Heya Pinies!
It's our darndest pleasure to announce that we've formalized a road map for Asbury Pines' journey from Early Access to 1.0! Without exaggeration, the invested and thoughtful support and feedback from our game community made this path -- and everything leading to it -- possible. I know we say "thank you" a lot, but we guffin' mean it!
TLDR: we plan to overhaul gameplay systems, deepen targeted points of narrative immersion with new and edited content, and continue with quality enhancements.
In two months since the title’s Early Access release, our tiny team of two has released eight game patches focused on quality improvements and features that help to optimize the current gameplay experience and customize it to different playstyles (especially those that want to sidestep the idler elements). These updates have also led Asbury Pines to be Steam Deck verified ✅. The next order of business is reimagining the game systems and the grand narrative ending for 1.0 so that returning players will get a significantly refreshed experience and updated story, while new players benefit from playing a more perfect title.
While elements in the following Early Access roadmap may change from community testing and feedback, Chaystar has targeted a number of areas for improvement.
Gameplay Upgrades
The overall goal of the gameplay updates is to refocus strategy from managing characters between tasks to creating key efficiencies in their constant work. The plan includes:
Guided tutorial mode
Expanded character capabilities to enable simultaneous actions (like resource production and perk research)
Deeper character skill leveling system
New economic production elements, including homes for increasing town populations and warehouses for resource storage
Various new tabs that directly contribute to resource production strategy: Friendships, Learning, Conflicts, Tomes
Researched artifacts can be equipped by characters for various boosts to work and skills
Up to four new soundtracks, including album purchase as DLC
Animation and notification upgrades
Story Updates
Asbury Pines’ core narrative will not change, but key updates will be made to the ending and new content will deepen areas of story that drew notable feedback.
An edited ending in conjunction with time-flow details
Four new characters (including more bugs!)
17 new stories from existing and new characters
15 edited stories that deepen details
Localization
There is no guarantee that all languages below will be covered by localization efforts, but Chaystar has targeted:
Simplified Chinese
Japanese
German
Korean
Porting
Nintendo Switch
Android
Mac OS
To be part of the Asbury Pines Early Access roadmap, including community 🌲feedback and testing🌲 opportunities, please be sure join the developer discord or follow our the Steam page for further announcements.
"In the patches we are found, sayeth Quentin P. Brown."
Onward and update-ward,
John & Pete
P.S. Still have to finish hunting down typos 😅