We were lucky enough to have APICO selected for the Itch.io Summer Selects Bundle, a special bundle containing APICO and 5 other cool indies!
Thanks to everyone who bought the bundle and supported us, we hope you enjoy all your new sweet games <3
APICO 2.2.3 for Xbox/Playstation
For our console friends, 2.2.3 is now live on Xbox / Playstation. This was a small update but contained some important fixes and means the consoles are now in-line with PC!
Unfortunately Nintendo wasn’t as kind with approval and still won’t let the patch through, however you’re not missing out on anything major!
So that’s a wrap on July, bee safe and we’ll see you next month!
Love,
Ell & Jamie
APICO - June Devlog 2023
Hey friends!
Was a bit busy with Rift Breach and Snacktorio this month, but managed to polish off the rest of the fishing related stuff!
This post will contain spoilers of 3.0 content.
Gone Fishing
So continuing where I left off I finished up the rest of the fishing minigame.
gotta be quick!
I'm still not sold on it 100%, but I just wanted something a bit more visually interesting than the usual "click and wait and click again" type fishing we're all used to.
I also properly fleshed out all of the fish and their spawning conditions, biome, time etc. Doing this made me realise there were some "missing" biomes that needed some fish too so I drew a couple of new fish to even things out at a nice round 15.
so many new friends to discover!
With that done I did some testing with the different lure types and then that was fishing done!
Captain Cabinets
With that done I needed the fishing NPC, Skipper's Dad, so that I could then introduce him, fishing concepts, plus some different fishing themed items and decor.
look at all these new goodies!
I wanted to add a few different things that people could add near their docks, as well as a new type of pier tile to mix things up a bit. Alongside the new fishing board + lure workshop I felt like it made for some cute seaside building!
bird? what bird?
After giving him his own spawn area / base, the only thing left is the writing for the Captain himself, but I'll be giving Jamie all the writing in one go as it helps make everything a bit more consistent with each other
With the fishing done and the Captain added, it means I can get stuck into the coral reef and diving stuff next, which is the majority of the 3.0 content but I had to add a lot of "new" systems to get the fishing working which held me up a lot.
~ Ell
[This post was released early for KoFi Supporters]
TNgineers News - JUNE2023
Hey friends!
We're now halfway through the year, which is a scary thought given all the things I still want to get done in 2023... better get to it!
This is the latest version of the game, and includes all the beeautiful butterfly content! We hope all the new beekeepers enjoy their stay at Port APICO <3
We didn’t win in the end, but the fact that a little 1 week froggy demo managed to get a nomination is still amazing to see!
Hello Snacktorio
Feed The Beasts is now Snacktorio! We had to change the name for legal reasons and we asked the Factorio team as a joke, but they said yes.
It’s weird having to call it something different after 3 years but here we are - you can find us in all the same places just a different name and logo.
So that’s a wrap on June, bee safe and we’ll see you next month!
Love,
Ell & Jamie
APICO - May Devlog 2023
Hey friends!
A slow but steady start made this month into the 3.0 content, with a bunch of little tweaks to get us started!
This post will contain spoilers of 3.0 content.
Birthday Bee!
May was a special month as it's the birthday month for APICO having been released a year ago on World Bee Day (20th May)! We had a lot of different sales + deals to celebrate, leading to DOUBLE the amount of players we'd had up until that point in one week.
(To all the new bees - welcome! I hope you enjoy this silly lil bee game <3)
Safe to say I was pretty busy running around putting out fires and answering a million questions all over the place - but I did manage to still get some development work done eventually!
Where To Beegin
One problem I have with gamedev in general is getting p. overwhelmed with how much there is todo - you've seen the list of stuff planned for 3.0 and when broken down into dev work it's even longer!
here's just some misc + fishing stuff broken down - not even the coral or ocean stuff yet!!
What I try to do is break it down into smaller sections, and then start with the "quick wins" to try and make a dent in the list first so as to not get too demoralised. When there's only one developer it's definitely a LOT (let alone the fact I have 2 other games on the go at the same time)
I started out working through some quick fixes and changes though, like adding the moon, moon phases, and a cute little pocketwatch to give more details on the top-left GUI icons you always see.
I also did some stuff like creating new natural beehives when you repopulate a species (to add to the feeling of actually impacting the world), updating some of the logic with butterflies + flowers, and adding in some new hairstyles - basically just lots of little things to help settle back into the codebase.
this one looks weirdly familiar...
With that I was starting to feel a bit more warmed up and more used to how APICO does things, so I added the first new machine for 3.0 - the fly workshop!
Fly Fishing
I've wanted to add fishing to the game for a while, as I think it's a nice "time-waster" to fill in the gaps between waiting for certain things in APICO, but didn't give much thought outside of the general concept.
