Moonstone Island News

I am usually so good at knowing what newsletter number we are on, but it's been a while since the last newsletter, and over the Christmas break, I forgot how to count, so... Welcome back! How's it going? How was your Christmas/New Year/non-denominational winter holidays? Or summer holidays, if you're in the Southern Hemisphere? You know, I've actually never been south of the equator. Maybe I should make that my new year's resolution!

Our break was great, and we're already working on some COOL STUFF FOR SOON TIMES. Can't tell you about it yet, but maybe I'll give a little hint: I had to write a lot of new stuff! It's the first time I've done a significant amount of non-item-description writing since the game released!!!!! How exciting.
New Year, New Meeeee!!

I wanted to do a little retrospective of 2023, because I saw other games studios doing it, and it looked cool. So! Let's go! 2023 retrospective!!!

• Sandy and Kate (the lead dev and the writer, AKA me) met for the first time at GDC, and we got to show off the game as part of The Mix
  
• I wrote about 100,000 words of dialogue and we sent it to localisation ON TIME 😎
  
• We had a demo in the Steam Next Fest
  
• We announced our release date
  
• We ran multiple closed betas to make the game really really good
  
• We released Moonstone Island on September 20th (how has it only been 4 months what)
  
• We got Steam Deck Verified ✅
  
• We announced the Switch version (coming Spring 2024!) at Nintendo's Indie World in December
  
• We released three DLC packs (Decor, Halloween, and Winter)
  
• We did 12 big patches that added tons of content, too
  
• We hit 50k Twitter followers which honestly feels less cool now that Twitter is in the toilet but STILL
  
• Our Discord hit 4,000 members
  
• We met all of youuuuuuu
  

I can't believe we got so much great fan art in the last few weeks! I honestly expected it to get real quiet on the fan art front, but no! There's so much!!!

Okay, admittedly, this first one is not technically fan art. It's commissioned emotes, made by Briggyea for Eylime's Twitch and Discord, themed around YOURS TRULY. Look how cute these are! There's a chad Fishbo, a sus Ribbite, and a "This Is Fine" Bonfire! Amazing work, 10/10.



And you know what else we love to see? People's OC Spirit designs! Seriously, it's probably the cutest fan art we get to see, and we wish we could make them all real! This lil guy is by TenaciousTurnip, and he's an ice Spirit that lives in a stocking. I want to eat him.







*contented purr* Meow.
(Mr Morris had a great break, thank you for asking. But now, it's back to CEO duties for this sleepy kitty.)

And that's all for this week! Welcome back, and happy 2024!

– Kate, Community Manager and Writer of Many Secret New Words

It's time for our 14th patch notes! It's mostly bug fixes today, but one fairly exciting addition...

• Three new island shapes, including everyone's favourite, COOL S
  
• Hopefully fixed the soft-lock bug when playing Sacrifice and similar cards, so you'll no longer have to SACRIFICE (heh) your day
  
• Pasting a large image into the loom will no longer crash your game
  
• We turned down the bridge sound in the Infinidungeon, which was previously playing at max volume. Sorry for all the heart attacks we gave you
  
• Fixed the fertilizer collision mask, so now you can till the ground around a fertilized tile
  
• The descriptions for some abilities were too long in some languages and didn't fit in the box! That's fixed now. Looking at you, German
  
• At the end of the tutorial, the screen is supposed to fade out, but it didn't. Now it do
  
• There was a bug with Spirits going into storage – basically, if your Spirit took damage or had its stats modified somehow, the game is supposed to reset the stats again when you go to sleep. But if you put those Spirits into the Science Center storage, they would keep the stat changes. Way too OP! We fixed it 👍
  

And that's it! Enjoyyyy!

We're kicking off 2024 with a lucky number 13 – it's our thirteenth patch notes!

And boy howdy, this one's a doozy. Yeah, this is how I talk now. This is the 2024 me. I use words like "doozy". Don't make fun of me, it's patch time:

UPDATES

• Fluffybutt. Big Steppy. Sir Lampsalot. These are all excellent suggestions for what you can call your favourite Spirits, because you can now RENAME THEM. YEAH
  

• Also, you can use arrow keys to navigate in the Spirit renaming dialogue
  

• Spirit resources in the barn are now "magnetic" and you can pick them up just by moving near them. That's right! Spirit Poop will now fly towards you! You're welcome
  

• Active potions are now displayed above the stamina bar, like how some students keep all their empty beer cans lined up at the top of their kitchen cabinets
  

• The big map in the main menu is bigger than before
  

• Shiny Spirits will not spawn until you unlock Beginner Spiritmaster in the skill tree (unless you use a Holo potion)
  

• The Spirit Research screen now fits four Spirit cards
  

• Using a Study Talisman to add a card to your Spirit's deck now has a "skip" option, just in case you change your mind
  

• After using a Talisman, you now return to the Spirit interaction menu
  

• We hired a new guy to hold the camera, and he's much better at his job, so now the camera movement is improved (and should jiggle less when you stop moving)
  

BUG FIXES

• Fixed a bug that was causing the tavern to run out of Coffee and other items (the bug was Ossono forgetting to refill the coffee)
  

• Fixed a soft lock that happened if you saved the game while standing next to the trophy case
  

• Fixed a bug where Pressing Y+X at the same time on gamepad (or inventory+sort keys) can sometimes clear all items from the inventory rows 2-4.
  

