Today I am excited to share our Summer Development Update for Kingdom of Hope!
Since the Spring update, development has continued to accelerate, with a wealth of new features now in place. Altogether, they're helping shape a deeper, richer experience.
As always, please remember that this is still a work in progress. Art, music, balance, and systems may change as development continues - the eager eye may have already spotted some art style reworks!
As a dream solo project, the goal for me remains unchanged: build a world that feels magical, cosy, and full of discovery - where you can farm, craft, explore, fight, trade, and uncover stories at your own pace.
Lately, a lot of work has gone into exploration and discovery, giving combat and skills more depth, and tying survival, seasons, and equipment together - so your choices actually matter when it comes to what you wear, your crafting priorities and how you prepare before heading out.
Exploration
Multi-Floor Mining — Venture deeper through mines via ladders, discovering new ore deposits generated on each floor.
Volcano — A major new area with lava hazards and tougher enemies, but a greater chance that you'll be rewarded with rarer items. You'll need volcano-suitable clothing.
Beach & Pier — A full coastal area with swimming, wave effects, sand digging, buried treasure, a pier to walk out over the water and... a secret to explore.
Combat, Stealth & Skills
Perfect Parry Skill — Timing-based combat: block at the right moment to parry attacks and stun your enemies.
Stealth — Hide in large fibre/grass clumps to sneak past heavily occupied enemy areas, or if you don't feel like combat. Enemies cannot spot you if enough of your body is concealed — but noise and already-alerted enemies won't be fooled by this.
Skill Tree — Unlocks like Stealth (concealment), Weather Forecast readings, Perfect Parry and more.
Bandit Combat Overhaul — Line-of-sight checks, dizzy/stunned reactions to arrows and parries, and smarter movement.
Bow & Arrow — The first ranged weapon. Craft bows at the Fletcher Bench, draw and release mechanism, cancel shot, all with controller support. Arrows can stun enemies for up to 3 seconds and damage inflicted scales with ring wearing.
Equipment & Armour
Rings — Equip one ring for combat bonuses: attack damage multiplier, chance to skip stamina cost on hits, and temporary speed boosts after attacking or taking damage. Includes durability wear (Stone Ring, Obsidian Ring, and more).
Amulets — Separate slot with health regeneration (pulsing UI when active), durability, and library books explaining how to craft them.
Clothing/Armour System — Dedicated clothes/armour slot. Equip for heat protection, combat damage reduction, seasonal weather/conditions protection. Energy penalties apply for wearing the wrong outfit in the wrong season (e.g. warm clothes in summer).
Crafting, Building & Stations
Fletcher Bench — For crafting bows and arrows.
Loom — Weaving station for making clothes.
Jewelry Table — Craft rings and amulets.
Herb Rack — Indoor herb storage. Placed near a cooking pot, it will share availability with the player inventory.
Rainwater Barrel — Collect rain as part of a high tech medieval crop watering system!
Large Chest — Bigger storage option.
Removal Tool — Deconstruct buildings and stations back into inventory. Separate Animal Eviction Tool for relocating livestock.
Shrines with Daily Offerings — Visit non-religious shrines each in-game day for random offerings, providing extra resources for survival.
Farming, Animals and.... a pet Shiba!
Chicken Coop Overhaul — Each coop is independent: buy a separate Chicken and Hen, install them per coop, and only get eggs when both are present.
Cow Shed & Sheep Barn — Constructible barns aligned with the chicken coop model — buy animals separately and manage them per building. Cows provide Milk and Sheep provide Wool when fed and exercised.
Horse Riding - Mount your horse for faster travel, with bag storage on the saddle, untamed horses have a higher enemy-fright behaviour (horse bucks if enemies get too close).
Shiba Companion! (Full Pet System) — Adopt a Shiba, earn daily relationship hearts and play fetch! ⚠️ Warning ⚠️ Owning a Shiba pet can seriously delay your daily farming routine
Economy, Trading, Books & Lore
Gold & Silver Currency — Two-tier money system with updated shop UI, coin pouches, and pricing that respects silver/gold display.
Player Market Stall Pricing — Set price levels for your stock; NPCs react with satisfaction, indifference or anger based on whether you stock their favourite items, they may become angry if prices aren't fair or skip buying anything from your stall if they don't like what you have for sale.
Incoming Chest — A receive-only chest at home for quest rewards, patch gifts, achievement drops, and future DLC/event deliveries.
Library — Book borrowing with return rules, late-book notices and penalty fees, book availability changes by chance.
Lore - NPC diaries added across the world to deepen lore and environmental storytelling and allow mysteries to be pondered.
Treasure Maps — Readable treasure map items that tie into hidden chest rewards around the Kingdom.
Survival, Weather & Seasons
Temperature System — Cold nights (Spring/Winter) drain energy/health if your fire goes out; hot nights (Summer) penalize you for sleeping with the fire on. Summer heatwaves cause daytime outdoor energy drain with a visible Summer Indicator.
Wet / Dry Before Sleep — Get wet from rain or swimming and you must dry off before bed! Drying occurs naturally in warmer seasons outside if you have been swimming, but if it's raining, you'll need to dry off inside by the fire.
Relationships, Zen Mode, Steam Integration
Relationships Tab — New pause menu tab showing your relationships.
Zen Mode — Minimize the hotbar (rings, amulets, clothing included) while still using your selected hotbar item.
Steam Achievements & Cloud Saves — Support for achievement milestones and Steam Cloud save syncing.
Finally...
If you've already wishlisted the game, thank you so much! While I can't reveal exactly what's in the Early Supporter Pack just yet, I can say it'll be available to everyone who joins the adventure early and helps support the game on its journey to full release.
The release date is still listed as "Coming Soon", but I'm hoping to share more concrete details in the Autumn update.
On a related note, I've been giving a lot of thought to the possibility of launching in Early Access. As a solo developer, preparing a separate demo build for the next Steam Next Fest would mean splitting my time between two versions of the game, which could slow down development considerably. More importantly, I feel a demo would only showcase a small slice of what's been built so far.
Early Access, on the other hand, would allow you to jump straight into the full experience with all of the features and content I've announced, while also giving you the opportunity to help shape the game's future as development continues.
There's still plenty to think about before a final decision is made, but right now Early Access feels like the most exciting path forward for both the game and the community around it.
Thank you for following the early journey of Kingdom of Hope!
Cheers,
Ben