Research Story News

[h2]🏮 Mid-Autumn Festival[/h2]

• Added Mid-Autumn Festival (16 Autumn).
  
• Added new original soundtrack: Midautumn.
  
• Festival Minigames:
  
  • Mid-Autumn Riddles: Solve some riddles to earn Lantern Tokens!
    
  • Lantern-making: Customise your own lanterns!
    
  • Sky Lanterns: Make a wish upon the Moons with Sky Lanterns!
    
• Added festival-related dialogue.
  
• Added Food Item: 5 types of Mooncakes as part of the event. Players may receive Mooncakes as a gift from certain NPCs.
  
• New Decor:
  
  • Night Sky Rug
    
  • Moon Chair
    
  • Pumpkin Frog Plush
    
  • Lanterns: 32 different combinations of lanterns, including 2 shapes (round/rectangular), 4 colours (red, yellow, blue and orange), and 4 prints (Sproutkitten, Grassbun, Fox, Wotter).
    
  • Water Lanterns: Regular and Orange.

[h2]Other fixes[/h2]

• Fixed crash when players press Shift+LMB while using a Crafting Bench (Feed Crafter/Bait Press).
  
• Fixed getting stuck if players skipped the Cherry Blossom Festival Cutscene while a dialogue is showing.
  
• Fixed unable to enter Garden on a festival day from 12AM-3AM.
  
• Fixed Start Menu Logo animation when returning to Start Menu from a game save.
  
• Optimisation (loading fonts, returning to main menu).
  
• Fixed other minor visual bugs.
  

[h2]Sharing our Beta build with Simplified Chinese Added![/h2]
We've been working hard on our CN localisation implementation, and it's in a playable state but there are still more polishing and adjustments we need to do! We'd love for interested players to start experiencing the game and be part of our Early Access journey. As such, we're opening a public Beta build for anyone who would like to try it out!

✨For our Chinese community, we'll be happy to have you on QQ群号-909186314 if you have any feedback and suggestions! ღ( ´･ᴗ･` )

To join the beta, go to your Steam Library, and follow the steps below:


In the future, we may also update the beta build with new features for playtesting before making it a 'live' build! Betas can be less stable as they are less tested and are updated during the midst of development. In return, you get to play the latest content and features before anyone else! We recommend making a backup of your saves before opting into the beta branch. You can always switch back to the public branch by selecting 'None' for your beta participation.

[h2]📝 What's next[/h2]
I'll be working on NPC stories next! As this post is getting quite long, I'll be sharing another post shortly about the state of the game and an updated roadmap for Research Story.

[h2]🎉The first two Seasonal Festivals are here! 🎉[/h2]

• Added Cherry Blossom Festival (11 Spring).
  
• Added Ice Cream Fair (19 Summer).
  
• Added new original soundtrack: A Welcomed Surprise.
  
• Festival Minigames:
  
  • Spring Poems: Write a poem related to Spring, and vote for your favourite poem written by townsfolk!
    Spring Poems Board
    
    
  • Summer Dessert-Making: Go through the steps of creating a cold dessert! Make Ice Cream, Sorbet, and Popsicles in 10 different flavours. Gift them to townsfolk - will they enjoy what you made?
    If you give them Suspicious desserts, they'll have a unique reaction.
• Added other Activities and Dialogue (~190+ new lines) as part of the Festivals.
  
• Added Festival Shop.
  
• New Items:
  
  • Ice Cream, Sorbet, and Popsicles in 10 different flavours, including Milk, Mint, Floral, Corn, Cactus, Maple, Watermelon, Blueberry, Berry, and Suspicious.
    
• New Decor:
  
  • Spring Poems Memento (Pink, Light Pink, and Dark Pink)
    
  • Spring Poems Trophy
    
  • Cherry Blossom Rug
    
  • Cherry Blossom Chair
    
  • Cherry Blossom Frog Plush
    
  • Sunflower Rug
    
  • Sunflower Chair
    
  • Sunflower Frog Plush

For older save files (before v0.4)
💛 Newly-added festivals will only be triggered if the player had slept the day before the festival, and not if the player had saved/loaded on the festival day itself.
💛 Previously scheduled Hangout Events are automatically cancelled (with no penalty) if it falls on the date of a newly-added Festival. Players may initiate the same Hangout Event with the townsfolk.

[h2]Other changes and fixes[/h2]
Some of the changes, such as showing location names, were suggested by players!

• The name of key locations shows up when entering the area for the first time each day (e.g. Shimmerbrook, Garden, Woods). The names also show after starting a new play session.
  
• Certain UI, such as the Research Shelves, Origin Tracker, and Auto-Feeders now show if an item can be used.
  
• Rewrote code for getting the Fishing Rod from Sesame with slight adjustments.
  
• Added a Rainy (Work) Day Routine for Sesame.
  
• Updated Caravan Shop design.
  
• Fixed a conflicting dialogue bug for Suo'e if you completed the objective of the quest 'A Cave and a Relic' and have the 'A Favour for Teagan' as an active quest.
  
• Fixed Calendar showing 'no events today', unless hovering over the day cell.
  
• Other smaller fixes and changes, such as minor edits to dialogue and artwork.
  

[h2]📝 What's next[/h2]
I'll be working on the 3rd Festival (for Autumn) in the coming weeks, which we're hoping to roll out with the localisation update. After that update, I'm thinking about working on more NPC stories/romanceables - more details to be confirmed!

Happy Gaming! 🌸☀️
- Miki

Greetings researchers!

[h3]✨Research Story OST is now available for purchase!✨[/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2483750/Research_Story_Soundtrack/

• There are currently 31 tracks in this album (.mp3).
  
• Various artists - bosu, Shevone Seow, Tyd, Tomás Palazzi, Mickey Hernández and I have all contributed to the lovely soundtrack. You'll be able to see the credits for each track in the .mp3 file (under 'Contributing Artists')!
  
• As the game develops and we add new OSTs, we'll update this soundtrack as well.
  

[h3]🎼A little bit more about the composers[/h3]

• 🎵 Tomás Palazzi is the first composer for our game, composing tracks such as the Announcement Trailer OST, Into The Caves, and recently, Stream.
  
• 🎶 bosu, Shevone Seow, Tyd are part of a team who have come on board later on and made most of the beautiful tracks you hear in Research Story, including Evergreen Tale, Violet Archive Theme, and Tales of White Snow.
  
• 🥁 Mickey Hernández added percussion to the Announcement Trailer OST.
  
• 🎹 I've made a few tracks for the game, too - such as A Day in Shimmerbrook and Frozen Depths.
  

We hope you enjoy the album! 💕✨

- Miki

[h3][✨Update v0.4 is in development and will go live sometime in August!][/h3]

[h3]Greetings researchers![/h3]

Festivals and in-game events break up the pace in farming/life sims, show more NPC interactions, and build a sense of community between the townsfolk and the player. We're planning to add at least 1 festival per season, and some smaller events in Research Story. This will be done in parts as there's quite a bit of content to work through!

[h2]Spring and Summer Festivals 🌸☀️[/h2]
The first two festivals to be added to Research Story are the Cherry Blossom Festival in Spring and Ice Cream Fair in Summer. Townsfolk have special dialogues as part of the festival. Festivals will also be unique in terms of minigames, festival shops, and other activities.

Note for players
If you're in season and don't wish to miss the festival, please save at least 1 day before the festival date! The festival will only be triggered when you sleep the day before it.
🌸Cherry Blossom Festival is on 11 Spring -> Save before/on 10 Spring.
☀️Ice Cream Fair is on 19 Summer -> Save before/on 18 Summer.
Of course, even if you missed the festival this year, you can still experience it in the following years!

[h2]🌸Cherry Blossom Festival🌸[/h2]
Townsfolk gather to admire the transience of nature and the passing of time.

There's an activity called 'Spring Poems', where the player can participate in poem-writing and vote for their favourite poem (written by townsfolk)!
Spring Poems Board

[h2]☀️Ice Cream Fair☀️[/h2]
Townsfolk enjoy the various ice cream made for the fair.

There's an ice cream-making activity for this festival! 🍦🍨 Players can gift their hand-made ice cream to the townsfolk and find out what their favourite desserts are. This is one part of the ice cream-making process:
Milk Pot Minigame

This v0.4 update should be ready a little later this month! If there's anything else you'd like to see in particular, we're always happy to hear from you!

[h2]Upcoming Soundtrack release on August 9 [/h2]
Meanwhile, we'll be releasing the Research Story Soundtrack on August 9, 6pm (PDT)! There are currently 31 tracks in the album ✨ More to come as we continue development!

These are all original soundtracks made for the game, from various artists: bosu, Shevone Seow, Tyd, Tomás Palazzi, and I have all made tracks for Research Story! If you'd like to support our amazing composers, do keep a lookout for it! 💚
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2483750/Research_Story_Soundtrack/

Stay tuned and thanks to everyone for all your support so far! Miki

Fixed:
- Unable to use Origin Tracker after finding fish part and talking to Sesame.
- Stuck in fishing position after falling asleep at 3AM while fishing.
- Stuck in fishing position after sliding away from a water source while fishing.

Changed:
- Added a page counter to Research Shelf UI.

Thank you for your reports and feedback as usual!
Miki