Raising the Bar: Big Announcement for the Demo & Full Game!
Hi everyone! We’ve got some big news to share this time.
Over the past few weeks, development has been going great, both in terms of adding new content for the full game and polishing the upcoming Demo v2.0.
As a result, the gap between the demo and the full game has become much clearer, and the overall quality bar has been raised. This means every aspect of the game now needs to meet that standard.
What does this change?
The Early Access release has been delayed until April 7th, 2026. This additional time will allow to bring the entire game to the level of quality players expect, with stable systems, polished gameplay, and no issues that break progression or enjoyment.
Hillshade Farm: First Harvest v2.0 - January 28th
This will be great. With newly acquired development time, the work on the demo will be done this month, bringing the biggest update yet! The goal is to offer up to 30 hours or more playtime for the demo.
v2.0 will include:
Remade or calibrated core systems
These are the culprits dragging most of the bugs since the beginning, and now they are being fixed at any cost, even if a full reconstruction is needed.
New Gameplay mechanics for Plant Watering & some of the tools!
No more water from the Heavens, instead there will be a new tool, Watering Can!
Simply equip, fill up and water the plants. This also opens up doors for other tools to implement hands-on approach with interactions, bringing more depth and immersion.
Water will also be stored, not infinite. Each watering will take some water, and to get more you will need to use the Water Well.
Automatic Watering system will also get a makeover, since it is an important asset in-game.
Other tool improvements will mostly be about satisfaction factor and immersion. Meaning better animations, sounds, 3D models and usability.
Remade UI Menus for all in-game menus
This one is big and some menus are already remade and live in current version of the Demo!
Completely new designs for all menus; More depth, information, order, and functionality. Important menus such as Crop & Building Selection will be greatly expanded and reorganized.
Multiple tabs telling you all you need to know; Each menu now has bookmarks with icons to quickly switch between Categories or anything else.
Brand new UI for Grocery Store (already live)
Updated Farmers Store & Animal Market Menus
Redesigned Inventory & Quests UI
new design examples:
Implemented in: Building Blueprints notebook menu and Animal Management menus.
This design and layout will be expanded to all menus in-game
New unlocked Animals; Horse, Duck & Dog!
Last animals to enter the Farm for the Demo. You will be able to unlock, buy and keep these new animals on farm!
Horses: As one of the most expensive animals, it is also one that can replace you car! Horses require a Horse Stable on farm & daily care, and are very worth it in travelling the map due to high speed and agility. Horses will also get big improvements down the line.
Ducks: Brand new animal in Hillshade! Ducks require you to build a Duck Pond which is a first water-themed structure in game! More on ducks soon :)
Dogs & Puppies: As seen few months ago on Hillshade, we had a German Shepherd puppy on farm. Now he's back, and he's not alone! You will be able to choose from 2 dog breeds at the Animal Market for purchase. Aka: a puppy closure inside the Animal Market!
Dogs also receive a big makeover due to their highly important role, you will love this!
Refreshed Crafting Benches: New recipes, better animations!
Crafting is an important part of the core game. And now it will be crucial. All crafting recipes will be revisited and improved. Meaning more complex recipes, logically correct and fun to make!
All Crafting Benches will get a bunch more new recipes, accounting to over 150 recipes in game! This is all possible thanks to newly added Grocery Store offering ALL recipe items for sale!
More depth for quests and progress. With such a big library of craftable items, quests and player progress will be much more satisfying and interesting to play through.
New Crafting animations; All benches will get new or improved crafting animations for better immersion.
Movable Component: All crafting benches will be fully movable, just like the furniture.
Hillshade Wiki; new menu In-game!
One place, all information. Whenever you are confused or have a question about something, just open the Wiki. It will include EVERY single system fully covered. It will also have its own button in each Menu for quick access.
16 categories to choose from. Plants, Animals, Buildings, Vehicles, Tools, Items and so much more! Each category covers itself perfectly explaining each system in simple detail.
Integrated in each menu; If you are confused about any menu, you will be one click away from opening its section inside the Wiki and getting the information you need!
Knowledge tree wiki page
More Quests unlocked: 20 new quests for the Demo!
Current demo version does not offer enough quests to properly teach the game. Therefore, all current quests will be much improved, with another 20 to give you a real sense of the Hillshade world!
This will be sprinkled into 10 farm quests, and 10 outside farm quests. Either at the Vista Diner or other Points of Interest on the map.
These and old quests will be carefully planned to create a sense of progress and satisfaction.
New Quest UI & Quest rewards: The Quest Log will be redesigned to match other menus better, and new Quest Rewards system will be added!
