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PEKOE TEA MAKING UPDATE: TECHNIQUES AND TWEAKS

Calling all Tea Makers! 🗣️


This tea making update is a big one, and we're so excited about all the new features and friendship.

There's a ton of content updates and fixes in this build, with a full list lower down in this announcement. From some quali-tea new equipment, Bong-cha's bubble tea, to new dialogue, we hope that you enjoy the first of our large content updates to Pekoe! Our love for bubble tea is boba-line dangerous.

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We wanted to share with you a bit of a peak into the future; Tea Making: Techniques and Tweaks is the first of several large content updates we'll be doing before v1.0. In between, we'll be doing our regular patch and bug fixes as needed. We have some meow-gical updates planned that you won't want to miss!



As a reminder, if you are experiencing a bug, you can report it in-game by either pressing the F2 key or the drop-down button in the top right corner of the screen. Our Discord also has a bug channel for more in-depth one-on-one support! In particular, if there is a bug that you’ve already reported a while back but is still happening, there is a chance that this is a bug that we’ve had difficulty reproducing. If you’re able to hop into our Discord to help us track down and squash these pesky recurring bugs, we’d love to have you!

Now let's dive in!


[h2]Update version 0.4 Tea Making Techniques & Tweaks Patch Notes:[/h2]
As always, let us know your thoughts on the update in the comments or in our Discord!

[h3]Equipment - Stovetops[/h3]
  • At the player’s shop counter, players can now make tea using Equipment, various sets of stationary machines and special teaware for even more tea making methods
  • After reaching Town Level 3, players will unlock the first type of Equipment, Stovetops, and receive a recipe to help them get started. Click the Equipment section of the Teaware Selection menu to get started, or check out the Equipment and Stove sections of the new Help Guide for more information.
  • Included in the Stovetop equipment is a new type of teaware, Saucepans. These can be used only with Stovetops, and can hold a larger number of ingredients. Heat water, brew tea, and pour your concoction all from one handy piece of teaware!

[h3]Equipment - Bubble Tea[/h3]
  • After reaching Town Level 4, players will unlock Bubble Tea Station equipment, and receive some ingredients to get started. Click the Equipment section of the Teaware Selection menu to get started, or check out the Equipment and Stove sections of the new Help Guide for more information.
  • A version of the Bubble Tea Station is also be available at Bong-Cha’s tea table once you’ve reached a high enough friendship level with them
  • A new form of tea, Ready-Made Tea has been added for use with Bubble Tea Stations. This tea has already been steeped and chilled and comes out of the new Tea Dispenser for you to pour directly into your bubble tea.
  • A new form of ingredient container, Pump Bottles has been added for use with Bubble Tea Stations. These pump bottles contain flavoured syrups for you to use to up your bubble tea making game!
  • Finishing bubble tea is a little different than other types of tea. With your new Cup Machine, place a bubble tea cup inside, select a cute lid, and shake and seal your cup with a press of a button.
  • Once the cup is sealed, you can grab a Straw to get your cup ready to drink!

[h3]Help Guide[/h3]
  • For new players and experienced tea makers alike, we’ve added a Help Guide that can be accessed by clicking the Question Mark button in the top right corner.
  • Some sections of the Help Guide will be displayed automatically as you progress through the game intro or unlock new features, but we encourage anyone who wants to learn more about game mechanics to explore all the different sections available!

[h3]New Recipes[/h3]
  • More recipes have been added that can be unlocked by trying out new combinations of ingredients and flavours!
  • With all of these new recipes, the recipe system has been adjusted to allow for more general ingredient requirements. For example, instead of requiring “Lemon Slices” specifically, recipes may call for “Any Lemon”, which means that requirement can be met with Lemon Slices, Dried Lemon, or even Lemon Jelly
  • The Recipes section of the Journal Menu and the Ingredient Selection Menu now show blank buttons to indicate recipes that have yet to be unlocked! Can you discover them all?

[h3]New Dialogue[/h3]
  • New tea making dialogue has been added for Resident Tea Requests at your window
  • New dialogue has been added for customers ordering tea at your shop!
  • New conversations have been added for Pambeh, Bug and Skipper

[h3]More Friendship Opportunities and Rewards[/h3]
  • Pambeh, Bug and Skipper now have friendship points and levels so you can raise your friendship with them!
  • Pambeh can now have regular conversations at his desk in the Town Hall. Players can select dialogue options to either proceed to his informational dialogue, or have a conversation that may include opportunities for getting friendship points.
  • Pambeh, Bug and Skipper can now come to your window with tea requests, for more opportunties to get friendship points
  • Pambeh now has three Friendship Cutscenes
  • Bug and Skipper now have one Friendship Cutscene each.