When I sat down to look at it properly I thought fly fishing would be the best route, as needing to craft little lures seemed like the perfect vibe for APICO. Crafting lures would also let me give some of the special bee produce a use, as it would effect the overall lure "luck" and the player always has plenty of them.
about time we had a new mechanism huh?
The fly workshop takes hoops, twine, glue and feathers (dropped from birbs!), along with your special produce to make a little lure - the stats decided by the materials you use.
Once you have your lures you'd be able to use them along with a rod to cast into any deep water to start the fishing minigame! I spent a bunch of time deciding the best way to do this, and what I settled on was a two-parter, first cast the lure out, and then wait for fish to appear and get within "range" to grab 'em.
grab radius is based on how close you cast to the center yellow "goal"
It also took me far too long getting a nice "arc" for the lure when cast, and I wanted a nice back and forth animation to mimic the way fly fishers actually cast their lures.
i hate maths so much
With that I had the actual grab minigame todo, which will involve the little fishies coming near and attempting to eat your delicious honey flavour lure - unless you grab them in-time, which then catches you a fish!
Different conditions/biomes/weather will affect the fish caught (as you'd expect from APICO), and ultimately it'll just be an optional collect-them-all - although you will get some new special items for doing so...
I'm taking my time on the minigame as I want to get it right - and there's nothing quite like it in APICO so it's a challenge trying to make something fit correctly with what players are used to!
Once I've finished off the fishing i'll be adding Skipper's Dad, and then fishing will be done for now and we can move onto Coral Reefs!
I've got to go back to Rift Breach for a bit next month for NextFest but have set aside some time for another chunk of 3.0 goodies.
~ Ell
[This post was released early for Supporters]
TNgineers News - MAY2023
Hey friends!
May has flown by, and it's an important anniversary month for both APICO and myself personally, marking the start of me making games 3 years ago. Here's whats been going on:
APICO’s Birthday
May 20th was APICO’s birthday! We had lots of deals and sales to celebrate - don’t worry if you missed out though as we have an Itch.io one still to come!
The hive doubled in size in just a week, so thank you to all the newbees that have joined us - we hope you enjoy <3
Xbox initial release will include the 2.0 butterfly update by default <3
APICO 3.0 Beegins
The groundwork for 3.0, aka ”What Lies Beeneath” has started, with a hefty devlog you can read over on Ko-Fi or Steam!
No dates to announce yet but we’re still aiming for Q3/Q4 this year <3
So that’s a wrap on May, bee safe and we’ll see you next month!
Love,
Ell & Jamie
20th May - APICO's Birthday!!
Hey Beekeepers!
It's World Bee Day tomorrow, which means it's APICO's birthday too! To celebrate, there'll be a Daily Deal from 20th May - 27th May for APICO + the OSTs (50% off!) There'll also be some free key giveaways over on the APICO Twitter account throughout the day <3
3 years ago I was stuck in lockdown, and drew the first sketch that would become APICO - I had no idea where it would end up...
[table] [tr] [td]The first sketch for APICO (Twitter)[/td] [/tr] [/table]
2 years ago I rewrote the first demo (written in HTML + vanilla Javascript!) into GameMaker and released it properly to the world, and was shocked to find so many other people loved this silly bee game!
[table] [tr] [td]The first design for the beehive menu![/td] [/tr] [/table]
1 year ago on May 20th the full game released, and it's wild to think how far it's come and I'm forever grateful for all the people who've played APICO and sent me such lovely messages about how much it meant to them. I never expected it to be much more than a fun side project but it's opened a door to letting me keep making silly games and expand APICO in ways I'd never thought I'd have been able to!
[table] [tr] [td]The multiple menu system is tested...[/td] [/tr] [/table]
Tomorrow I've been lucky enough to get a Daily Deal with Steam, and APICO (along with Moth's wonderful OSTs!) will be 50% off for a whole week!! If you or your friends have been waiting for a big discount, this is the one! (This would also bee the perfect time for a nice review if you haven't got round to it, as a little birthday gift for your fav bee game wink wink nudge nudge :D)
[table] [tr] [td]APICO as we know it now starts to take shape...[/td] [/tr] [/table]
Thanks again so much to all of you, whether you've beeen here since the janky alpha days, or only recently stumbled upon the game through the butterfly update! There's still lot's more for us all to look forward to in the world of APICO and I appreciate all of you for beeing on this journey - I can't wait to see where it takes us all! <3
~ Ell
"Design A Butterfly" Finalist Voting!
Hey Beekeepers!
Just a quick one to say the "Design A Butterfly" competition has now ended, and it's voting time! Please check out all the final designs + choose your favourite here: https://forms.gle/pCtF4HWZz262i3uZ6
The winning design will be added into the next major update - YOU have the POWER 💙🦋💙
~ Ell
APICO - April Devlog 2023
Hey friends!
