Hello Farmers! It's been a while since our last update, and we have some exciting news and updates to share with you.
Concept-Tuesday & Fan-Friday We are thrilled to introduce our new weekly events on X (Twitter) and Discord - starting next week! Every Tuesday, join us for Concept-Tuesday where we reveal new ideas and designs. On Fridays, it's all about you with Fan-Friday, showcasing fan art and community creations. We can't wait to see your contributions! You can send your Magical-Harvest related creations in Discord or tag us on X.
Demo Our demo is still available over the summer, and we are grateful for all the wonderful feedback we've received. It's been amazing to see how much you all enjoy the game and your curiosity about what's coming next. We had a lot of people playing the demo for over 5 hours! What we think was a bit sad, that a lot of players did forget about the runes very quickly and went back to “normal” farm work. The runes with their magic offer a fast way to clear the farm, harvest, water – and using them in the mine. Also remember: this was a very early pre-alpha demo! It was meant to see if the system fits, if people like the concept, art style and the main idea - and what can we say? Yes! The feedback was really overwhelming for us! We thank here for all players, streamers and supporters!
New environment and seasons
Visual Enhancements We are currently working on making the game environment even more beautiful. While this means the demo will soon be outdated in terms of visuals, we believe the improvements will be worth the time we put into right now. We're also addressing performance issues to ensure a smoother experience in the future. This won’t be implemented in the demo.
New farm area
Farewell to Interns We have to say goodbye to two incredible interns, Sassa and Veronika, who have done an outstanding job over the past few months. Thank you both for your hard work – the game wouldn't be where it is without you!
Concept: House direction for Sidus-District
Development Progress Behind the scenes, we're continuing our search for funding and publishers. It's a challenging time in the game development market, but we're committed to pushing forward. If you want to help us in any way: feel free to have a look at our Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/moonflamegames
We had a fantastic time at the Nordic Game Conference at the end of May! It was wonderful to see people enjoying the demo and being drawn to our art style. Also, we are close to 8000 wishlists! So, the first big goal about 7000 is reached!
Next Steps Looking ahead, we are focusing on creating the farm, magical forest, and forest area. After that, we'll be improving some base systems, with a major focus on implementing the AI of the animals – and interactions with them.
Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm. Stay tuned for more updates, and don't forget to join our Discord.
Best wishes, Isa
Patch Vers. 0.1.72
A small update:
- Player is not falling anymore after switching scenes - Bug fixed: crash error at first start of the application fixed - Bug fixed: sometimes items were not merged together even if they were the same - Bug fixed: sowing seeds with the mouse was sometimes not working on the mouse-targeted farm ground
Patch Vers. 0.1.69 - German Translation
We have a new small patch for you! The wished feature that you can hold the toolbar key for continuous interaction is there! And German translation - next to smaller things.
Vers. 0.1.69
Added German translation
You can now hold the tool button for continuous actions with the tools
The multi area can now be triggered with Shift
Changed tutorial popup with controls
A chest is craft-able now
Small bug fixes
More improvements will follow over time! On the side, we are working on the Character Customizer, but this will take a while till it's ready to be in the game. With this, the animations will be a bit updated in the game (we know about the weird watering animation).
Don't forget to join our Discord and share your thoughts and opinions with us! We would also love to see your decorated farm!
Patch Vers. 0.1.67
Another couple of smaller updates to improve the quality of the demo:
Vers.0.1.67 - Information in the start screen that Controller support is not the right choice at the moment - Dialogues: you can left click to skip text (before it was just pressing E) - Advanced Crafting: you can click on the recipes now to see the needed items (hover shows the name now), even if you can’t craft them yet - Reversed the scroll wheel for the tool bar - Added a second (shorter) path to the mine (in the final game, the maps will be smaller) - Improved the fishing cast with mouse click - Decoration mode: some chests are now available (when starting a new game & finishing the tutorial) - Bug fixed: you could not put farm ground on a place where you recently destroyed grass, stone or a tree
Next smaller planned implementations: - The portal from the Farm to the Mine - Mini map for the decoration mode
The current focus is on the Character Customizer-functionality.
We have a lot more things planned, but the focus is currently on getting more base features done.
Patch Vers. 0.1.66
The last unreal engine upgrade caused some problems, that are now hopefully all solved. The project size is back to the original size (it was doubled...). And more important: it's not crashing anymore when using the hoe!
Patch-notes: Vers. 0.1.66 - fixed the animation start when using tools - but character is turning instantly now - fixed a problem in the mine where the delivered objects were not correctly activated anymore - reduced the project size by more than a half (we had an issue with the new UE-Version) - fixed (hopefullly) a bug that caused a crash when using the hoe (also caused by the new UE-Version)
I wish you a lot of fun! Enjoy your life in Hyldena and test out the first features of Magical Harvest!
