Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death News

[h3]Ladies, gentlemen, merfolk from the shores of grand Aordhos, gilded in its splendor, welcome to our humble tavern! Leave behind the comfort of moss-covered stones breached upon the shoreline, for tonight we have prepared for you further tales of wonder and magic![/h3]


Greetings anew everyone! My name is C.W. Hendricks, lead writer, developer, and designer for Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death, and today we at The Incandescent Bard are launching patch 1.4 for the free demo that brings an enormous art update, new player-friendly guidance techniques, and another level of polish and tweaks to story beats throughout the game to add further lore and flair to the world of SGoD.

These are updates we’ve been working on for the full version of the game and we decided to push an update to incorporate all of these features into the demo. Much of this update is thanks to all of our players and the incredible feedback we’ve received, so we want to extend a huge thank you to everyone for giving our game a try and reaching out to us with your thoughts!
Without further ado, let’s get into the meat of what this update contains:


[h2]Artwork[/h2]
With any great RPG comes great respon icons! Icons are those little pictures players see constantly throughout the game that represent items, equipment, magic, skills, menu items, status debuffs, parameters, etc. The list goes on. While small in stature, icons play a very important role in immersion; you can’t see that Emerald Periapt on your character, so having an icon that showcases the accessory in all its glory helps make the item more grounded in the world in which it was found. It also makes chests and treasure that much more fun to discover; you may find something that looks too cool NOT to use, even if perhaps you really don’t need bonus MP on Cormac…

Our icons before were, quite frankly, generic. We used the same icon for every sword, another for every necklace, etc. But no longer! We’ve been hard at work over the last month reworking every icon in the game (of which there are hundreds) to bring them up to the same quality of work as everything else, and we’re super proud of what we’ve accomplished here.

Now everything has a unique icon that captures what that item is, or what this parameter means, or what that magic spell does, etc. All of this new artwork is now live in the demo!

Leave it to Niall to highlight his newly redrawn stock, front and center. You may notice some new information in the TLDR panel on the right; we did a light redesign pass on every item and the windows they bring up to more clearly define what that item is or does and what about said item is important.


[h2]Player Guidance[/h2]
This is a bit more of an abstract concept, but basically “player guidance” means things like breadcrumbs quests, well-laid-out roads, etc. and is incredibly important to the overall experience of playing any game; particularly games like RPGs that tend to have more open-ended routes for a player to take.

One of the most common issues our players have had in SGoD is feeling a bit lost on where to go or what to do next when exploring the world, and so we set our sights on improving this experience to make the game world more player-friendly and easier to navigate.

After a great deal of discussion, we decided we didn’t want to take certain routes that detract from immersion into the game world. Mini-maps are one such example we decided against. While they can be an incredibly useful tool for the player, what they also do is pull a great deal of focus from the player off of the game world and into the mini-game of staring at the mini-map.

Instead, we wanted to better lay out the world itself in such a way that figuring out where to go became easier, and use in-game tutorials to help highlight and explain the world to players as they go along. While Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death already had some tutorials, we’ve added a few more and shifted others around in order to better explain game mechanics earlier and help guide players in navigating the world.

Further, NPCs and in-game journal entries now use “nudge text” to help the player hone in on parts of conversations that lay out where to go next. “Nudges” are a tool that can be used to gently guide the player around the world and include things like Navi and the Owl in Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Sometimes however, if used too much, nudges can be a little invasive and detract from gameplay (we get it, owl, we need to visit the princess in Hyrule Castle. Enough already!).

We decided to use nudges only within story-related, regular conversations with NPCs and journal entries to try and highlight where to go next without leaving the player feeling like pushy NPCs are trying to dictate their game time.

Niamh wishes to gently remind you that you need to speak to Niall to advance the plot. We very strongly recommend you do not disappoint her…


[h2]Patch Notes 1.4[/h2]
New artwork and player guidance features are not the only new additions! Below you can find the full patch notes for version 1.4 of the Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death demo:

🌻Massive icon-related artwork update for every item, spell, weapon, armor, interface option, etc. Everything you find, purchase, interact with, and so on across the game will look more unique and have a more Celtic, nature-y flair in-line with the themes and story beats of the game.

🌻Updated item details across all items to more clearly define what items are and what they do.

🌻Added new text highlights, tutorials, and journal updates to better outline where the player needs to go next to advance the story, as well as explain certain game mechanics more clearly.

