Solace Crafting News

[p][/p][p]Now pushing full Solace Builder capabilities into Solace Crafting live![/p][p]I'm Kyle, founder of Big Kitty Games, and this is a big step towards our long term goals.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Not familiar with Solace Builder?[/h3][p]Solace Builder is a standalone program built entirely for creating, editing, and sharing 'scenes'. We never intended it to be solely a building creator, we're envisioning it as a tool to create entire landscapes, castles, dungeon rooms, enemy camps, and more. It's not yet capable of doing all of that, but we've made a lot of progress on it, and it's already a very robust tool for creating buildings, interiors, and their surrounding spaces.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]How to use the new system[/h3][p]To access the new building system, just press the 'B' key on your keyboard, or whatever you have your Building UI key bound to.[/p][p]To access the old building system, you can still click the "Building" button at the top of the main inventory screen.[/p][p][/p][p]We've still got a few steps to bring Solace Crafting and Solace Builder closer together, in particular saving and loading scenes between both programs. After that, any new assets and features added to Solace Builder will be promptly reflected in Solace Crafting as well.[/p][p][/p][p]With these new tools not only are we planning to add new town buildings, NPC villages, enemy PoIs, and so forth, we're hoping that you, our wonderful community, will help us in these various creative endeavors! When things are a little more fleshed out, and we're not in the middle of a huge Steam sale, I'd love to run a little contest or two, see if we can't get some interesting winners for things like 'The best tailor's shop' or some different categories like that that we could use to replace our current square look-a-like town buildings and so forth.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Coming soon[/h3][p]As we add new content we'd also like to test adding some paid downloadable content for cheap. It's no secret that we don't make enough money off of Solace Crafting to fund even me, let alone Fab and Newbery as well. Many players have reached out to us over the years asking for something like a building skin pack, or a decorative solace set, or something cosmetic that they could buy to help support development beyond the initial $10-15 price tag. We know that's a touchy subject for some people, and we've sworn to never implement pay to win or gambling in anything we do, but think we're finally starting to reach a point where some furniture packs, flora and fauna packs, or different things like that could both help out with our finances, while also improving the game even for those that aren't interested in buying the DLCs. Meaning, the content would still exist in the game for everyone, but the ability to edit and create your own scenes using the objects available in the DLCs would be limited to those that purchase them.[/p][p][/p][p]I know it's been a slow year in terms of actual Solace Crafting specific updates, but we've been very focused on shifting from a solo indie dev game kind of dabbling in all manner of content without really finishing a lot of the already in-game systems, into an experienced, albeit small, game studio capable of designing and executing both the generation of new things as well as polishing existing content up to a higher standard. These sort of in-house, yet public, tools are part of our plan towards creating a wide reaching and long lasting multiverse of intertwined products and games.[/p][p][/p][p]As always, a huge thanks to those of you that have stuck with us all these years, we're still here! And we welcome everyone new to our community with open arms![/p][p][/p][p]Happy gaming![/p][p]
[/p][h3]Condensed patch notes[/h3][p]v 1.1.1.1 2025.12.20[/p][p]- Solace Builder capabilities added into Solace Crafting[/p][p]- Fixed many different furniture items not being editable[/p][p]- Fixed camera zooming during building edit mode[/p][p]- Fixed point light interaction[/p][p]- Moved interactable instructions to the left[/p][p]- Disabled material alteration on solace shards[/p][p]- Fixed legacy building editor throwing an error when clicking on new buildings[/p][p]- Fixed floating islands not rendering properly[/p][p]- Upgraded Unity version to 2022.3.62f2[/p][p]- Fixed light destruction error when spawning town building previews for placement[/p][p]- Fixed burst compiler error debug log generation[/p][p]- Fixed a dedicated server WeatherManager error[/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]- And of course, support on our Ko-fi page:  https://ko-fi.com/bigkittygames[/p][p][/p][p]Join us in Discord[/p][p][/p][p]
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[p]This patch brings in the full capabilities that we've been working on with Solace Builder into Solace Crafting. I still haven't had the chance to check every item, and every feature, but regardless, it's always safer to upload any major changes onto the beta branch and give some of our valiant testers a chance behind the wheel before we push it live.[/p][p]In this build the old building interface is still accessible via the "Building" button on the main inventory screen, whereas pressing the build keybind, the default being 'B', will bring up the new interface. The new interface has instructions on both sides, just like Solace Builder, and newly interactable objects will have their instructions show up just above the hotbars. The instructions above the hotbars are supposed to be positioning themselves better, but that doesn't seem to be working, so I'll get that sorted out by tomorrow. There are likely some other small fixes, so again, we'll let it cook for another day until we push things live. [/p][p]Currently the new building method does not require any building materials, and whether that will change is still under discussion. Some of the current models and textures are not actually intended to be used within Solace Crafting either as they were put together to match the art style of Solace Keeper. The references used for saving and loading buildings will not need to be changed if different models or different textures are used to replace any of the current available pieces.