Solace Crafting News

[p]Hello everyone,[/p][p]Fab here. Not quite a Producer’s Letter but something like it ahead of time.[/p][p]Based on some feedback, comments and conversations between us, we wanted to share a clearer vision of where Solace Crafting is headed. Not just for the beta branch or the upcoming Builder, but for the broader universe we’re building together. [/p][p]We also want to share some new screenshots throughout this post!

Prototying designs for Solace Builder

Classic Solace Crafting (Live Main Branch)[/p][p]This is the version you know from Steam’s main branch: the original game, still online, shaped by years of development and the passion of veteran players. Classic Solace Crafting embraces an old-school, deep-fantasy RPG spirit and continues to be available for everyone who loves its endless progression and open-ended play. We have no intention to abandon or overwrite it. On the contrary, we want to maintain and improve Classic over time, honoring those who’ve made it part of their gaming life. It’s taking a bit of a backseat lately due to the foundational work we’re doing, but it’s not being phased out, shelved or otherwise abandoned.

Solace Keeper (Formerly "the Beta" Branch)[/p][p]What’s been known as “the Beta” is actually a new and parallel evolutionary step: think of it as Solace Crafting 1.5 or even 2.0, and from now on, we’ll call it Solace Keeper. Solace Keeper isn’t meant to replace Classic. It’s about streamlining, and expanding what’s possible: bringing in a more painterly, colorful style; introducing modular world creation; and letting players build worlds, cultures, and rules in new ways. Our vision is for Solace Keeper to coexist alongside Classic, not overwrite it. Where possible, we’re working towards data sharing and compatibility, so your worlds and progress can move more freely between the two experiences.

Two in One[/p][p]For the time being, the idea is to let you access both games from the same Steam key. It will remain like this at least for the duration of the development of Solace Keeper through alpha and beta. We’ll see after that, as we reach Early Access stage, whether it’s still the right way to do it or whether Solace Keeper needs its own Steam Page. Either way, owning Solace Crafting now means owning both Solace Crafting and Solace Keeper forever.[/p][p]But let’s get deeper into all this! [/p][h3]An Evolving World[/h3][p]So, Solace Keeper is going through its growing pains and visual development. This transition phase has us in an in-between zone with focus on setting the right palette and moods. Our goal is to offer multiple aesthetics and moods within branches of the same game universe, reflecting both nostalgia and innovation. The current “Classic” branch features an old-school look reminiscent of early 2000s MMOs like EverQuest 2: a style we intend to preserve and eventually improve further. Meanwhile, the “beta branch” (which we now call the Solace Keeper alpha) embraces a more colorful, animated feel. Khora, the world of Solace Crafting, is a multiverse. It seems fitting to treat these two instances of the game as different worlds, different times, different rules, different aesthetics, same universe.

Modular Worlds and Cultures[/p][p]Through the Builder and Solace Keeper, Solace Crafting is becoming more modular, both in map generation and in how cultures and biomes work: the Builder will be the first place to reflect this. Previously, Solace Crafting held to this “old school fantasy tinged with weird” orientation (mostly due to restrictions in asset choice and art direction). It allowed you to build square, blocky towns and warehouse-like houses. The Builder will begin introducing actual fantasy styles as “Cultures” from this Khora multiverse, reflecting various aesthetics and influences. The net result for the game, as these assets make their way into Solace Keeper, is that Players will be able to craft worlds “à la carte”. At world creation, you will be choosing which cultures and biomes to include, whether it’s a D&D-inspired adventure, a Tolkien-esque landscape, or even more exotic mixes in the future. Each culture will bring its own aesthetic and lore, and as broader modding opens up in 2026, we fully expect even more diverse worlds, embracing everything from classic fantasy to creative surprises, to come up.

The modular Elendor Tower

The Builder: Our Next Focus[/p][p]Right now, our main focus is the Solace Builder, improving it and expanding its asset library. The Builder is central to how we’ll support ongoing development, both for Solace Keeper and for maintaining Classic. It will also help define the unique look of each culture. At launch, we’re focusing on three foundational cultures which have a classic fantasy feel. We’ll tell you more about them but in these screenshots, you can guess about the direction of two of them. Each culture will be linked to specific biomes, but nothing stops us from dreaming up lizardfolk jungles, fire elementals in molten halls, or whatever the community and our own creative energy can sustain. Some of those wild things were already in Solace Crafting, so it’ll just be a matter of filling up assets templates sheets to make them work for you as your own construction toys.

