Hi!
Recently, I've been working on the "examine" panel, which used to be very rough and unclear. This panel opens when you use the magnifying glass on a plant to see if it's happy and what it needs.
It's still not perfect, but playtesters seem to understand it way better. The camera zooms in, there are particles to highlight the selected plant and a new UI!
This panel matters, as taking care of the plants is the core of the gameplay loop. At the beginning of the game, you'll just have to deal with the watering, then with the soil quality, and a few turns later, you will have more complex plants which also require to take care of their surroundings (some like being alone, some like being surrounded, some like specific neighbours, etc.)
I have also been importing SFX! (so important for immersion) You can see a first test video here:
Please let me know what you think in comments or by email to [email protected]!
Giovanni is writing the first chapter's dialogues. We didn't start with this one, as the first chapter is a bit of a tutorial, so it's not the most representative, but we will need it for the demo. Laurène is working with our sound engineer on mastering the music (I can't wait to hear the final versions!!!). Vincent is checking the scenario based on Sylvain's feedback (he is our historian), making sure everything makes sense historically! Joy is almost done with the character design :)
In the meantime, the alpha test is still ongoing, and it allowed me to find a bug with saving that I'm working on. Many thanks to our great testers!
We have a rather long list of interested playtesters to invite. I'm not inviting more players than I need atm, but if you fill the form and you don't get to the alpha, I'll invite you to the closed beta (as I will need many more testers for this phase). You can register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdrmAaOcPA1lizB0kdg6D8KiX3t45FoCoDOpuf5MbYKqSnokw/viewform
The next newsletter will be sent in about a week! I will show what Spring looks like in the game and what plants will be available. You can subscribe here: https://theabbessgarden.eo.page/newsletter! In the newsletter, I generally share more in-depth content (about the game, the team) and our announcements.
If you want to know more about the team and the game, here is our presskit!
I hope you are all having a great day! I wish you flowers and sunshine!
Edwige, game director of the Abbess Garden