🍻 What have we been brewing up in development this month? 🍻
A warm welcome to all the new people reading their first Brewmaster monthly update – we know there’s a lot more of you after our inclusion in this year’s Simfest, and we’re really happy you’re here!
You’ve probably noticed that our page on Steam has had an update, with new screenshots and an updated trailer. As you can see we’ve labelled everything as being “still in development”, but that level of quality you’re seeing in the 3D visuals is very close to what the final game is going to look like. Our art team remains hard at work making more cosmetic objects, as well as making improvements to certain visual effects. 🎨
The design team has been writing the narrative that will guide you from complete novice to confident brewer, writing recipes for you to turn your hand to, and putting the cosmetics system through its paces. ✍🏾
Our wonderful UI/UX artists continue to put in and improve upon the interaction systems, so that making beers and otherwise engaging with all our gameplay systems is intuitive – brewing is a complicated process, but we want to make it feel as natural as possible. 🦺
Working in partnership with QA, our programmers have been squashing bugs and getting in features. After some minor issues the Label Maker is nearly ready for showtime, and huge chunks of the progression systems are now in too. We’re also nearing the end of adding a feature many of you have asked for, that we weren’t planning on doing but that we’ve managed to squeeze into our development schedule - we think you’re really going to love it... but we’ll have more on that another day 😜
We brought the chaos that is fridge magnets to the forefront, which way do you prefer it, chaotic or in order? 🧲
The game is still in development but we've made you a brand new trailer to show you what it currently looks like. It makes us feel all warm and toasty inside 🧡
✨Fresh Look✨
While we are at new things, we should mention our fresh looking steam page! We have new images, gifs and of course our new trailer for you to see in all their glory!
We love refining our content to match our players tastebuds so keep letting us know your thoughts 😊
🔨🎨Simfest🔨🎨
Simfest was a joint Steam & Auroch Digital event where we celebrated simulation games. Find out more about what happened over on our steam announcement here 📣
📚Switch it up 📚
We are so happy that we were featured on Nintendolife for people to see how crafty they can get with Brewmaster on the Switch.
The ability for more people to recognise the relaxing atmosphere that we are bringing to this game and the ability to play it while chilling on the sofa or in bed, emphasises the cosiness we are wanting.
Modding survey - tell us what you think you could win £25 Steam credit!
This is a general survey about modding and is not tied to any of our current titles.
Hi everyone 😁
We are always impressed by our community and the amazing creations you make with our games. Your feedback in discord, twitter, forums and emails all help us make our games better and we thank you for this.
So with that, we would love to hear from you once more!
We are running a survey that could impact the future of our games. The survey is on modding and we are looking for a wide variety of people to take part. It doesn’t matter if you have no experience with mods or create them daily, all information is greatly appreciated. 🙏🏾
Filling in these surveys help us so much, and they only take about five minutes of your time. And to say thank you, we will be gifting £25 worth of Steam vouchers to one lucky entrant of this survey. Entries close Wednesday 27th 2022! 📅
🍻 What have we been brewing up in development this month? 🍻
March has been all about “more”.
📃 More work on the progression systems, including competitions and jobs.
🎮 More improvements and additions to the user interface, to get things looking slick and feeling lovely to play, either with a keyboard and mouse, or a controller.
🌡More equipment, including a highly requested item from the Alpha: a brewing item that, when you use it, lets you set a consistent temperature.
🌵 More cosmetic items to customise your brewing space and make it even cosier. You want extra potted plants? We got you. You want a set of decorative plates? Of course you do. Absolutely have to have more table variations? Coming up.
🐛 More performance improvements and bug fixes, squashing issues across pouring, visual settings, interacting with objects, and so on.
But perhaps more exciting than all of that there’s, well, uh, Moor Beer, which you can read about below...
🤝🏾 Moor Beer Partnership 🤝🏾
We are very excited to announce a new partnership with award-winning craft brewery Moor Beer Company for Brewmaster!
The partnership will see Moor Beer Company featured as the sponsor of a special in-game challenge. Players will also be able to serve up their creation in Moor Beer glasses. 🍺
Over on Instagram, you can compare our old vs new look of our tasting area and become green with envy.
So many nice additions are being made and we are excited to show them off bit by bit!
