Please enjoy this little crafting trailer. In the game you can cook 7 different types of recipe; craft potions, powders and creams at your apothecary and make 10 different items with 8 different metals in the blacksmiths. Each has their own tactile minigame for you to try. Without further ado...
Til next time. Love,
More News on 1.0 and...
Hello Seedlings!
Soon you will be Seedlings no more, but beautiful, growing trees.
Our street date for V1.0 is December 6th 2022!
That is the time we open the castle portcullis, after many years of crafting, scribbling and redecorating and send our creation out into the eager arms of our loving community.
Guided by your feedback we will be continuing to tweak, balance and polish V1.0 while mixing meaty new content for your gaming pie.
The tavern update will follow early in 2023 with beer crafting, entertainment hiring and mopping up the mess from happy gnomes and fairies. The months after will bring two large story updates with more characters, events and intrigue.
We also found a mysterious cloaked figure lost in our castle dungeon (it’s a deathtrap down there!).
When he revealed who he was, we discovered it was gaming legend, Sir Ian Livingstone!
Sir Ian is best known as one of the founders of Games Workshop (Warhammer), co-creator of the Fighting Fantasy series of adventure gamebooks, Eidos (Tomb Raider) and a General Partner at Hiro Capital. Sir Ian is an investor, advisor and business mentor at PixelCount, and has lent his decades of expertise in gameplay mechanics to the development of Kynseed.
Here is what he had to say…
“When I first discovered Kynseed, I immediately wanted to find out more about the team behind it,” said Sir Ian Livingstone. “I reached out to Neal and Charlie in 2020 and learned that they were former members of the Fable team at Lionhead. To my mind, Kynseed was a game with incredible potential, and I wanted to help them bring their vision to the world. There is so much to do when playing Kynseed, from exploring, questing, foraging, farming, and crafting to thrilling combat with strange creatures. The combat alone deserves to be a game in itself! I hope people will enjoy Neal and Charlie’s beautifully-crafted game because what they have developed is something rather special.”
Sir Ian now sits like a warlock in our highest tower as chairman of PixelCount. His invaluable experience, guidance and skills have proven to be a great boon for the game.
We want to take a moment to thank you all for your tremendous support over the years.
To quote our co-founder Neal…"Kynseed is the game we’ve always dreamed of making,"
This dream wouldn’t exist without our community and those who took a chance on our humble little (little?!) game, so for that, we are eternally grateful and hope you enjoy V1.0 and the start of a deeper story.
Love
Release Date Reveal!
That's right, you heard it here folks! Kynseed is finally reaching the end of it's Early Access path and we are happy to share that the release date will be December 6th 2022!
The team at PixelCount is ecstatic to finally be able to give you the news you've been waiting for and we hope you are looking as forward to the release as we are! Keep your eyes peeled on our socials over the next month for a variety of treats. Let us know what you think of the new look!
See you in the Vale soon,
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P.s. Don't forget you can join us on Discord to discuss the game and chat with the devs.
Just what is it? What could it possibly mean?
Hello Seedlings!
It’s been an incredibly busy time here at the Castle as we polish everything with our very finest cloths and the best ear wax we could find.
We don’t have much to show this week, except for this lovely little tease of artwork…
Just what is it? What could it possibly mean?
It’s all starting to get very exciting down here in the cellars, where we continue to craft our magic. Bugs are being fixed, polish is being applied and the art of balancing is underway.
We even sneaked in a few extra Fairweather items which our Art Dept are busy creating the art for today. Cutscenes are being tidied, sounds are being applied and lots of playtesting is going on.
So keep your eyes peeled for much more goodness coming in the very near future and we would love to hear your thoughts and comments below on the magnificent art above, as well as anything else.
Til next time, friends,
Love,
Blacksmith Crafting
Hello Seedlings!
A bit of a late update this week as we awaited a slightly delayed dev build with all sorts of goodies held within. The blacksmith crafting is one feature that underwent a much-needed revamp (and our final bit of UI that needed updating to the new way).
The minigame stays much the same, with some behind-the-scenes tweaks, but the actual crafting part was visually upgraded and given an extra ‘feel’.
CRAFTING FOR APPRENTICES
So, how does one go about forging their own masterpieces? Firstly select a mould from the range on offer. Moulds can be purchased from the various Smithy’s or given if you buy their shop. Then you can select an ore type and its Quality.
Fae ores have mystical properties and make the targets in the minigame move around and even phase in and out! All ores have a base Flexibility that affects the minigame. It also has Durability, and the aim is to make that as high as possible. A bar in the top left shows your Quality progress. Star rating also affects the minigame - the better the ore, the harder the crafting!
The first stage is simply to puff those bellows to heat the pure ore and melt it into the mould. You must then heat up the metal bar, stopping the gauge in the green zone if you can.
With the metal nice and pliable, we can now hammer it on the anvil. The aim is to try to cover the rings with the hammer.
Your Strength stat comes into play here. You get 1 hit per 1 point of stat. Each hit scores points (or loses them if you miss!). If you get three misses, you break it and lose the item. The indicators in the top left of the UI show your misses.