Last month was mostly uneventful, mainly due to me being ill for a good chunk of it, however I did still manage to take some time to draw out a whole host of the new stuff for the 3.0 - so let's get into it!
General heads-up that this post will contain spoilers of 3.0 content - if you're wanting to go in completely blind I totally understand but if so you might wanna skip this one!
Planning
From the last devlog I had planned out most of the general concepts I wanted to cover in the 3.0, however a lot of them were just rough ideas. What I wanted to do now was plan them out in more detail, and I'm a very visual person so really it was time to start sketching stuff out!
The only major difference I'd say between those plans in February is I'll no longer be doing the bug hotel stuff - as you're about to see the 3 main areas of fishing, coral reefs, and deep-sea diving cover a LOT of ground, so I don't want to give myself too much work over a "nice-to-have"! (RIP ladybugs)
Fishing
So first up is fishing - I'd already decided I wanted to do fly fishing, as I think the lure crafting side of things is very APICO, and I thought it would lead to some neat minigame ideas of luring the fish rather than straight up hooking them.
To start off I drew a bunch of fish! At this point I was still a bit sick so I thought this would be a nice way to ease into things. Fishing would just be a nice little time waster, so I just wanted some cute collectibles and a fun shiny "bee" variant for each.
puffer is the indisputable king here
To craft lures we'd need a crafting bench of sorts, and it's been a while since we had a mechanism so I felt like this would be a good place for it as we could re-create the winding of twine on the hooks in-game.
The idea is you'll use lures, twine, glue, random bee produce, and a feather (dropped by scaring birbs) to form a lure - each lure has various stats based on the items that were used when it was created, i.e. luck, durability
the lure workshop!
Once you have your lures you'll be able to cast them out with a fishing rod and start a small fishing minigame. I'm thinking of two parts, first a casting "click when meter is in yellow" classic, and then I'm thinking that you'll be greeted with a sort of menu that shows your lure and various fishy friends around it, and you'll have to try and net them when they get close enough.
altho items with no outlines? blasphemy
I was originally thinking a sort of "red light green light" type reel in minigame, but think that would get annoying having to do that each time, and I think a little underwater scene would be cuter.
Finally for the fishing mechanics I wanted one place where you could view your progress without creating yet another book - plus it wouldn't make sense to have a whole book for what is quite a small part of the game. My idea is to have a noticeboard-style menu that would give you hints and show progress.
who's that FISH!
As part of this update I want to revamp both the bookshelves in a similar way, so I thought this would be a good way to reinforce the concept of these sort of menus as with the bookshelves there'd then be 4 of these types of info machines.
Finally we have Skipper's Dad, a new character who you'll meet that will introduce you to fishing and crafting lures!
HOH HOH
Sea-Sides
On a related note, as part of the 3.0 update, Mothense will be returning to create 6 new tracks as part of the APICO "Sea-sides". Like the "Bee-sides" these will be additional tracks added in-game, 3 while you fish, and 3 while you explore the ocean depths!
You also might be able to find some in-game playable versions of them through exploring the new areas too...
old and crusty, but still works - like me! :D
Coral Reefs
With the coral side of things, I spent a lot of time trying to work out how I wanted things to fit together. I wanted a focus on restoring the coral, but I didn't want it to get annoying.
I also needed to make sure it still related to bees and also gave a decent reward for doing so - lots to juggle! Before I got completely overwhelmed I drew the different coral reefs and their flora/fauna/friends
the three different types of coral
The idea is that there'll be 3 sets of coral in three different areas - each coral has a specific water quality it prefers (more on that later). At the start there'll only be small patches of bright coral, the rest will be the darker "dead" patches you see on the far left of the above image.
You'll be able to scrape bits of coral off for samples, which you can then grow in tanks to turn into full coral - using different pH and salinity levels to match the requirements of the coral.
mudborne influence you say? i dont know what you mean
Once you have grown coral, you'll be able to place it in sort of empty frames on top of the dead coral patches. The activity of beehives on the coral areas will then help grow the patch until it becomes a full coral tile. The idea will be that by growing patches you can link up all the seperate coral areas through the dead patches, until everything is connected.
Once a coral reef is fully connected and restored, the flowers and flora will start forming/blooming, and then you'll have access to the butterflies and solitary bees that like coral but the habitat wasn't restored enough.
some new pastel friends
I think this way it should feel like a nice side project to work on restoring the reefs, using your coral bees to help you - and then as a reward you can unlock a host of new flowers, butterflies, and solitary bee friends.
