Golembert News

Another moon has passed and I feel obliged and delighted to inform you about any sudden movements we performed within that period of time.

[h2]What we worked on in April:[/h2]

[h3]1. We implemented all main dialogues![/h3]
We finally translated and implemented ALL of our main dialogues in English and German! They are mostly written with a mild accent (Scottish, Bavarian, et c.) – so I hope you have good vernacular ears!

[h3]2. We posted a new devlog![/h3]
A new devlog appeared! This time it is about the design process of the small creatures roaming Golembert’s garden called Herbies. You can check it out by clicking here or here. Or here.

[h2]“And what art thy working on noweth?”[/h2] - you might asketh.

[h3]1. Adding all potions[/h3]
Now that all main dialogues and quests are implemented we need to add all the items one will need to fulfill these quests. They are mostly potions you craft out of your garden’s produce via a node based potion crafting mechanic. If you want to know how that works: click here to watch a video about it!

[h3]2. Exploring costumization[/h3]
One of the main features of our game beside gardening, reading fun dialogue and questing will be the customization of your garden. Therefore we want to try out and add some more items you can use to decorate!

[h3]3. Testing and balancing[/h3]
Because the main story is now implemented we need to test and balance our main and side mechanics as well as our economy so that it works well with the game’s progression. Fun stuff!

Oh, you are still reading? Still interested?? Still need more inforMATION??
Then maybe check out our YouTube channel or our other social media like twibler (now XIX) or redwid.

STILL STILL READING???
[h2]Well, then let me read you a poem:[/h2]

Days may come and days may go

some might feel good, some you’ll feel low

but wether you know or wether you don’t

the time keeps passing so just go see that Challengers movie you wanted to see all week, queen!!!!


xoxo Golembertgirl

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I must again ask for your compassionate understanding: I FORGOT TO POST HERE!!!
[h3]or DID I???[/h3]
We will never know but what we do know is: January, February and the month of the marching bands have passed and I am ready to tell you all about it.

[h2]So what did we dideli-do for so long??[/h2]

[h3]1. We made composting more complex![/h3]
Isn't that what we all sweat and dream about at night? More complex composting mechanics??? Well, that's why we converted our simple put-something-in-get-something-out composting system into a three chamber system, which you unlock over time. Higher chambers produce better/more finished compost. Just like a real multi-chambered compost does!

[h3]2. We added the first Herbie![/h3]
We finished designing the small garden creatures that roam your garden (codename: Herbies) for now and added the first lil Herbo with a full walk cycle and idle anim and it looking good. Stay tuned for our next devlog to see more! Did I just say… devlog???

[h3]3. We made a YouTube video about our so far 2 year long dev journey![/h3] HURRAY
It took me (Lion) almost three weeks to finish this 16 minute long colossus so I highly recommend you to check it out! It takes you along with our decisions, indecisions, failures and successes from 2020 all the way to today. Hope you can laugh or learn about a thing or two from them! (click here to get to the video or scroll down to its embedded version at the end of this article)

[h2]And what are we currently doing?[/h2]

[h3]1. Writing dialogues![/h3]
Maybe that sounds familiar to you but we are STILL writing dialogues!!! We too reworked the rework of our reworked story (again). That should explain why we’re still writing writings! But seriously: our main quests/dialogues are almost 50% done and we’ll finish them this month. Fingers crossed!

[h3]2. Rendering the island![/h3]
Our island design is finally done and we are finishing up all the prototypical parts of it. Most of them (about 50%) are already done but there is still a bit to clean up!

[h3]3. Staying mentally stable![/h3]
Indie game development is – contrary to what you might think – mostly not about being technically skilled enough to make a game but about being mentally skilled enough to endure an endless process of recurring feedback, rework, and doubt spirals. That’s a circumstance that takes a long time to come to terms with and that one almost cannot prepare for. Currently we are in a more stable mental condition and we are planning to continue to be so!

