list below as well. If you do that, you are not only helping yourself. You will also be helping us help anyone who has the same problem!

1. How you can fix loading problems yourself
If you have loading problems, first try the following:

  • Clear cache and cookies of your computer. How to do this, is described on this page:  https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=185360664848864
  • Change your browser. (Firefox and Chrome are supposed to work best.)
  • Check your internet connection.
  • Reset your router.
  • Make sure you have the most recent version of your browser and Flash Player.
  • Use a different computer if possible.
  • Close all uploads, downloads or programs other than the ones used to play the game.



2. Contact us
If the above all did not work, and you still can't load the game, please contact us. When you do, it is vital that you answer the following questions in your mail!

  • Have you tried all the solutions mentioned in this posting, especially cleaning your cache? If so, mention this in your mail!
  • Does the game load the top section (banner) of the game?
  • Do you see the percentage going up?
  • Do you see the percentage freeze at a certain point? If so, at which number?
  • Do you see the green flashing loading icon?
  • Do you see a totally blank screen?
  • Can you send us a screenshot? (This would be the best!)
How to contact us?
To contact us, go to the game screen, and scroll all the way down. Click the link to Report/Contact the Developer. (This loads even if the game does not!)
If you contact us this way, and answer these questions, you will enable us to help you better. Much appreciated!


Saturday, March 10, 2012

Some Inspiration to Make Your Farm Pretty Without Getting Broke

Hi farmers! As you may know, we are currently running the first Prettiest Farm Contest in Family Farm, in which you can win 50 RC! (Check the details here.) Here are a few hints about how you can get creative and make your farm pretty, while staying within a reasonable budget. Hope you find this useful!

Hint 1: Use Decorations That Cost Only Coins
The Store in Family Farm has a lot to offer, even when you don't want to spend RC. You can decorate your farm with nice looking walking paths and peaceful ponds. You can use the ponds to create waterways that run all through your farm. Ducks and geese too, are available for just coins. Decorations like the Wooden Barrel and the Woodpile may hardly seem worth while, but they can give your farm a real country side touch.

This player from the Netherlands used only decorations for coins. His farm looks quite Zen - in a Dutch, countryside way of course.
Hint 2: Create an Elevation Effect
You don't need to purchase stairways or mountains to create the idea of elevation in your farm. You can position your land plots (with or without crops on them) in such a way that they create the illusion of hills on your farm. You can also use Hay for this, but this is more expensive (3 RC per Hay).
A German farmer created a farm full of hill slopes, only by smartly positioning her plots.
Hint 3: Unleash the Artist In You by Using Crop Art
Of course, you can arrange your crops in rows. But have you tried to take this a step further? If your farm is large enough, you can create letters to form a small text on your farm. Or even create a complete painting, like this farmer from Italy has done:
An Italian farmer created a beautiful image of a butteryfly, just by planting crops.
Hint 4: Concentrate on a Small Area
If you don't have a large farm, it's a good idea to concentrate on a smaller area and make that as pretty as you can. This way, you don't have to buy many items, so it is easier to stay within a budget. If you go about it this way, you have as much chance as anyone else to win the 50 RC. We only look at what we can see in the picture. (If you don't know how to send us a picture of just an area of your farm, you can tell us in your mail which area you want us to look at, and which areas not.)
Palm trees, greenhouses, gees and flowers create the idea of a sunny day in a warm climate's place.
Hint 5: Creative With Trees
We weren't even aware of this ourselves, until a farmer did it. You can position trees in such a way that it forms a shape that seems to detach itself from the farm. The heart-like shape in the farm below seems to almost float above the ranch.
This player used the expensive Chocolate Tree, but you can also opt for cheaper trees.
Hint 6: Creative With Decorations
Decorations too, may serve as objects of creativity. What do you think of this: a farmer used a lot of Stone Mailboxes - available for coins! - to erect a wall. A good-looking wall at that. Who would have thought?
It looks like a wall. But if you look carefully, you'll see that it's really a bunch of Stone Mailboxes!
We hope these hints will inspire you for the Prettiest Farm Contest!

Participating in the contest is very easy. All you have to do is create a pretty farm, make a screenshot, and mail it to us. Do it, it can get you 50 RC totally for free!!
Read all the details about the contest here.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

How Do I Get My Machine To Make Other Products?

All (completed) machines have a little switch on them. The switch is a little circle attached to the machine.

When you click the switch, the game shows you which types of product the machine can make. If you have the necessary ingredient, you can choose to use that ingredient to make the product. If you don't, you can't click to make this product.
This is the switch on the Cheese Machine.
For example, when you have the Cheese Machine, it is normally set to produce Cheese from Milk (the Milk of the Cow). When you click the switch, it gives you the options to produce Cheese from Goat Milk and Buffalo Milk as well.

The Cheese types your Cheese Machine can make.
If the background of the ingredient is white, this means you have a supply of this ingredient in your barn. If the background is grey, it means that you don't have this ingredient at the moment. You have to grow or produce it first, before you can use this in the machine.

For example, if you click the switch on the Cheese Machine, and the background of the Goat Milk is grey, you can't make Goat Cheese at the moment. You first have to produce some Goat Milk.

Busy Bees


They're always standing by: the Bees of Family Farm! There are various different kinds of bees. At the moment, the Store has 4 of them.


Ordinary Bees
The Ordinary Bee Hive is 2,000 coins. It is the only one that is for sail for coins. These Standard Bees pollinate Clover, and make 1 jar of Honey per 30 seconds.