🌻Weakened some monsters in the very early game to make the first couple character levels feel less punishing before the player has more tools to counter monster strategies.

🌻Updated code related to area transitions to make them smoother and to allow music and ambience to tie in directly with moving around the world rather than on separate triggers. (dev note: ultimately, what this accomplishes is a noticeably cleaner and more smoothly connected world when shifting around maps).

🌻Many small adjustments to story beats, artwork, and code for an extra level of flair and worldbuilding.

🌻Fixed bug related to screen tint when quick-traveling from the Verdant Temple to outside the temple.

🌻Shifted some enemies around in battle templates to clean up in-battle movement and special attacks.

🌻Added new conversations with some characters across the main story.

🌻Polished up various cutscenes across the demo (includes fixing minor bugs related to movement and screen shifts and adding some new improvements to the narrative).

That’s all we have for you today aside from a small progress update: we are hard at work creating the world of Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death and development continues to move along apace. For our next dev diary, we will dive into new features and areas coming with the full release of SGoD.

Thank you so much for taking the time to try our demo and we sincerely hope you enjoy this update to the game.

May your days be ever-graced with the soothing warmth of the sun, and your paths laid bare with glimmering moonlight.

-C.W. Hendricks

Greetings everyone!

It has been incredible seeing so many new players checking out our game, and we want to keep pushing forward with improving the demo experience for everyone we can. So we've prepared a small patch that fixes a couple issues reported by our players and adds some new animations to a handful of skills that we thought were just not up to par with more recently designed spells and artes.

Here are the patch notes:

🌻 Adjusted character artwork for Yannick (new design that matches the setting better, how did
he afford such glorious armor before? Hmm...)

🌻 Small adjustment to the opening ritual scene to accommodate the increased resolution update.

🌻 Fixed a bug with mouse-click interactions related to Niall and the map within the ranger barracks.
(Thank you Raventears!)

🌻 Reworked animations for a number of older spells/skills that we felt were not up to par with newer, more recently created animations. The following animations have been updated:

Enliven -> (new animation, icon, and SE)
Pacify -> (minor adjustment)
Flash Strike -> (new animation)
Stone Fist -> (new animation and SE)
Howl -> (new animation and SE)
Flitterlight -> (adjusted volume of SE, was too quiet before)

🌻 Removed the white box that appears when mouse-click interacting with the world. The functionality
of mouse-click interactions is unchanged, only the visual effect is removed. We think the
game looks better visually without this box, and is less immersion breaking for players.

🌻 Removed mouse-click-hold sprint functionality as this was buggy and not as clean as we would like. This may be revisited at another date, but up until now, when trying to use this feature, it just never operated smoothly. Sprinting is, of course, still in the game! It just requires you to hold whatever input you assign to Sprint (default Shift key) to activate.


That's all we have for today. Thank you to all of you who have given our game a try, and as well to all of you who have Wishlisted the game or added the demo to your library. We are humbled by your support and will do our best to deliver a truly great RPG experience for all of you.


Have a wonderful weekend and remember to take the time to travel off the beaten path whenever it is safe to do so.

-C.W. Hendricks

Ladies, gentlemen, faefolk of every creed, let the doors open upon our second act! Tonight, for your entertainment, I’ve prepared for you myriad tales of glory, grandeur, and gloam. I bid you listen closely, lest you find your bearings shattered upon the waves of the Waywyrd…


Hello everyone! Welcome to our second Dev Diary for Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death. My name is C.W. Hendricks, lead writer, developer, and designer for the game, and I am honored to bring to you the exciting news and updates we have in store today!


First off, Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death is going to be featured in Steam’s Summer Next Fest 2024! If you haven’t yet given the game a try, now is as good a time as ever! I firmly and humbly believe you will be enchanted by the world, characters, and classic RPG gameplay we have put so much love and effort into creating. And don’t forget to Wishlist the game if you enjoyed it! Wishlisting helps small indie studios/games like ours tremendously by boosting our visibility throughout Steam.

For those of you who have already played the demo, or are still looking for the time to sit down and enjoy a classic-style RPG, we’ve prepared a little something to get you (back) into the world! Patch 1.2 has launched and with it comes updates to various artwork and core game systems that we think add just that extra bit of flair and fun to the game. These are things we’ve designed for Act II and beyond in particular, and thought it would be really cool to update Act I (and thus the demo!) with the new features as well. 


