Wildmender News

[h3]Signup for our first ever round of alpha testing is now open 🎉[/h3]

After receiving so much incredible feedback on our demo, we thought it was time to open up the world of Wildmender to the community once again. In fact, many of the changes we’ve made were based on this community feedback, such as our upgraded tutorial system and our slick new UI 💚

This time, we’re keeping the numbers limited, so you’ll want to sign up as soon as possible to be in for a chance to test our latest build 🌱

Below, we’ve got more information about what this alpha build will contain, who can sign up, and how to sign up!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1599330/Wildmender/

Can I sign up for the alpha build if I didn’t play the demo?

Of course! We want to have a good mixture of new and experienced players testing this build, so all players are welcome to sign up.


Will I be able to use my demo save file in the alpha build?

You won’t be able to use your demo save file in the alpha build due to the difference between the two builds. We want our alpha testers to start from scratch, since we’ve made lots of exciting changes to the tutorial system and beginning of the game!

Don’t worry though, you won’t be locked out of your demo save file! You’ll still be able to play in your demo garden while cultivating your alpha garden. Just keep an eye out for the special instructions we’ll be sending to experienced players, so that you don’t accidentally bring your demo save file into the alpha build and potentially corrupt it!


Wait a second, where did the demo go?

We’ve taken our demo down from Steam in preparation for our alpha test, but you can still request a key for the demo in our Discord and get back to your desert adventure or start a new one!


What will I be testing as part of the latest alpha build?

We’ll be looking for feedback on two distinct parts of Wildmender, so we need both new and experienced players for this alpha test.

The first part will involve testing our new tutorial system and giving feedback on how well it works, so we’re looking for new players who haven’t seen the original tutorial from the demo. The second part will be exploring our brand new biome, the salt flats! We’d love to get feedback and suggestions on this biome from both new and experienced players 🏜️

The salt flats are more challenging to conquer than the desert, so we’d recommend that new players spend some extra time in the desert biome first before embarking on their next big adventure!





Can I get my friends to sign up too?

We’d love it if you shared this announcement with your friends and encouraged them to sign up!

The alpha build will support 4-player online co-op, so you can even play with your friends if you all get chosen as alpha testers 👥


Okay, I’m sold. How do I sign up?

All you need to do is click the link below and sign up via the online form 👇

https://forms.gle/6tERkMxo8oTrMLMp6

Please remember to provide us with your email address and tick the box to let us know if you’ve played Wildmender before.

The deadline to sign up is Monday October 31st.

Once the deadline has passed, we’ll send out an email to our alpha testers with a key to access our test build 🔑

Make sure to check your spam folder once the deadline has passed, in case our lovely email has gotten stuck in there. We’ll also provide instructions on how to submit your feedback and let us know about any bugs you find 🐞

If you haven’t received an email from us by November 8th, it means you haven’t been selected for this round of alpha testing, but don’t feel disheartened. There will be plenty of opportunities to test Wildmender in the future!





[h3]Join our Discord server for exclusive content and follow us on social media at @wildmendergame on Twitter or @wildmenderofficial on Facebook and Instagram for more updates 💬[/h3]

[h3]It’s been over a month now since we released our first playable demo and we’ve been overwhelmed by the positive response we’ve had so far 🌺[/h3]

From receiving our first piece of fan art to seeing our Discord members share gardening tips with each other, we’ve loved watching our community grow and thrive together.

Since we released our demo on August 2nd, we’ve had over 4,000 people play it, more than 300 people join our Discord, and over 150 pieces of feedback that we’ve reviewed 🌱




Credit: Tom Garden


As interesting as all of those stats are, today we really want to spotlight the amazing community that has blossomed around our demo, so we’ll be dedicating this post to showcasing some community gardens and fan art while discussing how we’ll be implementing some of the awesome community suggestions we’ve received 💚



Credit: Nilar


We’ve been busy collecting as much feedback as possible from both our Steam community and our Discord community, so that we can sort through it and see which suggestions we can consider for the final game!

[h3]Some of these suggestions include:[/h3]

🐸 Additional creatures that will help you with gardening tasks

💎 Buried treasure or chests throughout the map that could be found by digging

💥 The ability to shoot at pesky tumbleweeds with your magic mirror to defend against them and gather resources from them

📖 A journal to store all of the main story dialogue and the ghosts’ stories, so they can be read again later at leisure

🏡 Hedges that changed appearance based on the biomes they’re in

👒 Cosmetic clothing rewards

🌱 Different types and styles of planters

While we can’t guarantee that all of these features will end up in the final game, we’ll aim to include as many as possible. For the ones that we can’t include, we’ll try to think of creative alternatives 🌹



Credit: Such Kawaii (left) and löyly (right)


[h3]So what’s on the desert horizon now for Wildmender?[/h3]

We’re currently working on our first devlog, which will recap the response we’ve received on our demo in more depth, showcase video footage of some gorgeous community gardens, and provide a few more details on what we’re working on at the moment.



Credit: Varangian Bard


[h3]To finish this post, it seems only fitting to share some of our favourite quotes from the community so far:[/h3]

“If I can have a pet pangolin, this game is gonna change my life” - SplatterCatGaming 🐱

“Even though it’s just a demo, I'm already in love with this game” - Nyghtphyre 🌃

“Having that sandstorm roll over for the first time was such a treat and wild experience” - Writer_A 🖋️

“As a forester/mycologist, I wanted to express my appreciation of the root sigil being a fungus and sharing water. This brought me a heightened level of joy” - Spring Finder 🍄

“Waits patiently for more game” - MicroFish 🦈


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1599330/Wildmender/


Want to meet the super friendly community behind these screenshots and quotes?

