Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death News

[h3]Ladies, gentleman, faefolk from the drowned depths of Nyre to the withering dunes of Resh, welcome![/h3]

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. 🙂

Developer Diary #7 will be a bit smaller than is typical, but it contains some key details about how overall development of the game is going.

Let's get right into the update, shall we?

[h2]Overall Development Update[/h2]

We're very happy to share that development of SGoD is coming along smoothly, and we're roughly ~65% finished with the game. This month we wrapped up development of the 2nd Act of the main story, along with finishing all of the main systems that underpin the gameplay (such as the game's class system, spatial sound, and other engine/game mechanics-level systems).

We're now full swing into writing, drawing, and designing everything that will be in Act III, which will include some of the most pivotal, climactic parts of the storyline. Many of the game's characters, intrigues, and plot points will meet their conclusions in this act.

Without spoiling anything story-related, we wanted to share just a little of what we've built for Act III so far. Take a look below 😄.

[h2]Act III Sneak Peek[/h2]In the westernmost district of the grand mercantile city of Aordhos lies the Riverspent, an area of the city known for both the Serpent's Shedding, a winding river that snakes its way from home to home, and the cluttered houses and shops of the city's poor, exhausted and spent after a long day's trade.

Yet the working weary and the city's many visitors and travelers need a place to unwind and rest, and The Mermaiden's Feather is one such establishment.

(Do Mer have feathers? Bahaha! That's a good one. The tavern is actually named for the syreen that...well, just ask the barkeep for the whole story 😄).


Another location you may find in Act III is the High Hall of the One-Hundred, the beating heart of administration in Aordhos. Within this great columned building is a reliquary dedicated to the history of Aordhos, wherein many artifacts are on display for the public.

Investigate the relics here, as well as the many books throughout the High Hall, to learn the lore surrounding the founding of the city and how it came to dominate trade amongst the tribes of the Broken Isles...or just crack open some chests, collect their treasure, and be on your merry way. The choice is yours 😄.

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That's all we have for this evening! We hope you enjoyed what we had to share today, and if you haven't yet, remember that we've a free demo on Steam available to play!

Thank you so much for your interest in Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death! We'll continue working hard on building the best possible retro-inspired JRPG we can.

Don't forget to Wishlist on Steam and share this update with any friends who like this style of game. Every bit helps!


May the first buds of spring find you warm and content upon winter's passing,

CW Hendricks

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Ladies, gentlemen, faefolk, greetings and welcome :).

We're very excited to be participating in this year's RPG Maker Festival 2026, a festival that celebrates indie games the world over!

We invite you to head over to the festival page and join The Incandescent Bard and so many other wonderful indie devs in showcasing the worlds we have built with so much love and heart.

Check out the demos, Wishlist and Follow the games you enjoy, and maybe even find your next great adventure :).

Take care out there,

CW
The Incandescent Bard

Ladies, gentlemen, faefolk, welcome! Join us by the hearth and warm your hands and heart; we've a story to share about development on Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death :). We'll also have the patch notes for Hotfix 1.8.1 available at the end of this developer diary.

As always, thank you so much for your support and interest in Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death. We will continue to work our hardest to bring you the best possible JRPG we can build!

If you've yet to try the demo, now is as great a time as any! We would be honored if you would give our game a try, and please Wishlist and Follow us on Steam if you enjoy it! And maybe share this dev diary with a friend? :)

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[h2]A Hand-made World Map[/h2]

Pharsus is just the first of several explorable islands within the Broken Isles.


One of the major parts of the game we've been working on this last month is creating our world map.

Personally, we've always loved having world maps in RPGs. That feeling of setting out into the larger world of the game, eager to discover new locations, towns, dungeons, and the like...it's just something special, and something we are absolutely doing our best to bring to SGoD.

The Broken Isles are the remains of a continent shattered by a war between the gods known as the Rending, and as you travel across the world you'll see the ruins of crumbling castles, abandoned watchtowers, and other relics of the past.

You'll also be able to sail across the Waywyrd, the great sea that now separates this broken land, exploring several islands and the many locations that dot this part of the world of Urdin.

Our chief goals in creating the game world are first to instill that feeling of wanderlust that the world maps of classic RPGs did so well, and second to bring the world together through the artwork, color palettes, and lore that form the Broken Isles.

[h2]Adding Personality and Depth in Pixel Art[/h2]

Melas is deeply intrigued by the holy tome of Salcyon, the god of serpents, trade, and mists.


The next major project we've been working on is a big polish pass on Act 2, and one of the chief components of this is creating pixel art animations for our characters that help to bring their personalities to the fore.

In earlier stages of development, many of our cutscenes had narrative text that described how a character is acting on that scene, whether it was Wedelia kneeling down to inspect a wounded comrade or a swordsman drawing his blade.

We realized over time, however, that these narrative text windows slowed down scenes and didn't have the same impact that animations could. And so we've set out on a quest to level-up our cutscenes and characters with new art so they could better strut their stuff.

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[h2]📜Demo Patch Notes 1.8.1📜[/h2]

🌻 Added new shading to various objects in the game world.

