Golembert News

[p]Our last Update Post might not seem very long ago (which in fact is true because I posted it two weeks late in case you didn’t notice) so therefore this post will be as short and sweet as a Halloween treat! [/p][p]Or will it???
[/p][h2]So what did we do last month?[/h2][p][/p][h3]1. We added a Night Theme![/h3][p]As mentioned in last month’s update, Luca wrote a magical Night Theme we implemented into the game this month. It’ll play every night/evening from around 9 pm until 12 pm and signal you that it’s time to pack up your tools and finish your garden work for today. (You can still stay awake until 1 am and will not lose any progress for falling asleep in your garden, just in case you’re wondering.) [/p][p][/p][h3]2. We playtested approximatley 24% of the game![/h3][p]We finally playtested up until the 2h 30min mark of the game which is around 24% of the main game’s playtime (meaning: if you only consider/do main quests and nothing else). The only game breaking bugs we encountered (and fixed) were: [/p]

• [p]You weren’t able to input nails into the recipe of the main quest relevant Repair Potion. This happened because the crafting system only considered garden yields and their similarities (because most potions just need x red crop yields for example). Stupid! [/p]
• [p]Absolved quests didn’t load properly. That one was partially the cause of us not continuing our save files/not playtesting longer than an hour. This funnily (and stupidly, again) happened because the absolved quests weren’t saved properly! We tried to save/load them as a temporary scriptable object in a way that didn’t work. But now it does! [/p]
• [p]The skip time-function called when waking up from sleeping miscalculated the time to skip when changing weeks (sleeping from Sunday to Monday). Therefore the old (before sleeping) and new (after sleeping) phases (1/96 time segments of a day in our game) didn’t match up, meaning the old phase was higher than the new phase (767 from last week vs 128 from this week), meaning that the game’s time system didn’t work anymore. The function now consideres week changes too lol. [/p]
• [p]Falling asleep in the Herbit Map breaked the game’s UI so that you couldn’t exit the Herbit Map anymore. AHHH!!! [/p]

[p][/p][h3]3. We technically finalized the Herbit Map! [/h3][p]After visually finalizing it last months we added some transform position feedback animations, some unnecessarily crazy expedition agent paths to the map’s islands, and made the ingame tooltip system work with both world and UI objects (before that only certain/auto-filled UI elements had working tooltips lol). [/p][p][/p][h2]And what are we currently working on?[/h2][p][/p][h3]1. We’re still working on dialogue portraits! [/h3][p]We already made the first/most important 5 portraits of Golembert, Helio, and the Herbit and will add them to the game this month and/or once we have a couple more ready to implement. Next up to add are Susu, Milly, and Maynard! [/p][p][/p][h3]2. We’re trying to improve our quest information design! [/h3][p]We stopped playtesting after 2h 30min mostly because the main quest got so complex that we needed more information in the game to fulfill it. The specific quest that I’m talking about requires you to make 2x Unbinding, 2x Neutralize Magic, and 2x Dissolution of Contract Potions. All three potions need an Expedition Item (scissors, soap, and notary’s hair) as well as 5 different garden yields in total. That’s a lot of information you need to know to fulfill this quest!!! Therefore we are trying to make more potion crafting information available in the ingame wiki as well as in the ingame questlog so you don’t have to go through the crafting panel ten times to check which specific red crop yield tier you need. [/p][p][/p][h3]3. We’re trying to playtest to a certain point! [/h3][p]Now that we reached the 24% main quest progress mark anything is possible, lol. Our goal for this month is to get to 36%! (wish us luck)[/p][p][/p][p]And that’s it already for this month![/p][p][/p][p]If you would like to playtest our game well before its (demo) release to give us feedback AND receive our game for free AND get a Steam gift card as a compensation for your efforts then you should consider following us on any social media so you do not miss the start of our beta playtesting program next year!!!
[/p][h2]Remember to start your Christmas preparations early this year! [/h2][p]
xoxo St. Golembert[/p][p][/p][p]Haven't watched our last devlog? Watch it here: [/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[p]Oh, I almost forgot to post abou-[/p][p]THE TWENTY-FIRST NIGHT OF [/p][h2]SEPTEMBER???[/h2][p][/p][h3]1. We added the first tracks from Luca![/h3][p]Two months ago we shared with you that Luca Storz, the composer of Couch Monsters, REKA, and Dino Party, joined our team to work on our soundtrack! Since then he already composed an epic Joe Hisaishi-like main theme, some naturally flowing garden themes, an upbeat Herbit map theme (based on the main theme), and a wonderful night theme, meaning: he wrote 4+ songs already, which are all in-cre-di-ble!!!!!!!!! His songs are already implemented in the game in their ‘primitive’ Sibelius form (directly exported out of a composing software). They will be recorded properly later next year and then we’ll finally be able to share them with you! :-) [/p][p][/p][h3]2. We added some progression! (tower locked, ship arrives mid-week) [/h3][p]In its current prototype-y form all areas of our game were always fully accessible at the start of the game. Because that certainly is a bit overwhelming (e.g. meeting 7 NPCs in a day) and people tend to like to work towards things, we added a little bit of geographical progression to our game! Meaning: we made the Watchtower in the Upper Garden accessible after a certain quest and made Susu’s ship arrive on a later day of the week (but we might change that to a certain quest fulfillment day+1 too). Therefore you will now meet all NPCs over a longer period of time, learning about their specialities day by day (not all at once). [/p][p][/p][h3]3. We finalized the Herbit Map! [/h3][p]The Herbit Map now has a fully functional map (good), with 22 islands you can send expeditions to (to get items and seeds), cute Herbit mission agents sailing a boat (when you send them out), different sea monsters, wave animations, and a Herbit standing by for if you need help (he will give you a walkthrough/tutorial of the whole expedition system). Nice! [/p][p][/p][h3]4. We bug fixed & playtested the game! [/h3][p]We playtested the game in the editor and in a Steam build up to the (magical) 12% main quest progress mark again and fixed some stuff! Some bugs we encountered (and fixed): [/p]

