Critter Crops
The Witch Reborn patch 1
'The Witch Reborn' Major Update 2.0 is LIVE!
This update introduced a truckload of changes to gameplay quality. Please note that the story and questing for the game hasn't changed though so you won't feel like you missed out if you didn't finish out the game in the past. I won't spoil it by saying exactly what's changed but here's a baseline breakdown:
- New vendor
- New Grimoire
- New UI visual/layouts
- New revamped turn by turn combat
- New customization
- Complete controller support (this one was a DOOZY to implement. Unfortunately it's not perfect so we recommend not swapping back and forth between joystick and m&k)
- Plus many many more!
With this update the game is final unless there are any MAJOR game breaking bugs. And once we have that confirmed then we are submitting final build to switch with the most stable 2.0 version of the game. Long time no talk! Sooooo just gonna start things off with the happy news by saying that the long awaited overhaul 'The Witch Reborn' (aka version 2.0) of Critter Crops is coming this Friday!
We're still here and prepping for some BIG changes
I know everyone is itching to know what's been going on since launch. And the answer is a complicated one that I'll first sum it up with a single phrase, A LOT.
First and foremost I want to address issue number one, our launch. It wasn't great, bugs were an issue for sure but also people struggled with mechanics that weren't polished. That's on me. As a solo dev this has been a learning experience. So I decided to take in all the feedback, the bugs etc and come up with a plan to revamp the game as a whole. This ended in a very large series of adjustments.
So what does this mean? Expect a very different gameplay experience with the next big update. Combat changes, character changes, some dialogue changes, UI updates and adjustments, settings updates etc. This is a massive undertaking and one I was very scared to pursue, but as I've always said, I want the game to be it's best even if I'm not always able to get there I will continue to try. All that being said, this is a battle of time and I will not make the same mistakes regarding bug testing before I approve this update to be put out. I'm fully aware everyone is eager and waiting, but I've no intention of rushing this one out until it has been thoroughly bug tested and tested again. This means that I do not have a date for release, but it will be as soon as possible.
With this next update, it will likely be the last major update (barring any bugs) to the game and with that it will go through final approval to Nintendo Switch. I want to be honest with you all, this will not be a game that goes on to additional DLC or anything of that nature. Once the game is final, any updates will just be patches for minor things. That does NOT mean however that Critter Crops dies here. I have many plans to expand the franchise to additional games beyond this one, and with the knowledge I've gained through making this first game, I'm quite excited for that future.
Just want to thank you all for the support and help in this rocky road. Making games is tough, and doing it alone is even tougher. So having an awesome support network from you all has been a life saver.
As a tiny sneak peak, I'll share this image with you so you have something to look forward to!
~Critter Dev
Week Two patch : C.C.1.0.0.3
As promised we are back with a variety of bug fixes and improvements thanks to all the amazing feedback and bug reporting you guys have done. 💚 We can't thank you enough for your patience and encouragement and we encourage you to continue to make those reviews and join us in discord as it's very helpful for our team's success!
Here's the list of all the bug fixes and improvements:
- Sanguine text not doing damage
- Issue with some text causing loops
- Fixed issue where null reference did not allow players to pick up relics
- Set inventory item limit to 99. Players can only have 1 stack of 99 of each item.
- Fixed issue where if a player dies during an overlord battle they cannot restart which locks game progress
- Removed world items from sales options at greeves
- Fixed bug where the collider for talking to snow was not in the correct place and so players did not open Freya's oracle.
- Fixed bug where starting from save file in the frosted divide wilds would open the wrong room
- Fixed timing on critters in bogville
- Fixed issue where tomataur would convert to celharpy when leaving bogville square or restarting
- Fixed issue where residents in Mur Mur Town, Bogville and Summit City would go off walkable zones
- Removed Henbit weeaters from Frosted divide social zones.
