Devlog 18: ❄ Crossings

Happy Holidays Pachans! We couldn’t think of a better way to wrap up the year than with a New Years Festival and live stream. We hope you were able to join us, but if you couldn’t, here’s a link if you’d like to check it out. Otherwise, we hope you enjoy the summary below.

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Thanks for being such an awesome and supportive community. We look forward to seeing what 2022 brings!

[h2]New Years Festival[/h2]

Join the clan for a New Year’s festival at the mountain summit. You’ll chat with the characters to hear many of their wishes for the upcoming year, listen to a story about how the northern lights came to be, and watch the lights in action.

[h2]The Great Connector[/h2]

Vuak has a vision that there’s something you need to see on the other side of the river. You’ll have to gather supplies from far outside the land, but once you do, you’ll be rewarded with the start of a grand challenge that will continue at release.

[h2]Player House Upgrades[/h2]

You’ll be working hard and might want a little extra room to stretch your legs (or invite that special someone to come live with you). Once you get enough materials and contribution points you’ll be able to upgrade your house and your kitchen as well! Having an upgraded kitchen (and the utensils that are being developed to go along with it) will expand the possibilities of the dishes you can make.

[h2]Everyday Life[/h2]

We continuously add layers of detail as we develop the “big” things in the game. As you explore the world, you’ll find the characters going about their business, which mostly includes helping the clan like Jag is. He looks after the village by making sure there’s always a fire ready to warm your hands or cook with.

As you venture around the world and experience the different seasons, you’ll hear music and ambient sounds that shape the world. We hope you enjoy all the hard work and love that has gone into creating this experience.

We’ve also put another coat of paint on the characters’ likes and dislikes. This will continue to evolve as we add more things to the game, but each character now has a neutral, dislike, like, hate, and love response for gifts and a couple of items for each.

The interior of characters’ homes are also being designed to reflect their unique personalities and roles in the clan. Tetih is the oldest member of the clan who enjoys the “finer” things in stone age life, like decorative rugs and a big cozy bed.

[h2]Building for the Future[/h2]

It’s exciting to be working on aspects of the game that don’t fit nicely into one “sprint” or “devlog cycle.” These are the parts of the game that will weave the world into something greater than the sum of its parts.

Love is an important part of the human experience and our history. It’s important to us that it’s meaningful in Roots of Pacha. So we’ve been working hard to create a story for each character you can date and the system surrounding how you go about seeing that special someone.

We’re also working on stories and cutscenes with other people in the clan as well as the deeper meaning of what Pacha has in store for us. A lot of this work won’t be reflected in the alpha as it’s still being developed.

Until Next Time 💖

Thanks for taking the time to read what we’ve been up to. We hope you and yours have a happy and safe holiday. You rock!

-The Soda Den Team

[h2]Changelog [/h2]
0.6.0 Crossings
Features

New region.
Initial main story quest.
New Year’s Eve festival.
Tetih’s house is open.
The Player house can be upgraded.
Initial kitchen system in players’ house.
Smoke signals are now part of the master menu.
Smoke signals don’t disappear and show in three categories Today, Active, and Past.
New smoke signals for when a tool is ready, a building is built, new seeds got added from the nursery, and the progression of ideas.
Cutscenes can be skipped.
Initial animal friendship list in the journal.
Fall NPCs’ schedules.
New NPC animations for their schedules.
NPC’s liked/disliked gifts and dialogues.
Improved music & SFX throughout the seasons.
New dialogue system with jumps and conditionals.
Migrated to Unity 2021.
Maps load dynamically, significantly lowering memory usage.
Improved joystick support.
Switch project setup.