The Willowlane Mansion, all familiar underhill coziness

The Solace Ecosystem[/p][p]Long term, we see Solace Crafting not just as a game, but as a living ecosystem: an ever-evolving set of worlds and tools for players, modders, and creators. Classic Solace Crafting will remain playable and receive care as we’re able, honoring the investment of veteran players and remaining the “Old Canon”. Solace Keeper, our next-generation branch, aims to take world-building to new heights, allowing you to shape landscapes, cultures, and rules from the ground up. The Builder is the gateway into this creative future: free to play, deeply moddable, and supported by optional themed support packs.

The Elendor Tower catching the light

Support and Community[/p][p]In August, Solace Builder will launch as a free demo on Steam, followed by a live version in the fall (free as well). To support further development, we’ll introduce themed support packs, each one filled with special assets, props, NPCs, and more, usable in both the Builder and future Solace Keeper worlds. Your support will help keep the lights on, power future updates, and open the door to hiring talented freelancers impacted by industry changes.

Building custom structures is how we establish what parts the Builder will need crammed in

Vision for the Long Haul[/p][p]We’re old school players over here, as are some of you. Having crossed over into game-making around a decade ago, we’ve naturally developed a vision not just for games and how they could or should be, but also about the industry, the job, the venture of making games and sharing them with audiences. We are creators, developers and players. We don’t think that for the past 10 to 15 years (arguably more), this industry has treated its creators, developers and players so well. So even though right now we’re just mostly two guys, we want to contribute to that at our little level, by creating a mutually supportive space between creatives, game worlds and supportive players.
It’s not just structures! It’s also props. Medieval tomatoes from another dimension. Closing[/p][p]We’re passionate about keeping Solace Crafting alive, growing, and open-ended. The “infinite planes of Khora” concept, written long ago by Kyle into the budding Solace Crafting lore, is only just beginning to take shape. By supporting and sharing, you help us build not just games, but a community and creative space that can thrive and surprise us all.[/p][p]You know that what’s done here at BKG, through the history Kyle has set, is long term. On my own side, I have the same mindset of “never quit, never surrender”. If you stick with us, we’ll show you what we can do together. We’re committed to giving you fantastic tools and toys.[/p][p]Thank you for being with us, for your feedback, and for believing in what Solace can become.[/p][p]See you in the next update next month!

https://discord.gg/solacecrafting[/p][p][/p][p]Thank you, truly, for being here.
[/p][h3]What You Can Do To Help[/h3][p]If you wanna push us up, either one of these will support us more than you know[/p]

• [p]Keep up the kind words on our Steam posts and the Likes[/p]
• [p]You can get and support the builder here:  [/p]

[p]https://bigkittygames.itch.io/solace-builder[/p]

• [p]Drop by our IndieDB page to help make it visible: [/p]

[p]https://www.indiedb.com/games/solace-crafting-rebuild[/p]

• [p]And of course, support on our Ko-fi page for our developer Newbery here:  [/p]

[p]https://ko-fi.com/bigkittygames[/p][p]Don’t trip, Johndude. Those battlements look very uneven.[/p]