Full Controller support & Basic Key Binding
At last, Controllers are getting some love. Demo 2.0 will have full Controller Support, as well as Key Bindings for Player Movement and some interactions.
Full support for all Controllers.
Key Binding for Player Movements (more bindings coming later)
NPCs Interactions & Dialogue
This will be 3rd iteration of NPCs in the game, this time expanding to basic Interactions and Dialogue with any NPC in game world.
Basic Interactions with NPCs: can include, Trading, Quests, Buying & Selling.
Basic Dialogue: Ability to make small talk with NPCs with Dialogue Trees.
& much more! I simply can't name it all in one post, AND there is more to share about the latest Demo Update & Early Access Release, so let's go!
Hillshade Farm: First Harvest v1.5.6 notes
The winter is over on the Farm! The Holiday Special has passed, and sunny Spring is here! With many other in-game improvements and new content!
What's new in the demo?
Big Visual improvements & Unlocked Area
Large fields on the farm have been redesigned, as well as farm surrounding areas, now have much better visual composition, layout and atmosphere. Also the path to the waterfall has been finished and unlocked for the current Demo version.
Large flat fields on your farm have been carefully redesigned, and are mostly there for mass planting, and late game. But also much more pleasing visually and geographically.
Surrounding farm areas such as Waterfall Area, Hill Lakes, Forests and Cliffs have been polished and enhanced.
Water bodies improved: All lakes and rivers now look much better and have an enhanced underwater effect when swimming or diving.
Waterfall Area unlocked: Now you can go all the way up to the Waterfall source near your farm, with beautiful nature scenery!
path to the waterfall source
hill lakes above the farm
New Location: Grocery Store
One of the most important locations in game, offering over 100 different items for sale to help you with crafting and progression!
Located just by the Farmers Store, Grocery Store is a large market with lots of categorized items for sale. It covers almost all required items for Crafting in the game.
Unique approach to buying: Simply walk up to the shelf that has what you need and Interact with it. This will instantly open up the Shelf Menu where you can choose what to buy! Grocery store has around 6-7 unique handcrafted Menus!
New Buildings: Greenhouse & Silo
Already on farm: Greenhouse & Silo, fully usable!
Leftover from Winter season is the Greenhouse, 2 exactly on farm. Each greenhouse offers 7 planting slots and protects your plants from bad weather conditions!
There are 2 versions of Greenhouses in game, current one is sort of a placeholder offering same plants as normal planting, while proper in-depth greenhouse will be included in Demo 2.0, offering exotic plants, and Greenhouse Stats.
Silo: Preparation for Mass Planting systems, now stand 2 Silos on the large piece of land on your farm. Currently only purpose is storing large amounts of items, offering 100 slots each.
New purchasable animal: Baby Calf
Available at the Animal Market, Baby Calf!
Calf is basically a baby cow, which takes around 20 in-game days to grow into an Adult Cow that can produce Milk. Calf costs greatly less than a Cow at 500$.
Calf systems will be expanded in coming updates, such as Parent Relationships and Bonding & Care.
Better Performance
Huge performance improvements, game runs smooth as butter right now!
Not much to say here, as improving and optimizing systems went on, so did the FPS increase! The game is super stable and smooth. In theory, it should run on any machine with proper in-game Graphics adjustments!
More money on start
Players with under 1000$ in-game now start with additional 3000$ for a fair start! This can get you few chickens and a cow, and even some saplings! ;)
New music and UI sound effects
Sound effect for Hover and Interact have been changed, as well as new improved Background music and Main Menu music.
The old annoying Hover Sound Effect has been removed and replaced with new, subtle and satisfying click. Same goes for interactions and Menu buttons!
New background music and main menu music! Much better and more fitting, non intrusive and relaxing music while farming ;)
Early Access Release: Delayed to April 7th 2026
This delay was the smart choice. As polishing and improving the game went on, it was clear it will take more time to bring everything to the level we all expect. Especially for something players pay for!
Therefore, for the next 90 days until release, the development will be on full power! And with a clear goal in mind, it should be a breeze.
The Demo 2.0 will be releasing January 28th, and will be a proper representation of the game we all imagine in our minds. It just needs time to cook!
And most importantly, this is all thanks to YOU! Your feedback was priceless in discovering what needs most attention and improvement in the development, and what set this bar we aim for. So thank you all for each comment, positive or negative review, it opened lots of viewpoints!
As for me personally, I am super excited to see what the game will look like in April :) Until then, we keep on moving forward!
That's it for this one everyone, see you all soon with the next update! 💚
New Acre Games