Echoes of the Plum Grove News

Candy, Costumes, and More!

It’s almost here! Halloween! It’s my all-time favorite holiday as it also sits in my favorite season, autumn! We wanted to give people the best experience with adding in our own version of Halloween. My favorite part, when I was a kid, like so many others was walking around the neighborhood collecting candy from houses. So, we did just that! On our day of Halloween, Fall 13th, you can find kids wandering Thistlestone Island in hopes of landing the best candy.

You can make candy in preparation for this event by crafting the candymaker. Back in the day, to make candy came from two simple ingredients, sugar and fruit. As long as you have a steady supply of sugar and these specific fruits: apricot, apple, peach, lemon, pineapple, and cherry you can make candy easily. You also have the option of waiting for the bonfire event in the forest at 5pm to buy candy corn from the baker. Most kids after wandering between houses, make their way there.

The event itself is purely just a celebration of villagers bobbing for apples, carving pumpkins (though back in colonial period, they used to carve turnips) and dancing around a giant bonfire! You can find villagers mingling amongst themselves, eating food over at the tables, or drinking from the bubbling cauldron. It’s got the best atmosphere to emulate the perfect fall season.

Back during the colonial period, they did have gatherings similar to this to ward off evil spirits at the end of the fall season. They were bitterly superstitious about falling ill during the winter so this was a way for them to offer up parts of their bounty to appease the spirits. They would wear animal outfits (specifically bear costumes) and sacrifice animals / crops grown from the year in the bonfire. We kept our version much happier and lighthearted. Apple bobbing is one of my favorite things to do during the fall and so of course, I thought it fitting to add it to the game. I hope everyone gets to enjoy their own version of Halloween this year!

There are lots more updates to come so make sure to wishlist the game, join our Discord, and follow us on our socials to see even more!

We can also be found on Kickstarter! If you want to be among the first notified of it launching later this year make sure to follow the campaign!

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Ring Ring Ring! It’s officially school time!

While most of us are clambering back to the schoolhouse, the kids of Honeywood go to school every season, including summer. We wanted to add something unique to our game that I think few others do, having their parents / guardians walk them to school!

Of course not everyone has parents that can afford the time to walk them having jobs and all, but some lucky few get an escort. Of course, the school masters daughter, Madeline, helps her father out every morning by arriving a bit early and ringing the school bell to let everyone know school is about to begin.

School in our game isn’t just all aesthetics. We have kids go to school for a reason. Since eventually you as the player will die of old age, we know that the kid you raise will be important in skill building. Sending them to school allows them to learn all skills slowly, over time.

While apprenticing focuses on increasing a specific skill set, going to school improves all of them, though slower. The skills they learn are: farming, foraging, fishing, crafting, cooking, and social. All very important skills to learn when developing a future character to play.

Kids can be found in school taking notes and listening diligently to the instruction given on the blackboard. The schoolhouse is also one of the interiors you can access in the game, at any time. Also, don’t get attached to any other kid necessarily. Sometimes kids will opt out of school in favor of apprenticing or, once old enough, will simply age out of school and find a profession.

I absolutely love how much work we have put into developing a school system in our game. It truly is heartwarming to see little kids wandering their way to school in the morning, chaperoned or not!

Dev Diary #04

The lighthouse keepers, Jane and Luna McBelle have been watching over Thistlestone Island for most of their lives. They dutifully watch over and manage their beloved lighthouse while also having their own side hustle!

Being both avid gardeners, they relied on their love for growing flowers like lavender that in turn became their business. They sell all things lavender, but also rely on their foraging skills to create lantern oil from bayberries that grow along the shoreline. You can find them tending their lavender garden and collecting nearby.

They also sell unique items such as purple dye, collected from lavender, as well as jam amongst things they’ve scavenged along the beaches. Summers are their busiest season.

Since the lighthouse is a bit of a walk for most of the village, you can find them selling their wares in town square during Sunday market day. When they aren’t busy tending to the lighthouse or running the shop, they are diligently raising their adopted son, Wilbur.

You can also sometimes find Luna at the edge of the property at night, silently watching the moon rise as nighttime encapsulates the island. She loves watching the stars come out after a long day of work. The lighthouse is one of the prettiest places on Thistlestone Island.

Dev Diary #03

Most games keep NPC's simple, but not us! We wanted to make the immersion into our world as believable as possible, so we gave our NPC's living, breathing decisions that change with every playthrough.

Weddings and funerals were a big part of social life back then, so we made sure to get both events in the game for the player to experience. No nasty cut-scenes to break apart your experience either! We are leaving it entirely up to you on what to do... even if that is proposing at someone else's wedding!

We also wanted to make sure other NPC's could experience the joy of marriage as well. So on your way to the town hall, you'll probably spot a mass of people dropping whatever they were doing just to attend, whether they were in school or working. After all, it is a big event that only happens once, right?

The funeral event was tricky as we always wanted to expand upon our graveyard and create a groundskeeper in charge of burying the dead and hosting funerals. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was one of the first games I played as a kid and I always enjoyed heading over to the graveyard to check out Dampe - the graveyard keeper. Although it would be amazing to turn this into a proper profession for NPC's, we decided to keep the event simple for now, but still very memorable.

Make sure to keep in contact with your friends and loved ones as you never know when their time will be up. However, we still made it possible to be enemies with people, so there will always be that one person who is glad someone died... or who's dressed incorrectly at the funeral itself. You just never know!

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Dev Diary #02

Another update to get excited about - we officially have farm animals working in the game! I started working on farm animals years ago, as it was one of the first things I designed. It is such a huge relief to finally see the farm animals come to life. Above is one of the earliest shots of them in a row to check on sizing.

You can adopt cows, chickens, geese, goats, sheep, and pigs. All of them have baby versions, which is by far one of the best things about having farm animals! Some animals can be milked - such as cows and goats - where the milk can be used in recipes or refined into butter or cheese. Sheep can be sheered which will give you fluff that can be refined into yarn and wool.

Chickens and geese are best during their chick phases and were so much fun to design. They literally bobble... all over your farm! When they grow up, you can get eggs which can be used in recipes, given as gifts, or sold. Eggs are one of the most versatile ingredients in the game, so working towards getting a chicken coop and raising some beautiful bouncing chicks will be important!

We didn't just want animals to be used for the items that can be obtained from them; we wanted to let the player choose if they wanted to butcher their animals for meat and oil as well. Both meat and oil are highly prized in the game just like they were back during the colonial period. Though I know many will struggle with relinquishing their beloved farm animals, back in the 1700's it was very common to raise animals purely to be slaughtered. They will all eventually die of old age so, as players, you will have the option to choose to butcher or allow them to die naturally.

Keeping your farm animals happy is simple. You'll have to grow straw (possible in all seasons except winter) or buy it from the local animal tender. You'll have to make sure they stay healthy and fed; don't let them starve!

As a little teaser of something we are working on - a future update will be to expand upon other animals outside of your farm! We have a lot of unique forest critters who you'll be able to interact with and some will really surprise you.

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                                        Click the buttons above and below to find us off Steam!

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