An early design of the Sergeant at Arms.
Thanks to The Harvester Show, many tidbits about the game's background, original concepts and Dummied Out content have been revealed to the general public. After the person responsible for it uploaded the game's script
to Internet Archive, even more content was revealed that shows just how much has truly changed.
- In the original teaser for Harvester, the characters weren't Full Motion Video actors, but instead were either 3-D Models or drawn. Steve has a more southern accent, Steve's mom might have been The Faceless (as hers is always shown just out of frame, typical with mothers), Stephanie has dark hair instead of being a blonde (as her actress is the one who'd play the Dark Exotic Woman instead), and the Sheriff's voice is more ordinary and he wears glasses (he's still obsessed with pie and eats it in front of a spinal cord, but here it's blueberry).
- Some early screenshots show a clown getting angry and lying on the floor. There is a clown enemy in the lodge, but there are no cutscenes associated with him. There are also some other rooms like a lounge and a sewer with green slime.
- The Sergeant at Arms was supposed to wear a fez or some other cultish headgear, rather than just a hood. Underneath it, it'd be shown that he's grotesquely mutilated with oodles of Body Horror.
- Failing to perform all necessary tasks in time would still result in Steve dying during the Blood Drive, but that would involve a Slashed Throat, rather than Off with His Head!.
- When an enemy is meant to die on the next attack, the game would initiate a death blow and you'd have to push both mouse buttons simultaneously. This would have only happened with some enemies and some weapons.
- There were two planned difficulty levels: Easy (you can save the game at any time, enemies have a lower evasion rate, and Sergeant at Arms can be called to provide hints) and Standard (you can only save the game during sleep period, enemies have a higher evasion rate, and there are no clues on call). The final game's difficulty is a mix of both (can save at any time, enemies don't have a changed evasion rate, and there's no option to call Sarge for hints).
- Saying the keyword "FUCK" to Steve's mother makes her consider the offer, but in the planned design, she would also strip down to underwear.
- Not only was Mr. Pastorelli in the Barber Shop supposed to talk, he was also going to be semi-aware of Harvest's true nature, even warning Steve about it in Italian, hinting at the possibility that he could be a real person like Steve and Stephanie. This idea was abandoned probably because it would have given away too much about the twist to Italian-speaking players. There was also going to be a sheep walking through his shop.
- The Wasp Woman was supposed to have a larger role; during the task when you're going to steal the cloth from the firemen, you could deviate their attention by setting her house on fire, in which would allow you to break into their home and steal the cloth. This action was mentioned many times in the script, but for unknown reasons was removed. There are also four short cutscenes in the storyboard which are related to her, from 104 to 107 (wasps flying across the screen to sting Steve, wasps on Steve's face as he screams, the Wasp Woman with a wasp stinging her hand, and a wasp crawling on a sandwich).
- Some places, such as DNA's Diner and the Firemen's Department originally had extra rooms which you could enter; in the latter's case a bedroom with five beds in them, where a cutscene could be triggered that would hint at Sheriff Duane being Ambiguously Gay. Both rooms were removed because they were deemed unnecessary.
- The Lodge would have random wandering monsters. If Steve went to sleep in a non-secure room, one of them could enter and attack him. Also, it would be possible for a monster to show up in a room which has already been cleared out (more likely if a significant amount of time has passed since the last visit).
- Steve would have had to dispose of bodies after killing them in the Lodge. If a reusable method for doing so was overused, the game wouldn't let you reuse it (so a fireplace would get filled with ashes and bones for instance). Failure to do so well would make the Sergeant at Arms take weapons away. After reaching the third level, it would no longer be necessary as Steve would have proven that he's able to do so well enough by that point.
- Steve normally only goes to sleep at the end of a day in Harvest, but doing so to recover health would also be possible in the Lodge. He'd require a sleeping bag to do so in secure places, but to sleep in a non-secure place, he'd need to use sleeping pills. There was going to be a room where Steve could hide and sleep after killing a spider, but he'd wake up covered in its web. Using the knife would free him, but there'd be a percentage chance that the eggs inside would hatch and devour him before he even knows what's happening. To get rid of the web altogether, he'd have to use matches on it, but trying to burn the way out while he's stuck would incinerate him along with it. He would also be able to climb up to chimney to the second floor, though something nasty awaits above.
- The cloakroom attendant was supposed to be played by the same person as Edna Fitzpatrick, rather than Clem Parsons.
- The Lurker in the Roman bath would need to be killed, rather than distracted with meat so Steve can pass. That said, it could still eat a body to get rid of it before attacking Steve afterwards.
- To climb to the third floor, Steve would have to defeat the rope which would move like a serpent. Another path to the third floor would be the Aviary, filled with wicked birds to be lured down and killed and a Roc at the top that would also need to be killed.
- The third floor would have been a puzzle where Steve has to pull levers and align the smaller temples to reach the Inner Sanctum. There would have also been a Temple of the Mystery of Discovery, resided by Hank who's dressed in his cowboy garb, who'd explain how TV doesn't tell history properly.