• Apparently no one was getting XP for opening chests in mines and dungeons!!!! We fixed it, and everyone should be getting retrospective XP awarded to them as well
  

• Fixed a soft lock that happened when you changed some of the keybinds
  

• The Poinsettia plant was being sold on the first day of Spring, which it shouldn't be. We locked it back in its winter prison
  

• Fixed an issue with Spirit storage screens not scrolling on gamepad
  

• Fixed the Fallen Foe card – it should replenish energy now
  

• Fixed a bunch of issues with scrollable windows
  

• Fixed the map auto-centering on the player
  

• Fixed duplicate island bugs
  

• Fixed a bug with feeding vitality crops to Spirits in battle
  

• And the best fix of all for those of you who hate notification badges: the "unread mail" icon on the mailbox now properly goes away when you read all your mail
  

The year is almost over... and that means that we're about to go on holiday, which means that this is the LAST NEWSLETTER OF 2023. I can't believe it! 2023 has been an amazing year for us, with the launch of Moonstone Island on PC, all the updates we've been doing, the Switch release announcement... and that's all been in the last three months, even though it feels like a LOT longer.

2024 is, of course, our Switch launch year, so here's hoping it'll be even more amazing – a lot of cozy gamers are Switch-only, so I'm expecting it to get a little busy! But with all of you kind, generous, and patient Moonstoners, I'm not too worried. Thank you for all your lovely responses to the game so far 😊

STEAM WINTER SALE

We're on Sale again, because we LOVE A GOOD SALE!

Dec 21st to Jan 4th

• Moonstone Island - 20% Off
  
• Delightful Little Comforts DLC - 10% Off
  
• Eerie Items DLC - 10% Off
  
• December Lovely Cozies DLC - 15% Off
  
• Artbook - 20% Off
  
• Soundtrack - 20% Off
  

DLC RE-CAP

We have more DLC, this time themed around the winter festivities!

There's a big, friendly snowman house to live in, with a carrot nose, coal buttons, and a festive string of lights around his twig arms. He's very traditional, right down to the top hat that may or may not be magic.

Alongside Mr Snowman House, you'll also get two more snowmen (Frostopher and Snowmelia), a snowboard (decorative only, soz), a few different types of icicles, and a fuzzy rug for ultimate by-the-fire coziness. And don't worry – we'll never lock away new features or content behind paid DLC. It'll only ever be cosmetic decor!



Big patch notes this time! But we've posted them separately already, and they're LONG, so I'll just recap!

• Spirit Barn largest upgrade is now DOUBLE the size it was before
  
• Paolo sells stone and wood
  
• Ferra sells coal
  
• Zed can store tamed Spirits at the Science Center
  
• Warp Totem functions like the Warp Statue in town, but can be placed anywhere on the map
  
• The Infinidungeon is LIVE
  
• The Spirit level cap has been removed
  
• Invisible wall in dungeon 21 has been fixed
  
• Removed an invisible item appearing in shops
  
• Picking up gates no longer turns them invisible
  
• We can now send items to you in the mail
  
• All letters that send crafting recipes will now have the recipe attached
  
• A new icon appears on letters with items attached that have not been claimed
  
• Combat is now less random, and Speed has been made more useful
  
• Targeting NPCs in the Tavern is easier
  
• Earth and Water biomes have their own sets of exclusive fish to catch
  
• Item names that were overflowing the text box in the end-of-day recap will now take up two lines
  
• The Poinsettia plant will now be sold every day at the Conservatory during winter
  
• Trees can now be festooned with twinkly lights. Festooned, I say!
  

Wow! So many cool things! And that's not even counting the FIVE new Ice Spirits, the new decor, and details on the Infinidungeon... which you'll just have to find out for yourself 😈




First off... THANK YOU. You're all so talented and good at making beautiful art, and also showing off your love for certain things in the game. We weren't sure we'd get fan art at all, because it's not a guarantee, but we've had so much that it's been hard to choose what to show off in these newsletters!
Here's a rather scary and intense version of Capacibee from Kirby, which looks like the kind of metal album cover we'd pick up and listen to:



Here's Quirky's adorable plush Womr, WITH DETACHABLE WOMR:


Incredible work. As an amateur crocheter myself, I know how much work these were, so well done. VERY well done.





*sleepy cat noises*

Aww, Mr Morris is sleeping. Well, even CEOs get tired. Don't wake him!

Thanks for making these last three months since launch the absolute best. 2023 was a wild ride. Let's make 2024 even better! WOO!

– Kate, Community Manager and massive fan of crochet plushies

It's Holo-day Weekend!

Starting today and going on until the 18th December, you can pick up THREE Holo Hunter Potions in Moonstone Island. Here's how!

1. Boot up the game
   
2. Head to a mailbox
   
3. Grab the new letter
   
4. Grab the three Holo Hunter Potions
   
5. Use them... or keep them!
   

Each potion will increase the Holo-finding chances from 0.2% to 10%, and will wear off when you find a Holo Spirit, or when the day ends, whichever comes first.

The potions will stay in your inventory or in your chest as long as you need them, even after the event is over!



Happy Holo-days and happy Holo-hunting, y'all!

– Kate, Community Manager (who now has 10% chance of being Holo)