Research Story News

- Fixed crash when removing a Crafting Station (e.g. Loom) next to a Powered Chest.
- [KBM] Fixed Journal glyph not showing on the first opening of the Research Menu after loading a save.
- Creature Compendium: Fixed issue where sort option may return to 'Favourites' after changing it to 'Date'.

Thank you for your bug reports!
Miki 🤍

- [Controller] Fixed crash when trying to move stack (LB+A) from the first slot in the Inventory.

Thank you for playing Research Story! 🤍
Miki

Hi Researchers! The v0.12 update brings a few changes to the game, and aims to polish the overall experience for players!

[h2]Powered Chests[/h2]
Crafting Stations (e.g. Stone Forge, Composter) add a sense of progression and variety to the gameplay - but it can get repetitive and tedious!

Powered Chests are introduced in mid-Summer, and they allow players to automate the use of Crafting Stations.
Crafting Stations that can be used with the Powered Chest are marked

[h2]7 more hair colours![/h2]
7 hair colours in the red-orange range have been added after multiple player requests.

[h2]UI Rework[/h2]
Some players have given feedback about the UI being a bit clunky, so I’ve spent some time reworking and streamlining a good part of it:
- Quests menu is now merged into the main UI
- Journal can now be accessed from both the Inventory and Research UI
- Increased overall text size for key information
- More icons used in place/along with text (e.g. Knowledge menu, Creature Info, Friendship menu)
New creature information UI

[h2]More Game Options[/h2]
Added two commonly requested options:
1) Keyboard-only navigation for the game world
2) No fainting from depleting Energy

Full patch notes here.

[h2]20% off during Women’s Day Sale[/h2]
Research Story is 20% off during the Women’s Day Sale, running till 9 March 2025!

Who’s the woman in this Women’s Day Sale?
Well, it’s me, Miki! Research Story is made mostly by me since Oct 2020, and I’ve pretty much poured my soul into development in the past 4+ years, full time. I did the game design, most of the programming and artwork, writing, sounds, and even a few of the OSTs!

I definitely had help - some friends contributed to the artwork (especially @joojabirra who really elevated the quality of our NPC portraits & key art), and many others playtested the game. My fiancé (now husband) taught me programming at the start of my journey, and our lovely composers (bosu, Shevone, Tyd, and Tomás) worked on the bulk of the 30+ beautiful soundtracks in the game. Finally, there's you guys who have been a huge part in the development of RS, giving feedback, comments, fanart, and much more. I'm always so grateful to our community for being there every step of the way! 💕✨

The full release is now planned for Q2 2025. Please stay tuned for more news and updates!

If you’d like to support us, we’d really appreciate if you share your experience in Research Story and leave a review on Steam! :) That’s the best way to improve visibility for the game.

Alright, time for me to go back to work for 1.0 🔥💖💪💪

Oh, and we also have a Discord, btw :)



Cheers,
Miki

[h2]Features & Content[/h2]
- Added Powered Chests
- Powered Chests can be used to automate the Crafting Stations.
- Player customisation: Added 7 new hair colours in the red-orange range.
- Added small chance to find Earthworm when tilling soil.
- Added 1 new OST for Town Day - Breeze Over the Brooke (made by Tyd, Shevone, and Bobby).

[h2]QOL Changes[/h2]
- Reworked and polished Main UI: Inventory, Research, Quests, Personal, Friendship, Journal, as well as for the Creature Information UI.
- Added Quests UI to the Main UI as one of the tabs.
- Improved clarity for some quest objectives.
- Increased font sizes.
- Paused Reseach is now tracked in the Personal (Profile) menu.
- Item names of dropped items can now be seen in the Journal.
- The Journal can now be opened from the Inventory/Research menu when hovering over a research-related item.
- Added sort according to 'Favourite' creature in Creatures Tab.
- [Controller] Improved navigation in the Journal UI.
- [KBM] Added more glyphs.
- [KBM] Added a way to switch tabs in the Main UI via the keyboard.
- [Steam Deck] Automatically set resolution to 1280x800 when starting the game.
- When interacting at a Shop Counter, talking to townsfolk for the first time will always trigger their introduction dialogue (instead of Shop dialogue).
- Daily Summary page: Show Relationships before gold earned categories
- 'Simple Storage' Mail now gives both the crafting recipe for Chests, and a Chest item.

