Book of Hours News

Some fun announcements below, but first -



If you like BOOK OF HOURS, vote for us in this year's Steam Awards! We're a husband and wife team making extremely niche, weird indie games, so we're very much an underdog here. But if you like weird, warped indie gems, please cast your vote for us. Thank you! ♥



We released Steam trading cards for BOOK OF HOURS along with badges, backgrounds and emoticons! Check 'em out in the Points Shop, and a gigantic pitcher of eigengrau to the first person who crafts the 'Librarian of Hush House' foil badge.





I'm listening to it now! Mickymar Production's haunting soundtrack will be coming to Steam, GOG, Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music and... probably some other places before the end of the year. It's a rich, lustrous OST and the perfect accompaniment to cold winter days, studying ancient grimoires and/or trying to get your pet snake to stop gnawing up the furniture. Good luck with that.





BOOK OF HOURS' next update will be DAYMARE. It's already on the beta branch and will be coming to main next week. Here are the confirmed headline features so far - there may be more but these are definite!

• Mail ordering some items (from Cater & Hero, and from TRN Ltd). Ordering from a catalogue will be a baroque and leisurely process. It'll reinforce Brancrug's remoteness, and it won't be trivial to top up supplies. But it'll fill some gaps and it'll add some flavour.
  
• In-game shelf labels! The Skolekosophy section? The Possibly Contaminated section? Unconfirmed Crafting Recipes? Useful Memories (though the book/Memory system may be coming up for a change)? Notes to yourself about who Janus is and who Hendrick was?
  
• Some UI refresh stuff - e.g. what Lottie refers to as 'spiffing timers' to make workstations a bit prettier
  
• Some more zoom tuning (restoring simultaneous arrow key movement and zoom-to, and I'll look at the zoom levels again)
  

(WIP! Please do not take as the Final Thing.)

Once DAYMARE is live, we'll focus on BOOK OF HOURS' first content expansion. (To confirm, this will be paid DLC, but free to anyone with Perpetual Edition.) You may still see some updates while we're working on that, and before the year is out we should have more details on what exactly will be included in this first new content update.

And finally - did we mention we love Christmas? Look out for something festive, starting 1st December. More from us then!

The long-awaited DAYMARE update, with a small but tasty list of features, is now on the beta branch. Expect this to make it to the live branch before Christmas.

So what've we got?

You can now order some goods through the post (if you don't have an order form, one will arrive inside a year)

You'll need to go to the Post Office to send it, but the Royal Mail delivers directly even to Brancrug. Why does the UK call it 'post' not 'mail' but our org is the Royal Mail? Ask the Queen NO YOU CAN'T NOT ANY MORE 😢

You can now label bookshelves

All the plaques were hand-placed by the charming other half of Weather Factory. We might move them if things get in the way.

Timers for workstations look a bit spiffier Further future spiffier-ness is probable.

You can now zoom while moving the camera
Tightened up zooming controls

I had to do a whole lot of fiddadling around when I was just back from holiday with Japanese flu, so there might be some leftover eccentricities. I've taken the slow easing effect off mouse zoom too. I liked it but a lot of other people didn't.

Specifically, zoom level 2 now takes you to a level that allows interaction with room contents. This was always supposed to be the case! thanks to everyone who pointed out the bug, I finally tracked it down

That annoying shelf in the Westcott Room is less annoying You know the one.

Game won't unexpectedly switch between fullscreen and windowed when you open options Though I could have tried to pass this off as a 'hilarious prank

Crafting helper panel now also works for Determinations and Histories This resolves some priority issues with recipes, and also gives you a bit more clarity generally

Histories page now includes the pre-ending text for your later referencing pleasure Ending text is pretty elliptical already. It's even more elliptical when you can't see the pre and post texts side by side, which I wasn't as aware of as I should be because that's how I look at 'em in my spreadsheet

Notification windows now universally respect the timeout option in Settings Sometimes software development is interesting and sometimes software development is less interesting than at other times when it's more interesting

BONUS CONTENT! People get asking us when we were bringing our podcast, Skeleton Songs, back. We did, it's here again, with an episode about invisible magicians pinching the Pope's parts: https://weatherfactory.biz/skeleton-songs/

--

[A weird Unity problem means I can't build on Mac right now, so there's no Mac beta just yet. Mac players, we haven't forgotten you, I'm working on it]

(Lovely image above is courtesy of the Lucid Tarot, which we hope will be available by Christmas.)

