Kynseed
Hotfix Update 1.1.0.11904
Thanks to all of you for your support, whether by sending in bugs, for leaving a review letting us know what you think, for hanging out in the community, or even simply playing the game.
If you are getting any issues, please send them in for us to look at (via discord or mailing bugs@kynseed.com).
Here is today's changelog:
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❌ Fix crash on talking to Fairweather with certain old saves
❌ Fix children not moving for studying
❌ Fix rotating table switching to a different table
❌ Fix rotating objects losing their colour palette and a potential crash
❌ Fix rotating objects going invisible if placed on an invalid position
🔷Additionᅠᅠ🔶Improvementᅠᅠ❌Fix
Big Build Update Out Now!
+ Customisation
+ Customise the look of your farm interior and exterior.
+ Spend money to unlock more plots on the farm.
+ Unlock more customisations by playing the game. These can be bought or gained from challenges and other sources around the world.
+ A certain Fairweather item might also give you a further area to customise…
+ Friends & Family Builds
+ Build additional structures for your farm that provide benefits or give shelter to your animals.
+ Repair structures like bridges to gain access to new areas or statues/stalls to make travel and commerce easier.
+ Repair houses that can be destroyed by the encroaching evil creatures of the land.
+ New Axe and choppable trees for wood collection
+ New Stone resource.
+ Totems
+ Many areas can now be infiltrated by monsters that place a totem which blocks resources and any F&F building in the area.
+ Through a mini combat room clear the rifts and totem to restore the area and gain rewards.
+ Eligible family can clear totems through gathering in that location.
+ Progress Screen
+ Track all your progress through this screen with a picture that fills in as you go.
+ Challenges gives over 400 challenges to complete throughout all aspects of the game with rewards of money/items and customisation unlocks.
+ Items screen gives a breakdown of how many you have found, total collected and the highest rating acquired.
+ Relationship screen tracks all current npcs and your relationship with them.
+ Story/Event keeps a history of parts of the game you have already discovered.
+ Shops gives a brief overview of how your shops are doing.
+ Customisation catalogue shows you all items you can unlock and what activities will unlock them.
+ Story Pacing
+ Some new tasks added with new characters and a new area and combat wood to unlock.
+ Additional cutscenes during childhood.
+ The flow of the game has been improved from start to finish to have a gentler pace unlocking as you learn the ways of the land.
+ New Noticeboard Tasks
+ Races
+ Treasure Hunts
+ Paranormal Activity
+ NPC improvements
+ A new talent system means each NPC, including your children, has their own skill which can be used to your benefit.
+ New dialogue has been added for reactions to you and relative to their level of friendship
+ Some NPCs now have cutscenes as your relationship grows with them.
+ The type of an NPC’s like/dislike can now be seen on their info to make for more targeted gifting.
+ NPCs now travel between levels and have had other AI tweaks.
+ Your previous family can visit from time to time at your farm.
+ Batch Crafting
+ After crafting 3 of a given item type you unlock the ability to craft in batches making up to 10 at once if you have the ingredients for them.
+ Proverb acquiring
+ These can be automatically given based on collecting the items at 5/10/15 of the item.
+ Proverbs found in the world are now context based to what skills/recipes and items in the level you might not have found yet.
+ For some items collecting 20 will also unlock the ability to place them through customisation.
+ Discovering Star Ratings
+ Picking up an item will now reveal one of the rating conditions in effect.
+ Review the info on the proverb tab or in the items page of the progress screen and you may be able to deduce the other ratings!
+ Instant Message System
+ Alerts the player to various events/tasks in the game.
+ Also provides shop alerts if you are running low on stock.
+ Misc
+ Kynseed Tree keeps growing.
+ Rumble added for controllers.
+ The apothecary can now craft combat items in a similar way to cures.
+ Good store ledger clearer on how transactions are making money/rep.
+ On the Character screen can select stats/traits/talents and press a key for more info on them.
+ Can choose the initial depth (difficulty level) on combat runs, the higher depths unlock as you complete a run reaching that depth.
