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Producer's Letter #7

[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]