Heart. Papers. Border.
[Build Update] We added Sounds!
There is a new Heart. Papers. Border. update that brings a lot more life to the game!
We added sound effects for a lot of actions, such as typing, clicking on buttons, turning pages, using the SpacePad, publishing blog posts, travelling and more! Of course everything is work in progress but - what do you think?
We also added a few more fixes, the most notable being that now you actually are notified when you post a blog.
Please also note a BIG BUG with the save system which is broken. Right now if you try to Continue, you should get a crash or at the very least some very strange behaviour.
Over & Out!
Lara
[Build Update - Finally!!!] The new Blog is here!
We were finally able to get a stable first draft of the new BLOG feature, which outs all your hashtags in one place and allows you to drag and drop them in your blog post.
So the new BLOG stuff goes like this:
- All new UI for the BLOG feature
- All hashtags are displayed in the left side column and they are scrollable
- Drag&Drop hashtag to Title and Extra Hashtags space
- Right click used tags to put them back in hashtag cloud
- New Hashtag values! Some hashtags give you units, some give you reach (influence), some give you both
We STILL need to do a lot, like...
- Adding tooltips and guides. We do not explain at all that you need at least one hashtag for the Blog Title, and that you can combine the extra tags in powerful ways
- Filters don't work, they are just there to remind us to do them
- Posting a blog should be done with a lot more bang. We will make it so you get a little report to understand the impact of your blog post
- Overall color scheme and fonts needs a lot of love
- Would be real cool to have some hashtag cloud animations and dynamism, also to drag and drop a tag back, there is a lot of finesse we hope to add
Of course the build also has a bunch of bug fixes and optimizations but those are boring to talk about and its our job to hunt and fix anyhow.
Next Build should have a new Time mechanic (we are converting time in a sort of currency) and also an updated Travel system where you no longer return to the airport after visiting an objective - you just go to the airport when you need to fly out of the country.
We really really look forward for your feedback!
Hugs & Love
L
[Dev Update] New Blog is coming, but we are stuck!
Planet Heart is still under development, and we are slowly creeping towards fixing up all the problems that come with a feature as trivial as a Drag & Drop seems. We wrote about our ordeals HERE
What is next is - hopefully - a bunch of updates to test the new Blog system. I'll keep you all up to date as soon as we are able to push something for you to play with.
And then, we have the Country Influence system to develop, rewrite the Time mechanics a little bit, implement the Birthday feature, and to tweak the Travel system because it makes no sense to keep on returning to the airport if you don't plan to leave the country.
We aim to push Heart. Papers. Border. in Early Access as soon as this is done. We welcome your thoughts about our plans!
Best!
L
[Build Update] Heart. Papers. Border. Universal Basic Income is HERE!
As we told you, we are Still Alive (tm) and working on new features for the game. In the latest update, we bring you:
- Universal Basic Income: this is a true story on planet Hearth <3 However, the monthly Units sum you receive does depend on the country you are born in, so may you spawn in a Good Country, friend!
- Income and Tax Return report: you get one at the end of each month! The tax you need to pay might be painful, we know. But! Spoiler alert: its FAKE (for now :D)
- Demo finally became Tutorial level. It was bound to happen - and you knew it!
Next update is the new BLOG system. Its a big one so.... Fingers crossed!
Hugs & Love!
Lara
Still Alive
But we are Back! And we are Still Alive ™. Here is what is on our Heart. Papers. Border. backlog (breathe, Lara, it only SEEMS impossible, but slowly, surely, we will make it!):
HPB BACKLOG – June 2017
Universal Basic Income
In HPB you currently earn money per day, but if you travel or visit any objectives, you are not earning anything. You also have connectivity which influences your earnings. The idea behind this mechanic was that you are a freelance worker and you have a few guaranteed clients. But this complicates the Unit mechanic tremendously and it is also not quite in line with our optimistic take. Which is why we are introducing Universal Basic Income – a guaranteed monthly wage that you get regardless of what you do, and that depends on the country you are born in.
Revamped Time Mechanic
Ain’t no one having fun to watch time passing.
We will instead treat time as currency and so you can choose to spend as much time as you wish when visiting an objective, for example. The more time you spend, the more shiny things you’ll learn. You will also discover valuable hashtags to blog about.
Revamped Unit Earnings
Universal Basic Income is a minimum wage but you will be able to supplement your income by writing certain types of blog posts and by running certain errands. In addition, if you start to accumulate debt, you will be forced to get a temporary job that will temporarily lock you in a location.
