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Developer Live Stream - NextFest Day 1

Hey Beekeepers!

We're excited to be a part of NextFest this year. As part of it, we'll be doing a devstream to play through some of the Beeta and show off a few things not in the demo! We'll be streaming on 1st and 2nd October at 7pm BST for a good few hours and talk about all things APICO :D



Hope to see ya there!

Love,
Ell & Jamie

Demo 4.6

Hey Beekeepers!

So since the Playtest has ended there's been a bunch of tweaks and bug fixes, so we wanted to update the demo to keep it in-line with the final game - especially with Steam NextFest looming on the horizon (Saturday!)

This update has a bunch of gamepad stuff, balance stuff, and then a butt-tonne of bug fixes. Enjoy!

[h2]Changes[/h2]
  • Added a Now Playing notification so you know the name of your favourite track!
  • Added a "High Contrast Slots" option in the Accessibility menu
  • You can now hold shift while middle-clicking to not only gather up as many of the same item (middle click) but move it to another menu also
  • Menu Objects now need two hammer hits to be picked up, giving you a chance to avoid the dreaded stuff explosion with your crates
  • Dpad on gamepad can now be used on main menus as well as L stick
  • B on gamepad now goes back in main menus
  • Added ability to R stick click to sort on crates on gamepad mode
  • You can now use the dpad for chapter selection on gamepad as well as R stick
  • You can now use the dpad for mechanisms on gamepad as well as R stick
  • You can now use the dpad for general slot movement in-game as well as R stick
  • Saving the game now takes a little bit longer (1 whole second!!) but now it won't freeze the game so you can just keep on truckin', don't say I never treat you all
  • Added tooltips to make it clear that pressing escape on a highlighted menu closes ONLY that menu and pressing escape when not highlighting a menu closes ALL open menus
  • Updated "Microscope It Out" quest to explain the recessive + buff symbols (≡, +, -)
  • Added the ! bubble above the player when drowning to make it clear you are drowning and will be teleported if you remain "stuck"
  • Updated scaling for 4K monitors, it was scaling at 4x when it should of been at 5x (3200+) and 6x (3840+) respectively (I can't afford fancy monitors so I didn't know this soz)
  • Doubled the amount of honey made per frame extraction (5 frames = minimum 1 bottle worth, higher productivity trait = more honey obvs)
  • Rebalanced some of the bee special products to encourage selling honey/mead for better profits (honey bottle sells for $15, mead for $20)
  • Bottles now only cost $1 each
  • Tweaked world gen for the demo to try and avoid awkward lake cut-offs
  • Weather, recipe, altar, and noticeboard notifications now auto-dismiss after a short period on PC like they already do on console
  • Clock in the corner now explicitly says day/dawn/dusk/night
  • Added a special "braid" hairstyle for Sto!


[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]
  • Fixed gamepad mode not turning off in the settings when using a gamepad until you restart
  • Fixed Canisters not having their base sell price added to the canister amount price
  • Fixed books still showing a notification when all chapters are read
  • Fixed flowers placed in pots not appearing until you move
  • Fixed some issues with a 'sc_menu_check_input' crash error
  • Fixed some issues with a 'sc_mouse_action' crash error
  • Fixed tank not filling in Extractor / Centrifuges when there is a full canister in the tank output
  • Fixed gate items showing as pink cubes when picked up
  • Fixed tile highlight showing when we had no hammer equipped
  • Fixed some of the post-ending dialogue
  • Fixed some of the post-ending effects in the 5th biome
  • Fixed Advanced Apiaries not showing the Quick Queen button correctly
  • Fixed not being able to select SirSengir on gamepad mode
  • Fixed not being able to select lights or light flowers on gamepad mode
  • Fixed backpacks not working on gamepad
  • Fixed not being able to claim overview chapter rewards
  • Fixed introduction quest notification not showing after speaking to Nana
  • Fixed "Tapping Trees" quest having duplicate text
  • Fixed dropped items not deactivating off-screen
  • Fixed not being able to place tiles underneath potted plants
  • Fixed lights deactivating offscreen too quickly
  • Fixed being able to stack flowers by shift placing them
  • Fixed some book elements in window mode being cut off
  • Fixed repeating paragraph on quest "Get Building"
  • Fixed mead buffs counting down while the game is paused
  • Fixed Beeboxes not updating the output when a bee matching the current selected bee stats is added
  • Fixed blessed queens counting as 2 bees in Beeboxes
  • Fixed not being able to right-click drop infused mead onto more of the same mead as the right-click drinks the mead instead
  • Fixed being able to interact with the world with the mouse while the game is paused
  • Fixed Shrub Saplings being liars and saying you can use them in Squeezers
  • Fixed being able to highlight beebox gui elements outside the menu
  • Fixed tree health showing -0.0 for a split second when punched to death
  • Fixed drained treetap still showing a "next produce in 10s" gui tooltip in the menu
  • Fixed tiles being able to be duplicated by hammering extremely fast and on a specific frame - or at least I've made it harder to do anyway haha
  • Fixed Bottler not resetting tank to be empty after using up all the liquid when bottling something
  • Fixed using red close buttons or "Bye" in NPC dialogue menus not closing all menus in Focus Mode
  • Fixed Extractors putting output items in the frame output slots
  • Fixed being able to close crates while the noticeboard is open and have the quest still able to be handed in
  • Fixed flower mutation not creating a pool, so it was bias to higher tier mutation recipes
  • Fixed normal mead in quest icons not having a full tooltip
  • Fixed mouse held item not resetting on new world creation
  • Fixed some types of mead not having effect info in quest icon tooltips
  • Fixed Beekeeper's Delight not being discovered by default
  • Tweaked collision slightly to avoid a rare "one way" deep water layout - if this messes up collision in general then you can blame a123qwertz567 and Dues!