[h3]Visual and Audio Effects[/h3]
  • New particle effects play when adding ingredients and stirring tea. These particle effects are color-coded to help keep track of what flavors are being added to your cup, and the primary flavor of your stirred drink.
  • Kettles now have additional animations playing, getting more intense as the water heats, to help you keep track of how hot the water is getting
  • Menus have new sound effects for selecting items and categories

[h3]New Teaware[/h3]
  • Strawberry Teaset has been completed with a Saucer, Spoon, Heater, Kettle, Creamer, and Sugar Bowl
  • New mug designs have been added and are available for purchase in Resident Shops

[h3]Loose Leaf Tea[/h3]
  • Ingredient Scoops have been simplified. Instead of using a scoop, then clicking a container to refill it, scoops will automatically disappear and return to their containers after being used. No more need to worry about dropping an empty scoop!
  • Infuser balls have been updated to remain open while not inside of a cup. This may help to keep track of which infuser balls already have tea in them.
  • Loose Leaf can now be added directly to a cup or saucepan without an infuser! Just remember that without an infuser, you can’t take the leaves out afterwards. Don’t forget to keep an eye on that steep time!

[h3]Ingredient Size and Container Capacity Mechanics[/h3]
  • Ingredients now have distinct sizes, to allow for more variety. Skilled tea makers will want to keep a close eye on what ingredients they’re selecting for their tea! For more information about an ingredient’s size, check out their details in the Ingredient Selection Menu, or right click an ingredient container.
  • Teaware, specifically cups and teapots, now also have different sizes, with different capacities for ingredients.
  • To help keep track of your ingredients in this new system, we’ve updated the Fill Bar UI. There are now two bars, one that shows the amount of liquid in your cup, and one that shows the number of ingredients. Each bar may be partially greyed out to indicate space being taken up by other parts of your drink. If you have a cup filled with large tea bags, there won’t be quite as much room for liquid, and vice versa!
  • The Container Info UI that appears when right clicking a cup has also been updated with new icons, and a capacity section to give you more details on the current and maximum number of ingredients in a cup.

[h3]Resident Tea Making Stations[/h3]
  • Bong-Cha has new tea table added. Remember that you can access Tea Time at Resident Tea Making Stations once you’ve reached a high enough friendship level with them!
  • Resident Tea Stations now have set configurations of teaware and ingredients for making tea at these tables. On the plus side, you won’t have to worry about depleting ingredients from your own stock!
  • Michi and Min’s Tea Tables have been adjusted to allow for more room for ingredients.

[h3]Whim and Preferences[/h3]
  • The Whim Order system has been adjusted to make sure that Residents aren’t accidentally requesting ingredients they don’t usually like.
  • Along with the new dialogue for resident tea requests and customer orders, the way whims are described in dialogue has been adjusted to help avoid confusion. For example, the “Herb” category of ingredients is now requested as “Something Herbaceous” to avoid confusing it with Herbal Tea!
  • Fixed bug where liquid ingredients would not properly appear if multiple types were selected (ie. Milk and Honey)
  • Glass bottle lid now closes properly
  • Water dispenser playing SFX while dispensing water
  • Notification bubbles no longer carrying over from previous day
  • Wallpaper customizations fixed, no longer applying material to entire wall (ie. door frames)
  • Removing duplicated recipes and no longer adding repices twice
  • Reaction particle effects fixed, now plays correct reaction after presenting tea to resident
  • Task List no longer showing on start menu
  • Fill Bar UI no longer showing for liquid containers that cannot be poured into (ie. creamers)
  • Decor item preview no longer lingering after exiting Decorating mode
  • Replaced missing material inside door of Player’s house
  • Various missing ingredient textures
  • Various NPC mini clipping errors
  • Various typos and dialogue errors


We hope that you enjoy all the new content in Pekoe, we love hearing from folks so feel free to give us a ping on socials or join us on Discord!

-Kitten Cup Studio

New Major Update Coming Soon!

[h2]Sip’rise! Here’s a little tea-se of what's to come[/h2]

  • Bong-Cha's new boba!
  • New ingredient & teaware capacity system!
  • Improved scoops and infusers!
  • New tea making dialogue!
  • And so much more!


But what does it all mean? Stay tuned for the official update announcement!







New patch v0.3.1 out today!

