Moonlight In Garland News

Hey Neighbours!

Welcome to the last update of 2024 and congratulations for making it though the year, it’s certainly been a… time!

This update brings fishing and all the fun bits that come with it. Buy various rods from the boat shed in east Garland, catch 27 kinds of fish, donate to the museum and generally spend your days chilling by the water. In addition to that, I’ve also made fixes and adjustments to a lot of small things like UI, triggers and NPC schedules and interactions.

Like I mentioned, this will be the last update of the year, I’ll be taking a couple of weeks to have a break, refresh my brain and work on features to get ready for the planned updates in 2025. The next update will be in late January and will be crossing off a lot of community QoL requests.

It’s been a huge year for Garland, I’ve crossed a lot of things off the roadmap list but there is still more get done and I really appreciate you all sticking with me and having patience while I work things through. Every update, bug report and suggestion brings Garland closer to its full release and I’m really excited for next year!

I’ll be posting a proper end of year wrap up in the discord so come join us to celebrate or make suggestions for what you want to see next year!

Thank you so much for being part of the Garland community, I hope you have a relaxing holiday season and a chill New Years.

See you in Garland!




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General:
- Adjusted player and NPC trigger areas to make them easier to talk to.
- Mail - Adjusted spacing in letterbox.
- Adjusted bollard placement in East Garland.
- Hairdresser - fixed floor displaying incorrectly.
- Shops - Fixed staff appearing when shops are not open.
- Museum - adjusted text in events to reflect new options.
- Sound - Added sfx for passing out.
- Progress bar - fixed issue of progress bar sometimes getting stuck on when pets are around.

Menus/UI
- UI tabs - Fixed issue with tab sometimes toggling menu on after closing.
- Fixed buttons accepting pressed when highlighted if the mouse is outside a scroll area.
- Shops - Fixed issue not saving scroll ratio when buying/selling items causing a jump to the top.
- Inventory - Added colour to item title, weight/length options to description sidebar.
- Inventory - Added options for sprite/info overrides.
- Inventory - Added transparency to unavailable inventory slots.
- Fixed issues when menu has been opened during sitting.
- Clothing shop - Fixed crash when clicking hover on non-clothing items.
- Adjusted scroll bar speed to be more relative.

NPCS:
- Pathfinding - Fixed NPCs stuck in doorways
- Pathfinding - Fixed NPCS not wandering appropriately and adjusted timing on wandering.
- Petal Points - Fixed relationship level up not sending achievements.
- Petal Points - Added achievements for friendship levels decreasing.
- Kirin - Fixed dialogue loop in Kirin’s first meeting.
- Added Fern to Museum donations counter.

Fishing:
- Fish now spawn in some ocean/river areas.
- Rod items now have Use action
- Added various rod items to fish shop.
- Added X new fish in various rarities.
- Clothing - Added fishing animation to current clothing options.
- Added fishing mini game.
- Collections app - Added fish tab, adjusted other tabs slightly.
- Museum - Added donation ability for fish.
- Updated fishing shop interior.
- Settings - Added accessibility control to have the mini game always on, always off or for less common fish.

Backend/Optimisations
- Started set up for hair style options in hair dresser.
- Pathfinding and schedules for npcs optimised.
- Petal points, Mental and Physical health scripts partially optimised.

Hey Neighbours!

We’re coming to the end of the year so this is the second last update for Garland for 2024 and it’s a fun one: PETS!

After Spring 25, the Pet Rescue adoption program will open (via a letter) and you’ll be able to adopt some furry friends! Currently there are 3 colours of cats with 3 personality types and different combinations will be available every morning. Once you adopt a friend, you’ll need to give them a bed and bowl to eat/drink from and take care of their needs every day. You can check your pet’s stats from the bed too and see if you’ve earned their love yet :D

Their reactions to you and how they respond to your care is based on personality so it’s going to take time and work to earn respect from the grumpier animals. Check the full changelog for more details of all the changes. I’ll be adding more mechanics and types of pets once I’ve got some more data on how we can balance the gameplay so feel free to give me your feedback in the discord community!

Also, a special thank you to our discord community for all the random cat names included so far too!

This update also brings the start of the furniture mechanics for decoration (so many sure you buy a hammer if you wanna redecorate!).