APICO NextFest Devstream!

Hey Beekeepers!

We're excited to be a part of NextFest this year. As part of it, we'll be doing a devstream to play through some of the Beeta and show off a few things not in the demo! We'll be streaming on 2nd October at 7pm BST for a good few hours!



Hope to see ya there!

Beeta 1.7

Hey Beekeepers!

So the playtest has sadly come to an end, but on the plus side it meant an end to the torrent of bugs I had to fix :')

Whitethorn's QA team were busy testing the game at the same time too, so there's lots of fun little bugs that we managed to catch here.

Thanks so much to everyone that reported bugs or gave us feedback in these last few weeks!
This patch is a lot of bug fixes but also a few balance tweaks and little changes, including the save slowdown bug! I also added in the achievements to Steam, however you can only unlock the achievement for getting the Dream Bee and the Jurassic Bee at this point, just so that we can test the achievement unlock with Steam overlay. Once it's all working I'll add in the unlock triggers for all of the other achievements.

For Mod Creator's there are also a few new API additions and some long needed fixes to custom NPCs.
Enjoy!

[h2]Changes[/h2]
  • Honeycore Crystals now sell for 3 honeycore each, Honeycore Shards are still 1 honeycore each
  • Bottles now only cost $1 each
  • Mainlander Money now sells for $25 each
  • Added the ending sequence SFX
  • Tweaked world gen for the demo to try and avoid awkward lake cut-offs
  • Weather, recipe, altar, and noticeboard notifications now auto-dismiss after a short period on PC like they already do on console
  • Heaters + Coolers need higher levels of bees discovered before being unlocked to encourage using the biomes before getting spoilt by machines!
  • Town Noticeboard now only needs you to have discovered 6 bees to start handing in quests
  • Beenjamin quests in the Town Noticeboard have higher bee produce added to the reward pool
  • Skipper quests in the Town Noticeboard now give a proportional amount of mainlander money (i.e. requirement is 3 bottles, you get 3 moneys)
  • Bobbee quests in the Town Noticeboard have honey frames added to the reward pool
  • Merchant quests in the Town Noticeboard now correctly pick from ALL tracks in the game, not use the first 6
  • Clock in the corner now explicitly says day/dawn/dusk/night
  • Added in the ability to unlock the achievement for Dream Bee + Jurassic Bee so I can test some achievement things!
  • Re-ordered Beenjamins shop stock to be in order of level unlock