[h3]Patch 1.2[/h3]

🌻 Updated all menu, battle, message, etc. windows in the game with new artwork.

🌻 Updated game resolution to better support widescreen monitors.

🌻 Updated all weapon types with more interesting effects.

🌻 Updated all accessories with effects that scale better over time.

🌻 Redesigned all character and monster stats, as well as growth rates, to allow for smoother level scaling and power growth over time.

🌻 Fixed a bug with Purify not correctly dispelling Sleep effects.

🌻 Updated battle information popups to include information about weakness, immunities, critical hits, and elemental/status resistances.

🌻 Updated artwork for Woadwolf-type monsters.

🌻 Adjusted various sound effects to achieve a higher level of polish and quality.

🌻 Adjusted a small number of conversations throughout the first Act.

🌻 Added new, unique bound spells to staff type weapons.

🌻 Added elemental weaknesses to some enemies within the Verdant Temple.

🌻 Lowered the power of monsters outside the temple to create more gradual steps in difficulty.

🌻 Updated several cutscenes with better camera positioning and movement.

🌻 Disabled click-to-move functionality for the time being until better pathfinding can be implemented. All other functionality relating to interacting with the world with a mouse is the same as before.
(Note: We’ve decided to remove click-to-move for now because the game engine’s pathfinding is not up to par with where we’d like it to be. We have some thoughts on how to improve this, but for now, in response to player feedback, we’re going to remove this feature.)

🌻 Updated every area and cutscene with new techniques and code we’ve learned over the development process to make the game run better on lower-end systems (and just use less processing power in general).

🌻 Fixed a bug with the shadow overlay in the Lucanwood.


That’s more or less everything included in Patch 1.2! There are likely a few other small tweaks to various systems included here, but all of the major updates are described above 😊.


[h3]What’s Next?[/h3]

Tread gracefully through the caverns feared as the Doom of Kazarakh, lest you find yourself toe-to-toe with the most insidious and dreaded creatures known to nature...Thornbats!


With the patch and Next Fest announcement out of the way, I wanted to take a moment to shed some light on our current development process and show off some cool new stuff we’ve been working on recently for Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death!

Before we get into the preview, I know it’s been quite some time since our last Dev Diary, and I do want to apologize for that. With such a small team, we are laser focused on making the best possible game we can, and marketing and outreach efforts like Dev Diaries have taken a back seat as of late. That being said, I do want to do more to keep our fans in the loop of what’s going on, particularly since we’re a new studio without a lot of clout to our name, so consider this the first of more effort to come on this front.

Now, enough about that, let’s get into the fun stuff 😊. First up is a preview of one of the classes we are making for Wedelia. The class system in SGoD is similar to other RPGs you’ve likely played in the past, and we’re not trying to create something wholly new with it. However, what we DO want to do is create classes that are unique from each other and result in a character being played significantly differently than if you ran them as another class. Personally, of the RPGs I’ve played over the years, the ones with the best class systems are the ones that always had the most replayability for me. A great class system in an RPG allows the player to approach items, battles, etc. considerably differently than if they were to run another class on the same character, adding a layer of strategy that is fun, challenging, and wholly optional for those who don’t want to dive that deep into the game mechanics (i.e. you could beat the entire game with just the base classes and never feel like you hamstrung yourself; every class is good in its own way). Enter, the Witch.

Witch is the first new class you’ll unlock in SGoD, and it is a high damage output class for Wedelia that contrasts with her more healing and crowd control focused initial class, Priestess. The Witch has powerful Void element offensive spells as her centerpiece, but being as it’s a class for Wedelia, there are supportive spells in the mix. However, they all come with risk for both the caster and the recipient… as the potent magic of the Void is never woven freely, demanding sacrifice from its practitioners.

Here is a small preview of some of the abilities we’ve built for the class already, and more are planned / in the works!

💀 Mire – Deals Void element damage to all enemies. Costs HP to cast.

💀 Cauldron Brew – Buffs Strength and Intellect for one ally, but also applies Infection (HP damage over time). Costs HP to cast.

💀 Bloodboil Brew – Buffs Agility (which increases how fast your turns come around) and significantly buffs Critical Hit chance for one ally, but applies Enervate (MP damage over time). Costs HP to cast.

💀 Siphon Life – Deals minor Void damage and drains HP equal to damage dealt. The only spell in the Witch’s arsenal that costs MP to utilize. Note that as a Witch, Wedelia’s MP pool is considerably less than in any of her other classes, so use of this spell is limited.

