Research Story News

[h3][✨Update v0.6 is in development. It'll be released in early November!][/h3]

[h2]Greetings Researchers![/h2]

I'm mostly done with the upcoming v0.6 update - lots of new NPC content (800+ new dialogue lines!!) and some QOL changes will be coming very soon! This update is slated for early November 2023, and I'm currently doing some final playtests.

Here are some of the new things to look forward to:

[h3]Selling to the General Store! 🛒[/h3]
Now and then, we'll receive feedback about players wishing that they can sell items during the day, to get more gold for something that they've been waiting to purchase! Players can now sell items to the General Store, which opens from 9am-9pm daily.



[h3]Tracking Close Friends on the map! 📌[/h3]
You can now track good friends (townsfolk with Green Hearts 💚 and above) on the Map! That's because closer friends share their schedules with you :) You can also choose to whether to track them (or not) from the Friendship Tab.



[h3]Eira's friendship and romance content 💛[/h3]
I've been spending most of the time writing and crafting the cutscenes and Hangout Events for NPCs, including for Eira! As usual, no spoilers here, just a small peek:



[h3]✨... As well as *drumroll* ... 2 additional romanceables! 💗✨[/h3]
Content for Ming and Yan Yan has also been added! Some of you have been waiting and I'm so happy they made it for this update :D This also means that with the v0.6 update, we'll have a total of 10 romanceable townsfolk you can choose from! I think this is a good number of romanceables for the game right now. If your favourite NPC is not yet in the list, they might still get a chance in the future~



Thanks for reading as usual! I'll be taking a break for 1.5 weeks to spend time with my family, and may not be able to respond quickly during that time. I will be back soon!
🎃🎃 Happy Halloween in advance! 🎃🎃

- Miki

- Fixed Incorrect/missing diet information and mechanic for some creatures.

Sorry about this! Creatures should have the most updated diet information after this hotfix.

Thanks for the report! :)
- Miki

[h3][✨Update v0.6 is in development. I'll give a release estimate when ready!][/h3]

[h2]Greetings, Researchers![/h2]

For the past couple of weeks, I've been working on more NPC content! Based on our Discord poll and general sentiments, Luke is definitely being added to the bachelor list in the next update 💗 Each romanceable candidate currently has the following content, as do the upcoming ones:

• 4 Heart Event Cutscenes (💜💙💚💛).
  
• 3 Hangout Events (2 Hangouts and 1 Date) with interactable activities.
  
• Special dialogue, mail, and character portraits.
  

Since I've mostly been working on characters' stories, I won't be able to share too much of them without spoiling~ Here's one of the Hangouts you can go on with Luke, though!

Hangout with Luke at the Violet Archive. Finally, Luke with a Blue Heart! 💙

I've also been working on QOL and other improvements, such as:

• Polishing visuals for dialogue options
  
• Overall optimisation
  
• A progress tracker for relationships
  
• Balancing for NPC relationships
  
• Minor fixes
  

Hearts Progress can now be seen in the Friendship Tab!

[h3]What's next 📝[/h3]
The next bachelorette to be added is... Eira! 💛 The poll results was tied between Eira and Yan Yan. I decided to start with Eira, because I wanted to add Yan Yan together with her brother, Ming, so that I can keep their stories more consistent. Thank you for your patience!

Have a great weekend! - Miki

Hey Researchers,

Here's an update with some fixes for critical bugs. Thank you all for your reports and patience!

- [Fixed] An NPC appearing in the Archive after the Midautumn Festival, that causes a bugged dialogue.
- [Fixed] Crash when entering the final room after attending the Midautumn Festival.
- [Fixed] Occasional crash when checking Research Rank at the Archive counter.
- [Fixed] Teagan goes back to his work routine after the closing cutscene.
- [Fixed] Freezing when skipping the cutscene while receiving an item, during one of the closing cutscenes.

Miki

[h2]Some words and thanks[/h2]
It's been about half a year since launch, and I just want to say a HUGE thank you to our players and community - we truly wouldn't be here without you! ❤️❤️ All your streams, playthroughs, feedback, suggestions, reports, and comments have been an important part of the development process, and have shaped Research Story one way or another.

Research Story has come quite a long way. I started working on the game in October 2020, which is close to 3 years ago. What started as a little indie dream has evolved into something that I see myself doing for a long time. I remember my elation seeing my first 100 followers on Twitter - people were interested in my game! Today, we have close to 4,000 players, 8,000 followers on Twitter and 37,000 wishlists - something that I could have only hoped to achieve. The support and interest for the game is something that I'm always grateful for, and certainly part of what keeps me going! So again, thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

[h2]✨Updated Roadmap✨[/h2]
I think it's a good time to look back at the past 6 months and update our roadmap. I plan to focus on NPC stories in Sep-Oct as part of the v0.6 NPC & Romance update. From Nov-Dec, we'll work on a major update, the v0.7 Creatures & Caves update, which would include new and improved content for creatures, a more differentiated mining experience, the Winter Festival, and more. Here's the updated roadmap:
Updated Roadmap, with plans for Q4 2023 and beyond.

Looking back at our initial plans, we're still on track to complete our roadmap (and more!) for this Early Access release. Since release, we've added full controller support, multiple QOL and bugfix updates, automation, several festivals, 7 new OSTs, as well as additional dialogue and decor content to the game.

One of the things we've added that wasn't part of the initial roadmap is the CN localisation, which sets the foundation for adding other languages in the future. We decided to add it earlier in the game's development to minimise the time needed to rework the game during the localisation process.

We are also adding a new update category (v0.7 Creatures and Caves Update) after hearing from players - players wanted a deeper and broader system relating to creature research! We'll work through the details in a couple of months' time, but I already have some ideas about making it a fun and cute update. Stay tuned!

[h2]Final words[/h2]
We hope you've been enjoying the Early Access journey with us so far! Time is passing so quickly and I can see the game getting closer to 1.0 every day. There's still a bit to go, including a bunch of content relating to NPCs and research. I plan to have the Legendary Research and Marriage Updates in 2024, closer to the 1.0 release, as part of the end-game content.

As usual, we're always super happy to hear from you! Any comments from players are always appreciated, and I try to respond to most of them. If you have any questions, suggestions, ideas about the game, the community-led Wiki, or anything else - come share them with our Discord community! We're almost at 700 members and will be happy to have you 🥰 Or share them on Steam as I check it quite often too! 👍 Also, tell us who should we add as a romance candidate next!! 💗



Talk to you soon,
Miki