Hello, Hydroponic Farmers 🌱
Thank you so much for all your support and contributions throughout our Early Access journey. After six months of steady growth, player feedback, and continuous updates, we’re proud to announce that Hydroponics Farm & Store Simulator has officially launched Version 1.0! 🎉
With the arrival of Chapter 16, the game leaves Early Access and enters an exciting new chapter. But don’t worry this isn’t the end of development. We’re still listening to your feedback, gathering your ideas, and working hard to implement improvements that align with the vision we have for the game we’re building together. With the transition out of Early Access, the game version will now appear in the format 1.XX-[TIME-CODE], instead of the previous time code only format.
Chapter 16: Crazy Rich
Chapter 16 is more than just a content update, it’s a test of mastery. This chapter presents a series of high-level challenge objectives designed to push players to their limits. Each objective is meant to test how efficiently and effectively your store operates using the full range of features introduced in previous chapters.
Have you optimized your employee workflows? Is your storage system running at peak performance? Can your production chain keep up with demand? Now’s the time to find out.
What’s New in Chapter 16
In addition to the challenge-based objectives, Chapter 16 introduces a range of new content to deepen your store management experience and unlock exciting late-game systems.
• New Commodity Plants and Fish
Chapter 16 adds visually striking new plants and fish to your list of growable and farmable commodities. These aren’t your usual crops or standard fish fry, they are vibrant colored plants and ornamental style fish that resemble decorative species. Their beautiful appearances not only make your greenhouse and aquaculture areas more lively, but their market value is also significantly higher.
With smart planning and an efficient production setup, these premium commodities can greatly boost your profits. They’re designed as high-reward options for advanced players who are ready to take their farm’s output to the next level.
• New Expansion Area: Garage
A new area unlocks for your store: the Garage. This is a functional space dedicated to housing your Electric Vehicle, a special item that becomes available for purchase once you reach Chapter 16.
This new vehicle will become an important part of your goal as owner. The Garage gives it a proper home, and adds a fresh touch of personality to your store layout. It become one of your mark of success owner.
• Employee Support for Food Production
Your employees can now go beyond planting, harvesting, and restocking. They’re finally ready to help power your food production workflow. Once the proper priorities are set, employees will automatically deliver ingredients to food production machines and collect finished goods when ready.
With well-structured flow and properly managed priorities, this update allows for near-complete automation of your production process. That means less micromanagement and more focus on strategy, expansion, and optimization. Let your team handle the prep and post-production while you refine the bigger picture.
Additional System Improvements
As part of this milestone, we’re also introducing new refinements and polish inspired by community feedback.
• Shelf Focus by Quality
Shelves now support quality filtering choose to stock only Regular, Special, or Any Quality commodities based on your merchandising goals. This helps you manage shelf space more precisely and makes your storefront presentation more consistent.
• Special Quality Indicator Standardization
To make special commodities easier to identify, we’ve added a unified star icon across the UI wherever Special-quality items appear. This visual marker brings better clarity when handling inventory, contracts, and restocking decisions.
This update celebrates not only how far the game has come, but how much further it can grow with your continued support. Whether you joined us early or are just starting your journey, we’re incredibly thankful to have you as part of this community.
As a token of our appreciation, in the coming days, we’ll be awarding select players with Steam Points for their outstanding feedback and contributions on the Steam Discussion General Forum. Your voices have helped shape the game, and we want to recognize the players who have been a big part of that journey.
We hope you enjoy Chapter 16 and everything that comes with Version 1.0.
Let us know how your store evolves and we’ll be watching and listening to what you’d love to see next. If you like or enjoy our game, don’t forget to leave a review on the store page. Every review is incredibly helpful to us for the continued development of the game.
Happy farming, and welcome to full release! 🛒🌱🌟
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3152540/Hydroponics_Farm__Store_Simulator