Then it is time to cool it, and this plays much the same as heating. Press a button to start the arrow and again to stop in the scoring zone. If you have made a sickle or sword, you get one extra stage - the grindstone! Here you must remove all the green areas. Miss them, and things start to turn red, losing you sharpening points. You are then scored, and the average of Ore Quality, Durability and Sharpness is totted up for your overall score.
You may then keep the item on you or send it to the Orders shelf or the Stock Cupboard.
We hope you enjoyed that glimpse. We have a few polishing bits to do, such as making the results screen pop animate and have nice sounds; the grindstone to have its arrows added and then we will balance it all.
Until next week, crafty friends.
Love
Kynseed QnA #6
Hello Seedlings!
Here we go with QnA numero 6!
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Q: Are many of your characters based on real folklore? A: Quite a few of the characters and monsters are based on folklore. Pott the Brounie, Knockers, certain Hags, our own version of Black Shuck among others. We also have a couple based on nursery rhymes such as Old Mother Hubbard and The Old Woman Who Lives in a Shoe.
Q: What is your favourite feature so far? A: Each member of the team has a different fave feature no doubt. Our combat is strong enough to be a game in itself. The cooking is great fun and very tactile, and running the stores is very involved for those who want to really roleplay.
Q: How many NPCs are there in the first generation? A: There are almost 60 bespoke first-gen NPC's who are affected by the ravages of time and over 20 NPCs who are pretty much immortal.
Q: Do you have a go-to name for any particular animal? A: As a sheep-rider (the fleece is comfier for my bottom) I like to explore the world on Mutton Chops.
Q: How many proverbs are there to collect in total? A: There are around 900 proverbs and star ratings to fill in.
Q: Can we expect to see regular hot-fixes after launch? A: You certainly can if there are any bad bugs or balancing issues need addressing! However, we hopefully will be able to just concentrate on our major updates with all that juicy content gravy for you to pour on the feast that is 1.0.
Q: Can you tell us about a funny bug you've experienced during development? A: Not only can we tell you, we can show you! Only yesterday we had a little physics issue as we worked on throwing physics, that had a slight knock on for the migrating chickens...
Q: Do you prefer ketchup or mayonnaise with your chips? A: Question to you...why wouldn't you have both?
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Thanks for tuning in, don't forget to submit your questions for next week!
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P.s. You can also join us on Discord!
Kynseed News
Welcome to another parchment of Quillian news, delivered by the news Chaffinches, as the Ravens and Pigeons are on holiday. We have been ferociously working on the game to hammer it into its final shape.
NPC STORIES
One feature we have always been keen on getting in is the idea of ‘NPC Stories’. What are they, you ask in whispered tones?
Each named NPC will say some flavour dialogue at each level gained on friendship, culminating in a bespoke task that you must complete before they 'love' you.
The new dialogue adds a bit of much needed depth and personality to the existing NPCs. Combined with an updated chat system and favours that are tied to their traits, the whole system really helps fill out the characters more.
You can find redemption in some NPC stories
STORY
Speaking of story, we are putting in more of the main story that you all so eagerly want, along with the player's main objective. Just what is your motivation to do the things you need to do? What’s that mysterious noise from the deep woods? What is behind that strange door? Who let the pugs out?
You'll need to get a handle on that door
UI
One other area of the game which we have been putting a lot of code and art effort into is the User Interface, or UI to those who know their gaming acronyms.
The new UI system is now being implemented for remaining areas, such as the family ledger, shop ledgers and chat systems.
Using your lovely new ledgers, you will be able to assign shifts, send your family gathering or give them specific orders that will raise their stats via learning...from gardening to studying books.
Things are looking a bit shifty in the ledger
COMBAT
We have also been working on combat for Midwood, and Gary has done an absolutely magnificent job with the monsters and their varying anims.
Midwood’s creatures have a very different style to those of Simplewood, and are a bit faster and more aggressive. Get your dodging shoes on!
Our combat isn't a drag to play
WRAP-UP
There are lots of other treats being prepared, including the creation of new hubs, a new haven, generations, shop specialisations and more. So keep an eye out (not literally) for more developer updates in the coming weeks.
A big thanks from the team for your continued patience and support.
Happy chocolate egg eating time!
Update 0.6.0.6214
A comprehensive overhaul of the existing music and sound effects has been done with this update. New audio tracks and sound effects have been added to replace all of those by a previous composer.
With such a change, we will undoubtedly have further modifications based on spending many more hours immersed in the game ourselves and player feedback. So let us know your thoughts on any of the new sounds in the comments section as usual.
If you are getting any issues please send them in for us to look at (via discord or mailing bugs@kynseed.com).
A big thanks to all of your support whether by sending in bugs, leaving a review letting us know what you think, hanging out in the community, or even by simply playing the game.
