Seasons

Owns a calendar position that advances by day and maps to a season index, usually four. Each season sets parameters other systems read: which crops can grow, temperature, day length, weather odds, animal behavior, demand for heat or food, and scheduled events. Stardew Valley has four 28-day seasons, and seasonal crops must generally be harvested before the next season arrives; Don't Starve's base cycle alternates 20 summer days and 16 winter days and changes the day, dusk, and night split with them; Banished and Farthest Frontier force food stockpiling for winters without harvests. Inputs are elapsed days; outputs are season flags and parameter sets. Some games make season length a setting.

Planning in cycles. The player plants for this season while saving for the next, treats the end of a season as a deadline, and gets a fresh start each spring. Winter tests the year's preparation, and the cycle gives long games a felt rhythm.

• number and length of seasons, and whether lengths vary or can be set
• which systems each season modifies: growth, temperature, weather, events, prices
• severity of the harshest season and how much stockpiling it demands
• transition rules, such as crops dying at the change or gradual change
• season-unique content: crops, festivals, creatures

• Seasons that only swap textures add art cost without changing decisions.
• A harsh season survivable only with one known stockpile size becomes a checklist.
• Season-gated content locks players out for long stretches when they miss a window.

• Seasonal production with year-round consumption creates demand for storage, preservation, and trade.
• Combined with a crisis countdown, the approach of winter structures the year as preparation.
• Labor shifts between seasonal tasks, creating idle periods and peaks.

• Can generative asset models make seasonal variants of every asset cheap enough that seasons become a default rather than a budget decision?