Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death News

Greetings everyone!

We've been getting quite a few new players of the demo lately and we are incredibly excited to have you all here with us! We really hope you enjoy the demo and are looking forward to the full release :).

That said, this has also been a really good experience for us to get additional player feedback on the demo, and we've made some small changes to the final boss encounter on Normal difficulty, to make it less of a roadblock to someone who is newer to the game's battles.

As a side note, both Frolic and Certain Death difficulties are remaining unchanged in this patch.

[h2]Patch Notes 1.7.5[/h2]

🌻 Fixed a bug that would cause the screen to pan when interacting with an invisible object.

Developer's Note: This was actually a trigger we used to create some screen-panning gifs/movies for our Kickstarter that we accidentally left in the game. Apologies! That trigger is now removed!

🌻 Fixed a crash that could occur when spamming keys on a keyboard or buttons on a controller while the game was booting up.

🌻 Reduced the damage dealt by Galgam'yrth on Normal difficulty on all his abilitites.

🌻 Reduced the damage dealt by the Rootwoven minions on the Normal difficulty Galgam'yrth boss encounter.

🌻 Slightly reduced the HP of the Rootwoven minions on the Normal difficulty Galgam'yrth boss encounter.

Developer's Note: These balance changes are intended to, simply put, make the fight easier on Normal difficulty. Truthfully, we overshot the mark on the difficulty here. While we tested it extensively when we did the recent rework of the boss fight, it's clear to us now that we as developers intricately familiar with our game's battle system, we hadn't fully put ourselves into the shoes of a new player. We will do our best to be more mindful of this in the future.

We hope that anyone who is new to the game and perhaps got stuck on this boss encounter will give it another whirl with these changes. Boss encounters on Normal difficulty should feel challenging but very doable, and that is always what we're aiming for.

[h2]To Do List[/h2]

From the feedback we've gathered over the past couple weeks, we wanted to post a few things that we are aware of that need improvement / some ideas we have to make things better, and will make sure to have polished up for the game's full release:

🌻 Add a Tips/Tricks section to the Game Over screen, with some advice on how to approach a boss fight or on game mechanics that first-time players may not realize. We will also add a toggle to hide this information or disable it on Certain Death for those that do not want to see it.

🌻 Add some bonus tutorials explaining some further mechanics. By "bonus" we mean ones that will unlock and be added to the Tutorials section of the in-game menu with a "Tutorials Updated" message, but not pop-up on screen and interrupt gameplay.

🌻 Improve the Equipment screen UI so that special properties of equipment can be viewed. Right now, seeing special properties like a Bound Spell requires a player to view an equippable on the Inventory screen, and we know that is not ideal. This is going to take a little work as we'll likely need to redesign the Equip UI from the ground up, but it is 100% something we are going to do. Making important information easier to fetch and not require as much shifting through menus is always a good thing.

🌻 Add more types of controller compatibility, beyond just Xbox controllers. We're actually already working on this and have already coded in the ability for the game to recognize what type of controller you are using, beyond simply if you are using a controller at all (it can tell the difference between Xbox, Playstation, and Switch controllers!). The next step is getting the UI to understand this difference and update accordingly.

Greetings everyone!

We have 5 days remaining until our Kickstarter campaign goes live! 😅 We'll be sharing more news about Act II and other plans for the game throughout the campaign, so make sure to check it out!

Kickstarter campaign link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theincandescentbard/sunflowers-and-the-goddess-of-death?ref=2x8rro

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Just in case you didn't know:

Early-bird backer rewards will be available within the first 48 hours of our campaign launching (such as 25% off a digital copy of Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death + a Kickstarter exclusive in-game item on launch), and some rewards are limited to a finite number of backers! So tell your friends and be ready to check out our page on Tuesday, October 21st!

We hope to see you there!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Good evening and welcome, everyone!

We are incredibly excited (and a bit nervous) to announce we are launching a Kickstarter campaign on October 21st!

From our Kickstarter, you'll be able to back us to get exclusive rewards like:


🌻 A Steam copy of Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death at a discounted price.

🌻 Day 1 in-game items, the Ring of Inversion, Twineoak of Glamour, Faunamancer's Sigil, and Crux of the Coven.

🌻 Lore and worldbuilding updates.

🌻 Betatest access.

🌻 An invite to a private discord with the developers.

🌻 And many other perks!




We need your support to make Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death all it can be.

Back us on Kickstarter, get exclusive rewards, and help us bring the world of Urdin to life!

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

While the official launch of the Kickstarter is on the 21st, you can head there now to view our pre-launch info and click Notify me on launch to receive an email reminder when the Kickstarter campaign begins!

We will have special early bird backer rewards in the first 48 hours of our Kickstarter campaign, so make sure to click that notify button and don't miss out!

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[h3]Patch Notes 1.7.4[/h3]

We're also launching a small update to the free demo that fixes a bug with the controller customization options.

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Everyone, thank you so much for your support, feedback, and interest in Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death!

We'll be on Kickstarter sharing many more details about the game and it's development. We hope to see you there :).

[h2]Ladies, gentlemen, faefolk of every creed, good evening![/h2][p]
Tonight we're releasing an update to the demo that reworks the first boss encounter in Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death, Galgam'yrth, Avatar of Ishti.

Our goal with this rework is to make the encounter more fun at all difficulty levels, more challenging on Normal and Certain Death difficulty, and generally just a little more thematic of a fight.

First off, we wanted to open this announcement with a little insight into how we are designing boss encounters in Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death.

Gaglam'yrth is back for round 2 and ready to put the "death" in Certain Death.
[/p][p][/p][h3]Anatomy of a Boss Encounter[/h3][p]There are many RPGs out there that include difficulty levels, that's nothing new. However, for many games, the addition of a "hard" difficulty usually just means the enemies have increased stats, or the player gets reduced XP, or some other sort of numbers-related twist that doesn't really add more challenge, it just makes the game require more grinding in order to win.

