Rusty's Retirement News

Hey folks,

Before we get started, I wanted to take a moment and express my gratitude to everyone who has played the game. Your love and support for Rusty has completely changed my life. This game definitely feels like a life achievement. With that said...

I am happy to announce that the first major content update for Rusty's Retirement is out now!!

[h2]What's new?[/h2]
[h3]- New map: Snowy Fields[/h3]
Those who have passed the first three maps can now access the Snowy Fields map where bots consume more biofuel to survive the harsh winter conditions. Peak-cozy winter vibes!



[h3]- New animal: Deer[/h3]
As you expand your farm, deer will spawn on the new Snowy Fields map and the old Blossom Forest map.

[h3]- New decorations: Christmas decorations[/h3]
Since it is the season, a winter update wouldn't be complete without some new Christmas-themed decor!



[h3]- New character: Reaper's Outpost[/h3]
Building an outpost will offer a spot for Reapers to come and park on your farm. Reapers travel between farms looking to sell their crop enhancement chips. If you don't like any of the chips they are selling, you can reroll what's in store.



[h3]- New animal: Cats and Dogs[/h3]
You can now unlock different types of cats and dogs to help out around the farm. They will occasionally follow Rusty around, sleep, and help with harvesting crops. Each cat and dog has their own special 2x2 pet house assigned to them.



[h3]- New animal: Chickens[/h3]
You can also unlock chickens! Build a Chicken Nest and watch them peck away at any pests lurking in the crop's soil. This pest-removal process helps improve a crop's harvest by +1.



[h3]- New polish: Characters talk to each other[/h3]
This one is pretty self-explanatory, if an npc isn't doing much, they will interact with each other.

[h3]- New polish: Pinion's Goldcrests[/h3]
In my previous game, Pinion was in charge of the Goldcrest mechanical birds, which were part of a banking system. Now they appear on top of his house and fly around the farm randomly sitting on top of buildings.



[h3]- New polish: Rusty wears a Christmas hat[/h3]
Pretty simple, Rusty will wear a Christmas hat throughout the duration of December. On January 1st, they will put it away and wait for next year.


[h2]What's improved?[/h2]

• New achievements have been added to support the new content!
  
• Slate’s fossil cap has been increased. New formula = maximum needed fossils
• 3.
  
• Fertilizer now has a cap of 999 which should stop animals from endlessly consuming crops and pooping.
  
• Splunk will now seed crop patches that are 75% empty and he will also pick the closest crop patch instead of randomly choosing one across the farm.
  
• Bulbhives have been renamed to Beehives to avoid confusion between the two words.
  
• Beehives also show a line between the hive and Forbic indicating that the character is coming to harvest the biofuel.
  
• Beehives also need to be harvested less often. Don't worry though, they still accumulate the same amount of biofuel as before.
  
• Disabling a bot will now make said bot return to their station after they have completed their ongoing task.
  
• Added 8 new crops to unlock, plus three new giant crops.
  

[h2]What's fixed?[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where a green dot would appear on top of the crop/berry tabs at the beginning of the game.
  
• Fixed a bug which would cause Splunk to freeze if you placed a 'Don't seed' sign right before he starts planting seeds.
  
• Fixed a bug where disabled bots would accidentally take a 'task' after loading the game.
  
• Added a second method of getting an OAuth token in the Twitch Integration guide.
  
• Fixed an issue which would cause Twitch viewer bots to freeze when planting seeds on a 'Don't seed' crop patch.
  
• Added a bit of leeway to the Architect achievement.
  

[hr][/hr]

That's it for today, I hope you enjoy the new content, and thank you for your continued support! :orange_heart:

[h2]What are the Steam Awards?[/h2]

The Steam Awards is an annual event where players nominate and vote for their favorite games in various categories, such as "Labor of Love" or "Best Game You Suck At".

Winners are chosen entirely by the community. Nominations take place during the autumn sale and voting during the winter sale.

[h2]Why nominate Rusty's Retirement?[/h2]

I've submitted Rusty's Retirement for the Most Innovative Gameplay Award for its design of sitting at the bottom of your screen while you do other things.

Since the game's inception, people really resonate with the idea, and it makes me happy to see the game currently sitting on a 96% overwhelmingly positive rating on Steam.

It's a game I am proud to have made, and I feel like it would be cool to get a nomination in the innovation category, mainly for allowing players to multitask while playing.

In the last few months, I've also even seen a bunch of new games pop up following a similar design. To me, this is the highest form of appraisal, and to have essentially created a new genre is mind-blowing.
Here are a few worth checking out: My Little Life, Whimside, and Desktop Cat Cafe.

Please nominate Rusty's Retirement in the Steam Awards! It would mean the world to me ːorange_heartː




[hr][/hr]

[h2]In case you missed it:[/h2]

I've been working on a new Winter update that will include a new snowy map, new crops, and a brand-new character. The plan is to release it at the middle of December so more info soon!



Thank you for everything, and please spare a nomination for Rusty! ːorange_heartː

[hr][/hr]

Hey folks,

I thought I'd give a little life update post-release and what plans I have for the game.

[h2]Personal life[/h2]

As some of you may already know, I made this game in a record-breaking 6 months. Steam planned a farming festival for April 2024 and I knew that I had to release the game during that timeframe to increase the game's chances of success - luckily it paid off!

With that said, I pushed myself quite hard during those months. After the release, I fixed bugs for a month, I made a "Quality-of-Life" update, and then I decided to take it easy after that.

