Research Story News

[h2]Greetings Researchers![/h2]

[h3]✨ We'll be releasing Research Story in Early Access next month! Woahh ✨[/h3]
After working on this game for over 2 years, I'm more than excited to share the game with everyone, and build on it even more alongside players' feedback and suggestions once we hit release.

This month, we've been doing lots of playtests, bug fixes, and polishing, so that the EA experience for players will be as smooth as possible. Here's a screenshot of my own farm in Spring while playtesting!

My farm, with 4 chickens. Yes.

I've also been improving and adding more clarity in the tutorials. This page in particular makes me happy:
Tutorial on Tamed Creatures

I haven't shared much about this in our previous devlogs, but as in most farming sims, there will be a Mines area where researchers can delve deep to collect ores and find unique plants, creatures, and fish!
Floor 2 of the Mines. There will be different Mine biomes for players to explore.

[h3]Some folks have been asking about the game's content for EA and what to expect at launch! So here's a summary.[/h3]
There's at least 20 hours of content, which includes the following:
1) Researchables: 60+ researchables (includes crops, creatures, and fish)
2) NPCs: Over 15 townsfolk, including 6 romanceables!
- You'll be able to increase friendship levels with romanceables - unlock 4 key cutscenes and 3 Hangout Events for each of them.
3) Main Story + Content: You can complete the main story arc for the game. The content is spread out across the 4 seasons, so you'll find new things to do every season! There is no rush to complete the story and you can take as long as you like. After completing the main story, you can continue playing for as long as you wish to!

These are not implemented yet, but in the plans (to be added during the EA period):
1) More romanceables! To have at least 6 cutscenes for each romanceable. For non-romanceable townsfolk, I plan to add some cutscenes/side stories too.
2) Marriage
3) Festivals
4) And more~
I'll share the full EA roadmap on launch day! 💖

We're so, so close! Thank you all so much for your support and see you at launch!
- Miki

[h2]Hello Researchers![/h2]

We recently announced our Early Access release date to be ✨February 20, 2023✨! Thank you everyone so much for your support, kind words, and excitement - I truly can’t be more grateful, and am even a little overwhelmed! https://youtu.be/bgjVbf1ZYDc
In December, I’ve been wrapping up the first cut of Research Story, and have been busy playtesting, bugfixing, and adding little things to improve the game. Here are some highlights for the content added:

[h2]NPC Researchers’ Books & Job Board 📖[/h2]
You’re not the only researcher at the Violet Archive! Your colleagues would also be adding books in their fields to the Archive, and you can get a glimpse of the content - and maybe learn a thing or two!

Shelf with Geology books

You’ll also unlock the Job Board as you progress, and can submit items that NPCs have requested to gain their favour and additional coin.

Job Board

[h2]Seasonal tiles 🌸🌻🍁❄️[/h2]
There’ll be 4 seasons in Research Story, and each season gets their unique colour palette and designs. Here’s a snippet:

Seasons in Shimmerbrook

[h2]Mason’s Shop, Well, House Upgrade 🏡[/h2]
One of the new shops in town is the Mason’s workshop! Purchase Wells, stone furniture, and even get a house upgrade! (Only the first house upgrade will be available in Early Access)

At the Mason's Workshop

Aaaand that’s a wrap for this year! See you next year Miki

[h2]Hello Researchers![/h2]

[h3]I’m thrilled to announce that Research Story will be releasing in Early Access on ✨February 20, 2023✨![/h3]

We’ve come so far and I’m so, so excited to be sharing the game with you guys soon. If you’ve been following for a while - thank you for sticking around! And if you’ve newly found this game, welcome to our community!

In Research Story, you can:
📖 Observe and record plants & creatures!
🦊 Bring creatures along to explore!
💖 Meet & date townsfolk!
🌿 Farm, tame, fish, and build!
🔍 Uncover mysteries!
…and more!

Release Date Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgjVbf1ZYDc
Our demo is still available on Steam, if you’d like to try it out. I’ve worked through much of your feedback since then (most of the changes will be in the Early Access release) - though I’m always open to hearing more suggestions!

If you'd like to support us, you can:
🎮 Join our community on Discord - chat, give feedback, and get access to sneak peeks and regular updates.
⭐️ Wishlist our game to get notified on release!
💬 Share about our game!

How many chickens will you tame?

I’ll see you again for the regular monthly devlog soon! In the meantime, I hope you’re enjoying the holiday season~
- Miki

[h2]Next 3 Romanceable NPCs 💖[/h2]
This month passed quickly as I wrote the stories and date events for another 3 romanceable NPCs. There will be 6 romanceable NPCs in the initial release of Research Story. Last month, Theo, Zuri, and Rhea were revealed as romanceables - the remaining ones are *drumroll* - Teagan, Vallee, and Suo’e!