Another big update only two weeks after BANCROFT? Why not. COSELEY is a great big grab bag of quality-of-life improvements, and a couple of new features. I'm not done with QoL yet, but the next update (DAYMARE) is more content-focused. That's going to be a while away though, because Lottie and I are taking a couple weeks off, because apparently working all the time is in some nebulous way bad for you and you're supposed to 'relax' and have 'fun' and all that other human nonsense.

Patch notes, and my glosses, follow!

• Zoom-to-cursor is back! I've reworked it from my eccentric experimental version to be more what people expected, and switched it on by default. You can still turn it off in the options menu if you don't like it
  
• Auto-arrange changes; undo button, separate merge and arrange, variant ordering on reclick
  Keep clicking the arrange button (or pressing Tab) to see the effects
• It's now possible to dream on a Memory when night comes, preserving it for the following day
  You can't do this with Weather, and you can only do it after nightfall
• Dedicated verb icons for workstations
  Lottie wanted these in to add character - and they're also pavingthe way for another UI upgrade
• Added a small feature to make the endgame, and rare scenarios in the midgame, easier (psst it relates to Numa)
  psst psst there's a way to finish the game when you're ready without waiting for the right time
• More performance optimisations! Still ongoing, still experimental
  I'll keep working on these, but do drop me a mail if you're still struggling on a machine that's above minimum spec
• There's now a second phonograph in the House
• on new saves only* (i.e. if you haven't opened the Severn Chamber yet in this playthrough). The Governor's phonograph also now accepts different aspects (run something through it to update)
  
• TAKE NOTE! If a Soul card becomes contaminated after this update, it will sometimes be able to pass on the contamination to books
  Expect more from contaminations and maladies later - but I'm feeding these in very cautiously
• You can now mute copied-text popups (and/or re-enable them in Options)
  Sorry, folks, finally got to it
• The harp in the Windlit Gallery is a little different (on new saves only)
  
• The Librarian can now burn correspondence
  Right now that means 'spare reminder from St Rhonwens isn't wirh you forever' but it may be more relevant in future updates
• You'll no longer get two simultaneous Numa incidents when playing on 6x speed
  I was hunting this one for a while - thanks to D.K. for giving me the final piece in the puzzle via their bug report
• One candelabrum moved in the nave of St Brandan's so you get a little more space in the window-shelf
  We'd have done this a coupla weeks ago, but the other half of Weather Factory, who does the art, just put in a couple of fifty-hour weeks to get the Lucid Tarot finished. WELL DONE LOTTIE. Same with the art bits below
• Entrance hall chairs now show in front of shelved objects
  
• Added a visible path down from Earl Brian's field to make the cliff-link clearer
  
• The Mirrors in the Hall of Division now accept Grail (as usual, you'll need to run a recipe through them to see this, if you're playing an existing save)
  This is more thematically on-point; also there was a single solitary Soul evolution where you could still lock yourself out of an upgrade, and this resolves it. Thanks to those who reported this!
• You'll only see the Wisdom Tree tip once (finally got around to this)
  
• Swimming in the sea is now possible, though not always wise, and a swimmer should ensure they know where their towel is; AND examining Fabric no longer destroys it; AND clean fresh linen now has restorative properties
  All these three points are related. I wanted to stop destroying Fabric, as part of upcoming feature tweaks for both analysis and Mommet work. So I wanted to give towels and linen something else to do. (previously they were one-shot Memory generators - they had just looked nice in the room art, and it's often hard to find a use for these objects). PS people should stop trying to give their dirty laundry to Mrs Kille, people, she's a midwife not a laundress
• Added an extra quarter-second delay to the room preview window
  still too intrusive? now too slow? needs to be configurable? we'll see, it's all a grand adventure
• Added a Revert button to the crafting helper panel, which returns the window to the first available recipe
  
• Added a missing connection from Gullscry Loggia to Gaol Bridge
  
• Lucid Tarot cards in ending screens display at a better ratio
  I didn't even notice, and I don't know if anyone else did, but it was upsetting my wife to see her art squashed
• Fixed some Ouranoscopy hint and recipe issues, and added a new recipe
  
• Fixed some Stone Stories hint and recipe issues, and added a new recipe
  There'll be more of this sort of thing
• Options in crafting helper panel are slightly easier to click
  
• Fixed an irritation where mousing over Period aspect could bring up an irrelevant unlock preview tooltip
  
• Father Schaller now admits that he reads Sanskrit
  Expect him and other visitors to show more of an interest in some other relevant books in the future
• Westcott Room scroll cubbies now work
  
• Fixed an issue where Memories found as random gathers would sometimes only appear once (with thanks to M.W.)
  