[/p][p]Once all of this is working properly, anything added anew into Solace Builder will benefit Solace Crafting, and we hope that it will serve us for years to come as we continue to add new features, more parts, and use it to design everything from NPC villages to underwater monster caves![/p][p]Also please note that because compiling the shaders takes hours per target platform this patch only includes the Windows client build, but I will have all four of them ready by tomorrow.[/p][p]Happy gaming![/p][p][/p][p]v 1.1.1.0 2025.12.19[/p][p]- Solace Builder capabilities added into Solace Crafting[/p][p] [/p][p]What You Can Do To Help[/p][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 here:  https://ko-fi.com/bigkittygames[/p][p][/p][p]Join us in \[url=https://discord.gg/solacecrafting]Discord!\\[/p][p][/p][p]You may need to restart Steam for the update to begin, or you can verify file integrity to trigger it.[/p][p][/p][p]To opt into Beta you only need to go to your Steam Library, right-click on Solace Crafting, select Properties, click on the Beta tab, and opt-in to the beta.[/p]

[p]Hello everyone,[/p][p]Fab here![/p][p]Today marks the release of v0.2 of the Solace Builder demo, which we've prioritized working on over the past few months. It's a considerable update from the initial release in that it contains a lot more function and a lot more content. While the first version focused on the placement mechanics, we have expanded those and given you a lot more assets to work with.[/p][p][/p][p]Before we go an overview of the changes, let's restate the central role Solace Builder is to play in the Solace experience and how.[/p][p]Solace Builder is a free construction tool within which you are meant to be able to construct not only houses but, ultimately, entire scenes: that will mean both outdoors local landscapes, and indoor structures, such as dungeons and fortresses.[/p][p]Standalone, it is meant to be a cozy micro-world builder.[/p][p]Within the Solace ecosystem, it plays a key role as:[/p][p]- The primary dev/modding tool through which to build content. Currently, building structures such as houses, dungeons, towns etc has to happen piece by piece directly in Unity. Some of you remember the previews of towers and such that I posted on the Solace Crafting Discord. Well, due to everything being built by hand piece by piece, that took a lot of time and those structures have various little issues that add up. So we needed a tool to make that process a lot more efficient. That's Solace Builder. And we're sharing it with you.[/p][p]- The blueprint for the next Construction update directly in Solace Crafting, enabling construction to be more comfortable to use, with greater fine control, and produce better results. It will not replace the current construction mechanics. The Solace Crafting version will be implemented directly into Solace Crafting and will feature Solace Crafting's assets.[/p][p]This Builder will not just focus on structures but on furniture, environment, flora and fauna and NPCs. Full spectrum scene construction and population is the goal.[/p][p][/p][p]As this updated version rolls out, we will keep on improving this Builder towards its Steam release, which will happen in the following manner:[/p][p]- Included by default for all owners of Solace Crafting, present and future
- Standalone and free, for people who are only interested in building in it
- Early Access content packs for owners of Solace Crafting and backers/donors[/p][p]This Steam-version rollout should begin shortly, before the end of this current month.[/p][p]Later on, as of the full Steam release of Solace Builder, some assets or packs will remain DLC: those are the packs we create in partnership with artists.[/p][p][/p][p]There are still a lot of improvements we are planning, notably to UI, visuals, performance and content, but we felt this is a decent stage to release a new version and show some progress.[/p][p]Work on this Builder has also been part of the structural evolution we're bringing to Big Kitty Games, from an indie, initially hobbyist venture, to something more professional and structure. This is not a light transition to make, it is in fact very complex as it confronts us to logistical, human and economic realities so we are going through it step by step.[/p][p]You're part of that journey, in that you're watching its episodes unfold, the better and worst ones, and we keep you included by being as transparent, open and available as possible. The commitment is both to a guaranteed future for Solace Crafting and its budding ecosystem, and to an ethic, as indie developers, of hard, honest work and dedication to the craft. Not to marketing and PR illusions or profit-obsessions.[/p][p]We are passionate about this job, even as it is currently in a dry, effort-heavy phase. And we are passionate about ultimately taking you to a proud and happy place, no matter how uncertain or confusing it might look to some of you now.[/p][p][/p][p]Key Next Steps for the Builder:[/p][p]- First & Third Person Mode to visit your own scenes and interact with them
- Fauna & NPC Implementation
- Prebuild Structure Placement
- Optimization
- More Environment Tools
- More Content (parts, textures, vfx)
- Solace Keeper Import/Export Features
[/p][h3]You can get and support the builder here: Itch.io[/h3][p]
Here is an overview of the changes and new features in this update.[/p][p]v 0.2.0.0 2025.12.13
- Now contains over 200 different items!