🌻 Fixed a bug that prevented players from returning to the title screen when selecting "To Title" from the in-game menu.

🌻 Fixed a bug where tutorial sound effects would still play after tutorials were disabled from the options menu.

🌻 All game icons have been updated with new artwork/shading.

🌻 Added a lighting effect to the entrance-ways of indoor areas, to better show where a building can be exited.

🌻 Updated the save pictures of a few areas to better reflect their updated art.

🌻 Fixed a bug where sometimes character portraits would fail to load when using a hotkey to open the equip menu.

🌻 Fixed a bug where the Lucanwood BGM would occasionally glitch out.

🌻 Updated most tutorials: new pictures, updated explanations for clarity, and highlighted text in light blue when a keybinding or hotkey is referred to.

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That's all we have for today!

We will be back next month to share more details about our development progress :).

Thank you again for traveling this journey with us; it is your support and interest that makes creating Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death possible.


May the coming weeks of wintry weather find you warm and content by home and hearth.

-CW & Paige

[p][/p][h3]Ladies, gentlemen, fae from the drowned depths of Nyre to the hymning branches of the Ardentwood, greetings and welcome![/h3][p]
We have a couple of major announcements to share today, beginning with the biggest:

The Incandescent Bard and indie.io have partnered to build Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death up to the best it can possibly be! We are incredibly excited and honored to be able to work with the folks at indie.io, a partner with extensive experience at bringing excellent indie titles to the widest audience possible. Some of the titles they've previously published include Dark Deity II, Coromon, and Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga, all incredible games in their own right (and titles I would personally recommend playing, if you haven't yet!)

For those of you who may not know, working with a game publishing platform like indie.io greatly helps indie developers focus on game development while they handle all the behind-the-scenes magic. From helping manage store pages to crafting marketing campaigns and even helping the game shine at both digital and live events, indie.io helps in all the aspects that indie developers often struggle with alone.

With indie.io's input and assistance, we can and will make Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death all it can be.

To all our fans, players, and followers, thank you so much for joining us on this journey so far. Your enthusiasm and feedback on the world we're creating inspires us, and we would be humbled if you would continue on this path with us, as we look forward to the full release of Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death in the not-too-distant future :).

One last thing: make sure to Wishlist and Follow Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death on Steam! It helps a great deal by giving our Steam page more traction, and also keeps you informed when major announcements happen, like our big demo update below.

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In addition to the announcement of the partnership, we have prepared an extensive update to the demo that adds in a ton of new features and accessibility options to the game, polishes up the artwork of every area in the demo, and fixes a few bugs that had cropped up in the previous version.[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]The updated demo is ready to download now, so you can get your first look at Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death! Also, we’d love to hear what you think: if you run into any bugs or have feedback, come join the conversation here.

Below you'll find the complete list of changes in the Sunflowers and Goddess of Death Demo version 1.8! [/p]


[h2]📜Patch Notes 1.8📜[/h2]

[h3]Significant Changes Have Been Made to the Equip Menu[/h3]
🌻 Equipment that a party member cannot use is now displayed alongside gear they can use, but grayed out.

Before, when viewing the Equip menu with Wedelia selected, any equipment she could not use would not show up in the menu. This led to occasional confusion when players found new equipment that characters could not equip as it wouldn’t show up in the menu, leading some to believe it glitched out or there was a bug (or worse, some thought they accidentally sold their best stuff when visiting shops!). Now all equipment shows up, just grayed out for that character if it is unuseable.

🌻 Equipment descriptions are now more informative, sharing the effects and abilities of gear within the Equip menu.

Previously the special effects of weapons, armor, and accessories, like a Bound Spell or a boost to Critical Rate, could only be seen in the details panel within the Inventory menu or at a shop. Now, important information about the item can be seen directly from the Equip menu, reducing the amount of menus players have to navigate to access this info.

🌻 Emerald Periapt and Beltane Ring have been buffed to make them a little more competitive with other accessories.


[h3]Artwork Stylization and Touch-Up[/h3]
Gildas and Rhiannon have been hard at work on a remodeling. Can't let the other villagers outdo them, after all. Every area has been retouched with darker, earthier tones.

🌻 Every single zone and area in the demo has been polished and stylized to fit the game just a little bit better.

The goal here is to make the art style of Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death more together, more earthy, more witchy, and a little more somber, to better match the story and writing style. Every single area in the demo has been stylized with new contrasts & colors, and most areas also have new environmental art (objects, textures, etc.) to match the new style.

🌻 Map name, Autosave, Journal update, and New Tutorial message popups are now displayed in a stylized, bardic font.

🌻 Imsha word popups are now easier to read and have a little more style.

🌻 Monster spawns are now an indigo color instead of a light green to help them stand out more from scenery and environment objects.

🌻 Updated tutorial pictures throughout the demo to reflect the game’s new artwork.


[h3]Technical Adjustments and Bug Fixes[/h3]
🌻 The overall length of the demo has been cut down; the demo now ends upon reaching the Verdant Temple.