[p]Hello fellow gamers, Kyle here.[/p][p][/p][p]Before we get into adding the full builder capabilities to the beta branch and a few extras that are going to make it that much more interesting in-game, I wanted to address several performance issues that have plagued the game for quite some time. Specifically, world generation.[/p][p][/p][p]As you run around in Solace Crafting the entire world, from the grass to the mountains is 100% generated in runtime. There is no level until the game is turned on and running. The game also of course has to handle monster AI, player animations, weather, audio, rendering, lighting, post-processing, there are all kinds of systems running at once. And you only get 0.008 seconds per frame to take care of absolutely everything the game needs to do if you want to run it at 120fps. Pretty tall order honestly.[/p][p][/p][p]Thankfully the beta branch does run over 120fps on my good ol' GeForce 1080, but it has had, since the beginning, some very sharp spikes when new terrains come on. Each terrain is 1,048,576 square meters! That's a lotta grass! But I was finally able to make some significant improvements to the world generation performance after many many attempts throughout the years.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The above graphic is not an accurate representation of the actual speed my computer runs it at as this is running what is called "deep profiling" with a Unity profiler attached to a special developer version of the game used to track down performance issues. In short, it slows the game down a LOT, but it help you spot the spikes. As you can see, there is a very noticeable difference in the severity of the spikes compared to how they were just last week.[/p][p][/p][p]There is still more to be done in this area though. I attacked the big 3 of 5-6 problems and they have made a very promising impact on the performance, but I will continue to work on the few remaining major culprits. In time we will of course focus on more wide-spread improvements that aren't quite the best use of our time just yet.[/p][p][/p][p]Having said all that, it's long time we fix some of these things on the live branch as well. As most of you know my firstborn arrived in November of last year, and it was kind of a whirlwind for a while there. I tried to make a live patch in December by walking months worth of version control backwards to before we started working on the new beta content, but it ended up breaking a variety of systems and I had to roll back the patch. So today I made a completely separate copy of the project specifically for the purpose of working on live patches as the live and beta branches are now too far apart to try and travel back and forth between them within a single project. I will first off implement some of these world generation performance upgrades into the live branch before starting to spend some time each week addressing bug reports related to the live branch. This first patch, as it is again such a long walk back from where the project currently is, will likely be posted on a test branch for volunteers to try out and make sure that there isn't some grave error that I've overlooked, but if all goes well we'll push it out to the public![/p][p][/p][h3]What You Can Do To Help[/h3][p]If you wanna push us up, either one of these will support us more than you know[/p]

• [p]Keep up the kind words on our Steam posts and the Likes[/p]
• [p]You can get and support the builder here: https://bigkittygames.itch.io/solace-builder[/p]
• [p]Drop by our IndieDB page to help make it visible: https://www.indiedb.com/games/solace-crafting-rebuild[/p]
• [p]Support on our Ko-fi page for our developer Newbery here: https://ko-fi.com/bigkittygames[/p]
• [p]And of course, join us in Discord: https://discord.gg/solacecrafting[/p]

[p][/p][p]v 1.2.0.7 2025.7.17[/p][p]- Improved terrain generation performance
- Improved flora generation performance
- Changed global entity spawning to only spawn near the player
- Added "Bushcraft" profession to crafting and moved most unrefined resource based recipes to Bushcraft
- Removed the looping wind audio tracks that were overpowering the ambient soundtracks
- Fixed PoI terrain flattening
- Changed grass to scatter method
- Fixed grass density/range settings
- Fixed /targetframerate console command[/p][p]v 1.2.0.6[/p][p]- Fixed new stones in the plains not being harvestable
- Added a custom animation for lumbering that does not move the character forward[/p][p]v 1.2.0.5[/p][p]- Stalks are now triggers instead of colliders meaning they can be walked through
- Added a custom animation for reaping that does not move the character forward
- Reduced the size of the sledgehammer
- Fixed mountain stamps not auto-upscaling their heightmaps to the new increased terrain resolution
- Altered height fog and distance fog settings
- Fixed swamp random extra clutter positioning itself wrong causing objects to float and go underground
- Fixed plains bushes spawning in tree spawn positions sometimes
- Separated harvestable from non-harvestable trees in world generation
- Added the ability to specify tree collider size on a per-tree basis
- Added the ability to specify a tree collider offset on a per-tree basis
- Reduced maximum noise based ocean depth from 80m to 50m
- Added the ability to rotate spawned objects on all 3 axis
- Added the ability to specify random scales to non-tree objects
- Changed rock spawn types in plains biome
- Added randomly generated clusters of rocks to plains biome[/p][p][/p]