I spent time with friends and family, I went to different game conventions (Gamescom and Tokyo Games Show) and met with a bunch of you face-to-face. I had many great talks with other developers and I hope I was able to help provide some insight on what worked for me when making/selling games.

Lately though, I've been brainstorming new ideas for the game, and testing out a few of the new ideas.


[h2]New Winter Update! (work-in-progress)[/h2]

That's right, I'm currently working on a new Winter update that will include a new snowy map, new crops, and a brand-new character. The current plan is to release this new update at the beginning of December so be on the lookout for more info!

I have other ideas for future updates but these still need to be explored and worked on. I need to see if they are viable and whether they fit with the rest of the game.

Thank you for everything!





[hr][/hr]
[h2]My little brother is dipping his toes into game dev![/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3153020/Skatehouse/

If you like the look of Skatehouse, please consider adding it your wishlist ːorange_heartː

[hr][/hr]

Hey folks, here are a few fixes for issues that appeared in the new QoL update:

• Zoom in and out was incrementing the camera's scale by multiples of 2 - it is fixed and will now increment by 1 as intended.
  
• Moving the camera in vertical mode with the arrow keys was also zooming in and out due to some old code still being active, this has also been fixed now.
  
• Fixed some weird camera clamping issues that were causing the camera to jump around.
  
• Trackpad scrolling only works in horizontal mode for now until I fix some of the issues that popped up on vertical farms.
  
• Golden pumpkins were popping with one click when they should have been popping after 36 clicks. Now they pop after 36 clicks and this should help prevent harvesting giant golden pumpkins by accident.
  
• Splunk’s new ‘Do not seed’ sign should be fixed.
  
• Moving houses or buildings on top of themselves would free up the land beneath them allowing people to build where they shouldn't be able to. This has been fixed because it was causing all sorts of bugs and issues.
  
• And... Estonian has been added to the game as a language option! (let's hope it doesn't break anything)
  

Thank you, and it's great to see that people are happy with the new update!

[hr][/hr]
[h3]Build 1.0.15+ hotfix[/h3]

• Moving crop patches would block the ability to plant seeds on top of them and sometimes you could even build on them. Fixed!
  
• Disabling and enabling bot stations should now save correctly.
  

Hey folks,

I’m happy to finally add some quality-of-life changes to the game! Thank you for your patience, I know this took a little longer than expected, and it’s because I took a well-deserved 2-week break from the game to recharge my own biofuel-filled batteries.



[h3]1. Move buildings one tile![/h3]
So many people reached out to me to ask if I could add the functionality allowing you to move buildings one tile across. I even had personal friends reach out to me to ask for this feature - so yeah, it was a big one!

You can also move bushes and decorations now.



[h3]2. Move animals (and destroy empty feeders)[/h3]
I’ve added a new button to the ‘Animal tab’ that allows you to move animals between feeder slots. Also, if a feeder is completely empty then you can now destroy it if you so wish.



[h3]3. Improved bees and butterflies[/h3]
Bees received a rework and I will briefly explain how they now function. All bees on the farm are evenly spread across beehives and they will only visit bushes in range of their designated beehive. If you place a new beehive, bees will automatically migrate to the new hive. Beehives still produce biofuel, and berry bushes now have a maximum capacity of bees that can visit at the same time.

Butterflies essentially work the same way minus the capability to produce biofuel at a beehive.


[h3]Those are the 3 main big things,[/h3]
but I’ve also added a bunch of small features too:

• You can now use the arrow keys to move around the farm. Tip: hold down Shift + Arrow key to speed up the camera panning.
  
• You can also use the trackpad scroll to move around the map.
  
• Golden Metal Pumpkins are now harvestable. You just have to click on it a lot to pop it.
  
• You can disable/enable bot stations. This will prevent the bot from recharging and consuming biofuel. This is a bit of an advanced feature so I decided not to make the button too obvious.
  
• Bot biofuel consumption after upgrading has been lowered slightly. Capacity upgrades still add 1 biofuel but speed upgrades now add 0.5 biofuel (the total is rounded).
  
• Splunk has a new sign available in the shop. The ‘Do not seed’ sign will prevent Splunk from planting crops.
  
• Splunk will now plant on empty crop patches that are occupied by a giant crop or a fossil.
  
• The inspect function will now show you how many waterings a crop still needs and how many harvests a crop has remaining.
  
• I have also added a notification icon to some of the tabs, so you can quickly see if you have anything new to unlock without having to cycle through all the tabs all the time.
  
• And lastly, I gave the remove crops button a new icon so it wouldn’t be confused with the demolish buildings icon.
  

(The green light next to the recharge cost is the disable/enable button - very subtle)

[h3]Performance improvements[/h3]
Thank you everyone for helping me to test the performance branch. To minimize the impact on existing players who are enjoying the game without any problems, we’ve added a new dropdown under Settings > Graphics, where you can choose how the transparent background is rendered.

• Colorkey - sets the background color to black and then converts any black pixels into transparent ones.
  
• Alpha - sets the background transparent and is overall more performant but the only drawback is that it does not work well with overlays.
  
• Green screen - sets the background color to green and converts any green pixels into transparent ones. This setting is mainly used by streamers.
  

Most people will remain using Colorkey but if you are having performance issues with frame rate, then please try switching to Alpha. In the future, we hope to add a plain ‘windowed mode’ which is a failsafe for everything that could possibly go wrong and it will probably benefit Linux users as a bonus.

---

That's it for today folks, I very much look forward to developing new content for the game now that this stuff is out of the way. As always, don't hesitate to let me know if there are any bugs or any features you'd like to see improved/added ːorange_heartː