If you have a save file from an older version of the demo, you can continue this save to complete the Verdant Temple content and the rest of Act I just as before, so no journey through the demo in content that is no longer accessible will be interrupted. Brand new saves will be limited to the shorter length demo.

We’re making this change in order to create a more “bite-sized” experience for the demo, that can also be used for booth gameplay at conventions.

🌻 The game’s save file location has been changed for Windows operating systems. Saves are now located in C:\\Users\\{Username}\\AppData\\Local\\Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death

This change was made in order to stop OneDrive from corrupting game files on Windows operating systems, as previously saves were stored in the Documents folder and multiple users have reported OneDrive related errors because of that. OneDrive does not sync AppData by default, so this new location is more stable.

Moving old saves to the new location (so the game can find them) is quite easy! Simply go to C:\\Users\\{Username}\\Documents\\Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death, copy everything in that folder, and post it directly into the new Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death folder within AppData\\Local. If you don’t have a Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death folder here, you can create one yourself, or just launch the game and play until you can manually save, then the game will create one for you.

Note 1: None of this applies to Mac players. Your saves are the same as they were before!

Note 2: If you cannot see your AppData folder and are trying to manually move saves, it’s because AppData is hidden by default. Click View at the top and then click the Hidden Items checkbox to see it.

🌻 Added an option to disable screen shake effects. It can be found in the Options section of the game menu within the General tab under Exploration.

🌻 Changed the name of the menu command “Game End” to “Exit Game”. Can now directly quit the game from this command (a confirmation window will popup with 3 choices: “To Title”, “Exit Game” and “Cancel”)


[h3]Reworked Controls and Control Customization[/h3]
Note: If you previously played the Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death Demo, your control scheme was saved to a configuration file. If you want to enjoy the new controls and hotkeys, you must go to the Options menu in-game, select Rebind Keyboard Controls (or Rebind Gamepad Controls), select Reset, and then Save Settings.

🌻 Added PS4, PS5, and Switch controller support (Xbox controller support was already in the game)!

🌻 New expanded controls customization menu, including the ability to rebind new hotkeys, as well as rebind PS and Switch controllers however you like. Special controls (and the keys used for them) cannot be rebound, to prevent errors.

🌻 More default keybindings:
Enter, F, Spacebar = Confirm
Esc = Menu / Cancel
PageUp, PageDown = Previous / Next
And more!

🌻 Added a WASD hotswap option in key rebindings: just select WASD in Rebind Keyboard Controls to auto-adjust your keybindings.

🌻 Added hotkeys for core game menus (these hotkeys are also bound to different gamepad buttons by default, and are fully customizable!):
J = Journal
I = Inventory
U = Equip

🌻 You can now hide the mouse cursor by pressing Caps Lock on your keyboard :).

🌻 A new tutorial has been added to the game called “Special Controls” that is unlocked by default. It outlines special keyboard controls available for players that generally won't be often used. Right now, it only explains the Caps Lock function to hide the mouse cursor, but as more functions are added, this tutorial will expand to explain them all.


[h3]Quests & Other[/h3]
🌻 Simplified/clarified the “A Clue from an Ancestor” quest directions. The treasure is at the same location, just trying to make the puzzle a little easier to decipher.

🌻 Added stylized Wishlist and Version button links to the main menu. Clicking these with your mouse cursor will jump directly to the Steam Store page & latest patch notes, accordingly.

🌻 The ferocious avian enemies lurking around the outskirts of Amuniai have been renamed. They are now called Branosoi, or Branos in the singular. Branos is classical Celtic for crow, which we think is a more thematic name than what they had before. :)

Every outdoor area has also been given a pass. You'll find new colors, textures, and objects all throughout the demo.

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That's all we have for now! Thank you so much for keeping informed about Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death and we hope you will give our demo a try with all of the new features and artwork :).


Happy holidays and take care, everyone

-CW Hendricks & Paige Larsen, The Incandescent Bard



PS: Check out the publisher page for indie.io and maybe find another story-driven indie title to support, as well :).

Hello everyone!

We've just taken live our Kickstarter campaign!

You can find it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theincandescentbard/sunflowers-and-the-goddess-of-death?ref=2x8rro

We hope you will back us during the campaign and help us bring the world of Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death to life :).

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There are a number of perks you can get by backing us on Kickstarter, like:

🌻 Kickstarter exclusive in-game rewards.

🌻 Ability to vote on new lore to be expanded within the game.

🌻 Opportunity to collab with the developers (us!) to create content that will be in the game on release.

🌻 Have your name in the credits and displayed on an in-game monument.

🌻 And more! :)

We will also be sharing development updates on Kickstarter, so definitely take a look over the coming weeks for more news about the adventures, story, characters, enemies, and game mechanics that await you in Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death!


Finally, there is also a 25% discount on the game if you back within the first 48 hours of the campaign, or a 10% discount if you back within the first week!

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Everyone, thank you so much for your support; your wishlists, your comments, emails, feedback, everything. It really means the world to us and keeps us motivated to continue building the best RPG we can.


We hope you have a wonderful week full of adventure and magic :).

-CW & Paige
The Incandescent Bard