+ Task to earn a new fae pet.
~ Friendship points has a new popup that shows where you are getting bonus points from.
~ Update pass on all the text.
~ Balance Adjustments
~ Skill requirements adjusted.
~ More renown given for completing story and extra is given for all sources in the later game.
~ Tools lower xp to level.
~ Prices on items are up to make rating modifiers more effective.
~ Brounie offerings removed as it clashed with totems and customisation.
~ Goddess offerings randomly paired each week.
~ Fish are weighted to appear more when their exact conditions occur.
~ Combat runs are slightly shorter and puzzle rooms are not guaranteed.
~ Noticeboard task rewards are a bit more generous.
~ Extra perk points at the higher levels of shops after all the shopper types are unlocked.
Fixes
! Various level collision/layering issues.
! Fixed issues where certain events would not trigger.
! Fixed Issues with lost items not spawning.
! Removed holes from giant vegetables.
! Aurore Boon correctly grants double herb in all cases.
! Animal likes adjusted.
! Rating conditions adjusted for Moxy/Offals Tench.
! Pig/Sheep riding anims redone.
! Fixed issues with dates to do with date spots and items gifted.
! Fixed Good store shops not making sales if you use a campfire in the same level.
! Fixed Good store shoppers not buying items at higher star rating prices.
! Fixed Good store staff pricing new items at 1 brass (now uses a number around the base price which could be a bit lower or higher).
! Collect honey order applies rating conditions.
! Cooking orders results apply ratings based on ingredients.
! Missing chickens not moving to the next step in some cases on returning the chickens.
! Chickens around the levels given names.
! Good store perk for outdoor item appears in the right place and gives star rated items.
! 4 missing recipes located.
! “In the morning” rating condition now includes dawn.
! Turning on and off lights could leave them lit with no light.
! Bees in jars weren’t selectable in combat.
! Wearing harvest task issues where it wouldn’t complete.
! Intelligence affecting speed of children learning xp.
! Fae shoppers could get stuck in the Good store doorway.
Big Build Update Out Now!
Welcome to the Big Build Update!
Your game should now have updated, if not check your library and you can do it manually from there.
We've spent the last year since release reviewing player comments and have developed a host of new features and improvements that we think make the game even better.
There is now farm customisation, building projects with friends and family, new combat totems that Hobs put up around Quill, story cut-scenes, loads of new NPC chat and conversation, a beautiful new progress screen, hundreds of new challenges, improvements to the flow and gating of the game and loads of other quality of life additions.
With the new improvements, we suggest you start a brand new character to experience the many additions to their fullest.
Your previous game(s) will load, though, so you can jump back in and explore the changes that way if you prefer. However, you'd miss out on some gating and story additions.
However you decide to play, we hope you enjoy this new update. It has been a true labour of love for our little team to create it, but we always felt it was worth the effort to respect the engagement and goodwill we've had from all of you since we launched.
Head to our Discord for help with questions and advice, or pop comments below and we will endeavour to answer them.
All the best,
PixelCount
Big Build Update goes Experimental
We've just pressed the button to make our latest update available as an Experimental Build.
We’ve spent the last year since release reviewing player comments and have come up with a host of new features and improvements which we think make the game even better.
What to try:
- Start a new game. We’ve changed the content a lot, so that will be the only way to fully experience all that is new.
- Try Customising your farm. This is gated at the very start, but not long into the Prologue, you can play about with this much-requested feature. Turn the music up when doing so to hear a new track!
- Check out the new Friends & Family gameplay, which will have you organising friendly villagers to repair ruined buildings and bridges.
- When you hit Renown Level 3, you will see Hobs putting up evil Totems around the land. These are new combat challenges with great loot rewards.
- Spend some time playing with the beautiful new Progress Screen. This, we believe, really helps tie together the whole game experience.
- Try the revised Skill Tree system - we’ve tried to make it easier to unlock some skills so that your progression is faster.
What to expect:
- There is a lot more variety when chatting with NPCs.
- Clearer clues to what NPCs need in their lives.