[p]Hello everyone, and welcome to the long-delayed sixth Producer’s Letter for Solace Crafting.[/p][p]I’m Fab. Today’s letter is dense with updates on where Solace Crafting stands and where it’s heading.[/p][p]We’ll talk Builder, Optimization, Modding, Creatures, Dungeons, Landscapes, Solaces and more.[/p][h3]First, a little bit of Quick backstory:[/h3][p]A year ago, Kyle and I teamed up to revitalize Solace Crafting. For him, it’s his life’s work and livelihood. For me, it’s about taking projects and people I believe in to the next level. The survival game market has changed fast since Valheim, and we knew Solace Crafting couldn’t sit still.[/p][p]We didn’t wait for perfect funding or timing. We just jumped in, pulled from ourselves what wasn’t provided, and started building.[/p][p]At first, momentum was easy. Then life did what it does.[/p][p]You know what that means. Things that should work but won’t. Upheaval in one’s personal life. Delayed resources. Morphing timelines. Tech that fails.
Yeah.
Not all bad. But gives you pause and delays all your plans.[/p][p][/p][h3]Where We Are Now[/h3][p]Today, July 2025, marks our first year working together. It’s marked by the release of our first Builder demo and a wave of new developments, alongside the usual short-term challenges that need overcoming.[/p][p]Some of these challenges are serious. But Kyle and I don’t quit. If there’s no smooth path forward, we’ll brute-force it with grit and resilience. Your support, through your likes, comments, and shares, has grown warmer and more encouraging, and it helps us tremendously. Keep it coming.[/p][h3]Staffing[/h3][p]Our first issue is right there. To reach where we want to go, we will need more staff. [/p][p]We had begun solving that with the onboarding of Newbery, a developer I have personally worked with for years. I have nothing but great things to say about Newbery, he’s a fantastic guy and a fantastic developer. [/p][p]Unfortunately, we lost him some months ago to the drying up of our resources and a missed appointment with funding. He’s been on standby ever since and everyday we feel the pain of his absence.[/p][p][/p][p]Newbery has given a lot, and we can’t just ask him to work for free, he has his own family to take care of. So our absolute first priority, and the one if there was only one to focus on, would be that one. [/p][p]Newbery is a gameplay developer, very versatile, it’s thanks to him that the game will find its flow, its smoothness, its richness in terms of sheer experience. We need him back! [/p][p][/p][p]Another developer or two would not be too many, for sure but we’ll take one Newbery over a bunch of strangers. So he’s our top priority.[/p][h3]Quality[/h3][p]In many areas, we are still below standards. Some of you have seen our recent in-engine screenshots, or our general visual upgrades: game logo, company logo, key art. That’s the outer layer. The beast itself needs some serious improvements first and foremost on performance and optimization, then on game design and user experience quality. We are working on all this. It’ll be impossible to make it where the game needs to be and where you deserve to be, without addressing all that. The recent releases, both small (visuals) and bigger (builder demo) are, to us, a kind of statement of this upgrade of standards we want to redefine BKG with from here on out. We have a lot to do, but we’re doing it. This is why we need not only Newbery but maybe another couple of him, as well as other collaborators. But we’re doing it.[/p][p][/p][h3]Sustainability[/h3][p]Solace Crafting is a product. Companies survive and thrive on business models, which products are a part of. So we need to bring some improvements to the way Solace Crafting exists and makes its living. We will be exploring two ways to do so.[/p][p]The first is by adding more products to Big Kitty Games’ lineup. Fear not, this is not something that will take us away from Solace Crafting: the Builder defines our approach: [/p][p]Some of these new releases will be new entry points into Solace Crafting and products and experiences that help develop it. Part standalone thing for those who do not care about Solace Crafting, part modding tool for those who do.[/p][p]Some of these new targets will be to turn prototypes I have developed over the years into opportunities to offer you more games, small but fun ones, through associations with other partners. Some of these will expand the worlds of Solace Crafting. Some of these will be new IP material entirely. All of it should be fun, wholesome and colorful, for that is BKG’s identity.[/p][p]The second is offering you meaningful opportunities to support us. The Builder, connected to Solace Crafting, will enable us to inject support packs into our lineup, focusing solely on cosmetic function. We are defining the approach that feels right for BKG, one where those packs are designed and distributed in ways that work and don’t feel excessive, intrusive, awkward or otherwise inappropriate. Most of all, they’re supposed to give you, Solace Crafting and BKG value, not just transfer cash. [/p][p]First and foremost, we are players, equally disgusted as most of you have been by the way the market/industry have gone and we both literally put our lives and livelihoods on the line to take a shot at making games in a way we’d keep finding healthy and wholesome. So both these goals (new products and value-rich support opportunities) must fit that bill.[/p][h3]Future Plans[/h3][p]We just released the builder demo. Now here are our plans for the rest of the year.[/p]