• [p] You always started a conversation with the Herbit when rightclicking a plant. That happened because the Herbit mostly walks from plant to plant and is therefore (because of his small size) often hidden behind plants. Therefore I thought it was a good idea to add a ‘start a conversation-listener’ to every plant you’re hovering over when the Herbit stands behind it. Sadly, that variable was never reset to null, therefore triggering on every plant rightclick. Lol![/p]
• [p] It was really hard to water certain plants in pots because the distance between you and them (meaning: their pivot, meaning: their center/bottom point) was too big. We simply changed the distance calculation to player position to the closest point of the plant’s collider (easy).[/p]

[p]Some fixes we implemented: [/p]

• [p] We made the Herbit Map, Potion Crafting, and Compost tutorials less annoying by only making them show after clicking the Help-button. Before that each of these panels started talking to you on their own (which was really annoying). Past me thought that was a good idea![/p]
• [p] We added the possibility to hold SHIFT when hovering over a crop and scrolling through all crops you are currently hitting with your mouse. That’s a bit weird at first but it helps when you placed your plants too close to another and/or your plants were growing bigger than you thought, obscuring each other and therefore making all plants in the backrow unhittable (HOLLA). [/p][p][/p]

[h2]And what are we currently working on?[/h2][p][/p][h3]1. We’re working on dialogue portraits! [/h3][p]Now that the Herbit Map is visually (mostly) done, we moved on to some dialogue partner portaits! So far we only had the base expression of every NPC in the game. That’s why Alicia wanted to add all of Helio’s, Golembert’s, and the Herbit’s expressions to the game in the next couple of weeks! Each NPC will have around 10+ expressions so the final game will have at least 120 portraits! (wow) [/p][p][/p][h3]2. We’re trying to playtest to a certain point! [/h3][p]To be honest with you: playtesting and actually finishing a game is such a chaotic mess. That’s why we are still playtesting the game!!! (which we’ve been estimately doing since February this year?!?) I am just as confused by that as you are. We haven’t played through the whole game so far (just through around 12% of it) and that’s really the main goal in this departement. I’m almost certain that we will not reach that goal within this year but we’ll hopefully up our game (he) in the next couple of weeks! [/p][p][/p][p]And that’s it already for this month! [/p][p][/p][p]If you would like to playtest our game well before its (demo) release to give us feedback AND receive our game for free AND get a Steam gift card as a compensation for your efforts then you should consider following us on any social media so you do not miss the start of our beta playtesting program next year!!![/p][p] [/p][h2]Juanín, ¿por qué nunca me traes el café a tiempo? ¡Así no se puede trabajar, hombre! [/h2][p]xoxo Tulio Triviño[/p][p][/p][p]Haven't watched our last devlog? Watch it here: [/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[p]I never needed anything more… than an August update post? Well.