Revamped Transportation
It makes no sense to keep on returning to the airport after visiting an objective, as it happens now. So we will allow you to move from objective to objective and we will convert the airport into a special kind of destination, the only one that allows you to travel to another country.
Revamped Visiting Objectives
Currently, each objective has a set duration that you need to spend there no matter what. We will make it so you choose how many days you wish to spend, but each day will have a cost and, of course, benefits. The more time you spend in a location, the more you will get to know it.
Influence System
A core component of HPB is that, as you travel, you influence the countries you visit to become more and more open. This is an essential system but it depends on all the other systems to do right. You’ll have a way to see how you influenced each country and some indication on what you can do.
Revamped Blog
We already redesigned the blog to show all your tags and to drag& drop then in a post. Here is how it will look:
NEW BLOG
Blog Stats
We need a way to show you the impact of every blog post you make. This is actually a pretty serious feature as we think we’ll let you write blog posts that bring you Units OR Influence, so you’ll have to choose wisely.
Dynamic Country Info App
If you ever browsed our Country Info app inthe Space Pad and liked it, know this: IT IS A LIE. All you see is jpegs for every country, and obviously we need to generate that info dynamically. But at least I am good at making nice dummy pages 😀
Time and Unit Spending Log (in Journal app)
You need a way to know where all that time and units went.
Birthday Mechanic
This is not an essential mechanic but it contributes hugely to the essence of Heart. Papers. Border., which is to make you think about what are you doing with your life. Life passes, and you can never get back time. Sure, you can take it easy, but it is such a fine balance between truly being aware of what you are doing with your life, and not being aware. And whether we like it or not, we all make an impact, every single day. And my biggest wish is for Heart. Papers. Border. to make you gain this perspective.
Help App
Gotta have it! Yup, what we have now is also pretty hardcoded, though not quite a jpeg 😀
Game Analytics
This is just common sense for any game project. Unity has a bunch which come basically for free with the plus version. And I really want to understand you, dear player <3
Other Stuff (TM)
Bug fixing, localisation, Sound design and everything sound related, Visual FX, and small stuffs like that.
And OH. Did we mention CONTENT? Only 24 countries to fully add, each with its own landscapes, government, stories, landmarks, quests and special vibes.
The Heart. Papers. Border. official lecture at NGC2017
We are finally back from Creative Coast Festival and Nordic Game Conference where we showcased Heart. Papers. Border. and we also had lectures about feature creep.
We recorded everything and posted it on YouTube here:
Mastering Feature Creep in Heart. Papers. Border. - A philosophical approach to releasing games and changing the world
<3
L
Heart. Papers. Border. Creative Coast & Nordic Game Conference Update!
There is a new update for Heart. Papers. Border. that contains a lot of tweaks and optimisations for the demo/ tutorial experience. We realised people did not notice where to click, so we added a lot more helper elements.What do you think?
We also overhauled the UI and moved pretty much all elements in the upper side of the screen. We also improved the way notifications look.
Finally there is a cool new feature in the upper right side of the screen that allows you to fast zoom out and also to fast zoom in and center on player's position.
We are a few hours away from driving to Creative Coast Festival in Karlshamn and then from there straight to Nordic Game Conference in Malmö. If you are at any of these shows, come say hi - we'll be hanging by the Sweden Game Arena booth!
Best!
L
Heart. Papers. Border is back from Reboot Develop!
We have been a little quiet because we have just returned from Reboot Develop, where we showcased Heart. Papers. Border.
The reason we attended this show was to get live feedback on how people play the game. Trade shows are always quite revealing and we realized we need to provide you with substantially better UI and gameplay. We are on it!
So stay tuned for updates and new builds. We deeply appreciate any feedback, especially if there are parts of the game that annoy you. So please feel free to tell us what you think!
Best!
L
HPB Build Update! April 16
You might notice there is a new update. We are getting ready to go to Reboot Develop and this is the build for that show. That is why we disabled the CONTINUE button. Sorry about that - it'll be back!
The build also has some new stuff, including a new task, some fixes, player location icon moved, and also a new End Of Demo kind of announcement.
For now, the current build does not unlock all the other countries after Demo. Fixing now.... .... .... ^^
Therefore, you might also get some new updates since we continue to tweak and improve the build. Even though we shouldn't. We should instead rest and relax before a show, but hey. Yolo :D
Hugs & Love!
Lara
Heart. Papers. Border. store page is LIVE!
Besides participating in the Heart. Papers. Border. community right here, you can also:
- Request a Heart. Papers. Border. development Steam key HERE
- Subscribe to our newsletter HERE
- Review our live Game Design Document HERE