Welcome to a new update post to Jasper and the City of Lights! Things are continuing slowly for now, but don’t worry, progress is being made and a big update is coming soon! I will not make promises about the time for the next update, but if you’re especially eager to try it out as early as possible, you should read on:
The Weasel Club recruitment program has started!
Get access to the beta branch of Jasper, where updates are coming more often and way before they are made public to everyone else.
Meet and discuss with us in a friendly and supportive environment. The Weasel Club is a community of artists, gamers and devs with an interest in cozy little adventures like Jasper.
We are preparing ourselves for many cute ideas to bring to the Weasel Club, and you can shape its future with us! Take a look around and get inspired <3
While we are preparing the next content update, we have compiled some quality-of-life updates to ship right away! Thank you again for the valuable feedback, almost all these changes and additions are thanks to you!
Here we go:
We added a small animation to the area overlay and a whimsical sound. Also the overlay stays visible a little longer and is much better readable than before.
Similarly we added animations to the subtitles and increased readability as well.
Collecting postcards or pebbles now shows a popup, confirming that you really picked something up.
Any collectables you collect are now represented with a small stamp in the Narrator’s book.
We also added an overview of all the collectables within the current chapter, where you can check if you missed something.
A confirmation popup will prevent you from accidentally skipping voice over by interacting with other items. You can interact again to skip to the new dialogue.
More tweaks and fixes:
The guided camera mode is now much more pleasant (for example at the start of the game during the walking tutorial). It should now feel more like a gentle guidance instead of forcing you to look into a certain direction.
Various places where you could walk through bushes, get stuck or climb stuff that’s not supposed to be climbable.
Correct button prompts at the latnern
Moved trigger for star crashite further back so you don’t miss the action
Tweaked some fonts
Updated some texts in the main menu and added links to the Weasel Club discord server
Our store page got a little upgrade, hopefully it’s a little easier to grasp what Jasper is about :) We still need better screenshots, but that’s for the next update…
Frankfurt Book Fair 2024
Feel free to check by (Hall 4.1 H29)! Or let me know if you would like to meet, I'm going to be around until Saturday evening :) If you would like to take one of Jaspers postcards or stickers you can grab them at the booth, or if you see me walking around.
Update 0.7516
This is just a small patch with some tiny bug fixes and tweaks.
Most notably the book now has an updated appearance.
Thank you to everyone who reports bugs to me! :)
More content and new features coming soon!
Update 0.7512
Thank you to everyone who gave feedback, commented in the forums, wrote reviews or even created video reviews of Jasper!! <3
Here is a first batch of improvements based on the input:
Chapter Selection
You can now replay any levels and chapters you have previously finished.
All soul dust you earn while replaying the levels will be added on top of your already collected soul dust.
Feel free to start hoarding soul dust for the next levels this way. If it's too broken I might change this in the future though.
Book
Narration on first page can now be skipped
Skipping through book pages now skips through individual lines instead of the whole page. Continuing to skip during page turns still skips whole pages.
Level Tweaks
Tweaked interaction cameras in attic
Made attic a little brighter
Increased duration of boy sequence right after the poem by the well, so it's less easy to miss
Tutorials
Added controls tooltips as a basic tutorial and reminder during gameplay. Will add a setting to deactivate any tutorial overlays in the future.
The button prompt during sequences now fades out after a while for more immersion.
General
Post process bloom is now set correctly from the beginning
Jasper is not freezing anymore while charging a lantern
Tweaked audio levels: Music and sfx were too loud
Fixed minor bug when entering pause menu while a sequence is playing in the background
Fixed level change breaking when soft-restarting the game via the pause menu
Credits
Increased visibility and added the link to the credits to various sub-menus. Credits will be integrated directly into the game in the future.
Grandma added some more apple pie to the game
Jasper and the City of Lights is now available in Early Access!
Jasper’s story is from now on continuing to be told with your input!