• [p]Builder. We’ll keep updating the builder into a more rounded and more content-rich demo, which we will release for free, with its own Steam page. That demo will allow you to build more detailed structures and more lived-in spaces. We will keep supporting it until its September-October release. The demo will ship with cosmetic preorder packs. Our hope is to generate enough traction to stabilize our resources and secure our core needs.[/p]

[p][/p]

• [p]Optimization. We will optimize the game for acceptable performance. It is our current primary focus. It might require us to make some strong choices to how the experience presents itself, maybe dial down some features initially, maybe not. But I think we all agree that walking back the game’s scope for a while to rebuild clean foundations to thrive better and longer on, is better than releasing broken betas that fall apart and set fires to GPUs.[/p]
• [p]Modding. The builder is the first step towards modding. We have said it elsewhere: we don’t want you to be able to just build characters and buildings. We want you to be able to build worlds. See a cliff you like? See a large tree you want to bring to your backyard? Want to turn this corner of the world into a custom biome? Want a herd of cows grazing your land? The builder is the first step.[/p]
• [p]Creatures. Brice, a senior 3D artist has kindly lent us his skilled hands to provide new animal assets for the game. We’re starting with the wolves that have been chasing you around and expanding into other forest animals. The wolves come in five forms: Grey Wolf, Brown Wolf, Snow Wolf, Timber Wolf, and Warg. Each has a Young, Adult, and Alpha version. These will be in-game soon. We just need to rig them properly, finalize the swaps, and set up their spawns. Other animals will join them, for you to hunt, be hunted by, or tame and add to you little sanctuary.[/p]

[p][/p]

• [p]Dungeons. We’re improving dungeon assets to support more coherent and organic layouts. The secret here is that dungeon pieces will eventually also be included in the Builder, so you’ll be able to design and share your own dungeons for Solace Crafting. While this is a longer-term, content-heavy development path, it’s a central part of the game’s identity. We’re treating it as a cornerstone of our user-generated content strategy.[/p]
• [p]Improved Loops & Landscapes. The landscape generation system has stabilized. What it now needs are proper landscape features. The broader creative revamp of Solace Crafting is about giving you more power over the worlds you generate and shape. This new loop will enable you to explore the map for natural structures, then use those structures to customize your world, in effect playing landscaper with rocks, trees and various environmental assets. All you have to do is find their natural blueprint and collect the needed resources to replicate it. We love the idea of a play experience where you don’t have anything other to do than walk around, find and collect impactful, meaningful things to build your world. No UI or metrics to monitor, no creatures to fight, just good old exploration.[/p]

[p] Can I bring this tree home, I wonder?[/p]

• [p]Solaces. Putting the Solaces Back in Solace Crafting is another priority. In a previous Producer’s Letter, we shared our plans to bring more meaning and mystery to Solaces. The first step is to implement them as major landscape features using the Points of Interest system. Solaces will no longer just be the core of your hub. They will become places of power, each offering unique effects: energy to harvest, resources to mine, world-shaping mechanics to experiment with, buffs. They’re becoming actual destinations and solid gameplay nodes.[/p]

[p][/p][p]The past few months have been relatively quiet on the public front, mostly because we’ve been deep in this work and juggling multiple challenges. As you can see, quiet doesn’t mean inactive. Communication-wise, we’ve remained most active on Discord, where you’re welcome to join us and follow more casual and more frequent progress posts. For those of you who dislike Discord, don’t worry, we are never far from the Steam Page.[/p][p]https://discord.gg/solacecrafting[/p][p]Thank you, truly, for being here.[/p][h3]What You Can Do To Help[/h3][p]If you wanna push us up, either one of these will support us more than you know[/p]