There will be one more update in Mid December before I take a break over the December holidays. It will include some more furniture and a couple of other big things for you to play with over the holiday break.

That’s all for today, see you in Garland!

See you in Garland!




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General:
- Updated overnight transition to be smoother, now you wake up with an emote for some pep in your step too.
- Minor wording adjustment to controls image.
- Moved phone portrait placement during text conversations.
- Save/load menu - Removed save button when opened on title screen.
- Added “Accuse!” label to Private Detective Man Hunt mini game.
- Adjusted random spawn mechanics to be more precise and have less change of void spawning.
- Temporarily turned off some highlights on interaction to prepare for furniture system (furniture, chairs etc).
- Fix for the nightly spawn running twice in some cases.

PETS!!
- Cats are now available as adoptable pets from the pet shop.
- Pet adoption will unlock via a letter after Spring 25th, visit the pet rescue after reading the letter to trigger the cutscene.
- 3 colours of cat with 3 personality types are available to start with.
- Once adopted, pets will appear in your apartment.
- Added pet information tracking system.
- Pet interactions added : food, water, cleaning, patting.
- Added Pet adoption cutscene event.
- Upgrade to pet shop ui, redid shop tab and added adoptions tab.
- Added cat food, pet beds, pet bowls in 4 colours to pet shop.
- Added overnight resets for food, water, other pet systems.
Pet care instructions:
- Adopt a pet from the pet rescue, a basic bed/bowl is included in the adoption fee but you can purchase other colours (and soon styles) in the pet shop).
- Feed once a day by adding cat food to the pet bowl.
- Water once a day by adding water to the pet bowl via the watering can.
- Pat daily.
- Wash weekly with the cleaning cloth.
- Gain points towards hearts by meeting your pet’s daily needs, lose points if you don’t care for them.
- Points are determined by pet personalities, so grumpy animals will take longer to earn a relationship with while cheerful animals will be quicker etc.
- Each pet requires its own food/water bowl.
- Pets can share beds.
- Check on your pet’s stats, thoughts and mood by interacting with the pet bed (highlight for this interaction is coming soon).

NPCs/Events:
- Oliver PE 1 - Fixed last line repeating
- Chloe PE 2 - Minor dialogue changes.
- Fixed issues with NPC dialogue not progressing in some situations, updated associated scripts.
- Small changes to NPCs who are path walking when talking (this is still not fixed fully but soon!).
- Adjusted NPC spawn logic (still WIP).
- Pathfinding - Fixed NPCs randomly disappearing while walking their paths.
- Adjusted a bunch of doorway nodes to have the correct facing directions for NPCs starting and ending paths there.

Inventory/Furniture:
- Bird seed now has 10 uses, Cat food now has 3 before being empty and removed from inventory.
- Hammer - Now if you place a furniture item, you will need to use the hammer to pick it up again as an item. (Update for the label coming soon, currently it’s using the “pick up label”).
- Added furniture system including colour handling (only current placeable furniture items are pet bed/pet bowl).
- Added ability for furniture items to link to menu ui.
- Added room persistence for player placed furniture items.
- Added special item tracking for shops.
- Added colour of furniture/clothing objects to inventory, storage and shop listings. Note: some thumbnails will have a default colour eg. pet bowl/pet bed will display their thumbnails as the red version currently.
- Cat food - Will refill pet bowl.
- Watering can - Will refill pet bowl - Note: must be on “Water” action NOT refill, this label will be updated soon.

Back end/Optimisations:
- Debugger - New scripts added: petal_points, go_to, npc_romance
- Debugger - Adjusted time_season to accept text input for eg. “spring”, etc
- Fixed crash if wedding menu system is somehow called outside of mall level.
- UI - fixed issues with UI button auto button selection and added recursive search for button selection in scroll area stacks.
- Updated a few other random scripts to have silent exits.

Hey Neighbours!

What a week huh? *_* Update time I guess… This is a big features update so buckle in.

Second chances at love:
If you’ve completed a romance choice event, chosen the plutonic option and changed your mind later after getting to know someone you can now get a second (or third etc) chance at love. Purchase flowers at the wedding shop and give them to your romantic prospect. But there are no guarantees at love so reactions will depend on whether you’re in their good graces or not >:D

More complicated relationship dynamics:
When you have a life event with an NPC (break ups, divorce, marriage, dating), word gets around the city pretty quickly and you’ll find it effects the NPC’s close friends/family. Eg. If you ask Avery out you might find Cecile happy with you and Leon not so much.