Some of you, who are reading this, might have come across Jasper quite some time ago. Maybe we met on a games conference, maybe you heard about Jasper during the Indie Arena Booth Steam event in 2022.
Or hopefully you are just now stumbling upon this little game and are one of the people who are interested to join the community.
TL;DR:
- Try out the game, it’s free!
- Follow us on the Steam Community Hub to receive news about the latest updates to Jasper’s story!
- Let us know your feedback! <3
To give a very short insight of the development journey of Jasper: Rivers and Wine as a studio was founded by the end of 2019. We started to work on our first project and hired fellow game devs and artists in 2020. Unfortunately 2020 turned out to be one of the worst years to start a company, let alone a games studio. We had many struggles over the years and ultimately had to take a couple steps back to catch our breath and refocus.
During all these struggles there was one goal that was never a question: To deliver the game we promised, the game that all the people who accompanied us grew to love but still had to be put into reality.
Jasper in its current state reflects the mood, pacing and overall quality we hope to achieve. From here on, development is going to be mainly about adding chapter after chapter and finishing Jasper’s story.
The parts that are released should be a pretty smooth experience, if not: Head over to our forums and let us know, it’s going to be fixed in no time!
Please note that part of the refocus of Rivers and Wine was going completely independent. That means we have only you, the players, as stakeholders to our games, but also that we now work with what limited resources we have. Right now marks the start of our transition from being a development only games studio, to a developing and self-publishing games studio. A lot of the stuff that’s part of the publishing side of games is only just now being established. That’s why for now the focus will be completely on the Steam Community Hub, where we will be very active! Don’t hesitate to ask or post anything that’s on your mind there!
I hope you enjoy our first view into the story of Jasper. There is a lot more to come! <3
Have an awesome weekend and let me know if you’re going to be on gamescom next week :)
- Gordon
Jasper and the City of Lights is now available in Early Access!
Some of you, who are reading this, might have come across Jasper quite some time ago. Maybe we met on a games conference, maybe you heard about Jasper during the Indie Arena Booth Steam event in 2022. Or hopefully you are just now stumbling upon this little game and are one of the people who are interested to join the community.
TL;DR: - Try out the game, it’s free! - Follow us on the Steam Community Hub to receive news about the latest updates to Jasper’s story! - Let us know your feedback! <3
To give a very short insight of the development journey of Jasper: Rivers and Wine as a studio was founded by the end of 2019. We started to work on our first project and hired fellow game devs and artists in 2020. Unfortunately 2020 turned out to be one of the worst years to start a company, let alone a games studio. We had many struggles over the years and ultimately had to take a couple steps back to catch our breath and refocus.
During all these struggles there was one goal that was never a question: To deliver the game we promised, the game that all the people who accompanied us grew to love but still had to be put into reality.
Jasper in its current state reflects the mood, pacing and overall quality we hope to achieve. From here on, development is going to be mainly about adding chapter after chapter and finishing Jasper’s story. The parts that are released should be a pretty smooth experience, if not: Head over to our forums and let us know, it’s going to be fixed in no time!
Please note that part of the refocus of Rivers and Wine was going completely independent. That means we have only you, the players, as stakeholders to our games, but also that we now work with what limited resources we have. Right now marks the start of our transition from being a development only games studio, to a developing and self-publishing games studio. A lot of the stuff that’s part of the publishing side of games is only just now being established. That’s why for now the focus will be completely on the Steam Community Hub, where we will be very active! Don’t hesitate to ask or post anything that’s on your mind there!
I hope you enjoy our first view into the story of Jasper. There is a lot more to come! <3
Have an awesome weekend and let me know if you’re going to be on gamescom next week :) - Gordon
Indie Arena Booth 2022
Hey! You can meet us at gamescom this weekend and get a first on-site look at the demo of Jasper and the City of Lights. Also we heard there are free drinks if you collect 6 stamps by testing some of the various and awesome games that are present at Indie Arena Booth this year! <3