- Fixed issue where inviting jollie would play the wrong dialogue sequence
- Fixed issue which did not allow users to acquire the final items to ascend critters due to size of magic media inventory
- Adjusted vitalty of coneflower weeaters
- Fixed debug log warning causing performance issue while in Bogville
- Improved riding the boat on the river Styx
- Added icon to remnant of ambrosia
- Fixed name and description of remnant of ambrosia
- Fixed z positioning of spawners for lily weeaters which made them phase out
- Limited giving items to NPCs if your inventory is full
- Fixed issue where bumble reaper queen did not do damage when eating a player
- Fixed bug where coneflower weeaters did not do damage
- Fixed issue when the players clicked nevermind when chatting and players could not move or interact
- Fixed issue where going by a job board disable players ability to interact
- Fixed physics issue where Tome of the wild did not cause damage to Lilygator Toad
- Clamped vitality of Lily Gator Toad to a minimum of 0
- Adjusted layering of Lily gators access song sequence indicator
- Adjusted pivot points on cherrberus, onion and manticorn for more proper overlapping
- Adjusted frame rate on animations of plants in Bogville and Summit City
- Added popups indicating when inventory or critter roster are ful
- Added rarity indicators to menus with critters
- Removed overlapping star on enrichments indicator
- Added friendlees kiosk to summit city residential zone
- Fixed exploit where ascending critters did not use the required items
- Critter icon not showing as ascended in barn
- Adjusted animator on ascended kappea
- Allow players to get critter from the barn based on party level
- Fixed blip on biome zones after lighting beacons
- Fixed issue where players could not do damage to final boss
- Added indicator on triangle floating lock in final boss fight
- Fixed reset on character movement after the credits conclude
Thank you all again, we look forward to seeing you all on Mutter Island!
-Team SkyReach
Week One patch : C.C.1.0.0.2
Amazing that an entire week has gone by since our launch!
Time sure flies. Before we dive into the things, I wanted to say another sincere thank you to everyone who has played the game, shared it and helped to find the ways we can improve and make Critter Crops everything you all want and more. We cherish the encouragement and kind constructive criticism you've all had, and most of all, your patience in knowing our team is very small, and we're working tirelessly to make improvements. We encourage you to continue to make those reviews and join us in discord as it's very helpful for our teams success!
Now, down to the big stuff. So for week 1, we wanted to focus our efforts on the things we see that impair gameplay. Things that you all said were game breaking, and then our major things that were affecting QOL in gameplay. We have a lot more to add, but in this short week, these are the items that were addressed:
- Residents were going off the map
- Residents not showing up
- Added a popup at the start of the day that shows who is in town
- Player gets stuck if they speed through the first dialogue with Snow when they first get to the main Frosted Divide area
- If players go to main menu and then return to gameplay, interacting with Friendlees kiosk broke interactions and caused cascading issues
- Shop buffs were not being applied. Also added a visual to show shop ranks and buffs while in the shop
- Problems with item counts when you are selling from multiple stacks at Greeves.
- Second spell for the book of the exalted was colliding with the environment
- Sylvie continues running if you run and interact with minerals to mines
- Issue when attempting to pickup an essence while in range of another interactable zone (very common when trying to mine next to the request board in Mur Mur Town
- Added auto save to game which occurs when the player sleeps at any inn
- Players were able to take damage while in menus or while talking to NPCs
- Weeaters should not spawn in the evening until after players acquire their grimoire
We know that this may not be everything that has been found, but these were some big ticket things we wanted to address early on. Now, we have a list of other items that have been noted by folks that are next on our agenda. These are the know bugs and QOL features we intend to add in game:
- Settings do not save and controls can be duplicate for multiple actions
- Add option to access tutorial windows at any time
- Visual queue indicating when the players critter roster is full
- Adding quantity of items in bag on items when selling or buying
- Changing shop item buttons into a hover instead of a click to view the info relating to it
- Putting borders in the Banshee and Beyond menu to indicate rarity
- Changing critter buttons in Banshee and Beyond int a hover instead of a click to view
- Adding a visual to show changes to stats when applying charms and enchantments
- Ability to read spell names in the grimoire tab
- Chat window design improvement
- Friendlees posts are not saved after closing the game
- Series of visual bugs relating to object and environment layering
- Series of typos in text
We expect that this list will continue to grow, and we will continue to be vigilant and make our best attempts to make improvements! Thank you all again, we look forward to seeing you all on Mutter Island!
-Team SkyReach
Day One Patch
What a first day! Thank you all for being amazing and patient as we wrangled the problem areas we weren't able to snag before launch (there was some WEEIIIRRDD stuff). We chose to focus on anything majorly game breaking that was found and will continue to address the less 'spicy' issues as we progress. Should anything big come up we will be do another hotfix but for now expect patches as we're able to improve things!