Simfest
Simfest is a joint Steam & Auroch Digital event. It is a Steam festival celebrating simulation games. Brewmaster will be featured in a number of different panels and streams, find out more details in our Steam announcement on it here!
Brewmaster is being featured at Simfest 2022 🍺
See Brewmaster in Simfest Hobby Edition
Simfest is a joint Steam & Auroch Digital event. It is a Steam festival celebrating simulation games, giving the genre opportunity to showcase all it has to offer. As there are so many games within the sim genre, the first Simfest will be the “Hobby Sim Edition”. A Hobby Sim is a simulation game that authentically simulates a hobby or job (or both!).
At Auroch Digital we've lined up a range of excellent streams and panels from games and studios doing interesting things in the simulation game space.
We are also sharing our own experience of making a hobby simulation game with Brewmaster, check out the panels and streams we are taking part in below. Each stream and panel is being looped multiple times during a 24 hour period in order to cater to different time zones. Make sure to check the schedule to find exact showing times.
👩🍳Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator - IRL vs Digital homebrewing plus a trip to Moor Beer Brewery 🍺
Jack and Jemima from Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator are joined by Justin Hawke, Head Brewer and owner of Moor Beer Company, to talk about all things brewing. Learn how Moor Beer make their award-winning beer, what it's like to work at an industrial brewery, and how brewing on this scale differs from homebrewing. You can also get some great tips for your own home brewing! Jack talks about the chemistry simulation behind Brewmaster and talks about what the team decided to simulate when creating this homebrewing game and why. You'll also see loads of awesome footage of our visit to Moor Beer Brewery!
🚚 Panel: Can hobby sims teach you to do a real life Job?🚚
Hobby sims are more popular than every with games that allow you to do everything from running a farm, to running a zoo, to driving a truck. The teams behind popular simulation games discuss the appeal and importance of this rising genre. But can these games actually teach you how to do their respective activity outside of the game? Or is there more value to be found in providing a digital recreation of a hobby or job to people who may not be able to do it otherwise? And how did the teams faithfully recreate the job or hobby in their titles?
🏗 Panel: What is a hobby Sim and why do people play them? 🏗
From the teams working on popular hobby and job simulation games to find out how they made the games, find out how they capture that hobby or job. Where does realism belong in this genre of games? Is it more important to simulate a hobby or job accurately, or does an idealised version suit gaming better? Find out where the line between realism and idealisation is drawn in some of your favourite hobby and job sims!
Brewmaster and Moor Beer Partnership announcement 🤝🍻
The partnership will see Moor Beer Company featured as the sponsor of a special in-game challenge, where players who successfully brew a winning beer will be rewarded with an unlockable cosmetic to show off their accomplishment. Moor Beer glasses will also appear in-game which players can use to serve up their creations.
We’re delighted to be partnering with Moor Beer for Brewmaster. This collaboration adds another exciting layer of authenticity and immersion for players. Working with Moor Beer for this partnership has been a great experience, they are so knowledgeable and passionate about brewing and beer. We are very excited to show fans much more on Brewmaster soon as we get closer to launch.
About Moor Beer
Started in 2007, Moor Beer Company are one of Britain’s most respected craft brewers, with sites in Bristol and London. They were the originators of Natural Live Beer, the vegan beer movement, and can-conditioned real ale, all of which forever changed the world of brewing and paved the way for many others to follow. They have been awarded countless times, including Brewer of the Year by the British Guild of Beer Writers and were one of only 16 breweries, and the smallest and youngest, to be given a Golden Award by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) in their 50th anniversary honours. More about Moor at www.moorbeer.co.uk.
“Working with Auroch has been great and we’re thrilled they chose us. I grew Moor Beer out of my homebrewing background, so it was really nostalgic and fun to see this replicated virtually – even down to my original orange picnic cooler mash tun! This will be a great game for people to dip their toe into the world of brewing, and if you get immersed in it as much as I did then you might also wind up with your own brewery.” — Justin Hawke, Head Brewer and owner of Moor Beer
Brewmaster and Moor Beer at Simfest 2022! 🔧
As part of Simfest 2022 (28th March – 4th April), a Steam festival celebrating simulation games, fans can also look out for a special stream with Auroch Digital and Moor Beer Company to talk about all things brewing.
