Magical Harvest News

[h3]Hello Farmers![/h3]
Where have the last 2 weeks gone? The countdown is running! 19 days left until the release of the demo version (04 October) on Steam and Itch.io.

We had open house on September 10 at Spelkollektivet, where we live. There we were able to show Magical Harvest to the public for the first time and were overwhelmed by the positive feedback! So we are very confident that our demo offers enough - maybe even a bit too much for a pre-alpha demo?
It was very interesting to watch players and make adjustments based on that. For example, we noticed that the demo tutorial was not yet intuitive enough, which was immediately fixed.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

In the last two weeks, most of the bugs have been fixed and design adjustments have been made. The tutorial also explains now the keyboard controls (which were completely missing before) and gives a little more help for completing the tutorial tasks that explain the game.
A few stubborn bugs still lingered in the game until yesterday, but even those could now be solved. New features will not be added to avoid further bugs. Accordingly, the farm animals will be missing in the demo, but there are enough other things to do, so this is bearable. Also missing are the controller controls. This will be brought up to date in the process of the UI overhaul.

Homepage & Patreon
Besides the work on the game, the homepage has been updated and a Patreon page has been prepared. Maybe you already want to support us and get the game and extras via Patreon?
Homepage: https://magicalharvest.github.io/index.html

Trailer
In addition, a new trailer was created, which is centered on the gameplay. The trailer is therefore a bit longer and shows the gameplay elements of the demo version.

[h3]Outlook:[/h3]
The next three weeks will only be used to make some more minor adjustments. For example, adjusting sound effects or adding some animation to breathe more life into Magical Harvest.



After the release there will be a break of 2 weeks. Of course, if there are any serious bugs, they will be fixed.

What is the plan after the demo?
We hope to receive constructive feedback so that we can make adjustments and integrate ideas into the development as early as possible. After our break, background work will be in the foreground.

• At the top of the list is the revision of the UI. This includes the translation from English to German and the option to select fonts in the settings.
  
• Controller-support
  
• In addition, the game is currently only designed for a screen ratio of 16:9, which is of course unfavorable for wide-screen users. This will also be adjusted in the course of the UI revision.
  

After this revision, the demo will be updated and made available.
Afterwards the project itself will be cleaned up. We still have a lot of old placeholder objects in the project folder and therefore we will first tidy them up.

So there will be no big, visible progress for a while. From December at the latest, we will focus on the next features again.
That' s it for the longer plan.
In two weeks there will be the new update - until then: have a nice time!

Best regards,
Your Magical Harvest Team
Isa & Marie

[h3]Hello Farmers![/h3]

Only 1.5 weeks until the first public test of the demo. The Steam version will follow on 04 October 2022!
The demo version offers about 5 hours of playtime. The complete spring can be played and the first 3 of 5 levels of the currently implemented spring plants can be discovered. The growth time of the plants is reduced for the demo and the development chance as well as some drop chances are increased.

The demo is currently in a playable state. Minor improvements still need to be made, but these will not hold up the release. In the last 15 days a lot was planned, not everything was implemented, but a lot was additionally worked on or implemented.



Planned and implemented were:

Further was implemented:

The first farm animals have not yet found their way into the demo version, as they are still very buggy. Depending on how well the further improvement of the game progresses in the next two weeks, the animals may or may not be available in the Steam version. However, it is our own wish that they are implemented in the game.

So, there are a lot of (minor) improvements coming up in the next 1.5 weeks to further improve the demo for our playtest at Spelkollektivet in Sweden.
The only element that is still missing is some kind of termination condition for the demo version, at the end of spring.

In addition, the creation of a trailer is still at the top of the list. We are very excited and looking forward to next week! We are also full of confidence that the game will be fun and that the players will like it so far (we do, anyway!).

