Research Story News

[h3][✨Update v0.7 is in development, planning to release close to the end of 2023~✨][/h3]

[h2]Greetings Researchers![/h2]

I’ve started working on the v0.7 update, and just completed the Winter Festival! This Festival comes with its own decorations, NPC dialogue, and a minigame called Snowball Frenzy.

In Snowball Frenzy, players get to play a “snowball fight” with a twist! Collect snowballs as ammo, and throw them at targets (or your opponent) to score points. There are 3 different modes:
- Trial (no opponent, players get to practice)
- Casual (1-v-1 with no stakes)
- Competition (1-v-1 to win a prize!)



Snowball Frenzy is quite different from our usual mini games, as players will be interacting with the world itself instead of via a UI! I also had to make a simple AI for opponent NPCs. Those came with their own set of challenges during implementation. It took close to two weeks to make and have it feel good. I think it worked out quite well in the end! ☃️❄️❄️ A small detail I'm happy about is how the other townsfolk has little cheer emotes while the minigame is in progress.

Featuring some of the decor sold at the festival:


This is our 4th festival (one festival per season), and I plan to move on to the other parts of the game before adding any new festival content. You can see them as the “OG” festivals, hehe.

[h3]What’s next 📝[/h3]
- New researchables, caves and creature content! They all tie into each other and I’ll give another update once we have made some progress on them.

[h3]Hello to new players~👋[/h3]
Recently, we joined the Cozy Quest Festival on Steam and one of our community members shared about RS on Reddit (thank you again!) - bringing in an influx of new players! Thank you all for giving our game a chance, whether you just found out about us or were here since the beginning. I really appreciate this community for all your support and everything you do and have to say :)

But really, your kind words about the game give me life LOL.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your time with us. We’ll continue to do our best and develop Research Story with all our hearts!

[h3]15% off until Nov 28![/h3]
Research Story will be 15% off until Nov 28 in the Steam Autumn Sales~

Miki

- [Fixed] Crash on file startup if player's last save was the night after a festival.

Thank you for your report and patience!
- Miki

[h2]4 New Romanceables Added![/h2]
[h3]Get to know more about Eira, Luke, Ming, and Yan Yan![/h3]

• You can unlock the following content for each new romanceable:
  
  • 4 Heart Events (Purple 💜, Blue 💙, Green 💚, and Yellow 💛)
    
  • 3 Hangout Events (2 Friendly Hangouts and 1 Romantic Date)
    
  • Changes in daily dialogues based on relationship status.
    
  • Letters in your Mailbox.
    
• 800+ dialogue lines added.
  
• New character portraits (various emotions) added.
  
• 13 new letters players can receive.
  

All 10 romanceable townsfolk in v0.6!

[h3]New Features[/h3]
Most of these were added based on your feedback!

• You can now track NPC relationship progress in the Friendship Tab.
  
• You can now sell your items at the General Store while it's open! Get that bit of extra gold you need for your purchases without having to wait for the next day.
  
• Both an item's Sell Price and Energy can now be seen across the Inventory, Shipping Bin, and Chests.
  
  
• Improved Map! 📍
  
  • Hangout Events are now marked on the Map.
    
  • Added Legend for Hangout Events and Unexplored Locations.
    
  • Map tracking improved to record a more accurate player position when outdoors.
    
  • You can now track NPCs who have Green Hearts (or above) on the map!
    
    
• Table Decor 🌷: Some small decor items (e.g. flower arrangements and frog plushes) can now be placed on some furniture. These furniture can hold 1 small decor item:
  
  
  • Table
    
  • Bedside Table
    
  • Round Table
    
  • Dining Table
    
  • Comfortable Sofa
    
    

[h3]New Items[/h3]

• Mushroom Planter (Penny Bun)
  
• Decor - Unique Flower Arrangement
  
• Decor - Flower Arrangement (Pink, Orange, and Blue)
  
• Keepsake
  
  • Knitted Bookmark

[h3]Other Changes[/h3]

• NPC relationships have been balanced.
  
• Polished Dialogue Options UI.
  
• Polished NPC Shop Icons.
  
• Changed the term 'Date' to 'Hangout' for Hangout Events with NPCs who are just friends.
  
• Added a tracker for unlocked/total tutorials under the Knowledge Tab.
  
• Loading screen for loading save files have been updated.
  
• [Controller] Improved controller navigation for Friendship Menu.
  

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• NPC following the wrong routes/walking into walls after the player doesn't show up for a Hangout Event.
  
• Fixed a bug causing players to get stuck in an animation after fainting from exhaustion while catching a new fish.
  
• Energy Value of an edible item no longer shows decimal points when hovering over it from the hotbar.
  
• Fixed the game camera zoom and camera placement for some cutscenes when playing in 1440x900 resolutions.
  
• Other small fixes.

[h3]Optimisation[/h3]

• Harvesting from laaaarge farms with lots of crops causes lag. This has been improved greatly! (Happy to see the large farms, thanks for the reports!)
  
• Reworked parts of dialogue logic.
  

[h2]Public beta branch[/h2]

• Public beta branch with Chinese (Simplified) Localisation for v0.6 will be available at a later date.
  

[h2]📝 What's next[/h2]
I'll be rolling up my sleeves for the final update for this year (v0.7)! The v0.7 'Creatures & Caves' update should drop around the year-end holidays. It'll be a pretty special and big update, with exciting new stuff that brings us another step closer to 1.0.

I plan to work on:

• Winter Festival ❄️⛄️ - the last festival, such that there's 1 festival per season! One of the ideas I have and hope to implement is a snowball fight mini-game :D If you have other ideas, we're always happy to hear them!
  
• Creature Variants 🐾✨ - many players have suggested this, and it's also something I've been wanting to add for a long time! What's a creature collector without some ✨variants✨? Tell us what you wish to see!!! (excited)
  
• New creatures, crops, and fish! 🌿🐟 There's more research to be done!
  
• More content for the Mines 💎🔨 I want add more variety when exploring the Mines, with things like hidden rooms and special levels.

Highly likely to be added by end 2023:

• Steam Achievements, finally! Since it's something I've never implemented before, I'm not sure how long it'll take but I hope to fit this in before the end of the year. I'll update you guys about whether it's possible when the time comes!
  

Thank you for reading, and hope you enjoy the update! - Miki

[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