Hello gardeners,
A belated Happy Hallow’s Eve. October has been and gone, with some exciting happenings for The Garden Path. Today, we have a shorter update for you as we ramp up elsewhere, with an indie dev celebration to share alongside your usual game updates. Let’s dive in.
Day of the Devs
We're so excited to be a part of Day of the Devs 10th Anniversary celebration, and it’s happening this week!
The Garden Path is fortunate enough to have been invited to take part in both the Digital Showcase and the In-Person event taking place at The Midway in San Francisco.
We will be showing some brand-new gameplay footage (including some bits you might expect to see in our new Itch update) and will have a demo available to play for those visiting on site.
Tune in November 3rd at 5pm GMT for the digital show, or head on down this Saturday from 3pm PST to see The Garden Path and some other wonderful indie games.
To learn more head to: dayofthedevs.com!
Game Updates
We had a big influx of interest and new players for the Steam Next Fest demo, which we decided to continue throughout October. It was a great opportunity to see the response to the game through new eyes and expectations, while also providing a sweep of new bug reports that came about after porting the game to the new two-player system. (For those out-of-the-loop, the game doesn't currently support two players, but the game's system has been largely redesigned to accommodate a second player).
The new tutorials were a success, and helped focus feedback and attention toward game-feel and balance, rather than new players feeling lost on what to do.
Perhaps most overwhelmingly the response was that interacting with the garden could often feel cumbersome and overcomplicated. It can, for instance, be frustrating when you wish to chop a tree, but a small fern in front of the tree takes priority. The Garden is densely populated with trees and flora, and so conventional interaction systems don't always work, despite my efforts with fine tuning. The existing focus system was introduced to remedy this, but it's a mechanic that becomes more natural to use as you become experienced with the game, and so was often forgotten by those jumping in for the first time.
As such, the interaction/harvesting system has been redesigned to bring focussing to the forefront, and make focussing as a concept more friendly to newer players. The old harvest button now draws an area in front of you, highlighting the trees and flora inside. This not only gives you a more clear overview of the space around you, but also allows the harvesting of multiple flora. With harvesting now done symbolically, you're free to queue up harvests, and move between flora on-the-go.
The response to the new system so far has been positive, and I'm looking forward to hearing how it holds up long-term. I think it feels quite novel to have a whole button dedicated to analysing the space around you, and I think it helps bring a sense of your surroundings to the forefront. The old focus system is still in-place, activated by holding the focus button rather than tapping it, so it's a natural progression to move from one to the other.
I'll be gathering more feedback in the coming weeks, but for now I hope working the garden feels more deliberate, and more satisfying as a result.
0.6 has been in-the-works alongside 0.5, and I'm really excited to finish up the new content for the backers who'll be joining us for the first time before the official launch. Be sure to follow us at the usual places for more updates!
Until next time…
Louis, carrotcake
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https://store.steampowered.com/app/1638500/The_Garden_Path/