For us, that is the exact opposite of what we want Certain Death difficulty to feel like.

We want the game's most arduous battle encounters to require practice, strategy, and creative thinking in order to win.

Further, we want players who prefer a more relaxed RPG to enjoy the fun of experiencing the same boss mechanics that other players will, just in a more forgiving manner.

Frolic difficulty players deserve the same level of fun with the game's combat system as anyone else. "Easy" difficulty doesn't need to mean "there are no mechanics and battles are boring on this setting."

In essence, with every boss encounter we design, we try to keep these tenants in mind:

🌻 Normal difficulty should be a challenging but fair experience, built for the average RPG enthusiast.

🌻 Certain Death difficulty should be a brutal, uncompromising battle, one that requires careful planning in advance and designed for those with a breadth of RPG experience.

🌻 Frolic difficulty should be an adventure. One with twists and turns, one that wants you to play and enjoy the game, but never punishes you for making mistakes.

🌻 Any differences in difficulty between Normal and Certain Death should primarily come from mechanics changes whenever possible; limit any numbers-related changes except where they are necessary for the design of the encounter. The exception is Frolic, which we've found needs lower raw numbers to keep things relaxed.

🌻 Higher difficulties should not require a significant amount of mindlessly fighting battles to get your character levels high enough to win the fights. A little extra fighting is okay, as we expect that is what players in Normal and Certain Death will typically do.

All of this leads to our redesign of the Galgam'yrth boss encounter. Normal and Frolic versions of the fight are now the same fight mechanically, but the Parameters (enemy stats) of Galgam'yrth and his adds on Frolic are tuned to be much more forgiving. On Normal and Certain Death, Galgam'yrth has the exact same Parameters (except for a modest increase to HP), so his abilities will be hitting the same regardless. You will, however, have to survive a mechanically different Phase 2 that should push you to your limit. :)

Ultimately we want our difficulties to be a fun and enjoyable experience tailored to the style of RPG you like to play, no matter the setting you choose.

We hope this sheds some light on how we look to design boss encounters in Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death, and that this insight gets you excited to see the newly redesigned Galgam'yrth encounter as well as all the battles we've cooked up for Act II and beyond!
[/p][p]Galgam'yrth and forest friends in all their Ishti-blessed glory. The Rootwoven Woadwolf also has little flowers in his fur :D.


[h3]Patch Notes 1.7.3[/h3]
🌻 Galgam'yrth now varies in HP totals depending on the difficulty selected for the encounter -> 200 HP for Frolic, 300 HP for Normal, and 400 HP for Certain Death.

🌻 Galgam'yrth no longer casts Siphon Life on any difficulty. He now casts the ability Horrid Undergrowth instead, regardless of difficulty.

🌻 Galgam'yrth now spawns Rootwoven versions of his adds. These adds, blessed with the power of the Goddess of Life, now have increased HP, increased Parameters, and new abilities and/or attack patterns. They also have new artwork/recoloring to reflect their goddess-infused status.

🌻 Galgam'yrth himself has had a small touch-up with his artwork to better reflect his theme.

🌻 Wedelia will now make her comment regarding Galgam'yrth's Phase 2 evolution immediately following Vita Resurgentis. Previously it was sometimes delayed and didn't line up with the ability being used.

🌻 Wedelia will no longer react to Galgam'yrth's Phase 2 if she is currently fainted when the phase begins. She was not intended to have mastered the ability to speak while unconscious.

🌻 Galgam'yrth no longer gains the benefits of the Rejuvenating status effect upon entering Phase 2. Instead, his HP restoration is immediate and dependent on the difficulty setting chosen.

🌻 Galgam'yrth now has a new Phase 2 design, unique to Certain Death difficulty. Prepare to fight root and claw for your survival!

🌻 Fixed an error in the code related to the artwork for Einno that was causing her to sometimes have an abnormally big noggin when she was lying down.

🌻 Fixed a couple bugs related to the animation for Galgam'yrth's transformation to his true form. The animation that plays should now always be anchored to his feet.



That's all we have for you this evening. As always, thank you so much for playing Sunflowers and the Goddess of Death! We hope you have a wonderful week both in and outside the world of Urdin :).


[/p][h3]May the first winds of Autumn find you comfortably relaxed; warm, soothing beverage in hand, as time idles peaceably by.[/h3][p]
-CW Hendricks[/p]

[p]Greetings!

We've taken live a new build today that fixes a crash that has been reported and makes a couple gameplay related tweaks.[/p][p][/p][h3]Patch Notes 1.7.2[/h3][p][/p][p]🌻Fixed a crash that would rarely occur when saving or loading a game caused by a cache integrity failure.[/p][p][/p][p]*It's likely most players never encountered this crash, as it only very rarely happened in typical gameplay and we could find no way to consistently reproduce it, but we took the time to fix it regardless. If you did encounter this crash at any point, we apologize; it should not occur again.[/p][p][/p][p]🌻The Dryad class (Einno's starting class) now learns the spell Arczephyr at level 4.[/p][p][/p][p]🌻The Priestess class (Wedelia's starting class) now learns the spell Wild Growth at level 5.[/p][p][/p][p]*These class adjustments were made so that characters could deal AoE damage earlier, as well as to give Wedelia a little more offensive power on the Galgam'yrth boss encounter. Level 5 is the typical level players reach during the Verdant Temple dungeon and this change will allow Wedelia to learn this new magic and have it available during the boss fight.

[/p][p]That's all we have for now! We hope you enjoy all the new changes with Patch 1.7 and we wish you a wonderful week :).[/p]