The concept behind this class is to create an offensive/support class for Wedelia that is powerful but risky to use. While her spells deal high damage and her buff abilities are some of the strongest in the game, she simultaneously weakens both herself and her allies with every cast; to play as a Witch is to dance on a knife’s edge, risking death in exchange for the power to overwhelm and utterly destroy one’s enemies.


[h3]Closing Notes[/h3]

The last thing I wanted to talk about was just a quick progress report for how development is going in general. We are around 3/4ths of the way through development of Act II, which will more or less mark the halfway point of SGoD's development as a whole! Progress is going great overall and we are so excited to share more of what we’re creating, so check back in a little while for more details about the game.

Here's a little tidbit of info about a new area you'll explore early on in Act II:

The Lucanwood is a vast stretch of forest in eastern Pharsus, within which can be found Amuniai and the Verdant Temple. In addition, underneath a canopy of greens, reds, and blues, many small caves and rivers may be found. A great network of ruins, too, lies interspersed throughout the forest, reminders perhaps of more prosperous times. It is here, in this wood mysterious and magical, a lone woman has built her home; a woman who may be able to save Wedelia's life.

Thank you for your interest in Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death and we hope you’ll continue to follow along in our journey to create a truly memorable gaming experience for all of you.


May your travels be ever blessed with magic and wonder,

-C.W. Hendricks

[h2]Patch notes 1.1[/h2]

Greetings one and all! We've prepared a small patch updating the demo based on feedback from our wonderful community of players!

🌻 Added a small new area accessible from the ladder in Amuniai. New treasure may be found as well! 😊

🌻 Fixed an error with Cormac’s battle art.

🌻 Updated treasure chest artwork.

🌻 Adjusted positioning of various flora so that the player cannot be “lost” when transitioning areas.

🌻 Moved the controls tutorial to an earlier screen upon starting a New Game.


[h3]Thank you for playing Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death![/h3]

Greetings! My name is C.W. Hendricks and I am the lead designer, developer, and writer for Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death. It is a profound and serendipitous honor to make your acquaintance.

On behalf of our (very) small studio, I want to graciously and humbly thank all of you who have given our demo a try, or followed us on Facebook or Twitter, or wishlisted our game on Steam, and all of you too who have yet to do any of this but have still found your merry way to our mysterious and wonderful corner of the internet.

Thank you. Sincerely, our dream is to create a game worth diving into, a story you can lose yourself in for hours on end, an adventure that will resonate with the very core of your being and leave you entertained and awash with feelings of both nostalgia and the satisfied wanderlust of experiencing something new.

So, without further ado, please allow me to provide some insight into the inner workings of our studio and our current plans for the game.




The Incandescent Bard is a studio created in 2023 with the goal of delivering captivating, high quality stories to a broad audience through the medium of video games. We are currently a studio of two people based in Maryland in the United States. We are gamers through and through, and gaming has been a hobby of ours since we were tiny buds on the branch.

Over the years, we’ve found modern games, by and large (there are exceptions!), seem to have shifted their focus away from the amazing storytelling and lore that captivated us as children and drew us into the world of video games to begin with. We want to bring those feelings of epic storylines and grand adventure back to the forefront.

As such, our design philosophy focuses on the three pillars which we believe form the foundation of what makes a game truly approach greatness:


🌻 Story. RPGs are at their very best when playing the game feels as much like an interactable book as it does a video game. The characters should be relatable and their struggles should move you. The plot should leave you on the edge of your seat wanting more. The setting and lore should enchant you and inspire a drive to dive in and be immersed in a world so different and yet, at its core, similar to our own.

🌻 Art. Maps, enemy design, animations, character design, etc. should be enjoyable to experience and add to the story in a way that brings the game to life. Indie video games are as much an expression of creativity and art as anything else, and the work woven into the illustration side of a game should, at the very least, reflect the love and passion that goes into the writing, design, and development.

🌻 Gameplay. This is the pillar that holds high the story and art and places them in a space different than that of other mediums. And the key to unlocking satisfying gameplay is actually rather simple: the game needs to be fun. Whatever we’re designing, we’re always asking ourselves, is this fun? Would I have fun playing through this plotline or mini-game? At the end of the day, to us, everything a player could be doing in the game needs to meet this simple but all important requirement.