Cʜᴀɴɢᴇʟᴏɢ 🔷 All music and sfx by a previous composer replaced 🔶 Ambient sfx are now dynamic based on nearby game objects 🔶 Ambient sfx are now positioned in stereo on screen 🔶 Footstep sounds expanded on 🔶 Music now packaged and streams in earlier, this should fix stuttering on loading levels and going into and out of shops 🔶 Music now has a pause between repeating 🔶 Music is more controlled not to start during more of the night time hours 🔶 Sickle/Mining gamefeel adjusted ❌ Fix for Poppyhill house wall being out of place ❌ Fix for some npcs where footsteps weren't playing when they moved left and right ❌ Fix for mouse showing in gamepad mode if you exit from the calendar into the journal ❌ Fix for some music persisting if you exit to the title ❌ Fix for crash on calendar
🔷Additionᅠᅠ🔶Improvementᅠᅠ❌Fix
P.S. For those lucky enough to have a Steam Deck, we've been working on compatibility and currently have a opt in beta branch named steamdeck that should work.
Kynseed News
Spring is upon us and the dandelions are out in bloom in Quill. Picking one, we can see it is time for a little update on what is going on inside the game. Our industrious team of ten gnomes are tinkering away so here are a couple of things being forged inside their little houses.
UI UPDATE
One of the final elements of the game to get up to launch quality is the User Interface. As such, UI has been a big focus lately, with all of us playing some part in making the menus more consistent, intuitive, and responsive. They also look and feel lovely, like the ferns of Pinehaven.
In addition, we've been making significant progress on many of the remaining screens. This includes the interaction system, which has had an overhaul, with chatting streamlined like one of our finest racing pigs.
Work is also underway on the shop ledgers. When you are sat up late at night, the candle flickering, you need a reliable and informative book to do your accounts and stock. It also helps that it looks great too.
New look for blacksmith orders in the ledger
NEW TITLE SCREEN
What is that over there, glinting on the horizon? Why it’s the exciting new title screen based on our brand new Key Art! We can't wait to show you - it is pretty amazing, even if we say so ourselves. Which we just did.
EVENT EDITOR
The second central area of the game we are getting launch-ready is the story and task system, including the main narrative thread and the unique adventures you will embark upon based on the numerous NPCs.
So, to start filling out the game with all the delicious content we need, we created an 'Event and AI behaviour Editor' or ‘EAABE’ for short. We may need to change that acronym. This drag and drop game design tool allows us to easily create new events and the sim behaviours to support them. We've been replacing events that had previously been 'hard-coded' to now run using the new system, and the benefits to time and bug fixing have been more marvellous than Herbert’s beard.
This screen shows a few different parts of the tree for a cooking competition event
Each node is a small bit of code with settable properties making it easy to add new ones
WHAT'S NEXT?
We'll be posting more development updates in the near future, so keep an eye on the news raven to see what fresh produce Quill has to offer!
Hotfix Update 0.5.5.6121
Hello there seedlings!
Hotfix Update 0.5.5.6121 is now live! Today's update rounds up quite a few fixes from reported issues that should make the experience better.
If you are getting any issues please send them in for us to look at (via discord or mailing bugs@kynseed.com).
A big thanks to all of your support whether by sending in bugs, leaving a review letting us know what you think, hanging out in the community, or even by simply playing the game.
Cʜᴀɴɢᴇʟᴏɢ 🔶 Meeting a character allows you to see their traits as well as stats 🔶 Pig poop is now effective as fertiliser to speed all grown seeds by one day 🔶 Sheep poop is now effective as fertiliser to raise the rating of certain growables 🔶 Traits visible for recipe results once the player has made the recipe once 🔶 Adjusted player speedup to happen from becoming adult in the game 🔶 Switch a character introduction to cutscene to hopefully fix issues with it getting stuck ❌ Fixed lost item tasks using legacy items by switching them to new ones (this will reset progress of these tasks in existing saves) ❌ Fix for shop book not displaying when you buy a shop ❌ Fix for shoppers continuing to spawn in while certain UI menus are onscreen ❌ Fix for gift mails giving duplicate recipes/proverbs of existing unread gift mails ❌ Fix for some mails going to archive automatically ❌ Fixed accidental gifting when clicking up/down arrows in the inventory box ❌ Fix visual appearance of hotbar for buckets/jars not changing when swapping in a different one ❌ Fixed Retirement Home curse not affecting spouse when loading save ❌ Fix for sword not levelling up in combat ❌ Fix for fishing rod not enabling skills menu ❌ Correct spouse age in save portrait ❌ Fixed issue with Fae shops not getting restocked during a play session ❌ Fixed issue with npcs not resetting their info limit each season ❌ Fixed item names not showing on skills screen ❌ Fixed night ambient carrying over when quitting to title screen ❌ Collection tasks don't count items dropped from the inventory that are picked up again ❌ NPCs in alphabetical order on the relationship screen ❌ Inventory proverbs listed alphabetically ❌ Multipart task steps in order with previously completed steps at the top ❌ Clicking on the hotbar area while it was invisible no longer makes sound ❌ Fixes for the player movement on various level exits/entrances ❌ Each market stall is guaranteed to sell unique seeds based on those available for that haven
