Hello gardeners,
We're thick into the summer months now, as myself and the team have been hunkering down, climbing ever-closer to The Garden Path's approaching release. While I'm usually excited to use this space to share a bundle of new changes and features, with release on the horizon most of my efforts have been focused on bug fixes and polishing up the game's existing content for a 1.0. As such, a slightly shorter update this time! Still, a few important bits to share - so let's head into it.
Game Updates
A great deal of progress has been made moving the game to Nintendo Switch, with full optimizations underway to ensure the full game and full Garden will be available to take with you on-the-go. Those with slower hardware or older computers should also benefit, with higher frame rates and smoothing loading across the board.
One of the heaviest calculations the game made was the player's lantern - lighting the Garden as you move through it. It never sat right with me that those who played the game at night might lose performance. The game's lighting has now been reworked to use no GPU lighting at all, instead layering sprites in a way to emulate sources of light.
Instead of lighting the darkness, the darkness is now moved away from the player, creating the appearance that the Garden is lit around them. With an excuse to spend some more time adjusting the lighting for the new system, I personally think midnights, mornings and dusks have never looked better, with a more filmic appearance that suits the game's style, instead of relying on the engine's provided lighting.
A common piece of feedback from testing arose from those familiar with the game and choosing to skip the tutorial - 'why am I still seeing tutorials!'. While it was possible to skip over the starting zone, later tutorials would still appear. As triggering tutorials is required to collect guide stones, it was necessary to have these still appear so the player could progress.
Now a new method of collecting guide stones is available for those skipping the tutorial. Small shrines appear throughout the Garden, which you can break apart to collect the stone fragments. You'll need to explore your new Garden to find them all, but there'll always be a surplus, so you aren't tearing your hair out trying to find that last one.
I hope these small changes, along with all the fixes in the pipeline, make The Garden Path a richer experience. It's a great feeling tieing all the loose ends from the last five years, as the project continues to mature.
Any thoughts?
Since we are inching closer to the release of The Garden Path, we’re going to be asking for general calls for feedback from those who have early access. Is there a mechanic in the game you felt needed a tutorial that didn't appear? Is there anything you found yourself having trouble understanding? Are there any elements you wish were present?
Jump into the Discord here and let us know. All your thoughts and feelings about the game are more than appreciated.
Your usual reminder!
And as always, here is your reminder that you can join our official Discord Community server, which you can join here. Here you can chat with the team, meet fellow backers, and help me shape The Garden Path. And of course, we encourage you to share your real-life gardening with your fellow gardening gamers.
Until next time…
Louis, carrotcake
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