As part of these new areas, as well as the ocean diving, you'll meet Director Bumblemore - a familiar name I'm sure to those who've been restoring their solitary bee populations!
what if Beenjamin, but not an asshole?
Although he's the general director for MPCO he specialises in ocean conservation, so he'll introduce all the coral reef and deep-sea diving stuff.
As part of the coral mechanics you'll be using acid / alkali / salt to manage your pH levels - at the start you can get this from Bumblemore but as you'll always come to find in the world of APICO the bees usually have an alternative solution. When it comes to salt, I wanted to solve another issue players often feedback which is wanting to remove grumpiness from bees.
As a result, I present to you, the Degrumpifier:
yes the bees are grumpy becos their literally salty
What Lies Beeneath?
As part of the final of the three main sections, we then have the deep-sea diving, as the update name implies! For this section I had a rough idea on what you'd do and what it would look like, but it took me a while to decide on a purpose for the player while down there outside of "explore and collect some bees".
The general idea is at a certain point Bumblemore will give you a diving helmet, which can be used on specific deeper parts of the ocean to travel to the ocean floor - a new biome that covers all the deep water of the world (basically the inverse of the map)
Down here you'll find some new, very strange looking bees, as well as a whole host of treasures to discover and new flora/flowers to find. You'll also find sludge - an unfortunate collection of goop that has formed from Mainland runoff.
Using a special type of beehive, you'll be able to swap out your standard hive frames for hive filters - a special type of frame that stores the goop as bees get to work, and lets you clean up the patches of sludge over time.
a little twist on something you already know very well!
Once filled you can extract these filters like you do your frames, but instead of honey you get less delicious sludge to be disposed off, plus any other little treasures the bees picked up!
maybe dont turn that stuff into mead
While working on cleaning up the seabed, you'll be able to discover some new species of bees, some odd little solitary bees, and a couple of strange aquatic butterflies that appear to thrive down in the depths.
Once you've cleaned up the sludge patches, you might even find the entrance to something even deeper below...
Other Stuff
Outside of these 3 main areas there'll be a bunch of other QoL stuff too, some new a11y options, some better sorting for beeboxes, quick stacking to nearby chests, better storage options for butterflies - basically all the general feedback thats built up since 2.0!
unlimited butts!!!
As mentioned I'll also be revamping the bookshelves to have a more interesting interface than just a ream of text, plus a few other tweaks here and there!
Now that pretty much everything is drawn it's a lot easier for me to see how it'll all fit together, and in May I'll be sitting down to spend some time working through all the new mechanics, so hopefully come next month we should be able to see some of these pretty screenshots come to life!
Thanks so much to everyone who took part. We’ll setup a post soon for voting to let you all decide your favourite that will be added into the 3.0 update!
Mudborne
Mudborne has now already reached over 1000 wishlists!
Thanks so much to everyone who’s checked out the demo - we’ll absolutely be coming back to this one later in the year, and start planning a full game! <3
We’ve spent a lot of time making sure APICO is enjoyable for all ages, so it means a lot to be given this!
So that’s a wrap on April, bee safe and we’ll see you next month!
Love,Ell & Jamie
Papilio 2.2.3
Hey Beekeepers!
Just a few fixes to get out the way so I can focus on the 3.0 build! I’ve mentioned it before but really appreciate all the peeps who let me know issues in the bug report form, and a big shout out to the beekeeper who gave me some super detailed steps on the infinite item dupe in MP that helped me put some fixes in place for it <3
~ Ell
Multiplayer
Finally found the cause of the infinite item duplication that would occur with dropped items on certain frames (wahoo!)
Fixed nurseries not seeming to incr. pop levels for butterflies for clients (again?)
Fixed canisters duping when moving input/output canisters in barrels rapidly
Fixed when clients bought multiple backpacks at the same time some of those backpacks no longer worked - this will not fix existing bugged backpacks im afraid :(
Added some changes to make sure players get a valid UUID when playing online if the server has gone down
Crashes
Fixed the "sc_slot_uncache: unable to find instance for object index" crash
Fixed the "sc_world_add_missing_bees: index out of range" crash that occured rarely during worldgen
Bugs
Fixed dropping butterflies on gamepad just dropping the item rather than releasing them
Fixed pinned menus staying pinned for gamepad players
Fixed backpack item in the slot not visually updating to be open when clicked initially
Fixed placeable items being placed when equipped and clicking the close buttons of menus (finally)
Fixed Candlemaker menu help popup labelling the beeswax + log slots wrong
Fixed NPC shops not showing slots for a second when opening them sometimes
Modding
Fixed modded recipes that use flowers not using up any flowers when crafting at the mod workbench
BDRAW hook added which is the counterpart to PDRAW, BDRAW is drawn right before the player itself, then PDRAW is drawn ontop
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