[h2]So – how has your start of 2024 been? Write me on MSN or honk twice if all is well![/h2]

Oh, your are still reading??
Well, then: If you want to know more about our process/progress: check out our devlogs on YouTube! We post there monthly and talk about things we work on. You can also suggest us video topics or ask questions in the comments if you want to! :-)

That's it for now!
See you in a bit (or byte???),
Alicia & Lion

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We definetly DID NOT FROGET to post here for the last two months!!! (we did)
[h3]OR[/h3]
We just purposefully skipped the October and November update post JUST for you to get this MEGA MAXI UPDATE POST right before Christianities anniversary day!

[h2]“Sooo what have we been up to?”, you might ask. Well...[/h2]

[h3]1. We added 5 new languages![/h3]
We added Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, French, and Simplified Chinese to the fully supported languages of Golembert! These languages are currently the most spoken (and not yet supported) languages in the countries our top 20 most wishlists come from! So if your language isn’t included (like Dutch, Turkish, Swedish, or Polish): ask all your friends to wishlist Golembert so we can add your language to our game next time!!!

[h3]2. We held our first public talk![/h3]
We were asked to speak in front of 50 young game talents about our indie dev journey so far! It went really well and we hope we inspired some younglings to pursue a career in games in the future too :-)

[h3]3. We finished a 1h+ long alpha demo![/h3]
Because we got lucky to talk to a big publisher we finished a vertical slice-y demo to send it to them. In the end they weren’t interested enough to start negotiating a deal with us but we still got valuable feedback out of the talks!

[h2]And what are we currently doing?[/h2]

[h3]1. Finishing up stuff![/h3]
Next year we really want to start pumping out content and for that we need to finish our main assets/systems. This will still take up some months of 2024 but after that we plan to massively add quests & visual customization!

[h3]2. Reworking our Steam page![/h3]
Because we changed a lot of our game’s storyline this year we thought it was time to rework our Steam page to reflect these changes as well. We also really wanted to add more GIFs and use less text!!!

[h3]3. Figuring out a translation pipeline![/h3]
Because we added new languages to our game we’re trying out different translation approaches. The current pipeline for example experiments with re-translation to identify meaning or syntax errors. Fun!
___

If you want to know more about our process/progress: check out our devlogs on YouTube! We post there monthly and talk about things we work on. You can also suggest us video topics or ask questions in the comments if you want to! :-)

[h2]This year did go by really fast for us.[/h2]
A lot of stuff happened and it still feels overwhelming sometimes to be a two people indie studio. Therefore it is always good to pick a time to sit back and think about the goods things that happened to oneself in the past couple of months. And what time is more qualified to do that than the end of the year?!

With that said: Hope y’all have a good time around the Jahreswechsel (as we Germans say) – wish you all the best for 2024! See you on the other side,

Alicia & Lion

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This week we’re celebrating our third month on Steam!!! And with celebrating we mean, well… we ate Falafel at the Spree yesterday. Isn’t that some sort of celebration??? Anyways:

[h2]“What did we digeridoo in the last four weeks?”[/h2] - that's the far more important question to ask! Soo weee...

[h3]1. Added Herbies (mechanically)[/h3]
Just like we added Potion Node Crafting to our game last month as a secondary mechanic we added Herbies to Golembert as a tertiary mechanic this month! Herbies are small garden creatures that live in cracks and nooks of your island. If you are friends with them you can send them out on resource gathering missions to other islands of your archipelago. Cuuute!

[h3]2. Added Susu and the Trade Co. (prototypically) to the game![/h3]
Because we changed up the order of appearance of our NPCs, Susu and her crew as well as the Trade Co. are now the first ones you’ll meet! Susu is captain of a sturdy junk (meaning the east-asian ship type) while Trade Co. visits you with their fancy merchant airship. Are you excited to meet them soon???

[h3]3. Ideated what different accents the NPCs will speak[/h3]
We ideated what accent each NPC will have in English and German. Susu for example will have a Scottish accent and feather-bed you with sentences like: “AYYE you'r a Golem! I thought all of yar were dead HA” Weirdly likeable, isn’t she ?