All of them have unique backstories and reasons they came to Shimmerbrook - it’s up to you to learn them! For Early Access, each romanceable NPC will have 4 Heart Events and 3 Dates in which players can talk to them.

[h2]NPC portraits - expressions 🎭[/h2]
I've also been adding different expressions for NPC portraits. Each NPC will have at least 3 different expressions (neutral/happy/uncertain). Here are the ones for Remus and Eira!



[h2]Secondary mechanics[/h2]
Other than the work on NPC content, there’s also been progress in these areas:

[h3]Fast travel 🏃‍♂️🏃🏻🏃🏻‍♀️[/h3]
Players can unlock fast travel during the game. Place your Farm Teleporter anywhere on your farm, and get access to other Teleport locations!



[h3]Player customisation - Outfits! 👚[/h3]
Player customisation has been expanded to include different tops, bottoms, and bags! I’ve also added more skin tones, hair colours, and hairstyles. Here is the updated customisation page:



[h2]What’s next/in the works 📝[/h2]
NPC content

• Completing routines for remaining NPCs
  
• Additional dialogue (e.g. unique dialogue on birthdays)
  
• Completing NPC shops and items (such as Mason’s shop)
  

More systems/side content

• Job board (i.e. fetch quests)
  
• Building & decoration mechanics
  
• Content for books in the Archive (written by NPC researchers)
  

More researchables

• Adding more fish, creatures, and plants.
  

Mines

• Mines where players can collect their ores.
  

Music & Sound

• Adding more music and sound effects.
  

As you can see, there's a lot in the works - I’ll be able to show more soon! We’re getting so close to an Early Access playable build (for internal testing) and it’s all very exciting. Keep an eye out for an announcement sometime soon!

Time for me to get back to work~
- Miki

[h2]Happy Spooky Season, Researchers! 🎃🍂[/h2]

Celebrating the spooky season with a little Autumn creature reveal - Skullbeak! Spoopy borb.


----------------------------------------------------
Back to the devlog - in October, I mainly worked on NPC content. Here's a summary:

[h2]First 3 Romanceables revealed! Rhea, Theo, and Zuri[/h2]
For each romanceable NPC, you’ll learn more about them through two main mechanics: Heart Events, and Dates. What stories will they tell?



[h2]Heart Events 💜[/h2]

Each romanceable NPC will have 6 Heart Event cutscenes (Note: For Early Access, only 4 of such cutscenes for each romanceable will be implemented). These are unlocked at every heart level, and will be triggered when conditions (such as time and location) are right. Some of these cutscenes are tied to the main storyline, and others extend beyond it.

[h2]Friendly Dates and Romantic Dates 💛❤️[/h2]

In a previous devlog (Devlog #9), I introduced “Hangout Events” where players can hang out with NPCs. I’ve updated the system, and now players can schedule “Friendly Dates” and “Romantic Dates”. Each romanceable NPC will have 2 “Friendly Dates”, which you can access once you become friends with them. To unlock romantic dates, players will need to show romantic interest at an appropriate juncture and be accepted by the NPC.

Example of 2 Friendly Dates and 1 locked Romantic Date

I've added more date locations and activities, such as a picnic date in the woods!

[h2]General NPC mechanics 🏃[/h2]
Work Day/Rest Days
All NPCs have fixed work days and rest days as part of their schedules. Some of the considerations I had when implementing this system is to have establishments being run on most days, even when the “main” NPC in charge is not working. For example, you’ll find Vallee running the Archive on most days, but during her rest days, Eira’s here to help!

This system allows players to schedule dates with NPCs on their rest days, while shops and other establishments continue to be available.

Routines
After adding routines for most of the NPCs, the town became quite lively! Especially when you visit the tavern at night:

The Tavern is getting lively!

[h2]What’s next 📝[/h2]
NPC content

• Completing content for another 3 romanceable NPCs.
  
• Additional dialogue
  
• NPC hand-drawn portraits
  

Additional systems/side content

• Job board (i.e. fetch quests)
  
• Building & decoration mechanics
  
• Simple teleportation system
  
• More player customisation options
  

Content for a few more researchables

• Adding more fish, creatures, and plants.
  

Mines

• Mines where players can collect their ores.
  

Music & Sound

• Adding more music and sound effects.
  

With all that said, I’m hoping to do a release date announcement by the end of this year. Exciting times! I’ve said this many times and I’ll say it again - thank you to all of you following the journey of Research Story and truly, I wouldn’t be here without you!! Your patience, support and excitement for the game has been amazing. You’re amazing! :D I'm really excited to be making this game for you. See you soon!
- Miki