Hey, Tea Makers,


We hope everyone has been having a great summer! While we've been working hard at one of our biggest content updates ever, we haven't forgotten about some of the lingering bugs in the currently released version, and that's what we're aiming to fix with this patch today! As always, thanks to everyone for helping us out with their bug reports.

As a reminder, if you are experiencing a bug, you can report it in-game by either pressing the F2 key or the drop-down button in the top right corner of the screen. Our Discord also has a bug channel for more in-depth one-on-one support! In particular, if there is a bug that you’ve already reported a while back but is still happening, there is a chance that this is a bug that we’ve had difficulty reproducing. If you’re able to hop into our Discord to help us track down and squash these pesky recurring bugs, we’d love to have you!

[h2]Bugs[/h2]
[expand]
  • Fixed bug where game would lock while trying to enter Mjorn’s cabin at certain times
  • Fixed bug where game would lock when trying to talk to another resident cat after exiting tea making at a resident’s tea station
  • Loading save files now restarts play at correct time
  • Residents and customers leave Player’s teahouse after being served tea
  • Ingredients no longer consumed if exiting tea making without making tea
  • Fixed bug where time would stop passing after initiating major Town Level cutscenes
  • Fixed various Time Panel bugs (minutes briefly showing as 60, incorrect icons)
  • Temporarily removed option to load other save files while already playing one, as it was causing unexpected bugs. In the meantime, please exit to main menu to load a different save file
  • Fixing some incorrect tea feedback dialogue
[/expand]

As a reminder, please make sure to restart Steam to receive the update. You can see your current version number on the title screen to make sure you have the most recent update!

For more information about our progress, please check out our Known Bugs & Issues page and our full Patch History.

Quality of Life Update 2 [Version 0.3] Out Today!

Hey, Tea Makers,


We have another big update for you to mark the beginning of August!

This update includes some much needed bug-fixes for the most common issues we’ve seen reported. Thanks again to everyone for helping us out by reporting those bugs! As a reminder, if you are experiencing a bug, you can report it in-game by either pressing the F2 key or the drop-down button in the top right corner of the screen.

Our Discord also have a bug channel for more in-depth one-on-one support! In particular, if there is a bug that you’ve already reported a while back but is still happening, there is a chance that this is a bug that we’ve had difficulty reproducing. If you’re able to hop into our Discord to help us track down and squash these pesky recurring bugs, we’d love to have you!

In addition to bug fixes, today’s update includes some improvements to Tea Making that we think will help everyone understand and enjoy our core gameplay mechanic even more. We’ve also done some revamping of our NPC schedules, to allow more opportunities to interact with the residents of Pekoe in a larger variety of locales, and more shopping!

We’re still working hard on getting even more improvements and bug fixes out to you as soon as possible, but we’re also finalizing our roadmap of even bigger updates, which will include major new gameplay mechanics and systems. Everyone at Kitten Cup Studio is so excited to keep adding more to Pekoe for you all to enjoy.

Until next time, here are more details on what’s included in this update!

[h2]Improvements[/h2]
[expand]
UI
  • Tea Making UI - Container Info Bubble
    • “Drink Info Bubble” is now “Container Info Bubble”, shows information about ingredient containers as well as cups, teapots, and kettles
    • Container Info Bubble stays on screen if mouse is left hovering over container (makes it easier to keep track of temperature and steep time!)
    • Container Info Bubble UI improved with new icons and shows Brew Temperature (temperature at which tea first begins steeping) in addition to Current Temperature
    • Container Info Bubble now includes information about all ingredients in teaware, not just removable ingredients
    • Discard Button added to remove ingredients
    • Fixed bug where Blooming Tea flower particles were showing as individual ingredients
  • Invalid Ingredient Popup (similar to Container Info Bubble) added, shows when attempting to add an invalid ingredient to a container, with more information about why ingredient is invalid
  • New icons for exiting locations
  • New icons to indicate shop items that are out of stock
  • Tea Order Card updated to include Customer’s name and minor UI improvements
  • Flavor attributes and Rarity information added to Ingredient Details in Shop Menu
  • Rarity information added to Ingredient Details in Ingredient Selection Menu
NPCs - Schedules and Locations
  • Resident schedules adjusted for more shop hours and opportunities to interact
  • Added more variety in spawning locations (Residents appear in bedrooms, NPCs appear in spawn locations outside of building in Interior view)
  • Temporarily removed Tea Time from Taffy’s schedule until tea making at his table has been refined
  • Added more randomly-generated NPC names
  • New particle effects when friendship points are increased/decreased
Text Settings
  • Added option to disable typewriter effect
  • Added option to disable text animations
Audio
  • Resident Minis use personalized sound effects instead of generic barks
Teaware
  • Removed lid from Modern Teacup