[h2]And what are we currently doing?[/h2]

[h3]1. Writing new quests and dialogues[/h3]
Much like our island design (which is still work in progress!) our dialogues are adapting to the feedback we get from our indie colleagues. Currently we try to make them more cheeky, more fun and more spot-on!

[h3]2. Adding hints to our game[/h3]
For more guidance we ideated hints that intuitively react to what you are doing. So if you’re hovering over a crop for the 30th time in panic the game will ask you if everything is okay, if it should call 911 and that you need to press CTRL to see the crop’s neighborhood if that was your intention there.

[h3]3. Preparing a talk for 13-16 year olds who are interested in the games industry![/h3]
We were asked if we could speak in front of 50 young game talents about our indie dev journey so far which is REALLY exciting!!! We hope to light some fires in these Padawans --- wish us luck!

[h2]So what have you been up to?[/h2]
Are you still feeling excited about Golembert? Yes, yeah, mostly, sometimes?? Well, maybe you’ll get all pumped up again if you watch our last devlog on YouTube about the Potion Crafting System we reworked last month! Hope you’ll enjoy it!

Until then:
Wash your hands,
Water your plants,
XOXO Alicia-san and Lion-man

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Hope you’re doing great over there! Oh, wait what... It has already been a month since our first community post? Really?! Well, that means it’s about time for a follow up!

[h2]So what happened in our last four weeks?[/h2]

[h3]1. Wholesome Games recommended Golembert!!![/h3]
Just like last month when we got retweeted by Indie Freaks Japan and Namurii (love you!) and didn’t realize that for days we needed almost two weeks to realize that WHOLESOME GAMES RECOMMENDED US!!! They did it while we were on vacation in the baltic countryside but it’s almost a meme right now with us being behind on every social media event that happens to us. We love Wholesome Games very much and their recommendation made our month!!! Check them out if you haven’t heard of them!

[h3]2. We reworked our crafting system (majorly) & our island design (minorly)[/h3]
Our crafting system is now an astral node based puzzle thingy! One can move from node to node to unlock new recipes and craft them. It’s cooler and way more intuitive than it sounds, we promise! If you want to check it out stay tuned until our next devlog drops on YouTube next month! Whaaat? You haven’t seen our devlogs??? Check them out here!

[h3]3. We didn’t attend Gamescom because we were ill :([/h3]
Though we had Fachbesucher tickets from the Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur we didn’t attend Gamescom because we got sick. Lion doesn’t really like trade fairs anyway so he wasn’t mad about it but Alicia had major FOMO. Did you have any hard feelings about Gamescom?

[h2]And more importantly: what are we currently doing??[/h2]

[h3]1. Finishing our island design[/h3]
A lot of areas of our island weren’t finished though one could already playtest our game in the past for about 2 hours. We already tidied up the harbor, beach, and grotto area. Right now we are finishing the upper garden, forest, and watchtower! We made a devlog about our island design this month too which you can check out here!

[h3]2. Designing our new introductory NPCs[/h3]
When the garden design is done we’ll design our new introductory NPCs. Because of last months story rework the current starting NPCs Frieda and Brunja will sadly not be the first NPCs beside Helio one meets in the game. Instead one will meet fierce Susu and her crew as well as the cunning Trade Co!

[h3]3. Ideating Herbies[/h3]
Beside our new node based crafting system we also want to add two other secondary systems that compliment the main gardening system. One of them are the so called Herbies which are small spirits inhabiting your island. You’ll be able to send them on resource gathering missions to other islands of your archipelago and help them expand their small settlements. Cuuute!

[h2]How has your past month been?[/h2]
Hope you’re well and optimistic. So we’ll probably hear from each other again in about 28 days. Therefore have 28 good night sleeps and don’t forget to water your plants today!
XOXO Alicia and Lion

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