- New task types.
- New cut-scenes, both for the player’s story and NPC stories.
Things to note:
- Installing this build will overwrite your current version of Kynseed. Existing saves stay in the Saves folder, whilst Experimental saves go into a new folder.
- If you want to return to the previous build, switch back to the default branch on Steam, where your previous saves will be intact. You won’t be able to load your Experimental saves into the default branch.
- We have bugs. We are working through them right now. If you spot any big ones, let us know - specifically crashes. We don’t see many crashes these days, but if you see one:
- Take a screenshot of the red crash screen using the Snipping tool in Windows and send it to us via the channel on Discord, or by email at bugs@pixelcountstudios.com.
- Also, send us your latest save, found in Kynseed/ExperimentalSaves.
- And finally, send us the latest file in Kynseed/Logs.
There is more balance work to be done, for instance, on item prices, Friendship Points and Renown levels, and a few other relationship and story tweaks we are a bit behind on.
This player needs plenty of friends to complete her farm vision...
How to get the Experimental Build installed:
In your steam library right click and access properties for Kynseed.
Under the Betas tab, select Experimental from the dropdown.
This should now update and replace the build with this version. You can return to the normal build by choosing None for the Beta Participation options.
How to get in touch:
Our Community Manager has set up a dedicated channel on PixelCount’s Discord called Experimental Build. If Discord is not your thing, you can email us at bugs@pixelcountstudios.com.
That is it. Once again, thank you for being one of our much-loved community members in the first place, but even bigger thanks if you decide to take a quick look at this build preview. We hope you like it.
All the best,
PixelCount
Development Update - December 2023
Hello Seedlings!
A dev update to close out the year.
The Big Build Update is now in the hands of a select group of our Discord Community members to do a pre-experimental wander around Quill. They are generally customising their farms, repairing houses and checking out the new features.
So far, we've had some great feedback, with a mix of the odd crash, some bugs, some fantastic ideas and general heartwarming positivity.
The Holiday season has come at just the wrong time for getting the Experimental out for everyone as we need to take a little break to spend some time with our families. A couple of us will continue testing and coding between Christmas and the New Year, and we will all be back beavering away on Jan 2nd.
We occasionally get bugs that send us down rabbit holes, wondering, 'What if that was a game feature?'. These tend to be an easy-to-take distraction from getting our to-do lists done! Here are two recent bugs that made us laugh and wonder equally!
First up, whilst tweaking the new Customisation Catalogue, the bug spirits, if there are such a thing, seem to suggest new plantable types - Bottle Bushes, anyone?
Then, and this is something we admit is interestingly compelling, having Butterscotch follow you around! Let me say now: this ain't happening anytime soon, but it would be handy for any immediate Milk Delivery requests you might get!
We've also spotted what looks like Santa's present store outside Willowdown Farm - courtesy of our soon to be released Customisation mode, of course.
That's it for now. All that is left to say is we hope you all have lovely Christmas and New Year celebrations and that you get some time to do some gaming, perhaps a bit of Kynseed, along with all the other great games that have come out recently.
All the best,
PixelCount
Development Update - November 2023
A dev update for you.
Development on The Big Build has continued at full steam, and as we mentioned previously, we plan to release an Experimental build for you all to play.
However, as with bug-fixing logic, sometimes when you fix one, you add two more... so we still have issues that we’d prefer to iron out, before we share it with you, but we promise it’ll be worth the wait. As for exact timeline we don't feel confident enough to share an exact date right now but it's looking like being within the next month if things continue going well.
As well as all the new features we've added, like the customisation of your farm and fixing up of derelict properties, we have also improved areas such as gameplay gating, AI navigation and NPC text. Due to how these all work together in a game as big as ours, we need to do a bit more poking, testing and finessing to make sure it all behaves as expected.
We hope to soon start sharing some behind-the-scenes happenings in the form of a development diary. Some bugs are just too good not to share... oh, the joys of computer game development!
We love it, really, and we love our 'little' game, which is why we are taking time to get this additional content as good as possible.