Museum Donations:
Garland’s Museum of Unnatural History has completed its renovations and is now open for donations of Plants, Crystals and wildlife photos. You can track what you’ve already donated in your Collections app. There is currently no reward for donations but that’s coming soon with the Council update and will be applied retroactively to your save files so donate away!

Clothing and Customisations:
This update sees the way clothing and character customisation works backend get a complete overhaul to allow custom clothing and storage solutions in a future update. The clothing shop is now open and has a selection of items in various colours that rotates daily. You can now change your body/face at your bathroom mirror, and your personal options (name, favourites etc) at the Council via your Garland ID.

While all the new UI is done, I’m doing these changes over 2 updates because I didn’t want you to be stuck in an outfit you didn’t like and in the next update, you will no longer be able to select from the customisation options in your phone menu as you’ll need to purchase shirts/pants/socks/shoes/accessories from the shops. So please make sure to pick your favorite outfit options before next update!

When you load into this version, your save file will be upgraded to handle the changes but as always, if you come across any problems please log them in the Discord’s bug reports channel! I’ve also fixed a bug that was causing some older files to default to the smaller inventory allowance, so if you have an old file you should be back to min 16 slots after this update, for some of you this will be a free inventory upgrade :D

Next update will be finishing off the customisation changes, changes to storage (sorting yay!) and either pets or fishing. I’m not sure if this will be in 2 weeks or 4 but I’ll be doing my best to get things out asap. I’ll also be taking a break between 23th Dec - 13th Jan this year so I won’t be as quick with replies during that time.

See you in Garland!




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Notes:
Player clothing and inventory management have changed, so your save files will be updated when you load in.

The player customisation is undergoing some big changes to how you will apply customisations to accomodate custom clothes. From the next update, you’ll be able to do minor changes in your app like you can now, make face/body changes at your bathroom mirror and make info changes at the Council to update your ID. Clothing other than your base set will be purchasable from the clothing shop, hair styles etc will be purchasable from the hair salon. Some of this is already available this update but I’ve left the full customisations in your phone menu for now.

Please choose your clothing options in the phone menu this update because from the next update onwards, anything you’re not currently wearing will need to be purchased from the clothing shop! This includes: shoes, socks, shirts, pants and accessories. Hair/beard/fringe options may also be limited to the hair salon but I’m still working through options there.

General:
- Adjusted some collisions to prevent NPCs getting stuck in the middle of rooms (still a WIP)
- Update Music shop into, Private Detective Intro cutscenes to new system. (no more double Chloes!)
- Shops: adjusted shops that buy everything to say “Everything” instead of listing.
- Player interactions: adjusted a whole bunch of range checks for trigger areas and hierarchy of triggers to make interactions easier especially around shops.
- Fixed mail not being sent for clothing shop opening and ferris wheel invite on some old save files.
- Audio - Fixed sound example being wrong sfx and music level not updating until refresh.

UI:
- Added a new option for hotbar/UI overlay placement. Toggle it in settings.
- Photos - Complete redo of photos app to work with future quests/donations.
- Hotbar - Fixed soft lock when using mouse on hotbar context menus.

Inventory/Tools:
- If an item is selected in the hotbar and we’re not holding it, tab now reselects the item from hotbar before continuing to cycle.
- Fixed tool options not auto selecting when using mouse to select tool from hotbar.
- Repotting: fixed missing option for repotting.
- Planting: removed ability to plant any item in a pot when incorrect tool actions showing.
- Storage: fixed items refilling themselves when placed in storage (sorry lol).
- Item refills: refill your watering can/cleaning cloth at the bathroom sink in your apartment now.
- Added display for item colour/other info to inventory.