Best regards,
Your Magical Harvest Team
Isa & Marie

[h3]Hello Farmers![/h3]
Still 3.5 weeks until the demo can be played publicly for the first time (Steam will follow in early October). So, time is running, still a lot to do, but it will.
The timing for the last 15 days has fit exactly. Everything planned could be implemented and will also be useful for the later development of the game.


What was completed:

The tutorial and the intro can be skipped. However, this is not recommended the first time you play.
The quest and dialog system are used for the tutorial in the demo version to introduce players to the game principles. Creating a tutorial is a lot of work (much more than expected), so this amounts to a minimum for the demo, but it is sufficient.

There are many things that need to be considered in a tutorial so that players don't mess up the game data or can already do things that are not intended. That's where a lot of limitations come from during tutorials in some games.

Also, the intro is just meant to be a small introduction. The later game will get a different intro.


[h3]Planning until September 1:[/h3]
All the game components that will be in the demo are now in the game. Now we are faced with the task of further assembling and revising everything. For example, the stable animals and (demo) traders still need to be integrated effectively.

Accordingly, in the next few weeks, we will be adding improvements and connections in many areas of the game. We are also still working on a new trailer. Since the last trailer, the game has simply changed too much.
In detail:

As you can see, the topics here are spread throughout the game. On September 10th it will be officially tested for the first time (if you live in southern Sweden, you can drop by: Spelkollektivet - Open house).
After that, we have 2-3 weeks until the demo is released on Steam. These weeks will be used to further improve the demo based on the test game results.

We are very excited about it and hope that everything works smoothly!

What are your expectations for the demo version?
(Reminder: the demo is a pre-alpha version that does not include all game elements yet).

Best regards,
Your Magical Harvest Team
Isa & Marie

[h3]Hello Farmer![/h3]
Again 15 days have passed and again a lot has been added to Magical Harvest! The game now has all the world areas that can be discovered in the demo version (however, this is also only a small part compared to the later game - in addition, the maps are adapted for the demo version and will not be in the form they are now in the game later.



What was done:

What's next?

[h3]Planning until August 15:[/h3]
With all of the game areas important to the demo now implemented, only the tutorial remains as the main focus.
This includes implementing:

Especially the quest system will probably take a bit longer, so the focus in these 2 weeks is completely on the tutorial. If there is more time, other elements will be adjusted (still missing the product prices from the crafting, but this is not a high priority as long as the rest is not finished).

Actually, it was announced that we will release the demo during the Steam Next festival in October. This will not be the case - you will still get the demo in October! What we didn't know before is that you can only participate in the Steam-Next-Festival once and that should be close to the release. In our case, however, this will still take some time, so it doesn't make sense to participate now.

At this point, we would also like to emphasize again that the demo has a kind of pre-alpha status. It is only meant to give a foretaste of farm life. All the NPCs are missing after all and so is the whole dating part! Also, the character creation and decoration mode will not be included, as there simply aren't any assets for it yet (and it's not mature yet either).

Nevertheless, you will be offered something and awaken your desire for more!

If you want to support us, check us out on Facebook, Twitter or/and Instagram and follow us there. There you will also get more interim information and pictures.

Best regards,
Your Magical Harvest Team
Isa & Marie

[h3]Hello friends! [/h3]

After completing the big part "Mine", the focus was now on smaller improvements in various areas in the game.



In the last two weeks, work on the following content progressed well:

What was planned, but not finished, are the prices of the craft products. This will soon be adjusted in between.

[h3]Planning until August 01?[/h3]
We are very well on time with our planning for the demo version - are even faster than expected.
The following contents are planned until August:

Besides these points, we will work on 3D models for e.g. fish or the environment, create 2D icons, adjust prices, improve scripts...

Furthermore, the first order for the character portrait of our first NPC will be placed soon. For this, concept sketches still have to be made.

Is there something specific you want to know about the game or the development? Write a comment or join our Discord to talk with us!

Best regards,
Your Magical Harvest Team
Isa & Marie