Find out more about Simfest and the feature spots we are a part of in our Simfest Blog Post.
About: Jack and Jemima from Brewmaster: Beer Brewing Simulator are joined by Justin Hawke, Head Brewer and owner of Moor Beer Company, to talk about all things brewing. Learn how Moor Beer make their award-winning beer, what it's like to work at an industrial brewery, and how brewing on this scale differs from homebrewing. You can also get some great tips for your own home brewing! Jack talks about the chemistry simulation behind Brewmaster and talks about what the team decided to simulate when creating this homebrewing game and why. You'll also see loads of awesome footage of our visit to Moor Beer Brewery!
🍺 Brewers Club Monthly 🍺 Brewmaster Developer Update #9
Hi Brewers Club!
Welcome to the February issue of the Brewers club with your latest update on Brewmaster🍻
🍻 What have we been brewing up in development this month? 🍻
Sure February is home to Valentine’s Day, but who really cares about that when there’s all the love being poured into Brewmaster? 💓
In December we mentioned that the heart of the progression systems were starting to go in, and in February it continued to do so. We’ve also been continuing on the back end code for Jobs, which are tasks and challenges you’ll be provided to try and complete.
Work continued on the recipe system, including the ability to “pin” a recipe you’re currently working on, so you can see each stage you need to work on more easily. The Brewpedia got bigger too, with the majority of the Beer History and Beer Styles articles now written and ready to read; if you want to know more about the tricky lineage of British styles, how a US President kickstarted the craft revolution, or why a monk brewing beer averted catastrophe for an entire group of people, you’ll want to dive into that.
There were improvements made to the brewing visuals, the beer visuals, and even some very pleasing steam effects made for when liquids reach boiling point.
And in our surveys you told us you wanted to choose between both Metric and Imperial units when brewing, so this month we popped that in too. Thanks to everyone who filled in the survey to help us!
What have we been up to on social?
We wrote our own Brewmaster poem for Valentines day, wish you were beer?
We also recently shared a teaser for what we’ve been working hard behind the scenes on. We made a visit recently to some awesome people to film what they're up to, we saw loads of hops, tons of grain, and some giant mash tuns. We can’t talk about it yet but we shared some teaser pics on our socials, make sure to check them out.
And stay tuned for more news soon! 🍻
🍺 Brewers Club Monthly 🍺 Brewmaster Developer Update #8
Hi Brewers Club!
Welcome to the January issue of the Brewers club with your latest update on Brewmaster🍻
🍻 First, let's hop over to Development, what's new? 🍻
2022 is here; some of the team is participating in Dry January; some of the team is working through the beer gifts they got over Christmas; but all of the team are hard at work on Brewmaster.
We’ve been very busy on lots of exciting things since we came back from our festive break – some we can talk about and some not yet 🤫
One of the areas we’ve been working away on are our in-game cosmetics. If you played the alpha (thank you!) you’ll have noticed that in that build we had a living room space, decorated with a sofa and armchair, picture frames, plants, and so on. In the full game, you’ll be able to customise this space yourself with items you unlock, so you can create your own perfect cozy space. Our 3D team has been creating lots of awesome items for you to unlock and put in your space.
And the design team has been no slouch either, getting to grips with making some of the recipes you’ll take on, plus thinking about the best ways of tutorialising so we can ease new brewers in as gently as possible.
👀 Sneak Peeks 👀
If you've been keeping up to date with our socials, you'll have had an earlier peek at some of our newest content.
Check out the recent bits of equipment we have revealed that you will be able to unlock within the game.
We also talked about Malt extracts and how, for a first time brewer, it can make the experience a little bit easier. Keep an eye on our twitter for more peeks.
Cheers to a great start to 2022 🍻
🍺🎄 Christmas Brewers Club Monthly 🎄🍺 Brewmaster Developer Update #7
Hi Brewers Club!
Welcome to the December issue of the Brewers club with your latest update on Brewmaster🍻
🍻 First, let's hop over to Development, what's new? 🍻
As we head into the holidays, and look forward to all the lovely Christmas beers we’ll be drinking (for research purposes, obviously), the development team will be wrapping up our work for the year on a real high note!