Relationships:
- Fixed some petal events that kept trying murder Ryan for no reason.
- Upgraded all first meeting events to new system (will show names as ??? until correct dialogue now).
- Added second chance to date NPCs. If you have completed the Choice Petal Event, you can now buy flowers from the wedding shop and ask them out again… success depends on your current petal point level with them.
- Added NPC responses for second chance at love for: undatable, too soon, already in a relationship, acceptance and rejection.
- Added flowers to wedding shop inventory.
- Weddings - Fixed wedding decor sometimes spawning under backgrounds.
- Weddings - Added specific text for NPCs on wedding night.
- Added Petal Points addition/subtraction for other NPCS for life events (break ups, divorce, marriage, dating). eg. If you date Avery, Leon and Cecile have feelings about it.
- Kirin PE 4D - Pt 2: fixed phone item creating itself over and over. Pt 3: fixed event not triggering at school.
- Chloe PE 5D - Fixed positioning so you and Chloe aren’t hiding behind the couch like weirdos.
- Birthday event - Fixed friendships not registering in some cases and preventing the birthday trigger.

Player Customisation/Clothing:
- Fixed stuck blinking problem (no, for real this time…)
- Full update to how player clothing is handled/saved/drawn in prep for custom clothing.
- Added all current clothing options as clothing items with wear action.
- Added UI to player’s bathroom mirror for changing face/body features.
- Added UI to Council building for changing player info (name, favourites etc).
- Updated UI for character creation during intro.
- Added shop clothing UI including trying clothing on.

Museum Donations:
- Upgraded Museum interior.
- Added Museum donations mail and opening cutscene.
- Museum app cutscene now happens on day 4, donations open day 7.
- Updated Museum app cutscene to new system.
- Updated Museum info in mini map.
- Added donation tracking of plants and photo to phone app.
- Added donation area and tracking to museum area for items(crystals/plants)/photos.
- Note: rewards for museum donations are not currently implemented as they tie into the council reward system that’s comings soon.

Save/Load
- Added tracking for new item management system.
- Added conversions for new inventory tracking and adjusting saves to accommodate.
- Added conversions for new outfit customisations and adjusted saves to accommodate.

Backend/Optimisations:
- Inventory item tracking overhaul to add item custom struct tracking.
- Added additional tracking for photos as prep for future quests.
- Adjustments/optimisations to a bunch of cutscene scripts to continue disentangling old systems.
- Added and adjusted many of the shop trigger functions in preparation for rotating items more thoroughly.

Hey Neighbours!

Hope you're all having a good one.

This update doesn't look big on paper but it crosses off a huge thing on my todo list: converting all the building events to the new cutscene system. They've all gone through text edits, positioning edits and some changes to the mini games. There have also been some changes to the event trigger times (you can trigger at more times of the day) and positioning (you can trigger more events without needing to use a specific entrance). I’ve fixed up a couple of bugs (particularly in the Man Hunt mini game) too.

All of these changes will be added to the wiki in coming weeks.

I was hoping to get a bit more into this update but unfortunately, life gets in the way sometimes. Next update will be museum collections, second chances at romance, menu layout options for steamdeck and possibly furniture placement with a few items to get you started.

I’m also going to be doing a stream on Oct 25th (Friday Melbourne time)/Oct 24th (Thurs night US time) to celebrate a year since the original early access release so come join me on twitch!

See you in Garland!




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General:
- Adjusted collisions in mountain area to avoid being stuck in the campfire.
- Added check to specific older save files to ensure they get the Ferris Wheel letter for the ticket.
- Inventory - Fix crash on old save conversion when blank items are in inventory.
- Fixed Ryan PE 1 only triggering at night (triggers morning/afternoon now).

Private detective:
- Man Hunt - fixed ui overlay not displaying.
- Man Hunt - updated code for smoother running and added a few new dialogue options. (Private detective quests are next on the polish list).

Building Events:
- Adjusted many event triggers to be available at other times of the day and less dependant on which entry of the building you take. (Full details will be added to the wiki in the next few weeks)
- Move ins (all buildings) - Full polish with a heap of small fixes and updates to text.
- Cedar Court: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - Full polish with a heap of small fixes and minor updates to text.
- Birch Tower: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - Full polish with a heap of small fixes and minor updates to text.
- Maple Place: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - Full polish with a heap of small fixes and minor updates to text.
- Pinewood Central: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - Full polish with a heap of small fixes and minor updates to text.

Backend:
- Optimised scripts for player movement.
- Optimised scripts for player interactions during cutscenes and mini game events.
- Moved all building events to new cutscene system and dialogue to csv format.