[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]
  • Fixed dropped items not deactivating off-screen
  • Fixed auto-save not clearing the discovery list each save, meaning save files grew exponentially until the save was impossible to complete
  • Added a fix to automatically clean up your save if you have one of the saves from 1.6 that had this exponential issue
  • Fixed not being able to place tiles underneath potted plants
  • Fixed lights deactivating offscreen too quickly
  • Fixed being able to stack flowers by shift placing them
  • Fixed noticeboard text in window mode being cut off
  • Fixed some book elements in window mode being cut off
  • Fixed repeating paragraph on quest "Get Building"
  • Fixed mead buffs counting down while the game is paused
  • Fixed Beeboxes/Beebanks not updating the output when a bee matching the current selected bee stats is added
  • Fixed blessed queens counting as 2 bees in Beeboxes + Beebanks
  • Fixed not being able to right-click drop infused mead onto more of the same mead as the right-click drinks the mead instead
  • Fixed being able to interact with the world with the mouse while the game is paused
  • Fixed Shrub Saplings being liars and saying you can use them in Squeezers
  • Fixed being able to highlight beebox/beebank gui elements outside the menu
  • Fixed tree health showing -0.0 for a split second when punched to death
  • Fixed being able to sell Honeycore Crystals + Honeycore Shards to NPCs for Rubees
  • Fixed not being able to sell Honeycore Crystals + Honeycore Shards to Bobbee for Honeycore
  • Fixed being able to put honeycore in Bobbee's buy slots
  • Fixed drained treetap still showing a "next produce in 10s" gui tooltip in the menu
  • Fixed tiles being able to be duplicated by hammering extremely fast and on a specific frame - or at least I've made it harder to do anyway haha
  • Fixed Bottler not resetting tank to be empty after using up all the liquid when bottling something
  • Fixed using red close buttons or "Bye" in NPC dialogue menus not closing all menus in Focus Mode
  • Fixed being able to still hand in noticeboard quests when you haven't got the items on you
  • Fixed Extractors putting output items in the frame output slots
  • Fixed being able to close crates while the noticeboard is open and have the quest still able to be handed in
  • Fixed not having enough honeycore in shops showing the wrong tooltip
  • Fixed flower mutation not creating a pool, so it was bias to higher tier mutation recipes
  • Fixed normal mead in quest icons not having a full tooltip
  • Fixed mouse held item not resetting on new world creation
  • Fixed some types of mead not having effect info in quest icon tooltips
  • Fixed both Barnabee and Abbee crashing when opening their shop and < 10 bees/flowers are discovered
  • Fixed Beekeeper's Delight not being discovered by default
  • Tweaked collision slightly to avoid a rare "one way" deep water layout - if this messes up collision in general then you can blame a123qwertz567 and Dues!


[h2]Modding[/h2]
  • You can now specify an "item_sprite" property in obj_definition and menu_obj_definition to use an alternate 16x16 image for items + slots
  • You can now specify a "tier" property in the bee_definition and the game will try and put the bee in that tier. If there is no room it will try the next tier up, defaulting to 5 if no room anywhere
  • Added api_define_gif() - similar to api_define_sprite() but will append your given name with "gif_" instead allowing it to be used in quest definitions
  • Added api_blacklist_input() which allows you to prevent standard input on a specific menu object oid when open, like how writing in signs doesn't open the book when pressing G as you type
  • Fixed api_get_inst_in_circle() and api_get_inst_in_rectangle() crashing when used
  • Fixed api_define_item() and api_define_object() setting the "shop_key" value to true regardless of what you give it (meaning all items became key items)
  • Fixed dialogue not working for custom NPCs
  • Fixed custom NPCs throwing an error when trying to buy custom items from them


[h2]Modding Docs[/h2]
  • Updated docs with new properties for the definitions
  • Updated Sample Mod to include an example gif sprite to use with a quest definition
  • Updated the api_define_quest() example to add a gif
  • Added api_unlock_quest() to the docs as it was in the API but missing from the docs
  • Added api_define_gif() definition
  • Added api_blacklist_input() definition

Playtest Ended

Hey Beekeepers!

All good things must come to an end, and for the APICO Playtest sadly this is the end!

Thanks so much for everyone who took part in this and helped squash out nasty bugs and give us great feedback! We really do appreciate it
If you haven't already, we'd love to hear your feedback on the Beeta!
The Beeta feedback form is completely optional and you don't have to answer all the questions - they're there just to give you some things to think about around different parts of the game.
If you have the time we'd love to hear from you!

https://forms.gle/ckphRtAJC26GrHVJ9

For us now there's a long slog ahead of fixing everything, finishing off QA, finishing off localisation - and then starting the long and dreaded console certification process!

It won't bee long beefore we'll be looking at the full release and be able to announce some dates, but until then if you want to come chat with us you can catch us over on our Guilded community!

https://guilded.gg/tngineers

Thanks again, and bee good!
Love Ell & Jamie