Join our Discord server to meet the Wildmender community and follow us on social media at @wildmendergame on Twitter or @wildmenderofficial on Facebook and Instagram for more updates 💬

Thank you so much for playing the demo and being a part of the Wildmender Discord! After a month of collecting feedback and data, we’re finally ready to share some delicious stats and updates. Here we go!

Player Feedback:

First off, thanks everyone for the amount of feedback and suggestions! We were able to get through all of them so far. Yep, it took us a while 😅 The feedback range from improving composting, tutorialization, available wet/cultivation areas, spoilage and germination mechanics, inventory system, repository of narratives in journal, night aesthetics and brightness of the garden, key binds, various UI and HUD elements, to ideas on new quests, structures, creatures, cosmetic rewards, as well as features such as inventory sorting, and more. A number of the feedback are actually quite similar, and point to the same issues. This is great because it means that there are clear and consistent areas for us to tackle and improve upon.

We will continue to go over everyone’s feedback and suggestions daily, so please keep them coming!

Play Time Stats:

The play time stats are encouraging and incredibly inspiring to us. Despite all the pain points and issues that everyone reported to us, people were still able to complete the basic tutorial 85% of the time, and the majority of the people were willing to spend over an hour in the demo. Nearly ⅓ of all the people who ever opened the demo completed the entire quest line through the Naia temple. This just motivates us to work harder to improve.

Total Resource Collected:

Here are totals of all the resources people collected in the game. While the large totals for primary resources are to be expected, we were pleasantly surprised by the number of festival cakes found. And people managed to find the feathers and knotwoods after all. They were not meant for the demo, and were only spawning sporadically at the edge of the play area, but people managed to find them regardless.

Total Plant Seeds Collected:

For everyone who reported about the amaranth and sunburst seed drops and germination rates, we hear you! And stats in-game don’t lie. It’s great to be able to combine both qualitative feedback and the in-game data to get a clear picture of the issue. We’ll be auditing and improving seed drop rates, seed burying behavior, and the germination plus spoilage mechanics as some of our top priorities.

Items Crafted:

With the items crafted, the most surprising to us is the number of Trickster’s Treats. People love the pangolin, and you’ll be seeing more of it in the future! It’s great to see how much people are composting as well, and improving and reforming the way composting works is also something we’ll be working diligently on.

[h2]Survey Results:[/h2]
For everyone who filled out the survey, thank you! It’s incredibly useful and insightful for us. And congrats to the winners of the plushies!




We are excited to see that most people found Wildmender through social media, coverage, and word of mouth. We’ll continue to improve the game to give everyone a reason to share it with friends and family.




Seeing this was incredibly motivating. It just inspires us to keep pushing, listening, and work hard to improve the game!




There are a number of ease of issues that people raised, such as prompts not being clear, confusion about where to go, lacking information on the map, ease of planting, etc. We will definitely be looking to address them to make the tutorial clearer, easier, and more engaging.




With gardening, some of the more pertinent issues that you’ve raised and that we’ll be looking at are germination, seed drops, rate of spoilage, and wider irrigable areas. We’ll also be aiming to improve and introduce new items for irrigation.




For some of the players, the combat experience in the demo build is introductory and on the easier and more rudimentary side. As we build out the Salt Flats, Canyons, and the rest of the zones, we’ll be working on more dynamic and intense engagements, as well as more tools and items that would aid in combat. For some other players, combat is currently too difficult. Going forward, we aim to add some difficulty options to better tailor the combat experience for everyone. We’re looking forward to having you test the upcoming zones and give us more feedback.




In terms of crafting, we will be introducing more variety of crafitable and upgradable items and structures. Please stay tuned!




We want to thank the brave souls for helping us test multiplayer in the demo build. The experience is far from optimized, and with your help, we collected invaluable data and insights on how to improve performance. Thanks again for all your help!


[h2]Closing:[/h2]
Thanks to everyone’s incredible help, we’ve gotten invaluable feedback, suggestions, and data over the last month. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we are inspired by all your support. We’ll be trying to organize test sessions for new contents and improvements, and we’d love for you to join us. Stay tuned in Discord for more news and updates.

Join the Wildmender Discord: https://discord.gg/rRRvhJCmyA


- Team Muse

[h3]It’s time to explore, craft, grow, and harness the arcane arts of your ancestors, because our first playable demo has officially arrived ☀️[/h3]





Head to our Steam page now to download our demo and start growing your own blossoming oasis 🏝️

Make sure to play through the entire demo and you’ll unlock a secret ability at the end 😱





[h3]It might get a bit lonely in the barren expanse of the desert, so why not have a friend join you?[/h3]

Our demo supports 2-player online co-op, so you can embark on your adventure alone or take someone along with you 👥


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1599330/Wildmender/

[h3]Want to show the beautiful in-game garden you’ve created to the world? 🌺[/h3]

Join our Discord server to share screenshots of your garden with the Wildmender community and show them off on social media by tagging @wildmendergame on Twitter or @wildmenderofficial on Facebook and Instagram 💬

[h3]Looking for a fun and informative travel guide before you head out into the desert of Wildmender? ✈️[/h3]

The team at Kwalee will be showcasing our first playable demo as part of Steam Survival Fest, so you can get a sneak peek of what to expect before you try it for yourself 🎮

Head to the top of our Steam page to check out their stream and remember to download the demo so you can build your own flourishing oasis 🏝️


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1599330/Wildmender/

Want to gather even more information about Wildmender? 🌱

Join our Discord server for exclusive content and follow us on social media at @wildmendergame on Twitter or @wildmenderofficial on Facebook and Instagram 💬