Hey Neighbours!

The update is a little early this week because I wanted to get that mail bug patched on Mac and for once the planets actually aligned!

This update is another fun one with changes to inventory management! You can now purchase backpack updates at the clothing shop to expand your inventory to 16 or 24 slots! New games will now start with 8 open slots but current saves will continue with 16.

Some items are now consumable and will require refilling. You can fill your watering can or wash out your cleaning cloth in your apartment sink. If you run out of shots for your camera you can pick up some film at any vending machine. If you’re using an item during an event scene they won’t deplete though so don’t worry about not being able to finish!

This update also has updated portraits and emotes in all the Petal Events, there are a loooot of them that had to be done so if you notice any that don’t match the dialogue please let me know in the discord and I’ll get them fixed up!

As I add new features I’m also going back through the old cutscenes/events and editing them so they are more stable and have better dialogue. This update does that for all of the welcome tasks, they’re still waiting on getting the new portraits though. Next update I’m doing the building events, I know there have been some issues with the event mini games preventing progression (and unintentionally hilarious npc interactions) that have been driving me nuts untangling but fingers crossed that will be polished off once and for all next update! Sorry to anyone that enjoyed Cecile’s special ability to levitate though…

Anyway that’s all for now, see you in Garland!




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General:
- Fixed NPCs and player getting stuck in Maple Place Lobby Tree (stay back Treebeard!).
- Adjusted safe spawn spots in Garland Central to avoid big tree.
- Added auto tab select during tutorials for journal.
- Edited text for when the player doesn’t have a map.
- Transitions between rooms now recognise diagonal movement.
- Added vsync option to settings (I don’t recommend it tbh but it’s there).
- Fixed intermittent crash on mail check (Mac).
- Fixed some typos.
- Adjustments to player range checking for interactions/item usage.
- Building Event - CC2 - fixed some spawn issues but the building events are next on my list to polish so full redos are coming soon.
- Fixed noticeboard tasks not updating in journal in some cases.
- Adjusted furniture in player room to be objects to support future furniture movement.
- Fixed intermittent crash on context menu selection.
- Fixed items on roofs not respecting the fact that they are on the roof (some items behind buildings are still a little transparent but I’m working on getting them fully corporeal again).
- Adjustments to menus during mini games which was preventing date registration on hotbar in some situations.
- Fixed the duck in the North pond deciding to live under the pond.
- Settings - Reset settings option now resets only the options on that page and loads the defaults rather than saved options.

Quests:
- Full polish of the Welcome quests with a heap of small fixes and updates to text. (Move in, building quests and NPC first meeting scenes are next.)
- New mail on first day from the tourism department to give a free ticket to the ferris wheel.
- Ferris wheel quest now requires you to bring a ticket, there is also a council worker there to greet you.

NPCs:
- NPC names are now ??? until first meeting is complete (timing of this to be mid scene will be adjusted when the NPC intros are in edit phase.
- NPC Petal Events now have updated portraits and emotes.

Inventory.
- Adjusted new game inventory slots to 8.
- Added ability to expand inventory to 16 or 24 slots with new backpack items.
- Added functionality for refillable consumable items (watering can, camera, cleaning cloth).
- Added film item to refill camera (sold at various shops).
- Added fill to player sink to refill watering can/cleaning cloth.
- Fixed notification on placing item (now says placed not dropped).
- Added item usage counts to room persistent/save files (including handling old files).
- Added cute new UI to display how much usage consumable items have left.
- Hotbar: if you’re not holding an item but there’s a hotbar selection still acting pressing back will now deselect it.

Shops:
- Added Celina to Fashion Fables shop.
- Added backpack expansion items to shop.
- Added Fashion Fables shop opening via mail (after completing Sophie PE 1). If you’ve already completed this event, you should automatically get the mail delivery for this.

Backend:
- Additional audio system optimisations.
- Continued cleaning up, consolidation of old scripts.
- Added support for text during import of emotes and portraits.
- Optimised player tool usage/labels scripts (some of the tools are still WIP).
- Minor adjustments to some money functions (these are on the list to optimise along with the ATM).
- Minor adjustments to mail trigger (this will be polished in the next round of trigger updates).