Roots of Pacha News

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.
  

[h2]A deeper meaning is taking shape in Roots of Pacha.
[/h2]
Dec. 14th 10am pt | 1pm et | 6pm utc

Join us for a live stream as we talk about the latest in development, answer questions, and set the stage for what the future holds. Don’t worry we only introduce the main story and won’t spoil it (we also hate spoilers).

We’ll be streaming right here on Steam, Twitch, and YouTube.

If you miss the stream we will be posting it on YouTube along with the written devlog a few hours after the stream ends.

Hope to see you then!

ps.
We just updated our discord bot community game, we now have fishing!

Hello Pachans! We’re back with another mid-sprint devlog! We say it every time, but we continue to make huge strides in the Roots of Pacha world. Progress has been made with character activities and their homes, the main story, a winter festival, and so much more! We hope you enjoy reading about what we’ve been up to.

[h3]Character Homes & Activities[/h3]
The clan was getting cold from the last wintery update, so they wanted to get cozy inside. This sprint we’re working on updated interiors for some of the NPCs. Each home in the clan will reflect its unique inhabitants. Can you guess who calls this house home?



The clan has many chores they need to do throughout the day. You’ll find various characters going about their business with their new animations.



[h3]A Greater Calling[/h3]
After completing a quest that takes you to the Jungle, you will find a mysterious pyramid topped with four totems. Through this structure, you will progress through the larger story by completing different “quests” and learn why you were destined to live in the Land Between Two Rivers.



If you’ve seen our Kickstarter trailer, you know it ended with a pyramid. This pyramid will be added to the game, although in a different form. We loved the original style of the pyramid, but when we started to work with it in the game, its style felt out of place in the more organic world of Pacha. So we reworked it to fit within the world and the story we’re telling.

[h3]A New Year[/h3]



The end of winter signals the coming of new life. You will join the clan as they say goodbye to the chill of winter and welcome spring. You will travel to the top of the snow-covered mountain where you will make “wishes” for the coming year, tell stories, and watch the lights of Quro dance in the sky.

[h3]House Upgrades[/h3]
You’ve been working hard gathering and planting, so we felt it was time that you’re able to upgrade your home. Expanding your house will allow you to form a union with your special someone and have them move in. Then eventually have children join your hearth.

Those who love cooking will be able to expand their repertoire of dishes with new appliances and utensils that are unlocked at each stage. Then you’ll be able to make your friends the meals they love.

[h3]Love & Marriage[/h3]
We started adding cutscenes last alpha update, and work has continued on how you can woo that eligible single who catches your eye. We want to make sure that your union feels meaningful to both you and the character.

[h3]Switch Progress & Unity 2021[/h3]
Like Pachans preparing for winter, we know how important it is to prepare for the long term. Lots of progress has been made with optimizations, the save system, joystick support, and cross-platform play with Switch. We also upgraded the project to Unity 2021 early, which has allowed us to take advantage of some of the new features as we optimize and keep our “tech debt” low.

[h3]Epic[/h3]
We’re excited to say that Roots of Pacha will be available on the Epic store as well as Steam when we release next year. We’re excited that even more people will be able to play our game.

Thanks for sticking with us through this journey. Your excitement and continued support mean the world to us. If you haven’t already, we hope you join the community in Discord.

Leave a comment with whose house you think is included in this devlog and why. 💖

Hello, clan! We’ve just completed another development cycle and big strides have been made in the Pachan culture and the world as a whole. We have a full four seasons, an updated fishing mini-game, a new idea, two new other clans, and big changes in how the characters interact with you and the world.

[h3]Winter[/h3]

It’s time to gather around the fire as snowflakes are falling in the Land Between Two Rivers. You will now be able to experience winter and cycle through an entire year! Each season will continue to be improved, but we’re excited to have reached this milestone!

A few new chill-resistant plants, gatherables, fish, and seasonal music can be found while exploring the land.

[h3]Social[/h3]

We’ve started to give the social aspect of Roots of Pacha a lot more development focus. We added summer and raining schedules, dialogues, and animations to breathe a little more life into the characters' daily routines.

On rainy and snowy days the clan will hunker down inside, but their activities won't stop. You’ll be able to see Pachans hanging out at the Pacha Hearth or at each other's homes. In this development cycle, we added Gin and Tare’s home interior and made it accessible within the alpha. Their home has a little extra grandeur to it from their status within the clan, but they’re still welcoming to their fellow Pachans.

[h3]Friendship[/h3]


Like other farming sims, you’ll be able to talk with and give gifts to NPCs to improve friendship, but true to the culture of the world, dance will also help you connect with characters. But a character won’t want to dance with you right away so you will need to raise your friendship to a point where they’re happy to bust a move with you. You’ll be able to check your friendship status (represented by flowers) in the Journal and see who you’ve given gifts, danced with, and spoken to.



Once you gain enough friendship you will be able to see world-changing events for some characters. We feel it's important that your actions, including your friendships, change the lives of the characters around you. They may start going outside the Land or spending time with other characters.

We have many cutscenes in the works but we started with Frer’s first two. Alpha players will be able to see them at two and four flowers. Since we’re developing for single and multiplayer, these two cutscenes can be experienced by all players at the same time. After these two cutscenes are experienced, Frer’s schedule will change slightly to reflect his character development. We’re excited to expand on this direction in storytelling.