[/p][h2]’What Taylors did we swift this month?’, you might ask.[/h2][p][/p][h3]1. We bug fixed & playtested Golembert! [/h3][p]We playtested the game in the editor and in two different builds up to the (magical) 12% main quest progress mark (about 1h of gameplay - only for time reasons). There weren’t really a lot of bugs popping up (meaning: no bugs that made the game unplayable lol) but a lot of stuff needed to be improved guidance and timing wise (tutorial and general hints for example). So that’s what we did! [/p][p]Because just stating 'we did bugfixing' is a bit bland we wanted to share some (funny?) bugs with you we encountered (and fixed):[/p]

• [p]Olive seedlings were so tiny-tiny and thin that you almost couldn't hit them with your cursor making them almost unwaterable (we gave all plant stages custom collider)[/p]
• [p]When starting a new game the scene manager wanted to create a new (auto)save file even if the save path didn't exist - which always is the case when starting the game for the first time[/p]
• [p]Plants that are obscured by other (further forward) plants were super flimsy to hit with the mouse. We outsourced the 'Am I hit by the mouse?' function from every plant to a manager that checks 'Is the mouse hitting a plant?' every frame instead (which works a lot better but isn't the most unflimsy still)[/p]

[p]Some fixes we implemented:[/p]

• [p]We added feedback sounds for menu buttons (cute)[/p]
• [p]Get a hint on how to move on game start (duh)[/p]
• [p]Auto-stop watering if overwatering for the first (and second) time (overwatering partially happens because the whole Crop UI is still not explained super well - future to do!)[/p]

[p][/p][h3]2. We added more customization items! [/h3][p]We added 17 new customization items (pots, raised beds, lamps, decorative plants & items) to try out different decoration set styles (made of rough clay, painted/glazed clay, some made out of wood). Milly & Maynard for example will sell/gift you more industrial produced decorative items, while Susu is all about wood & planks, while Helio will have a lot of clay pots for you in store. So look forward to probably 100+ different pieces of furniture at release![/p][p] [/p][h2]And what are we currently working on?[/h2][p][/p][h3]1. We’re working on a new build! [/h3][p]We actually do all the fixing & playtesting to make a new build, playtest it, write a list of fixes, and… do it all over again. Our next build will probably be refined enough to send it out to some of our friends again for them to play (something we didn’t really do since 2023, lol). After we implemented their feedback (probably October) we'll expand the circle of potential playtester to potential customers - so stay informed on our social media if you want to participate in that![/p][p][/p][h3]2. We’re still finalizing the Herbit Map! [/h3][p]Last month Alicia made concept designs for and first renders of the whole Herbit Map and all of its islands. While the map is already ingame and rendered, it still needs a final render & polish. It also needs some minor implementation adjustments because some of the islands were moved (not really a biggie).[/p][p][/p][p]And that’s it already for this month! [/p][p][/p][p]If you would like to playtest our game well before its (demo) release to give us feedback AND receive our game for free AND get a Steam gift card as a compensation for your efforts then you should consider following us on any social media so you do not miss the start of our beta playtesting program next year!!![/p][p][/p][h2]Best before June 2027,[/h2][p] xoxo Berthold Brecht[/p][p][/p][p]Haven't watched our last devlog? Watch it here: [/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[p]Is the name giver of July. Pliny (the Elder) traced his name back to the word caedere, to cut. So what do we do in July? We cut it out! And with ‘it’ I mean the all-monthly update on our playtesting and bugfixing process. Boring! This monthly update will only focus on NEW STUFF!!! [/p][p][/p][h2]So what new stuff did we do this July?[/h2][p][/p][h3]1. We hired Luca Storz as our composer! [/h3][p]With our game steadily moving into its last 1.5 years of production we finally hired a composer for it! His name is Luca Storz and he worked on the grand soundtracks of Couch Monsters, Reka, and Dino Party! He was always person number 1 on our shortlist of people we wanted to ask to make our soundtrack – so we’re super stoked to have him!! He will really bring out the Ghibli in Golembert and Joe the Hisaishi in you with his compositions if you know what I’m saying. [/p][p][/p][h3]2. We uploaded a new devlog! [/h3][p]Alicia made a video about the design process of the Beach area of our island! It shows how she designed its environment, props, as well as characters (smol crabs e.g.). Be sure to check it out on YouTube!!! [/p][p][/p][h3]WOW, so much (meaning 2) new stuff!!![/h3][h2]And what are we currently working on?[/h2][p][/p][h3]1. We’re working on an updated pitch deck! [/h3][p]Up until now we already made two decks back in 2022 and 2023. But now we wanted to try again! Pitch decks are used to apply to publishers. While we do not need a publisher funding-wise, we wanted to check if there is one who could help us outreach-wise. Let’s see what happens![/p][p][/p][h3]2. We’re finalizing the Herbit Map! [/h3][p]Besides the island (upper/lower garden, the tower, the harbour, the beach – all mostly done) and the Potion Crafting Map (still WIP), the Herbit Map is one of the three biggies regarding environment design. Therefore we’re trying to (partially) tackle it this month! It consists of the (upgradeable) Herbit Settlement and the map of your archipelago. On the archipelago map you can send out Herbits (who live in the settlement) to other islands to get you (cheap) seeds and items.[/p][p] [/p][p]And that’s it already for this month! (at least regarding new stuff we did lol)[/p][p]Next month's post will again incorporate our (confusing) playtesting & bugfixing percentage update. Will we reach our goal of playtesting 24% of all our main quest??? You'll find out next month!!![/p][p][/p][p]If you would like to playtest our game well before its (demo) release to give us feedback AND receive our game for free AND get a Steam gift card as a compensation for your efforts then you should consider following us on any social media so you do not miss the start of our beta playtesting program next year!!! [/p][p][/p][p]Until then:[/p][h2]Enjoy the rest of your summer,[/h2][p]xoxo G-bo[/p][p][/p][p]Haven't watched our latest devlog? Watch it here:[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[p]And this time I calculated fancy numbers for it! [/p][p][/p][h2]So what have we been up to this June?[/h2][p][/p][h3]1. We playtested and bugfixed ??% of the game! [/h3][p]Like last update it’s hard to calculate a proper number of just how much of the FULL game is already playtested. That’s because:[/p]

