Hillshade Farm┃Big Update for the Playtest, Demo Release announcement!
Hi everyone!
It’s been a while since the last news drop, but it’s been busy behind the scenes! Fixing, polishing, and adding a ton of new content to Hillshade Farm.
Today we’re launching a massive update for the Playtest, and we’re thrilled to announce that the free demo will be available in just one week!
🌟 Biggest Additions
This update is more than just fixes, it’s a major leap forward. Here are some of the highlights you’ll notice right away:
Farm Task System
Introducing structured farming life! The demo will feature 7 handcrafted tasks to guide you through planting, harvesting and more, giving purpose and flow to your farming journey.


☀️ New Area: The Vista Diner
A beautiful cliffside restaurant where you can sell your products, meet people, take on quests or simply enjoy the breath-taking views! This is the first of several unique destinations coming to the farm world!


🧑🌾 Vista Farmer’s Stand
New place to sell! Here you can sell a bigger variety of items, mostly crafted items and high-value fruits. Prices are much higher than selling from the Farm directly.


🧔 NPCs Arrive
1st iteration of NPCs now inhabit some of the locations, ready to talk, interact, and bring life to the Valley. Some will even offer you quests and tasks in future builds!

🌍 World Visual Overhaul
The entire map has been improved with richer details, better lighting, and a more immersive environment. Check out screenshots below!



🌾 Major Improvements
Alongside the new systems and world overhaul, we’ve polished almost every other part of the game:
Countless bug fixes - thanks to your Playtest feedback, and further developer testing we’ve squashed a mountain of issues from the first version!
Shops Overhauled – the Farmer’s Store and Animal Market are clearer, more polished, and more rewarding to use.
SFX & Sound Design – tons of new audio! Ambience, music, tools, people, animals, interactions and much more!
Overall polish across the board – UI tweaks, interaction smoothing, pacing improvements, and small touches everywhere!
Noteworthy mention:
🗲 AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution (FSR)
Hillshade Farm has implemented FSR upscaling technology, letting you boost performance and nearly double your framerate, making the game smoother to run on a wider range of PCs.
NVIDIA DLSS settings are temporarily disabled, as the FSR is superior in this case.

📅 Playtest opening up in 24 hours!
Before the Demo is Officially released, it is going to the hands of all registered Playtesters 24 hours after this announcement goes live! To discuss the game and feedback, join the New Acre Games Discord Community! Link available on the Steam Store Page!

📅 Demo Coming Next Week
On top of today’s Playtest update, you won’t have to wait long to play Hillshade Farm! The free demo launches in just 10 days!

💬 A Word From Developer
Your feedback has been incredible so far, and this update wouldn’t exist without the community. Every bug report and every idea helps us shape Hillshade Farm into the cozy, vibrant farming experience we’re aiming for.
Thank you for supporting the project! We can’t wait to hear your thoughts on this update, and to welcome even more of you when the demo goes live next week! 🌱🚜

Thanks so much for taking the time to catch up and see you very soon!
New Acre Games