Speaking of fun, I think that’s enough about our studio, let’s get into some more exciting stuff about Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death 😊.

Did you know that characters in Amuniai will react differently in response to events throughout the story? There are various hidden conversations that can lead to deeper lore and sometimes even treasure!

Current Plans for Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death

[h2]Story[/h2]

Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death is a story that will span over four acts, each focused on a different part of our heroes’ journey to restore peace and stability to the Broken Isles.

Such a task will neither be easy nor without pain, as the Diadochi of the western mainland stir. The wives of the ailing and heirless Martellus, the Blood-Soaked Emperor, who each rule a piece of his conquests by writ of marriage and right of steel, set out against one another to cement themselves as the sole woman who shall inherit the crown. Agothaclia, 2nd wife of Martellus and basilissa of the Helvonii, a battle-hardened people who make their lives on the eastern coast of the mainland, has set out with an army in tow to bring the Broken Isles to heel.

Meanwhile, powers fel and fierce bubble up from the darkest corners of the Abyss, emboldened by the rising terror of a goddess whose icy grip spreads across a land left embittered with their gods of old.

What sacrifices must be made for freedom? Can so few make a difference against so many? Is the stability of the old ways worth fighting for, or is change, though brought about with blood and iron, the better path forward into a new era?

Wedelia isn't accustomed to the eccentricities of emperors.

[h2]Art[/h2]

Three main islands make up the core of the Broken Isles and each have their own flavor and style to experience. Pharsus, where our story begins, is the largest of the three and is covered in a dense woodland both magical and mundane.

Act II of the game will center on an island already under the control of Agothaclia’s iron fist, and is home to the largest city of the Broken Isles, Aordhos. The city itself has a distinctly Hellenic flair to its design, and its people traditionally worship a flippant god of mists, trade, and sophistry. Grand temples, bustling markets, and powerful feats of engineering using water can be found throughout the island.

Further locales to be designed in other parts of the Broken Isles include a wasteland of brimstone and sand, temples dedicated to the old gods and goddesses that once formed the core places of worship on the Isles, a mountainous village tucked away under the bubbling eye of a volcano, and a deep cavern rife with the trapped souls of the violently slain.

This is not at all a comprehensive description of the art and settings to come, but more of a sneak peek and overall key plans for what lies ahead!

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]

Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death is, at its core, a classic-style RPG. Expect the sort of gameplay established by old-school RPGs with key twists to the formula. Some of this is already said on our Steam page, but we’d like to go into a little more detail on what we are building:

🌻 Strategic battles that require thought and planning, with an active battle system that demands quick thinking but allows for “pauses” for decision making. Spamming Attack will take you nowhere except into the clutches of the Goddess of Death, we’ve warned you…😊

🌻 A class system that encourages replayability and allows any one player to approach encounters very differently than others. We are designing our class system with the goal that battles can feel fresh and exciting every time a new class is unlocked. Our classes are designed to approach battles in ways that we think feel fun and unique, while still keeping with the traditional foundations established by the RPGs of yore.

🌻 Ability to sail throughout the Broken Isles and visit places off the beaten path. There will be hidden dungeons, treasure, and story content throughout the map that encourage and support an adventurous playstyle. The map will not be gigantic and full of empty ocean plains, but modest in scope with myriad places to explore tucked away generously throughout. The world map is focused solely on the Broken Isles.

🌻 Accessibility is and will be a key driver throughout development. There are both easier and more grueling difficulty options for those only interested in the story or those who want to fight tooth and nail against Death itself. There are options to disable both skill and monster animations for those who feel ill with too much screen movement or graphical effects. Controller, keyboard, and mouse support are included, and we will continue to polish these aspects. More systems and marketplaces such as the Switch and PlayStation are on the radar. Support for more languages is planned. Rest assured we will try our very best to make the game accessible to as many as we can.

Were you able to discover the secret mini-boss encounter? A clue lies within the scroll!


That’s it for now! I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed reading and learning a bit about our studio The Incandescent Bard and our current title in development, Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death!

Remember that you can reach out to us anytime through the following channels:

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Sunflowers-and-the-Goddess-of-Death/61555427985989/

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/SGoD_game


Stick around for our next Dev Diary coming in March which will cover a sneak peek at content in Act II!


PD: ¡Actualmente se está desarrollando una demostración en español!


Safe and enchanting adventures to you, traveler.
- C.W. Hendricks