Research Story 1.0 is Out Now!
Hi Researchers! After about 2.5 years in Early Access, I'm so happy to share that the game is now complete and ready for full release! Thank you to everyone who has helped during the 1.0 public beta, and played during EA! 💗
Completed Story and 1.0 Update Summary
Here are the key things added in this 1.0 update:
📖Epilogue, conclusion, and end-credits
The game now has a 'proper' ending that includes a better conclusion to tie up the story and lead to the end-credits. But don't worry, you can still play after that and there's even end-game content to discover!
💍Proposal and Marriage
You'll be able to marry one of the 10 marriage candidates! Prior to marriage, each NPC has either a Proposal (player-initiated) or Reverse-Proposal (NPC-initiated) Event specific and unique to each NPC.
🔍Legendary Research
This is part of the end-game content, where unique researchables can be found and researched.
✨Lots of QOL adjustments
Added UI elements such as a Collections tab, improved Sesame's Fishing Map, move-able and replaceable chests, festival/hangout reminders and more.
Full Update Notes found here.
Guides and Resources
We have a community wiki and a several guides on Steam. You can also always reach out on the Steam forums or our lovely Discord and we're always happy to help!
Launch Discount and Pricing Update
We're launching with a 20% launch discount that will last for 1 week! 30 days after the discount ends, we plan to raise the base price of the game slightly to USD14.99, which will be the full price of the 1.0.
Our Research Story Soundtrack is also updated with all 40 OSTs made for the game.
Some charts/data
Lots of content and features have been added to the game over the 2.5 years in Early Access! Many of these were based on player feedback and suggestions. We've come a long way :)
Word count - I thought it would be interesting to share that we have ~90,000 words in Research Story 1.0! Menu, item descriptions, letters, and narrative strings etc. take up about 30,000 words while the other 60,000 words are NPC dialogues. That's a lot of words... NPC cutscenes and events always take longer than I expect to write and add, and now I know why haha. I wonder which NPC has the most to say?
What's next for Research Story
Phew! It's been over 5 years since I started working full-time on this game, and how time flies. This project is my darling and I want the best for it! While it's story-complete with all major features included, I know that more can always be added to a game like Research Story.
I plan to start looking into mac and linux ports, and possibly console ports - these are all new to me so it's hard to estimate how long they'd take. At the same time, I'll look into some of the suggestions from players I didn't manage to include for the 1.0, and think about what more we can add to the game. So if you have any wishes, let me know since your requests tell me what players want! :)
Now, go have fun researching! 💗
- Miki