[/expand]

[h2]Bugs[/h2]
[expand]
  • Fixed bug where Customers disappeared after entering Inventory Menu or Ingredient/Teaware Selection Menu during tea making
  • Prevented other cats from spawning in Shopkeeper locations
  • Fixed bug where Kettle becomes unclickable after resetting incorrectly (hovering over heater)
  • Fixed bug where drink had incorrect or non-existent steep time
  • Fixed bug where drink had incorrect or non-existent brew temperature
  • Fixed bug where game stalls upon exiting Decorating tutorial
  • Fixed broken liquid in Smooth Yunomi cup
  • Fixed shelf colors in Teaware Selection Menu - Teaset Panel
[/expand]

As a reminder, please make sure to restart Steam to receive the update.

For more information about our progress, please check out our Known Bugs & Issues page and our full Patch History.

Quality of Life Update [Version 0.2] is Now Live!

Hey, Tea Makers,


We have an exciting announcement for you today: we’re releasing our first major update for Pekoe! While we have been focused on diligently fixing bugs and issues in the initial weeks since release, we are also working on significant updates with new features and content.

This update includes menu and UI improvements, many of which are based on your feedback, to make the gameplay experience smoother for everyone. We’re also thrilled to incorporate the first of many future dialogue additions, including new conversations with resident cats. This means more opportunities to get to know your neighbours and bump up those friendship points!

Another addition we’re excited about is a new Help Panel in the game’s journal menu. Right now, it includes a few Tips & Tricks to help clarify some confusion experienced by players, as well as a link to our new Gameplay Guide on Steam. Some of these gameplay snags will be addressed with future releases, but in the meantime, we’ll also be updating this Help Panel and Gameplay Guide throughout Early Access. Hopefully, this will assist players in bypassing some of the obstacles they are encountering and be a helpful resource to anyone who wants a more in-depth look into how the mechanics of the game work!

Today’s update also includes some bug fixes, and we’ll continue to address any bugs with hotfixes and patches necessary. Your bug reports have been instrumental in helping us address these, and as a reminder, if you are experiencing a bug, you can report in-game by either pressing the F2 key or the drop-down button in the top right corner of the screen. We also have a bug channel in Discord for more in-depth or one-on-one support!

We’ll be releasing another QoL update at the end of July or early August, which will include features and changes that address smaller issues and areas for improvement. More details for today’s update are included below:

[h2]Improvements[/h2]
[expand]
  • Help Panel added to Journal Menu, with link to new Gameplay Guide
  • Gameplay Guide added to Steam
  • Added ability to use Arrow Keys to select dialogue response options (even without one already selected)
  • Added notification bubble when receiving mail, such as from Bong-Cha during her intro
Residents
  • More dialogue added for residents, especially dialogue that increases/decreases friendship points
  • Adjusted Resident schedules to remove Tea Tree as a regularly visited location, pending fixes to the location
Settings menu
  • Mute button added
  • Graphics Quality settings added
  • Resolution settings added
  • Windowed vs. Full Screen option added
  • Volume settings now persistent after closing and restarting game
Ingredient/Teaware Selection Menu
  • Infusers and Whisks moved to same category as Sugar Bowls and Creamers, now the “Misc. Teaware” category
  • Ribbon toggles adjusted to not block bug reporter
  • UI colors adjusted
Tea Making UI
  • “Clear Table” button (trash can icon) moved to lower right corner, to avoid clipping with Time panel
Audio
  • More pick up SFX for teaware
  • SFX for Notifications

[/expand]

[h2]Bugs[/h2]
[expand]
  • Fixed bug where players were limited to two friendship-altering conversations total per day, instead of two friendship-altering conversations per cat per day
  • Fixed broken liquid meshes on Strawberry cups and teapot
  • Fixed bug where Teacup notification indicating customer would appear above Mjorn’s cabin
  • Fixed some issues with Residents not appearing where they are listed on schedules
  • Fixed missing name on speech bubble prior to first tea sprite conversation
  • Industrial Floor appears correctly
  • Replaced liquid surface texture with seamless texture
[/expand]

As a reminder, please make sure to restart Steam to receive the update.

For more information about our progress, please check out our Known Bugs & Issues page and our full Patch History.