Hej hej!
We're excited to finally be posting our very first update here on Steam!
Some of you might have noticed there have been some quite big changes on our Steam page... We've updated all the visuals with some brand new screenshots, and a first look at the building/decoration gameplay!
When the Steam page launched back in June (can you believe it's been almost 6 months?! It feels like yesterday...) we were using footage from the earliest prototype of the game with some assets missing and quite a few placeholders. Having done a couple of external playtests, there were some things we knew needed to be updated:
UI: All the previous UI was very placeholder-y and did not meet our internal goals for the handcrafted and colorful vibes we wanted.
UX and visual clarity: There were too many button presses and sub-menus in the building/furnishing system (players wanted fewer clicks to get a piece of furniture into a room, as well as the ability to rearrange the room by clicking on a piece of furniture directly). It was also hard for players to understand how different furniture influences a room, and how that correlates to the guests' happiness.
Here's how it looked before:
So, what did we do?
Over the summer we focused heavily on updating both the UI and the UX to make the player experience more intuitive and visually pleasing! Here's what we've changed (so far):
Brand new UI for both building and furnishing mode! Our goal here was to make it feel more crafty and like something Saga would probably have designed herself.
Added room exteriors - Now there's actual houses on each branch!
Combined all sub-menus in the furnishing system into one big super menu! No more extra clicks to get where you need to go!
Added tabs to separate the different furniture categories
Added flavor text to all furniture/exteriors
Made the room stats VS guest wants purely visual, and visible at all times. Portraits and emotions show how guests feel about a room!
Added a custom cursor
Here's how it looks now!
What's the next step?
There are still a few things in the building/furnishing system that we want to add/tweak, but we've decided to leave it for now and move on to something new and exciting: A new in-game area! That's right - we're finally expanding on the world and doing some first versions of the platforming and resource collecting gameplay! We're still quite early in the development of the new area but are excited to share updates along the way - here's some concept art for you to enjoy in the meantime!
Other news!
Our Animated Teaser Trailer turned one year old on November 11! It has been so rewarding seeing everyone's lovely reactions throughout the year and even though it was a veeery time consuming project, it's safe to say that it was 100% worth it.
If you want even more updates - feel free to come join our Discord community server and talk about the game, share cute pet pics and discuss all things cozy!
Until next time, stay cozy and eat lots of yummy fika!
//The gnomes at Elva Entertainment