- Light source intensity, range, hue, and saturation, now fully customizable
- Added point lights
- Furniture material color (hue, saturation, brightness) now fully customizable
- Automated UI layout, new part implementation, and thumbnail generation
- Added Decoratives and Fauna categories
- Added subcategory capabilities to each category
- Added shutter and door interaction capabilities
- Added 3 axis custom object scaling
- Added 3 axis custom object rotation
- Added object repositioning 'nudge' system
- Added a display for the current socket being attached to[/p][p]🔗 Join us on Discord![/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: Itch.io[/p]
• [p]Drop by our IndieDB page to help make it visible[/p]
• [p]And of course, support us on our Ko-fi page:  🔗 Ko-Fi[/p]

[p]Hope everyone had a good week! It seems like Black Friday is a week long event now almost everywhere. It's certainly been a busy week for me![/p][p][/p][p]I've uploaded a small patch to the beta branch fixing a rendering error causing floating islands to go invisible. I've got family in town for Thanksgiving for another couple of days, but after that I'll be pushing these changes along with some others to the live branch, bringing live up to date with a variety of under the hood changes and bug fixes.[/p][p][/p][p]v 1.1.0.8 2025.11.27[/p][p]- Fixed floating islands not rendering properly[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]What You Can Do To Help[/p][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]Join us in Discord![/p][p][/p][p]To opt into Beta you only need to go to your Steam Library, right-click on Solace Crafting, select Properties, click on the Beta tab, and opt-in to the beta.[/p]

[p]Hello everyone, and welcome to the seventh Producer’s Letter for Solace Crafting.[/p][p]I’m Fab. Today marks a return to this tradition after a brief pause managing real life and its complexities, such as grief, particularly at the passing of pets. I would personally like to extend my gratitude for your support and kind words as both Kyle and I had to go through such sad affairs, with cats passing.[/p][p]Thank you again for being such a wholesome and warm community.[/p][p]We will primarily focus today’s letter on Solace Builder and also talk about what comes after the current stretch.[/p][p]Let’s get into it.[/p][p][/p][h3]A Quick Recap[/h3][p]In the recent months, Solace Builder has been the primary focus behind the scenes. Now, just to reiterate for clarity, the Builder work is crucial in 4 ways:[/p]

• [p]Strategically, it allows us to rejuvenate BKG a bit without committing to a whole new game, which would mean really leaving SC behind for God knows how long, and we are not doing that.[/p]
  • [p]For Solace Crafting, the builder will find its way into the game as a building tool, complementing the current system, not replacing it, to give you more freedom and options.[/p]
  • [p]For Solace Keeper, the builder will be the main purveyor of content, both user created and not, as well as a framework for a core exploration & discovery-centric gameplay system (more on this later).[/p]
• [p]Economically, it should ultimately become a revenue driver that will help make our work viable again, which means we can stop working at a loss and therefore work more, better, hire more people and push through our ambitious plans for SC and SK more reliably and faster.[/p]

[p]We want to have these 3 products as a little gaming ecosystem based on playing, making and sharing. The goal would be a co-creative space where the Solace Verse can thrive in unexpected directions, through your direct input, and we can keep providing you not just content and patches, but tools and assets to deepen your imprint into that universe and its experiences.[/p][p][/p][h3]Right now[/h3][p]Kyle has been at work on some key builder features so we can begin to catch up with our release schedule. He, will then go back to a round of bug fixes and QoL improvements to both SC and SK. To be more specific about the current sprint, these are structural updates: importing assets (furniture etc) and having the UI auto-update (which seems to be done), there's doors & windows interactions, further flora manipulation, grass painting, and 3rd person mode so you can build and decorate and then walk around inside what you just built. And also implementing the core deco content: a whole bunch of furniture and other such decoratives so that even with the basic builder and no extra content, you can build cozy and well-furnished homes. [/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Mood setting with lighting control. Plenty of options for you!
