Hi everyone,
Bitter Harvest 1.1 is now available.
This is a major feedback-driven update focused on improving the core daily gameplay loop, adding more relationship depth, improving accessibility, and making progression feel more rewarding.
Here is everything new in Version 1.1:
Faster Farming
You can now hold a button while walking to continuously plant seeds and water crops instead of pressing the button for every individual tile.
This should make farming much smoother and significantly reduce repetitive inputs.
NPC Gifting System
You can now give cooked meals to villagers in new games.
Each NPC has a favorite meal that can be discovered through conversations, hints from other villagers, and relationship building. Once you successfully give an NPC their favorite meal, that meal will be shown in the Relationships menu.
Favorite meals give the same relationship boost as talking, while other cooked dishes still provide a smaller increase. NPCs can receive one gift per day.
Inventory Weight and Upgrades
New games now include an inventory weight system.
Managing what you carry is now more important, and inventory upgrades can be purchased over time to increase your carrying capacity.
This is intended to make progression, money, crafting, cooking, and selling decisions feel more meaningful throughout the game.
Accessibility and Controls
You can now fully re-bind the WASD movement keys, which should help left-handed players and anyone who prefers alternative keyboard layouts.
Improved NPC Interaction Hints
New interaction hints now appear near NPCs to show whether you can:
Talk
Gift
Once that interaction is no longer available for the day, the hint disappears.
Inventory Navigation Improvements
Inventory navigation now loops correctly:
Pressing up from the top moves to the bottom
Pressing down from the bottom moves to the top
Fishing Fix
Fixed an issue where pressing the interact button before a fish appeared could reveal which fish was about to bite.
It now correctly displays:
“It Got Away.”
Thorn Quest Clarification
Updated the Thorn quest text so it correctly refers to reaching “hearts” with villagers rather than “stars.”
It also now clarifies that you must speak with Thorn on Day 31 after completing the requirement.
Relationship Text Positioning
Fixed an issue where relationship gain text could appear outside the visible area when NPCs were standing near the top edge of the screen.
What’s Coming Next
I’m already working on additional updates based on player feedback, including:
Expanded NPC depth and dialogue
More reactive village events and consequences
Improved mini-games and UI
Additional music and ambience
Stronger story integration for garbage collection
More progression systems and daily-life features
Thank you to everyone who has played the game, shared feedback, posted bug reports, or supported Bitter Harvest so far. Your feedback directly shaped this update, and I’m already working on the next one.
If you’ve been enjoying the game, leaving a Steam review really helps small indie games like Bitter Harvest continue to grow and reach more players.