Hey everyone!
Here at RainyGames, we've been super busy creating new content, systems and features to bring a big milestone alongside our Backerkit update. This will be a major update (0.9) for the game and therefore your old saves will not be compatible. ~sorry~
Backerkit Alpha Patch Notes 0.9
4 New NPCs!
While SunnySide Alpha's focus is on brigning a sandbox experience to everyone and not spoil the story, we still add as many new characters as we can to the world. This means while there isn't a social system in place, they still play a major role in the gameplay loop and provide you guys with some of the key items in the game.
The short and small questline present in the game has not been tweaked and it's still more of a proof of concept than anything.
These new NPCs include:
- Hanako Ishikawa
- Hina Nakamura
- Kaida Amaya
- Kyle Sylvester
6 Animal Variations!
Each of your favourite farm animamls now have 3 different variations! During the alpha, all of the animals are purchasable through Riverside Ranch albeit at different price points.
Not only do they look different, they each produce a different variation of their products.
3 New Map Locations!
Alongside these new NPCs, we've added 3 new major locations on the map for you guys to visit. These locations include:
- Kyle's Mechanic and fishing shop
A major store location including both the mechanic shop and the bait and tackle shop. For now Kyle's mechanic is not in operation, but you can now purchase anything fishing related from him. Subsequently all the fishing equipment has been removed from Sako's shop.
- SunnySide's Promenade
A lovely promenade, extending quite a bit into the sea. A lovely place to relax at the end of a busy day!
- SunnySide's Shinto Shrine
One of the major locations of SunnySide, containing both the skill tree and the shop for most of the battle items. While battle isn't availble during the alpha, the skill tree is very much implemented.
Speaking of ..
New Mechanic: Skill Tree
The skill tree has always been a major part of the gameplay loop of SunnySide, and almost all of the systems in the game are designed with that in mind, and we're so happy to finally give you all a taste of how it works and affects gameplay!
Progression in SunnySide is tracked and improved everytime you use a skill. SunnySide keeps track of 10 Skill levels and an overall Character Level. The more you farm the more XP you gain in the farming category and so on. Every time a skill is leveled up, you gain XP towards your character level and every time you level up your character you will gain a Skill Point.
These skill points can then be spent on unlocking new abilities on the skill tree! The skill tree (which is an actual tree) can be accessed in the Shinto shrine of SunnySide: just approach the main building, go up the steps, and you can see or unlock new abilities!
Here at the studio, we think these abilites are a huge improvement to the overall experience of the game, and a fully levelled up player will be able to surf through many of the more time consuming aspects of the game!
New Mechanic: Cash Registers (Tills) for Shops
One of the most annoying problems of shops in the game in the past has been locating the NPC in question to start up their shop dialogue. This is a problem no more! We always planned for this system to work independant of where the NPC is and all that's been in the game so far was more of a quick workaround. However, from this update forward you can now access any shop's purchase or sell window through the cash register at the shop.
The cash register will have an icon on top of it indicating if it is open or not and it will summon the NPC from anywhere in the map to you as long as the shop is open. You can still access their personal dialogue by speaking directly to the NPCs themselves.
Not only is this a lot more convenient, it also acts as a safe guard for any NPCs planning their escape through the map's floor.
Complete Inventory Overhaul
The inventory of SunnySide has recieved a major overhaul over the past month. Now instead of 32 fixed slots, you have access to 6 different inventories each containing 24 slots. These inventories are categories based on what type of item is allowed inside them, and some items can be placed inside multiple inventories.
For instance an apple will go into your Harvest Basket but you can also place it inside the Bento Box or the Backpack.
These inventories, per usual, each include a hotbar that can be quickly surfed through outside of the inventory screen. You can switch between different hotbars while running around by using Ctrl + Mouse Wheel.
Tweaks and Improvements
- Updated Dialogue Most of the NPCs now have updated dialogue, so go talk to everyone! Alongside the updated content, the dialogue replies now include a small icon next to the dialogue indicating what that dialogue entails.
- Multi-item packs You can now purchase or recieve items that are in packages and need to be opened before use. You can do this by right clicking on an item inside the inventory.
- Physics Improvements Many items (especially small fruit) tend to penetrate through the map and fall to their demise, the improved physics takes care of this in most cases.
- Performance and Frame Rate Improvements We've hugely improved the performance of the game on both CPU and GPU.
- New Settings Accissibility is always at the top of our list at RainyGames, with that in mind, we've added our very first addition to the long list of accessibility options to come: Colour-blind settings. You can toggle between Deuteranopia, Protanopia and Tritanopia options and even adjust the strength.
We hope you enjoy these new additions to the game! As always, if you encounter any bugs or issues, please submit them through our bug reporting website, accessible through the pause menu. And for everything else SunnySide, join our Discord sever below:
