Research Story News

Hi Researchers! While I've been quite busy this past month, I just wanted to share a few words with you as we get closer to launch.

[h2]About Early Access[/h2]
Now that Research Story is less than a week away from launch, I just wanted to take some time to say a big thank you to the community. Whether you've been following the game since we started posting on Twitter, or just found out about us, I'm just very thankful knowing that people look forward to this little game.

With the release date being so close, we are announcing our exact time of launch! Research Story will be released on ✨ Feb 20, 2023, at 5:00PM (PST) ✨ on Steam. It'll be released at the same time for all countries, so some of you might only see it in stores on the 21st Feb of your timezone. You can wishlist the game to get notified on launch. Wishlisting would also help us a lot by making the game get more visible on Steam :)

Being Early Access, there's certainly a lot of room for Research Story to grow and develop! One of the main reasons for putting our game in EA is so that we can develop alongside community feedback and suggestions. The feedback from our demo has certainly made the game a much smoother experience: there were things I thought were fun but turned out to be troublesome for players; and there were ideas that I'd never have thought of myself! Without your feedback, Research Story would not be where it is today. And I want to keep building the game alongside you during Early Access. If you're interested in being a part of this journey, you can check our our Discord server - I'll be there!



At launch, I'll also be sharing an Early Access Roadmap, with features and content that we want to add to the game before 1.0. The roadmap may shift depending on the feedback we get, but our key ideas would be there - so stay tuned for that! ^_^

I also want to take this chance to thank everyone who has worked on and contributed to this game. We wouldn't be here without them! You'll also see them in the credits:
🎵 Composers & Sound Designers: Tomás, Mickey, Tyd, Shevone, Bobby, Heedo
🎨 Additional artists: @joojabirra, @kookab_, @empathique
💻 Additional programmer: cyberfirex
🎮 QA: Close friends & family of mine
[h2]About our free Demo[/h2]

We also have a few updates about our demo:
1) The demo will stay available even after launch, however, you won't be able to use the saves from the demo for the Early Access version.

2) Chinese Localisation for the Demo: I've also been working with Electronic Sheep Games to include Chinese localisation in our demo. We hope that this lets more players try our game


[h2]See you soon~[/h2]
Once again, thank you so much to everyone for your kind support, I'm forever grateful
An expanding farm & creature army.

- Miki

[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