The Abbess Garden News

[p]Many thanks to the playtesters who registered for our beta test! (more than 400!!!). The feedback allowed us to understand what the most pressure issues were patch the game 5 times :)[/p][p][/p][p]They were all related to what playtesters reported during the alpha and closed beta:[/p]

• [p]better character movement: Agnès is not looking away anymore from what she is examining, and she doesn't walk too far. Also, she is not weirdly leaning backwards anymore! [/p][p]( picture of the lean backwards bug 😱 )[/p]
• [p]fix the saving bugs (as there was only 1 chapter previously available to test, players didn't test it much before the closed beta, where it's longer).[/p]
• [p]popup to let players know what's missing to complete a chapter (objectives, dialogues or replanting)[/p]
• [p]adjustable walking speed! This one really annoyed the testers ;) [/p][p][/p][p][/p]
• [p]particles to highlight collections (some people didn't realise there was stuff to pick in the grass besides plants ;) )[/p]
• [p]and more![/p]

[p][/p][p]We know that everything is not perfect (yet! ;) ), but we still had great feedback that made us very happy:
[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]If you want to participate, there is still one day left: I'll be closing the beta test on Wednesday, July 8th, at 2 pm GMT. To register, click on "Request Access" on our Steam page (below ;) )[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]After that, I will remove the visibility of the Playtest, as well as the special keys that the alpha testers and newsletter subscribers got. [/p][p][/p][p]During this month, I will be working on two new major improvements: planting seeds visuals (removing the grass and changing the colour of the soil), and fixing water visuals, making it clearer. These are two of the most pressing issues (according to players and us) that we still need to fix![/p][p][/p][p]Then, I will polish the game to get the demo ready and send demo review keys to content creators! [/p][p]We hope they will like it :)[/p][p][/p][p]If you want to be informed of the demo release date, wishlist, follow or subscribe to our newsletter :) https://theabbessgarden.eo.page/newsletter

Have a nice day!

Edwige[/p]

[p]Recently, we have been busy adding content to the game and fixing bugs to get the closed beta ready! [/p][p][/p][p]To apply, click on the big green “Request Access” button on our Steam page! Then I’ll be adding playtesters regularly in the days to come.[/p][p]If you are in the closed playtest, you can invite 3 of your Steam friends, and they will be accepted immediately :)[/p][p][/p][p]
In the Closed Beta, you can play the first three chapters, right from the start, in March 1643 :) There are new plants and characters to discover too![/p][p][/p][p]For instance, you can meet the Musketeers! [/p][p]The closed beta is less polished than the demo will be: it's still testing! We have a huge todo list of things to improve before the demo is ready. [/p][p][/p][p]If you do test, please fill out the survey, it helps a lot![/p][p]
Also, we now have a few social accounts you can follow us on if you like 🙂[/p][p]Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mossy.dragon.s[/p][p]Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mossy.dragon.studio/[/p][p]Youtube: [dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p][p]I wish you an excellent day! [/p]

Hi!

This week's news is that The Abbess Garden is part of the Steam festival called "Spy Video Game Rendezvous". As you can expect, it's the only gardening game on that fest, but there are still other cozy games, and I am super happy to be able to show our game to players interested in spies :)



Our game's plot is based on a little-known real story about a very important British spy called John Cecil. Our story is partly fictional too, and it's Agnès (our main character) mission to help decipher his journal!

In the meantime, I'm working on integrating chapter 3 intro the game (the alpha test only shows chapter 2), adding the required plants too.
I am for instance working on marigold, and it's rather convenient that I have some in my garden as well!

Marigold work in progress in Blender

Marigold and other plants in my garden

Marigold flower in my garden

Also, I am super happy that our studio (MD Studio for Mossy Dragon Studio) now has a cute logo


If you want to know more about our game and team, please subscribe to the newsletter: https://theabbessgarden.eo.page/newsletter!

Also, if you want to contact us for questions, feedback or suggestions, here is our team's email: [email protected]

I hope you are all well and wish you an excellent week :)

Edwige, game director of the Abbess Garden

Hi!

Recently, I've been working on the "examine" panel, which used to be very rough and unclear. This panel opens when you use the magnifying glass on a plant to see if it's happy and what it needs.
It's still not perfect, but playtesters seem to understand it way better. The camera zooms in, there are particles to highlight the selected plant and a new UI!



This panel matters, as taking care of the plants is the core of the gameplay loop. At the beginning of the game, you'll just have to deal with the watering, then with the soil quality, and a few turns later, you will have more complex plants which also require to take care of their surroundings (some like being alone, some like being surrounded, some like specific neighbours, etc.)

I have also been importing SFX! (so important for immersion) You can see a first test video here:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Please let me know what you think in comments or by email to [email protected]!

Giovanni is writing the first chapter's dialogues. We didn't start with this one, as the first chapter is a bit of a tutorial, so it's not the most representative, but we will need it for the demo. Laurène is working with our sound engineer on mastering the music (I can't wait to hear the final versions!!!). Vincent is checking the scenario based on Sylvain's feedback (he is our historian), making sure everything makes sense historically! Joy is almost done with the character design :)

In the meantime, the alpha test is still ongoing, and it allowed me to find a bug with saving that I'm working on. Many thanks to our great testers!

We have a rather long list of interested playtesters to invite. I'm not inviting more players than I need atm, but if you fill the form and you don't get to the alpha, I'll invite you to the closed beta (as I will need many more testers for this phase). You can register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdrmAaOcPA1lizB0kdg6D8KiX3t45FoCoDOpuf5MbYKqSnokw/viewform

The next newsletter will be sent in about a week! I will show what Spring looks like in the game and what plants will be available. You can subscribe here: https://theabbessgarden.eo.page/newsletter! In the newsletter, I generally share more in-depth content (about the game, the team) and our announcements.

If you want to know more about the team and the game, here is our presskit!

I hope you are all having a great day! I wish you flowers and sunshine!

Edwige, game director of the Abbess Garden

The Abbess Garden's alpha test began in December 2024. I just invited a new wave our testers so they can test our new save system.
This update includes a few UI and UX improvements based on previous playtest feedback! Thanks to all our previous playtesters, it is very valuable!

For now, the testers play 30 minutes on average. There is only one month (April 1645, the second turn of the game), which includes 5 dialogs and 3 quests.

The next version of the playtest will include the third turn, May 1645!
If you are interested, you can join a future playtest wave by applying here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdrmAaOcPA1lizB0kdg6D8KiX3t45FoCoDOpuf5MbYKqSnokw/viewform




The next newsletter is coming soon, it will be about the music of the game and our awesome composer, Laurène Telennaria. I will present her background and her work for The Abbess Garden.

You can subscribe to the newsletter here:
https://theabbessgarden.eo.page/newsletter
I send one once a month. Each time, I try to give some information about the game's progress, in-depth information about one aspect of the game, I present members of the team and share some fun or interesting facts about plants and history.