Howdy Scientists!
Alpha 0.8 is now available. You will have to start a new game, because the world changed a lot. If you prefer continuing your old game, you can disable steam updates or go back to version 0.7 from the "Beta" panel in the "properties" screen.
Achievements : I added 55 steam achievements covering many aspects of the game (farming, quests, friendship, crafting, minigames ...)
New intro and tutorial quests : I updated the game first cutscene and added some early quests to guide the player a little better in the early stages of the game. It's still a work in progress, I'll use your feedback to make it better.
You can now unlock 3 festivals :
- The Drone Race festival happens on day 7 of every season, with a different map each time.
- The hackathon festival happens on day 15 of Winter. It unlocks the hacking minigame, a special quiz game, and 5 more levels (with lasers!) in the BotArena minigame.
- The Animal Market happens on day 30 of Spring and Fall. You can buy adult animals of any color. There is also a special quiz game.
Gameplay changes
Animals now have various colors that are transmitted genetically. Some colors are more common than others, and some genes are recessive (only show if both parents transmit the gene). Some colors are the result of two genes. So, if for example you let a couple of white and black rabbits live together, you could have a mix of white, black and grey babies. For now, the animal market is the only place where you can chose your animal colors, when buying them from the farm it will be randomized.
The plant bonuses have been simplified. Each bonus (fertilized, herb control, pollinators, climbing support) is shown on the plant tooltip, and accounts for 25% more productivity. Pollinators now affect plants that produce pollinated fruits (tomatoes, soy, etc). Currently pollinators are not cancelled by pesticide use, but I will soon fix that too.
Plants use the nutrients available in the soil in order to grow. With each harvest, the soil is impoverished. Poor soil will result in reduced harvests. Nutrients can be returned to the soil via chemical fertilizers, but their effect is temporary (1 harvest). Some plants such as soy provide bacteria that fix nitrogen from the air, which fertilizes the surrounding soil (2 harvests). Finally, compost is composed of organic matter rich in nitrogen and carbon, as well as bacteria and fungi which will allow continuous fertilization for a long period (3 harvests).
It is also possible to leave an area fallow, after ten days the soil recovers half its nutrients (1 harvest) and after 15 days in full (2 harvests).
What's next ?
During the next weeks I will concentrate on fixing bugs, and adding a few quality of life improvements I had to postpone. I'm also writing a guide to explain all the aspects of the game. After that, I'm considering leaving early access.
Leaving EA doesn't mean I won't continue to add features (there are still a lot of things I want to add or improve), but I've been working on this project for 4 years and I'm at the end of my budget. Currently the sales are very low (less than 10 sales per week), I can't be sure if it is because the game's not good enough, or if it is because I was targeted by people who don't like pronouns or diversity, and don't mind buying a game just to leave a bad review.
When I started this project, being inclusive seemed like a no-brainer, it costs nothing and harms no-one, so why not ? I was very naive. It ended up being a nightmare, because in the US it was perceived as political, and even more in the recent year. But I don't regret it, on the contrary, it makes me feel that inclusivity is even more important than I thought.
Hopefully, the lack of sales and visibility on Steam is the result of all the (massively upvoted) bad reviews I got because the game is inclusive, trans-friendly and neurodivergent-friendly, and once I release the game for real it will be alright. I'd love to continue working on this project for many years to come.