Resolved issues:
- Fixed issue where night time did not pass, causing a series of other issues
- Fixed bug where Greeves shop did not populate when opening the first time
- Adjusted collider in Frosted Divide which caused some players to get stuck if attempting to squeeze passed the block.
- Fixed issue where cursor stays on screen when closing barn interaction menu
- Disabled unused item slots to minimize unwanted audio pings
- Weeaters will now spawn at night through midnight after acquiring a grimoire and do not need a reset.
-Fixed issue where steam achievements were not progressing
Known issues and areas for improvement that still remain as of now:
HIGH PRIORITY (Game breaking/game impeding)
Friendlees breaking interaction with other actions such as noodling, mining and foraging.
Odd colliders occurring which force players to restart game
MID PRIORITY
Settings do not save
LOW PRIORITY
You must walk away from the barn in order to interact with it again
Cannot pick up essences by the job board
Residents walking off the walkable zones
Critter rarities can get jumbled when dropping off at the barn.
If you've got other bugs or improvement suggestions please join our discord!
Thank you again everyone for your continued support through our launch and for your heart warming words of encouragement in our reviews.
Critter Crops is Available Now!!
Today is LAUNCH DAY
Our team is so excited and nervous and proud and...well... we're feeling a LOT of emotions.
We wanted to take some time today to thank everyone for believing in our dream and our adorable little critters and most of all our 'little witch'. You've all been so incredible in this journey and really helped renew the spark when times were tough for us. We look forward to hearing about your journey through Mutter Island and all the friends you make along the way.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1641120/Critter_Crops/
Celebrate and Save During Launch
To celebrate our game will be 10% off until July 29th!
💞 How You Can Support Us
As a small indie team, there are so many ways you can help support us and the game.
- If you buy the game, please consider leaving an honest review on Steam! Reviews have a massive impact on indie games and we'd love to see your thoughts and experiences through a review.
- Sharing the game through word of mouth with family and friends or on social media with your followers can really help spread the word and give others a chance to discover their next adventure. So many indies are discovered with a simple share or casual discussion.
- Join the amazing community in our Discord and follow us on Twitter to share in the excitement and get to know other great gamers.
💞 Skyreach Studio
Critter Crops has a New Release Date!!!
It's been a wild ride, and some struggles definitely made development a challenge. I won't say that this title is or ever will be perfect, but I have worked so hard and done my very best to bring you something great. I hope that this title will pave the way to a long long life for the Critterverse. I just want to thank you all for being such an amazing community of people, and I hope to see you all making your journey across Mutter Island very soon!
Here's to many more years of Critter Crops and SkyReach Studio! Thank you all again! The countdown begins! ~Love Always - Team SkyReach
Make sure to wishlist the game, join the amazing community in our Discord, and follow us on Twitter to begin counting down to launch day!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1641120/Critter_Crops/
Game Launch Delay
We know a lot of excitement has been stirring since the release date announcement. Unfortunately, we are no longer confident in that date and will be postponing the release of the game to later this year.
Since the release date announcement, we have been hard at work going through the final rounds of testing before launch to ensure a fun and cozy experience. This includes playing the game from start to finish over and over and over and it is taking a lot longer than we had expected.
While this decision is a hard one, it is not one we make lightly. We are determined to give you the best game possible on launch day and make Mutter Island a place you want to revisit time and time again because you enjoy it.
As always, we are forever grateful for your continued support and hope you can forgive us for another delay. We wouldn't be making Critter Crops without it!
For all the critter content, check us out on Twitter, TikTok, and join our Discord community.
- SkyReach Studio Team 🧡
Play our Demo During PAXEast!!
We are excited to announce that Critter Crops is participating at PAXEast , as part of our publisher Freedom Games Booth.
If you are at PAXEast, you can stop by booth #15096, and play our demo.
As part of our participation, there is a free demo available for everyone to try during the event RIGHT HERE ON STEAM.
Keep in mind , the demo will come down March 25th, so be sure to download and play today!
Don't forget to wishlist the game so you don't miss out on any news and thank you for your support!
Join our amazing community in our Discord, and follow us on Twitter
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1641120/Critter_Crops/
PS Freedom Games is also running some cool giveaways at Pax, so stop by their booth for your chance to win some cool swag!