Starline Bees
The Starline Beehive is 15 RC. It makes the same Honey as the Ordinary Beehive, only faster. This beehive gives you a jar of Honey every 20 seconds.


Provence Bees
These very special French Bees also come for a very special price: 25 RC (unless it is for Sale). The French bees love Lavender, which they pollinate to make a jar of very special Provence Honey every 20 seconds. You need this type of Honey to make Perfumes.


Super Beehive
These Bees can handle almost anything. They will do it with Daisies, Red Roses, White Roses, Blue Roses, Tulips and Lilies. Their price is special too: they are in the Store for 35 RC. Every 20 seconds, they produce 1 jar of standard Honey.


Other Bees
Apart from these 4 different bees that are for sale in the Store, you may come across yet other bees, like the Valentine Bees, the Valentine Provence Bees, or the Halloween Bees. These bees are not for sale. They once were awards in special missions in Family Farm.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Family Farm Contest: Who Has the Prettiest Ranch?

Dear farmers, as Family Farm is growing, it's time to put your creativity to the test. We know there is a lot of that among you! So here is the first Family Farm Contest: Who Has the Prettiest Farm? 

Jury Prize
There will be 2 different prizes. The first one is the Jury Prize. A Jury (the Family Farm Team) will decide upon 3 winners. The first prize is 50 Ranch Cash, the second prize is 30 RC, and the third prize is 20 RC.
Player's Prize 
The Jury will also nominate 10 farms for the Player's Prize. These 10 farms will appear in a separate Photo Album on the Family Farm Fan Page on Facebook. All Facebook people can vote by "Liking" their favorite farm. The farmer who gets the most Likes, wins the Player's Prize of 25 RC! 
How to Participate?
You can participate by sending a screenshot of your farm to Felicia Farmer. These are the steps to take.  
  • Compose as pretty a ranch as you can. Make a screenshot of your farm and save it to your computer as a .jpg file. Put your Facebook User ID Number or Facebook User Name in the file name of your farm picture!
  • Mail us your farm. This is how to do this:

  1. Open your e-mail.
  2. Compose a new mail.
  3. Put "FF Contest" in the title.
  4. Add the screenshot of your farm as an attachment to the mail.
  5. Send the mail to Felicia Farmer.

  • Once your screenshot has reached Felicia's mail box, it counts in the contest!
  • To learn how to make a screenshot: read this posting.

Here are the rules of the contest:
  • You can send in as many farm screenshots as you want, but you can only win 1 of the Jury Prizes.
  • Photoshopping your screenshot is not allowed. Your farm may not fit on 1 screen. This doesn't matter: we only judge what we can see. There will be no discussion or correspondence about the outcome of the contest.
  • By participating, you agree that we may publish your farm in one or more photo albums on one or more Facebook fan pages of our game.
  • You can enter your farm until Sunday March 18, 8.30 PM, New York time.
  • The Jury Prizes will be announced on Sunday night 18 or Monday 19 March.
  • The Public Prize will run from the moment the Jury Prizes are announced, until Sunday March 25, 8.30 PM, New York Time. At that moment, the Likes will be counted. In all cases in which the rules do not foresee, the Jury will decide.
Good luck!

How to make a screenshot of your ranch?


To make a screenshot of your ranch, these are the steps to take:
1. Compose a very pretty farm.
2. Position the farm in such a way that it fits best on the screen of your computer. Use the Full Screen Mode!
3. Press the "PrintScreen" (or "PrtSC") key on your computer. 
4. Open the program called Paint. This program is on every Windows computer. To find it, click the Windows logo on the bottom left of your computer screen, and select Paint. If you don't see Paint here, click "Programs", then click "Accessories" and find Paint there.
5. Now, simultaneously press the "Control" (or "Ctrl") key and "V" key on your keyboard. Your farm should appear now. 
6. Save your farm picture. To do this, use the "Save as" function. 
Choose the option to save your picture as a "JPEG" file. 

7. Paint will prompt you to choose the folder where you want to save your farm picture. For example, save it in the folder "My Pictures".
You are now free to e-mail your farm picture. Or, if you want, to upload it to a photo album on your Facebook profile!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Why Can't I Buy A Chicken?

Family Farm comes with 2 types of Chicken. There is the normal Chicken, and the Colorful Chicken. The Colorful Chicken can be recognized by it's happy pink color.
Left the ordinary Chickens, right the Colorful Chickens. Painting by Ambassador Vicki.

When you decide to have Chickens on your farm, there are a couple of things you need to know:
  • First, get a Chicken Coop (for ordinary Chickens) or a Chicken Coop 2 (for Colorful Chickens).
  • Each coop comes with 1 chicken.
  • You can't mix the 2 types of Chickens. Ordinary Chickens and Colorful Chickens each have their own coops.
  • Colorful Chickens work a little faster than ordinary ones.
  • Make sure you have enough coins when you buy. If you don't, you can't make the purchase (but in that case you will not lose any coins).
  • Each coop can hold up to 5 Chickens. 
  • The more Chickens, the faster your eggs are ready.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Where can I find neighbors?

Hi farmers! If you are looking for neighbors, these are the best ways to find them!
Join a Family Farm group
A tip for all family farm players if you require new neighbours please ask to join one of the following groups:
Did we miss your group? Leave us a comment!
Visit the Forum
There is also the Family Farm Forum which you can access buy clicking the forum button located at the top of your game page, between Earn RC and Request. This will take you to the Fan Page. From here, click the link to the Family Farm Forum on the left side of the screen.
Alternatively use this link and post your friend request in the Neighbours Wanted? Meet up here page.
Good luck!
Ambassador Marie