Hello Ranchers!
Today is a big day!!! You can’t imagine how happy and thrilled I'm writing these lines!
The Ranchers' big overhaul is complete! And I couldn't be more proud and happy with the final result! ✨✨✨
It was by far the most reckless decision I've made in the last three years, and oh boy, was it tough—really tough!
After the Kickstarter campaign and the overwhelming support The Ranchers received from the community, I was completely humbled and grateful. I was just a gamer, building my dream game in my own little corner... I never imagined The Ranchers would become this popular, not even in my wildest dreams. Seeing gamers from all over the world sharing and supporting this vision gave me even more strength! It made me feel like I could do better—so much better—and deliver something even greater for our community!
It was never about building another farming sim game, I wanted The Ranchers to be something familiar, bigger and totally different.
Working night and day for the last 14 months with only The Ranchers' vision and loads of doubts wasn’t easy at all. Honestly, without the amazing support from our community and all the kind messages of encouragement and faith, I couldn't have made it to where I am today.
So I want to thank each and every one of you, reading these lines. I want to tell you that The Ranchers would never be where it is today without you being here with us in this amazing journey. Thank you for being here, thank you for being patient and supportive. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! ❤️❤️❤️
It was truly magical to watch our dream game come to life day by day, evolving into what feels like an entirely new game. I genuinely believe this overhaul has taken The Ranchers to a whole new level, and it was absolutely worth it.
Without any further ado, let’s dive into it:
🏙️ Sunvale's city center
This new update brought the biggest zone in The Ranchers open world, the city center.
The city center is designed as the bustling heart of Sunvale's city, characterized by a vibrant mix of modern and traditional architecture that reflects The Ranchers unique art style.
You can explore a variety of urban environments, from busy commercial streets lined with shops to serene parks and public spaces.
Let’s take you for a ride:
The city center features a lot of iconics buildings, that you can explore, Let’s start with the first ones:
🏛️ The City Hall
The city hall is where you can find Victor, the mayor and Meriam the city architect. It’s also a great place to meet other characters, make deals with the city, buy new lands and sophisticated building blueprints for your ranch.
Let take a look:
🏬 Leafy Markets
Leafy Market is Sunvale City's top grocery chain, offering fresh produce, seeds, and farming supplies. Known for supporting local agriculture, it's the go-to spot for both daily essentials and farming needs, ensuring quality for all customers. There are many of them scattered around the city center.
🛻 Versatil Motors
Versatile Motors is Sunvale City's leading utility vehicle supplier, offering a wide range of vans, pickups, and three-wheeled vehicles. Trusted by farmers and ranchers alike, it’s the top choice for reliable, hardworking vehicles that get the job done.
🌍Ranchers Community Shared Places: The Sunset Casino! 🎰
While the various shops and interiors are great places to meet The Ranchers' characters, I thought, why not create buildings where you can not only meet NPCs but also gather with players from around the world? Imagine being able to enter these places as seamlessly as any other building in the game, and use them to have fun and forge new friendships! And that, fellow ranchers, is what we now call the Ranchers Community Shared Places.
Features within Community Shared Places include:
- Text and voice communication through built-in chat and voice comms, allowing players to converse.
- The ability to exchange resources and tools with other players.
- Restrictions on equipping tools and weapons, as well as prohibitions on harming or stealing from others.
And, our first community Shared Places is The Sunset Casino!
Community shared places will first be available in EU and US during the preview and will be extended to other countries in the Early Access phase.
Let’s give you a sneak peek:
👫The pedestrians!
The pedestrians were essential to make the city center and the entire open world feel alive.
Even though implementing them came with its own technical challenges, I’ve always had a major issue with random NPCs in open-world games. They often feel soulless, and their dialogue tends to be dull unless they’re tied to a quest. They remind me of their “technical purpose” – merely filling space to make the player feel less alone.
While it's difficult to break away from that technical role, we took great care in crafting each pedestrian's personality. Every single one has a unique character and backstory that you'll be able to uncover as you explore.
- Each pedestrian follows a unique daily schedule that changes each day: whether they're enjoying Sunvale's parks, the beach, running errands, shopping, or even visiting interiors like the city center and the casino…
- Unique dialogues that change based on the time of day, season, their location, or the activity they're engaged in.
- They can offer you valuable advice and hints about what's happening in Sunvale City and its surroundings.
- You can even ask them about their families, jobs, beliefs, and life priorities!
- And of course, they are fully aware of everything happening around them, including other cars and traffic lights.
🚦New Traffic system
This update also features a new traffic system breathing more life to the open world.
Vehicles now obey traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, can overtake one another, and will navigate around obstacles like accidents or roadblocks to find their way.
🚗🚚🚛New vehicles and New driving system
This update introduces 35 new vehicles ranging from three-wheeler, classic cars, muscle cars, sport cars, trucks and pickups.
This update also introduces completely new driving mechanics:
- Each car, scooter, truck, and more now has its own physics system that takes into account properties like engine type, weight, and engine power, making each vehicle feel more realistic and unique to drive.
- All vehicles now feature a visual damage system, allowing you to see the physical effects of accidents or weapons, as well as the overall condition of the vehicle. This damage is generated in real-time based on your actions and also impacts the vehicle's performance. For instance, you could break your headlights or end up with flat tires, affecting how well the vehicle drives.
