Hi everybody! This was quite a BUSY month because of us joining Next Fest. In the end I'm glad I joined it - I was worried maybe the game was not ready yet, but it seems like it did really well for zero marketing!
This will also benefit the game long term because we had lots of people join the discord, which helps a lot with bugs, balance and quality-of-life features.
I just wanted to say it really made a huge impact seeing people mentioning that they were enjoying the game. I can't emphasize how special of a moment that is to me - I've been working in corporate video games for a long time I never had these feelings I've experienced making my own game. Thank you all again for joining my bizarre journey ːsteamhappyː
Things I learned from Next Fest
Lots of people mentioning the dog - Which is great to know, I kept her pretty simple and was not sure if there'd be much interest. You'll see down below I've been giving her some mechanics finally!
Thankfully there was not major game breaking bugs - I've been pretty good at keeping the game fairly stable and thanks to super early demo players who helped that
Tons of ideas were given for me to add to my roadmap board - These are ideas and not confirmed or all going into the game; But I'm always willing to note them down - It's good to keep them on the idea board in case suddenly one stands out while working on the game
Quality of life - I have some future goals I want to attempt, and some great suggestions I didn't think about! We also already got some changes in the game now thanks to feedback.
Surprisingly a lot of people figured out the 'Fisher NPC' mechanic - Even though its extremely basic and not well described. This was good to note, we'll definitely continue with this mechanic then and improve it in the future
There's a good chunk of playtime in the demo now - Very glad to hear about this. Obviously the game needs tons of content, but compared to the game 6 months ago, we are starting to really feel progress on this!
Overall, thank you everybody who gave the demo a shot, and huge thank you to anybody that joined the discord! It helps me a lot in helping the direction of the games content and development!
The Government (Rent)
This is on the beta-branch only right now, not the demo. I want to make sure this mechanic is not feeling too brutal to start with
The ominous 'new world' government shows up to collect your rent owed!
This is just like any other simulator for rent, just that you see the actual tax-man coming
The major difference/addition to this system is you can slowly pay off your 'debt', which ends up reducing your rent until your rent free
You don't need to pay off the debt, its a side-mechanic for some people who want a challenge! I will make sure the rent is balanced so that if you never intend on paying off the debt, the rent should be manageable as you progress
In the future, we'll make difficulty settings that will change the interest rate, and how often they come to collect rent from you
Pet Mechanics
Dog finally has a hunger system!
Also now has a loyalty system, you'll build up loyalty over time as you pet and feed her
Right now loyalty won't technically do anything - but the system is now in place for the future when I decide on exactly what it'll do (Got a few ideas from the community)
Gameplay Options added
FOV slider was added
Mouse Sensitivity was added
Time of day slider was added - You can now decide how long each hour of the day lasts; This way you can make the game a bit less pressured. I'm super pro 'add a option for it' to do with any difficulty related things.
I will add in the future options for 'The Government' rent mechanic as well, I haven't added it yet so we can test and make sure a good 'normal difficulty' is found first
Outliner
This was a HUGE personal victory for me - I always wanted to have this in the game but thought it'd be difficult to do
It'll hopefully help people to know when something is in range to pick up
Anything with a BLUE outline, will be objects you can put things into/deposit like selling tables, the dog bowl etc
We are finally getting in features that other simulators have!
New Interaction System
This might seem small, but really happy how this turned out. Anything that you need to use E key on, will show a little icon
Hopefully this again helps the players know 'Oh this is something I can interact with'
Garbage Bin 2.0
We now have a much more functional garbage bin! It uses the new icon interaction system as well
You need to hold left-click for half a second before trashing a item, I did this so you don't accidently trash items in it
Tons of minor bugs fixed
You'll be able to see all the notes I posted from updates I now post on the demo and game
Not all the bugs are fixed - Bigger issue bugs will need some time for me to really dig into it (Like dis-assembling wall-furniture the crate sometimes teleports into the ceiling, I might temporarily make a recall button in the options menu to teleport lost construction stuff in front of your store)
I really appreciate all the folks who came into the discord and helped out with this, it's difficult for me to find all the small issues with my limited time
New Fish
Bass 2.0 Remaster (The original needed some love, it was the VERY FIRST model made on my prototype)
Sturgeon
Catfish
Walleye
Piranha
