phpFarm

phpFarm is currently in development and is coming soon to Early Access.

Add it to your wishlist and follow Fred on his way to a fully automated farm.

Automate your farm with real PHP code

Write programs, let your robot Fred run them and turn your harvest into new abilities.

The last developer is gone. There is no staging environment, no backup and no ticket system. All that is left is a farm, an index.php and Fred, a small robot who does exactly what you program.

Write your code directly in the built-in editor. Fred runs it on the field, plants and harvests whatever grows there. He brings the harvest to the container, the press turns it into bio-mass, and bio-mass unlocks new PHP features, tools, seeds and bigger fields.

Then you write your code again. Only better, faster and shorter.

Unlock PHP one feature at a time

At the start you can only call commands without values: harvest(), move(), plant(). Numbers and strings, variables, while, if, your own functions, arrays, for, foreach and switch all have to be earned.

The skill tree holds 33 skills in four branches: Basics, Flow, Farm and Upgrades. You pay for each one with bio-mass, earned with the commands you already had. By the time you unlock a loop, you know exactly what you need it for. After all, you spent long enough without one.

phpFarm runs its own PHP interpreter, built for this game. That is what makes it possible to unlock language features one by one and tie your progress as a programmer directly to the growth of your farm.

For beginners and experienced developers

You do not need any PHP knowledge to start phpFarm. New commands and programming concepts are introduced step by step and tried out right on the field.

If you already know how to code, you build your own solutions, skip the optional help and optimise your code for as few lines and ticks as possible.

Whether you are writing PHP for the first time or have years of experience, you decide how you program your farm and how fast you want to progress.

Errors that actually help

Errors are part of programming. In phpFarm they do more than tell you something went wrong.

Every error message names the line, marks it in the editor and explains the problem in one clear sentence. Most of the time a suggested fix follows right away, and if you mistype a command, the game tells you the right name. You learn while you write your code, without constantly opening an external tutorial.

No cryptic messages. No unexpected T_VARIABLE. Only errors you can learn from.

Real PHP, not a simplified lookalike

Dollar signs, semicolons, curly braces and dynamic typing. '5 melons' + 3 is 8 in here too, and yes, one day you will debug that. phpFarm follows the real syntax and the quirks of PHP.

The farm API stays clear and consistent. The game is allowed to joke about PHP, but never at the cost of the fun.

A clear path instead of an empty sandbox

20 missions take you from your first harvest() on a single tile to a farm that runs itself.

Every concept arrives exactly when you need it. Use a loop for a row, plan a route across a bigger field and unlock an array once a single variable is no longer enough.

The missions are optional. You can also unlock new skills directly in the skill tree, experiment freely and develop your own solutions.

Your code, your solution

In phpFarm there is more than one right way. Use loops, conditions, functions and arrays however they fit your strategy.

Finish a mission as fast as possible, solve it with as little code as possible or automate your farm completely. As long as Fred reaches his goal, the solution is yours.

After the last mission the farm is yours. It starts at 8 × 8 tiles and can be expanded through the skill tree up to 24 × 24.

A farm that challenges your code

Seven crops grow on your field. The longer a crop takes, the more bio-mass it brings in the press. What you plant and when you harvest is your calculation:

• Grass grows right on the meadow, ripens fastest and brings the least.
• Radishes, flowers, tomatoes and eggplants need their own seeds, tilled soil and more time with every kind.
• Bamboo and carrots take the longest and bring the most in the press.

The harvest goes onto Fred's cargo bed. When it is full, he has to drive back to the container and unload with store() before press() turns everything into bio-mass. Some missions also put pests on the field: a beetle leaves after one chase(), a locust only after the second, and a mole is only gone once you dig it up with till().

Bio-mass unlocks new language features, tools, seeds and expansions. So it is not just your farm that grows, but also what you can program in PHP.

Missions, medals and orders

Every mission awards a medal: bronze for the tasks, silver for the bonus, such as especially short code, and gold if you are also at least as fast as Fred.

At the order board, customers like Frida and Nils order set amounts of your crops before a deadline. Load the goods into the delivery truck with deliver() and earn more bio-mass than the press would give you.

Find a better solution

Every run is measured in ticks. Queries like can_harvest() cost no time, every move and every harvest does. Your program might work. But is it efficient?

Optimise your routes, avoid unnecessary commands and build solutions that need less code and fewer ticks. There is almost always a faster, shorter or smarter way.

Thanks to the deterministic simulation, the same script under the same conditions always gives the same result. That lets you compare your solutions reliably and improve them step by step.

Programming in a cosy farm world

phpFarm combines real programming challenges with a friendly, relaxed farm world. While Fred drives across the field, your crops grow, the press processes your harvest and your automation takes shape step by step.

There is no pressure to find the perfect solution. Experiment, make mistakes and watch right away how your code affects the farm.

The farm keeps growing

phpFarm launches in Early Access first and will be expanded continuously afterwards.

Plans for future updates include classes and objects, Fibers, several robots on the field at once, irrigation, more crops and leaderboards.

Add phpFarm to your wishlist now and don't miss the moment Fred gets his first official order.

Your code is ready. Fred is waiting for his next command.