All the best,
PixelCount
Development Update - October 2023
We have some information for you on the next content drop for Kynseed. We hope to get an Experimental build of our 'Big Build Update' out on Steam in the next couple of weeks or so.
As you probably know, we are a really small company (just two full-time employees), all working remotely, and this update is pretty BIG.
With that and other things needing to be done, we have to chase down some bugs and clear up a few design challenges before we share the new features any wider.
If the timings for the Experimental build move, which could be the case, we will make sure to put up a message on Steam as soon as we know. We'll try and keep you informed a bit better going forward.
All the best, and thanks for your continued support and understanding as we work on this additional content to our beloved game which we launched in December last year. We are nearly there and hope it will be worth the wait.
Kindest regards,
Development Update
We have some information for you on the next content drop for Kynseed. We hope to get an Experimental build of our 'Big Build Update' out on Steam in the next couple of weeks or so.
As you probably know, we are a really small company (just two full-time employees), all working remotely, and this update is pretty BIG.
With that and other things needing to be done, we have to chase down some bugs and clear up a few design challenges before we share the new features any wider.
If the timings for the Experimental build move, which could be the case, we will make sure to put up a message on Steam as soon as we know. We'll try and keep you informed a bit better going forward.
All the best, and thanks for your continued support and understanding as we work on this additional content to our beloved game which we launched in December last year. We are nearly there and hope it will be worth the wait.
Kindest regards,
New Progress Screen!
We understand the importance of providing valuable feedback and guidance whilst you play the game, and we appreciate the feedback from reviews that highlighted the need for better journey representation.
That's why we're thrilled to introduce the all-new Progress Screen, designed specifically to guide you during your time in Quill.
There are twelve carefully curated categories, including both familiar and fresh additions. Here are some noteworthy highlights:
- Challenges: Embark on an extensive new challenge system which rewards you with Brass, items and customisation unlocks.
- Lineage: Explore the connections of your family over time, offering a glimpse into your rich familial history.
- Story: Recap your main storyline progress through a step-by-step overview, ensuring you can quickly pick up on your adventure.
- Relationships: Conveniently displayed across a single screen displaying all the characters you've met, along with your friendship levels. Dive deeper for more information.
- Items: For avid collectors, the Progress Screen now allows you to get a sense of missing items in your inventory, with silhouettes hinting at what's yet to be found.
- Events: Relive the special occasions you've experienced with a comprehensive record of memorable events.
Additionally, the Progress Screen background itself evolves as you make progress, creating a living piece of art that reflects your journey!
Stay tuned for upcoming videos showcasing these features. In the meantime, we'll continue our work, keeping you updated on more exciting additions and providing insights into the testing, balancing, and release of this 'Big Build' Update.
Best regards,
PixelCount
Friends & Family in the Big Build Update
Some jobs in Quill are too darn big for you to do alone! Introducing Friends & Family, a substantial new gameplay feature for Kynseed.
On your farm, you'll have the opportunity to assemble a team of eager friends who will join forces with you to construct larger structures such as composters, tool sheds, greenhouses, and more. You can even breathe new life into a towering windmill, restoring it to its former glory.
But it doesn't stop there. Abandoned houses are awaiting your attention, ready to be refurbished and made available for new villagers seeking a place to call home.
Recently, Hob attacks have forced some unfortunate villagers into temporary shelter at a village refuge. With the support of your trusted companions, you can help these displaced residents return to their rightful homes, where they truly belong.
And there's more! Rally your best team to mend broken bridges, allowing access across the rivers and unlocking new possibilities.
This feature is another example of how we've been working hard to join the dots between existing game features, elevating the significance of the relationships you forge with your family and fellow villagers, as well as the valuable items you gather throughout the regions.
Rest assured, our dedication to enhancing the connection with your family, particularly those who have departed Willowdown Farm, remains unwavering. They shall reappear in due time, for those who still walk among the living, that is! More details to follow.
Next, though, we will look at a new Progress Screen.
Warmest regards,
PixelCount