[h2]More Game Options and Accessibility[/h2]
- [KBM] Added 'Keyboard Auto-targeting' for playing primarily with keyboard. Most in-game actions can now be done without a mouse, but navigating most UIs still requires a mouse. Default is Off.
- Added 'Never faint from depleting Energy' toggle, default is Off.

[h2]Bugfixes[/h2]
- Fixed bug where chroma items fill up fewer units in the Magic Forge when using "Fill" instead of "Fill 1".
- Fixed Preserver continues to craft while game is paused.
- Adjusted the number of Relationship Points obtained for several cutscenes
- Fixed an occasional selection bug while scrolling in the cooking UI.
- Added Flame Flower to 'dropped items' in the Flame Cactus' Journal page.
- [Controller] Fixed hair colour selection using RBLB in the starting customisation page.
- Fixed mason selling Oven before first house upgrade.
- Fixed switching OST tracks wrongly in some places in Town.
- Multiple other minor fixes.

[h3][✨The below changes are part of a minor v0.12 update, which will be available within a week or two!✨][/h3]

[h2]Hi Researchers![/h2]

Here's an update on the progress towards 1.0!

Since January, I’ve worked mainly on three things:
1) Adding Powered Chest item and mechanics
2) Reworking key UI
3) Adding more Game Options

[h3]⚡️ Powered Chest for automated crafting[/h3]
One of the key feedback from players in the latest version of the game is that Crafting Stations (such as the Composter and Stone Forge) can get tedious when crafting large batches of items.

Introducing… Powered Chests!

Powered Chests automate the addition of materials and collection of crafted items. Just plop it next to a Crafting Station and add required materials to the chest. Nearby Crafting Stations will grab the needed items and start crafting. When crafting completes, the crafted item is deposited in the chest and the next cycle starts (as long as there are enough materials). The crafting will continue to run even while you’re out exploring!



[h3]📖 Reworking key UI, such as the Quests UI, and increasing font sizes[/h3]
A UI rework has been on the to-do list for some time. Several parts of the main UI have been reworked:
1) Quests UI is now integrated to the main UI as one of the tabs, instead of being a standalone page. This was changed due to a recent feedback from a player, and I think it fits nicely in the main UI!
2) Increased the size of the UI, and used larger, more legible fonts for text.
3) Redesigned some UIs so that information is more clearly portrayed (e.g. NPCs’ and creatures' information)

New quest UI

[h3]🎮 More Game Options[/h3]
These gameplay options have been added based on player feedback:
1) Keyboard auto-targeting: For players primarily playing with a keyboard, turning this on helps with navigating the game without the use of the mouse. Doors and interactable objects are automatically targeted without needing the mouse to hover over them. However, most UI would still require a mouse.
2) Never faint from energy depletion: If this is on, using energy when the player is at 0 Energy will have no penalty. However, the player will still faint at 3AM (latest bedtime) and progress to the next day.

[h3]📝 Towards 1.0[/h3]
These changes have taken up a considerable amount of development time, and I’ve only been working on the actual v1.0 features and content on the side. It's looking a little hard to keep to the timeline I’ve set in the roadmap (Q1 2025), so I'll have to shift the full release to Q2 2025 to make sure that I don't rush the final stretch of development. The actual release date will only be decided once I have all of the features/content added. In the meantime, I’ll be sure to provide devlogs for notable progress, as I always have.

[h3]💛 Thank you to the RS community 💛[/h3]
We recently passed 10k copies sold and 50k wishlists, which is really, really awesome. Your continued support keeps me going, especially now that we're so close to the finish line.

Recently, I found a pretty fun playthrough of Research Story by REDtm, who completed the available research in the game. Just wanted to share it as I enjoyed watching it myself 😊:
https://youtu.be/X1CNaiRQsyg?si=NRGSXDvOYJ-A1yuv


Cheers!
Miki 🤍