• [p]Keep up the kind words on our Steam posts and the Likes[/p]
• [p]You can get and support the builder here:  https://bigkittygames.itch.io/solace-builder[/p]
• [p]Drop by our IndieDB page to help make it visible: https://www.indiedb.com/games/solace-crafting-rebuild[/p]
• [p]And of course, support on our Ko-fi page for our developer Newbery here:  https://ko-fi.com/bigkittygames[/p]

[p][/p]

[h2]Introducing the Solace Builder – Build Your Sanctuary[/h2][p][/p][h2]1. What is the Builder?[/h2][p]The Solace Builder is a standalone creative tool designed to let you build your own sanctuaries, homes, fortresses, and villages in Khora, the endless world of Solace Crafting. You can design structures and environments using the same systems we use to create the world of Solace Crafting, giving you hands-on access to shape and personalize your space.[/p][p]This early demo allows you to start building right away, experimenting with layouts, aesthetic details, and environmental storytelling. Your builds will eventually be exportable into Solace Crafting through save files and Steam Workshop support, letting you live and adventure inside the spaces you’ve designed. Not only will the building interface be implemented directly into Solace Crafting, the build files from staff and community alike will be used to populate the world with curated hand-crafted content.[/p][h2]2. Why Are We Releasing This Now?[/h2][p]We’re sharing the Builder early because we want you to be part of this process. By testing, experimenting, and sharing your creations and feedback, you help shape the Builder’s future as we refine the system toward our planned Steam release in September.[/p][p]Our goal is to make the Builder a robust, user-friendly creative tool for players and a platform for artists and students to distribute curated content within the Solace ecosystem, ensuring we build a player-driven world while supporting human creativity in game development.[/p][p]We have a lot of improvements and developments planned. The nature of such modular, parts-based creative tools involves lots of complex use cases that may reveal all kinds of unexpected situations. [/p][p]Different players will use the tool in different ways to create different things, and run into different glitches, bugs and interesting situations. Help us root them all out! We've got a lot of content and features still left to implement.[/p][h2]3. Our Roadmap[/h2]

• [p]Early Demo Release on Itch.io: Play around, test, and share feedback.[/p]
• [p]Wishlist on Steam: A dedicated Steam page for Solace Builder will go live soon to prepare for the September launch.[/p]
• [p]Extended Functions: Landscape modification, lighting and atmospherics, parts deformation, UI, UX and QoL improvements.[/p]
• [p]Cosmetic Packs and Cultural Themes: Horse Lords, King’s Men, Firstborn, and Quaintlanders cultural packs will add new building parts, furniture, flora, and decor options.[/p]
• [p]Biome and Companion Expansions: Post-launch updates will add themed biomes, animals, and NPC companions to enhance your builds.[/p]
• [p]Steam Workshop Integration: Export your sanctuaries directly into Solace Crafting.[/p]

[h2]4. Our Vision[/h2][p]We believe in empowering players to build and personalize the worlds they play in, creating spaces that feel meaningful and personal. We’re also committed to building systems that support creators, artists, and students by giving them a platform to share their work within the game ecosystem, ensuring that human creativity thrives in game development.[/p][p]The Builder is the next step in expanding the Solace universe, making it a world shaped by its community.[/p][h2]Download the Builder Demo Now[/h2][p]Download the Building Demo via Itch.io[/p][h2]Join the Discussion[/h2][p]If you have questions, want to share feedback, or want to hang out with other builders, join us on the Solace Crafting Discord.[/p][h2]Screenshots and Media[/h2][p][/p][h2]Closing Note[/h2][p]Thank you for your support, whether you’ve been with us since the early days of Solace Crafting or are just discovering our world through the Builder. We’re excited to see what you will create.[/p][p]
[/p]

[p]Hello![/p][p]It's been some time we haven't given a public update to the steam page: we've been very busy. We've been pretty active on Discord, so this is a good reminder to join us there if you haven't already: you'll get more real-time previews and feedback on what's cooking.[/p][p]We have lots to announce and discuss and truth be told, we've been trying to figure out how to split it, to not overload. So bear with us as we do a bit more figuring out for a while longer and in the meantime, we can show you some screenshots of the progress we've been making revamping the game visuals and world feel. We hope you enjoy them![/p][p]We'll see you very soon with the next Producer's Letter, long overdue.
[/p][p][/p]