We’ve been reading through your messages from the Public Alpha and we were overwhelmed by how positive the feedback was – so a huge thank you from all of us for that. As part of this, we’ve been taking note of the common themes and feature requests so we can make sure that the game we launch with has all the things you want the most from Brewmaster.
Besides these improvements, and some bug fixes, we’ve been squirreling away on a stack of new features, including (deep breath!)...
Prototypes of the label maker, so you can design your own beer bottle labels 🔖
Adding new ingredients and grain textures 🌾
Coming up with our fictional breweries that you’ll provide “guest recipes” for 📖 (See above image for preview 😉)
A recipe creation system, for you to easily make your own recipes 📝
Special brewery challenge rewards 🥇
New furniture to customise your hobby space 🪑
The backbone of our progression system 💾
Some very unlockable special items we’re not allowed to tell you about... yet! 🔐
Writing for the Brewpedia; think Mars Horizon’s Spacepedia, but about brewing and beer 🍺 ... and probably some other stuff too; we’ve been very busy!
So what has the alpha told us so far?
We're sad that the Brewmaster Closed Alpha is over however we got some amazing feedback from our community and we want to share some of the early results with you!
💻We had over 1000 people play the alpha
🌍1/3 of people are from USA, Hi to our American Community!
🥼50% of people who responded have done homebrewing in real life, and 30% are in the process of getting into it
🍺42% of responders are passionate and knowledgeable craft beer fans, and 25% are just getting into it and keen to learn more
🕗30% of responders play 8-12 hours of gaming per week and 38% play 12+ hours of games per week
👷🏾♂️40% of players brewed 2-5 beers, and 3% brewed over 6! Shout out to the hardcore brewers
👀Check out our brewery logos!👀
Did you see the sneak peek of some of our in game breweries we posted about recently?
💛Thank You 💛
A giant thank you to all you came into our discord, posted on socials or streamed our alpha. It honestly was an amazing way to end the year. If you haven't seen our streamer compilation, here it is and thank you to them for allowing us to use their content 💛
We hope you have a lovely holiday and we shall see you in the new year! 🎉🎅🎄🎁
Thanks for taking part in the Brewmaster Alpha!
The Brewmaster Alpha is officially OVER. We're just as sad as you are. 😭🍻
We hope you had a wonderful time playing Brewmaster. We really enjoyed watching your livestreams, having a catch up with you in Discord, and seeing your posts on social media! Thank you so much for taking part in it!
Now it’s time for you to tell us how you felt the Alpha really tasted. We’ve provided a handy recipe for success for you to work through, so you don’t miss any important steps. Let’s hop into it!
How to make Brewmaster even better:
Complete the Alpha feedback survey with all your taste notes
If you were a part of the Brewmaster Alpha you should have a survey that has been sent to your inbox. We are only sending the survey to those who were a part of the Alpha, so make sure you check your spam folders if you can't see it!
Please take six minutes to fill in this Alpha feedback survey so we know what you thought of Brewmaster so far! All feedback will be useful as it will contribute towards making the full version of Brewmaster as good as it can be.
Please wishlist Brewmaster on Steam! That way you’ll be the first to know when the game is released. As we’re a small developer, wishlisting makes an ENORMOUS difference to how many people see our game on Steam.
Now that you’ve played Brewmaster, you’re probably going to want to talk about the game with other Brewmaster fans. There’s a whole bunch of Brewmaster players already on the Auroch Digital Discord, why not go and join them?
If you took part in the Brewmaster Alpha, you’ll be able to gain access to a special role on our Discord – Brewer, to show everyone that you participated in the Alpha. To gain this role, there is a room called #alpha-brew-role where you’ll need to hop in, paste your Alpha key, and wait for Jem, Ladell, or Alice to give you the new shiny role.
What was your favourite moment of playing the Brewmaster Alpha? We want to know, but instead of replying to this Steam post, here’s how you can tell us:
Discuss your awesome Alpha moment in the #brewmaster channel in our Discord
Tweet to us at @AurochDigital about your awesome Alpha moment on Twitter using the hashtag #Brewmaster
Did you complete the recipe to make Auroch Digit-ale? Did you accidentally make bread? Did you forget a key part of the recipe and make some slightly flavoured water? Whatever your most favourite Alpha moment is, we want to hear it!