We gave a few characters a makeover. After our Gamescom Festival, we wanted to give Ibon and Jelrod a look that better reflected the divas that they are.

To create the living breathing world we have a lot more cutscenes, schedules, dialogue, animations, and characters to add. But we’re pretty happy with the strides we’ve made these past two months.

[h3]Roaming Clans[/h3]

We’ve started working on two other roaming clans, the Mograni and the Yakuans. These groups seem to be the opposite in almost every way. One lives in the cold North while the other makes the Turtle Islands home. No one remembers what started this feud but the clans have little to no kind words to spare for each other. Thankfully for them, Pacha gave our clan a sign to settle between them. Could this be a part of a larger plan?

Three characters from each clan have been added to the alpha with a few dialogues each. It’s been exciting to see the early stages of this story take shape and we’re looking forward to expanding on it.

[h3]Fishing[/h3]

Like Pachans we strive to better our ideas and our fishing mini-game is one of them. After getting player feedback and testing it ourselves we felt it needed an update. We decided to change the way the hover works and more clearly indicate where you needed to keep your cursor within. From there, an indicator will fill up to 4 bars when it's time to strike. We also changed how the fish became aware of you. Once they see you you have a short time to move the cursor away and wait for them to go back to not noticing you before resuming your progress in catching the fish.

[h3]A New Idea[/h3]

Although Pachans are innately inventive, they’re not the only ones with Ideas. Yakuans and Mogranis have their own way of doing things and have been mastering their surroundings for years. Once they trust you enough, they’ll share their way of living with you and maybe you’ll even invent something together.

[h3]Discord bot[/h3]

Starting in October, instead of having alpha raffles based on the top players of our Discord minigame, everyone will be able to earn “tickets” 🎟️ based on their own achievements.

The clan works together to unlock “fires” that will translate into the number of alpha raffles we do at the end of the month. We start with 2 fires (raffles) and each additional one is unlocked based on everyone’s total contribution.

If you haven’t already, join us now for a chance to win, and hangout with the awesome community. You don’t want to miss the new #🎈-wholesome-memes channel! 💖😂🦆



[h3]What’s next[/h3]
We’ll work to expand on the social aspect like dating and marriage, add new ideas like irrigation, and continue to weave the threads that tie the world together.



[h3]Alpha 0.5.0 Knifetooth - Changelog[/h3]

• Winter season maps.
  
• Winter plants and gatherables.
  
• The alpha can now be played continuously and doesn't end on a particular day
  
• Updated fishing minigame: mouse sensitivity doesn’t affect how it plays, clearer UI, and added the concept of “tension” per fish.
  
• Fish have a tier assigned to them and the difficulty to catch them changes depending on the tool used.
  
• Implemented new fishing tool and idea.
  
• Gifts dialogues for specific items.
  
• 6 new NPCs from 2 different clans.
  
• Camps of the new NPCs spawn in the places they can be found on different days.
  
• 2 heart events with and triggers.
  
• New NPC dance mechanic: request to dance.
  
• NPC journal list in the menu.
  
• NPC friendship mechanic updated.
  
• New NPC animations for Pachans including them seating on stools and rugs.
  
• Updated Okka’s “Animal Friendship” idea.
  
• New schedules for Summer, Rainy days, and variations in regular schedules.
  
• Can now access Tare’s and Gin’s house.
  
• Some new dialogues.
  
• Trees fall to left/right depending on where they are hit, and they won’t fall in invalid places.
  
• Items can’t be dropped in water/air.
  
• Partial controller support improved in the world and menus.
  
• New sound FX for characters’ animations.
  
• New ambient sounds.
  
• New music for winter and improvements for the previous seasons.
  

Hello Clan! Lots has been going on in Roots of Pacha. Our walkthrough trailer was included in IGN Awesome Indies for Gamescom and we streamed the latest Alpha update with Sharky and decided "The Battle of Playing Instruments! It was so close! The Mammoths fought hard but end the end the Cave Lions leapt to stardom. We raffled 3 alpha access codes, and the winners are JennyBand and Etrigan from Team Cave Lion, and farahmandpour from Team Mammoth! Congrats and thanks for playing!

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[h2]Fall
[/h2]


Falling leaves and new colors adds another layer of life to our expanding world. Just one more season to go!

[h2]Carnival![/h2]



Music is one way the Clan connects to Pacha and all her creations. At this festival, Carnival, you can chat with the community, dance, hear a story, and there’s even a little friendly competition to see who can perform the best!

[h2]Tools & Animals go outside![/h2]



We love our animals and they can now hang out outside! They will come out of the shed in the day to enjoy the sun.

We’ve also spent time working on new tools and how they will be upgraded in the game.


[h2]Pets[/h2]



Animal companions have brought us joy for over 10,000 years and now we can pet and have them follow us in Roots of Pacha as well!

[h2]Beach[/h2]



As the temperature cools in the Land Between Two Rivers we expanded the Known Lands to include the Beach. You’ll find wild coconuts, dates, sea kale, and more!

[h2]Ideas[/h2]

We implemented a Tools Station, which will expand what Acre can make for you and the clan. And added a Plant Nursery that allows you to propagate seeds.

You can read more about the new ideas here.

[h2]What’s next
[/h2]

We’re going to focus on winter and deepening the story of the Pachans and the surrounding Clans.


Join us in discord to get the news first on what’s to come!



You rock!