- Each vehicle now features a trunk (that you can open and close 😀), allowing you to store your belongings.
- Some vehicles also allow you to transport your farm animals.
- The trunk capacity and the number or type of farm animals you can transport vary with each vehicle, making each one uniquely suited to different tasks.
- And of course, all vehicles are drivable, including those in the traffic system—without consequences (for now 😉).
Let’s take a look:
🚕Taxi-Co Corporation
You can now take on the role of a TAXI-Co driver in Sunvale City!
Taxi-Co is the leading taxi company in Sunvale City. You can work as a Taxi-Co driver, earn big money, and meet interesting people along the way.
But before driving starlets home, you have to first earn your stripes.
Taxi-Co has 3 subsidiaries:
Taxi-Co Regular
That’s where everyone starts, from the bottom. You have plenty of time, small rides, small money.
Taxi-Co Business
Now you drive CEOs and some wanna be: they are a bit in a hurry, they expect smooth driving and pay you a bit more. Taxi-Co Business is available starting from 3 driver stars.
Taxi-Co VIP
That’s where the real money is. You drive only Ranchers Country stars in limousines. They expect 5 stars driving talents and fast rides if you want to see their hefty tips.Taxi-Co VIP is available starting from 4 driver stars.
After each ride, the passenger will rate your driving and may tip you (or not), based on how fast and smooth the journey was.
🌳Harvest Hills!
Harvest hills is a homage to pastoral life, featuring sprawling farmlands, small forests, rolling hills, all designed to immerse players in the tranquility and beauty of rural living.
It's located in the countryside just outside Sunvale City, where your Ranch is also situated.
Let’s go for a ride!
🧔New Residents and romanceable characters❤️
This update introduces new polished main characters to The Ranchers world. All of them play a significant role in the game and have their own backstories and daily occupations.
Victor Lawson
The 52-year-old mayor of Sunvale City, Victor is a strong leader dedicated to sustainable growth and community well-being. Known for his empathy and decisiveness, he balances modern development with environmental conservation.
Meriam
Meriam is the architect in Sunvale, she is innovative, dedicated, and empathetic. She blends modern design with traditional charm, aiming to enhance Sunvale's urban landscape while preserving its cultural heritage.
Malcolm Tanner
A 45-year-old rancher in Harvest Hills, Malcolm is a hardworking, single father focused on running a successful cattle and sheep ranch. He is dedicated to his daughter Alicia and dreams of a prosperous future for their family.
Alicia Tanner
Alicia is a ranching influencer, she balances her responsibilities on the ranch with her online presence. Passionate about sustainable farming, she aims to modernize her family's operations while preserving their legacy. Alicia is one of the romanceable characters.
Angela Tanner
A 45-year-old poultry farmer in Harvest Hills, Angela is vibrant, strong-willed, and deeply connected to her community. She’s dedicated to expanding her farm sustainably and mentoring young farmers. She is Malcolm's twin.
Gigi Parker
Gigi is an agricultural engineer, she is passionate about sustainable farming. She is known for her innovative solutions and close bond with her brother Scott. Gigi dreams of starting a family while contributing to Harvest Hills' agricultural community. Gigi is one of the romanceable characters.
Scott Parker
Scott is a civil engineer and rancher, Scott is dedicated to both modernizing Harvest Hills and preserving his family's ranching legacy. Protective and caring, he seeks to balance his professional life with finding a life partner. Scott is one of the romanceable characters.
Dr. Susan Clark
Dr. Susan is the veterinarian of Harvest Hills. She is compassionate and highly skilled. She runs a successful clinic and has instilled strong values of empathy and care in her adoptive son, Malik.
Malik Clark
As an intern veterinarian, Malik follows in his mother's footsteps with a deep love for animals. He is gentle, observant, and dedicated to providing excellent care at his mother’s clinic. Malik is one of the romanceable characters.
Chris Langley
THE famous lawyer of Sunvale, Chris is cunning, greedy, and operates in the gray areas of the law. Driven by wealth and power, he uses his vast network of connections to manipulate situations to his advantage.
🐶Dr. Susan’s AnimCare Clinic
Now you can heal your sick animals at Dr.Susan’s veterinary clinic.
We did decorate the clinic walls from real pets pictures shared by our community on Discord.
Let’s take a look at it
📱And... those residents can now give you a call on your phone!
The main characters in The Ranchers can now send you text messages or call you on your phone.
Each character has a unique voice and may reach out to ask for help, offer tips, or simply check in with you.
And here is how it looks in-game:
🚀Enjoy!
First of all, congratulations for making it this far in this dev-update! Hopefully you enjoyed reading it and discovering all the new features and additions in the game.
If you are one of our kickstarter backers, you will be able to play the new version of The Ranchers (called The Ranchers “Preview”) starting from …. 🎉🎉TODAY! 🎉🎉
You can play The Ranchers “Preview”, on Windows, Linux/SteamDeck, and MacOs.
It's been a while since the last dev update, a lot of things did evolved in The Ranchers and I'd love to hear your feedback and thoughts on everything I showcased today. Feel free to drop a comment here or on The Ranchers discord.
It may also be a great idea to host a live stream with all of you to talk about The Ranchers future and answer any questions you may have? Let me know ;)
Thank you so much for your time and unwavering support! Stay tuned for more updates. ❤️❤️❤️
Cheers,
Ethan
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1501310/The_Ranchers/