• Wormwood Dream is persistent
  
• Crafting is no longer possible in bed. It was rarely useful, usually confusing, always a health and safety issue
  Are there other things coming that you can do in bed? no wash your mind out, not that. But one of the potential expansions has to do do with dreaming
• A terminological issue re: scientific instrumentation has been addressed.
  Can't believe I forgot what an astrolable looked like
• Added a missing sound for some small things being dropped
  I only noticed this because I was tuning the volume of the spookier sounds in the caves below the House
• Fixed a problem where detail messages weren't showing on consumable objects when they were Considered
  
• Clearer slot labelling on Skills
  So fewer people will get to hour six and only then realise you don't need to use up Lessons for every slot?
• Saves and Backups button doesn't suffer from desynced text
  
• Detail images for very small objects no longer pixelate
  Surprisingly fiddly to fix, but glasses of water are now much charming-er

Loads of tiny fixes and enhancements in this one. The points at the top in bold are probably the ones you'll care about most.

- Zoom-to-cursor is back! I've reworked it from my eccentric experimental version to be more what people expected, and switched it on by default. You can still turn it off in the options menu if you don't like it - Experimental auto-arrange changes; undo button, separate merge and arrange, variant ordering on reclick - It's now possible to dream on a Memory when night comes, preserving it for the following day
- TAKE NOTE! If a Soul card becomes contaminated after this update, it will sometimes be able to pass on the contamination to books
- Dedicated verb icons for workstations
- More performance optimisations! Still ongoing, still experimental
- There's now a second phonograph in the House *on new saves only*. The Governor's phonograph also now accepts different aspects (run something through it to update)
- The harp in the Windlit Gallery is a little different (on new saves only)
- One candelabrum moved in the nave of St Brandan's so you get a little more space in the window-shelf
- Entrance hall chairs now show in front of shelved objects
- Added a visible path down from Earl Brian's field to make the cliff-link clearer
- Added an extra quarter-second delay to the room preview window
- Swimming in the sea is now possible, though not always wise, and a swimmer should ensure they know where their towel is
- Examining Fabric no longer destroys it
- Clean fresh linen now has restorative properties
- Added a small feature to make the endgame, and rare scenarios in the midgame, easier
- Added a Revert button to the crafting helper panel, which returns the window to the first available recipe
- The Librarian can now burn correspondence
- Added a missing connection from Gullscry Loggia to Gaol Bridge
- Lucid Tarot cards in ending screens display at a better ratio
- Fixed some Ouranoscopy hint and recipe issues, and added a new recipe
- Fixed some Stone Stories hint and recipe issues, and added a new recipe
- Options in crafting helper panel are slightly easier to click
- Fixed an irritation where mousing over Period aspect could bring up an irrelevant unlock preview tooltip
- Father Schaller now admits that he reads Sanskrit
- Westcott Room scroll cubbies now work
- Fixed an issue where Memories found as random gathers would sometimes only appear once (with thanks to M.W.)
- Wormwood Dream is persistent
- Crafting is no longer possible in bed. It was rarely useful, usually confusing, always a health and safety issue
-A terminological issue re: scientific instrumentation has been addressed.
- You'll no longer get two simultaneous Numa incidents when playing on 6x speed
- Added a missing sound for some small things being dropped
- The Mirrors in the Hall of Division now accept Grail (as usual, you'll need to run a recipe through them to see this, if you're playing an existing save)
- Fixed a problem where detail messages weren't showing on consumable objects when they were Considered
- Clearer slot labelling on Skills
- Saves and Backups button doesn't suffer from desynced text
- You'll only see the Wisdom Tree tip once (finally got around to this)
- HOTFIX: nasty bit of borked JSON output
- HOTFIX: auto-arrange button wasn't working
- HOTFIX: can drag to move in Wisdoms tree again

HOTFIX: Nume-Brume should now only show up in Numa; you shouldn't be able to skip incidents on 6x speed