[/p][h3]Solace Builder Approaching v2 Demo[/h3][p]Solace Builder is approaching its v2 demo release. A lot of work has gone into it, to improve it from its timid beginnings as a buildings assembler into the tool we want for you to build scenes to live in and share. Whether you want to build a cozy home, a thriving farm, a dark dungeon, a little fort or a small village heart bustling with NPC activity, that’s what the builder must enable.[/p][p][/p][p]The goal with this is environmental storytelling. Not just building functional little shacks or whatnot, but building pretty, colorful and meaningful scenes, with tools that give you latitude to tell a story just through screenshots, visuals and immersion. Then, if you want, you should be able to export this little corner of adventure or fantasy into the vast open world of Solace Keeper as your home base for your wide-ranging explorations, or for others to adopt as their own, through the Steam Workshop.
[/p][p][/p][p]As you can see from the cyan light (right) and pinkish light (left), lighting control is not confined to actual visible light sources.[/p][p]
Building Points of Interest for the game, whether lore-based, enemy hideouts or simply landscape features is also part of the possibilities Solace Builder is meant to achieve. As you might remember, we tested PoIs last year as a standard for environment population and monster spawn. Instead of spawning the same obelisk or prefab for the nth time, we can use these as variants, vary also what spawns in them. All things the builder gives YOU control of to build your own worlds or world-bits ultimately.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]So in this upcoming v2, this set of goal is being approached through expanded building functionality and ease of use, as well as interface improvements and content additions. While I am always looking ahead and measuring current progress against a distant horizon, let’s say that I find reasons to be satisfied by where we’ve been heading and the progress we’ve finally locked in after a year riddled with ordeals and delays.
[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]I, however, measure the work not in terms of how it feels but in terms of the value it offers. So in that sense, all the new stuff you can do or place in the builder makes it a lot more satisfying. There’s still a good amount to do but we’re getting there steadily now. We’re hoping access to that demo won’t be much longer.[/p][h3]Special Content & Our Backers[/h3][p]A number of you have supported Kyle’s undertaking over the year not only by buying the game, playing the game, getting involved on the Discord but also pledging through Patreon, and more recently, through ko-fi or itch.io. We are making sure this support is recognized by working on a reward system. Its first incarnation will be through the Builder: we have divided all the available furniture into themed furniture/deco packs. Three of these packs will be available by default, to enable SB users to furnish their creations abundantly and for free. This core content will also expand, for free, over time.[/p][p]
[/p][p][/p][p]When scaling control goes a little (too) far[/p][p] [/p][p]For our backers, we will implement special themed packs. These packs will also contain themed furniture and decoratives. That’s a start to this reward system we want to build. We understand very well that our supporters aren’t in for a transactional relationship and support us because they like or respect what we do. But this doesn’t exonerate us from giving back in more ways than simply patches and updates, especially as, as shown by this whole year, patches and updates can sometimes lag when circumstances don’t align. So having more ways to give you stuff for your experience can only help.
[/p][p][/p][h3]In Closing[/h3][p]The chaos and uncertainty you guys have been dragged through over the past 12 months (at least the chaos I was a part of) should begin to subside when we finally get that Solace Builder Steam page out, which should hopefully be before year's end![/p][p][/p][p]We also want to update you on the fact that our former developer Newbery has managed his relocation. Thank you to all of those who offered support and kind words. Newbery and I go back some years, he’s been my favorite developer and an all-around great person to work with. I have had the opportunity to plug him onto another game development gig, which should begin very shortly, so it’s another nice note to end the year on. Looking forward to getting him fully back with us![/p][p][/p][p]From what I both gathered and experienced, 2025 was a very challenging year for many of us. Hopefully we can step into a more serene 2026 and despite all challenges, delays and disappointments, we carry our commitment for this little burgeoning ecosystem, and its players past present and future, as a beacon of hope.
[/p][p][/p][p]Doors and window feel a lot better when we can open and close them![/p][p]🔗 Discord[/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][/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[/p]
• [p]And of course, support us on our Ko-fi page[/p]