• [p]12% of all Main Quests and 6% of all Side Quests are currently fully tested and approved. BUT[/p]
• [p]from all 6 main mechanics (gardening, bartering, potion crafting, expedition management, questing, composting) 3 are fully (100%), 2 are mostly (50%+), and 1 is to some minor degree tested (let’s say 0% for math’s sake). And[/p]
• [p]from all 6 side mechanics (Herbit pathfinding, garden customization, Crane’s card mini-game, yield tier transformation, bottle posts, storage management) 1 is fully, 3 are mostly, and 2 are to some minor degree tested. [/p]

[p]That means: 12% of all main quests, approximately 67% of all main mechanics, and approximately 42% of all side mechanics are fully playtested. Adding that up means that we’re at around 40%?? Not sure about that! From now we will just take the lowest number (main quest playtest percentage) as our playtest milestone marker. But know that there are different (and hard to equate) layers to our testing level. [/p][p][/p][h3]2. We finalized the Harbour and the Beach areas! [/h3][p]Now 4/8 (50%) of all our areas are fully rendered! (Main Garden, Watchtower, Harbour, Beach done, Upper Garden, Herbit Settlement, Potion Crafting Map, Helio’s House to go). Besides the island areas there are also a lot of UI panels that still need finalization – so don’t rejoice too soon! [/p][p][/p][h3]3. We added Yield Tier Transformation! [/h3][p]Wow, that sounds fancy! But it’s actually just a side mechanic that enables the player to simply merge lower tier yields into higher tier yields at a 2:1 ratio. This gardening bypass may sound like a contradiction to our efforts to make gardening somehow complex (and important). BUT it’s an easy fix for early game misunderstandings regarding yield tier improvement and it broades the general gameplay to different (less invested) playstyles. [/p][p][/p][h2]Wow, so many numbers! But what does it mean???[/h2][p]Essentially it means that we are done with a lot but still have to do a lot. How much that is? We don’t know![/p][h2]So what are we currently working on?[/h2][p][/p][h3]1. We’re finalizing the island! [/h3][p]After the Beach finalization we’re moving on to the Upper Garden. Only after that we’ll have the time to really finalize our hybrid (Herbit Settlement, Potion Crafting Map) and regular UI. [/p][p][/p][h3]2. We’re working on another devlog! [/h3][p]This time Alicia will talk about the design process of the Beach area. So a pretty current topic! If you want to stay tuned about this upcoming video consider following us on YouTube so you don’t miss its release! [/p][p][/p][h3]3. We're (still) playtesting/working on a beta playtesting demo build! [/h3][p]The goal for June was to reach 20% of the game being playtested. Because that number is hard to calculate we’ll stick with the main quest percentage. We doubled that number from 6% (April & May) to 12% (June) and we’ll try to keep that pace. Therefore our July goal is 18% of all main quests! (with constant growth that means that the game will be fully playtested in August 2026 – that’s a very long time to go. Therefore we internally hope that someday we’ll leave the constant trajectory and start progressing exponentially. That goal would be reached at around 24% for July. Let’s see what we’ll hit!)[/p][p]

If you would like to playtest our game well before its (demo) release to give us feedback AND receive our game for free AND get a Steam gift card as a compensation for your efforts then you should consider following us on any social media so you do not miss the start of our beta playtesting program!!! [/p][p][/p][h2]~Stay hydrated~[/h2][p]
xoxo Goru Betto[/p][p][/p][p]Haven't watched our latest devlog? Watch it here:[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p]