Demo Patch Vers 0.1.61 -> 0.1.65
In the last few days, a couple of improvements and fixes happened:
Vers. 0.1.65 - you can play till day 15 now - the sold items are displayed correctly now - added a "Tutorial-popup" in the mine when at the last quest to get a hint for using runes - Decoration mode: the orthographic camera is now perspective due to shaking-problems - Decoration mode: you can apply the second color to single-colored objects now - fixed a bug that prevented spawning dry crops - fixed a bug that crashed the game when a farm ground got destroyed after a couple of days
Vers. 0.1.64 - Engine upgrade - Animals are breeding the correct secondary stats now - Graphical improvement (got rid of the "blurryness") -> switched from TAA to TSR
Vers. 0.1.63 - Some more smaller fps-improvements - A debug fps setting in the graphic-settings - Random spawn position of trees, grass and stones improved - Outlines from Deco-mode are now deactivated correctly when closing the deco mode - Maybe the bug in the inventory when dragging an item that creates a "shadow" of this icon is fixed - Now you can see the names of the items in the Animal-Breeding window
Vers. 0.1.62 - fixed an issue where an item was not added correctly to the inventory (and overwrote slot 1) - switched from DirectX12 to DirectX 11 - improved rendering performance (just a little - but better than nothing) - you can now see a bit more in the Badlands in the night - removed the color breeding for the chicken (no colors available yet and chicken is a placeholder anyway!)
Vers. 0.1.61 - White Powder is now registered correctly when trying to craft Luck-Potions - Default Fps setting is set to 60 and Vsync off by default
Play the demo - NOW!
🎉 Get ready to dive into the magical world of Magical Harvest because the long-awaited demo is finally here and available for you to play!
🌱 Over the past few days, our team has been hard at work adding a plethora of smaller quality-of-life enhancements to level-up your gaming experience.
⚠️ Keep in mind, since this is an early release, there might be some performance hiccups along the way. But fear not! Dive into the settings menu and tweak things to your liking if you encounter any bumps in the road.
🎮 We're eager to hear what you think about the game! Your thoughts and opinions matter to us, and we can't wait to hear all about your adventures in the world of Magical Harvest. Share your feedback, ideas, and suggestions with us—it's invaluable as we continue to shape the game's development. Send us your screenshots of your farm!
🌟 Remember, this is just a taste of what's to come. We're not even in the alpha stage yet, but we're thrilled to give you a sneak peek at the core features of Magical Harvest in a fast-paced, speed-mode style! - Harvesting (and evolving crops) - Crossbreeding animals - Using magic - Exploring (a part of) the mine - Sneak peak for the Magical Forest - Various crafting systems - Decoration mode (& its coloring feature) - Quest-system - Fishing
🔮 And hey, don't forget to join our Discord community! It's the perfect place to share your experiences, ask questions, or seek guidance if you find yourself stuck or unsure about your next move. Our friendly community and developers are here to help every step of the way. Discord
✨ So what are you waiting for? Let the magic unfold and immerse yourself in the enchanting world of Magical Harvest! Enjoy the game!
Best wishes, Moon Flame Games
Demo Release: 28 April!
Hello together!
Finally a new update! We’re still working on improving the demo! The wanted features are there, now we are about to polish what we can. Sadly, we won’t have the last animal model included. But it’s very likely that we can still include it, while the demo is available.
Oh, right: The release of the pre-alpha demo will be: Sunday, 28 April. 14:00 PM CET / 08:00 CT The demo will be available during the Steam Next-Festival which starts on the 29th.
Note: keep in mind that this demo is a kind of speed-run through our main system: the evolution part & magic. You can also decorate and explore a part of the mine-system. In the final game, the progress won’t be that fast of course!
What happened since the last update? - New environment style Grass got improved. Trees still need a new direction. Farm, Forest, and Badlands got an overhaul.
- New Character model for the demo In this demo, we won’t have the character customizer yet. But that one will come next! Till then you have to deal with the new demo model only.
- More decorations and props! More flowers and especially magic mushrooms! Everyone loves glowing mushrooms, right?! And you can color them! Also, some of our old ugly models got replaced. However, there are still a lot that needs an overhaul.
- Animals We have the cow and the apis included. Chicken comes next! Still, without animations and only on a little cutscene.
What’s next? Improving, improving, improving! We are doing as much and as good as we can in that time. We are not guaranteeing a good performance, if you have an older computer since we are not focusing on this part yet. Maybe it’s not a trouble at all – just be warned. There won’t be controller support for this demo yet either.
We are really looking forward and wish you a good time!
So, back to work here! Best wishes, Moon Flame Games
Women's Day Sale & Demo-plans
Hello everyone! Welcome to the 2nd update in 2024!
At the end of February, Martina joined our team as a 2D & 3D Artist. She is bringing old, less attractive assets to new brilliance! We are welcoming her in the team!
Women's Day Sale Currently, the Women’s Day Sale event is happening on Steam, and we are participating. Support games created by women! Unfortunately, women in the gaming industry face more challenges than men, such as difficulties in obtaining financing. This trend extends to many startup sectors, interestingly, as startups led by women tend to be more successful on average than those led by men. Just a side note...
Farm Fest & Demo The next major Steam festival we're participating in is the Farm-Fest at the end of April. We will be presenting our first demo in Unreal Engine 5. Since November, we've been transferring content from the Unity engine to Unreal Engine 5. It takes time, but we are on track, and we've already assembled a small tutorial. This tutorial won't be the final one in the game but serves as a "Speed-run Tutorial", introducing you to various aspects of farm life in Magical Harvest.
Not all base features will be in the demo, and the visual aspect won't be final. Nevertheless, you can: • Get acquainted with our decoration system • Enjoy the satisfying feeling of using magic • Experience the basics of cross breeding magical creatures • Discover the first magical farm plants • Apply various crafting possibilities • Get a first glimpse of the magical forest, initially a barren landscape And a few more small things... As of now, the demo will only be available in English.
New features & assets! That's about the demo. What happened in February? • Quest System: Implemented and works in combination with the basic dialogue system • Weather in Hyldena: It can now be cloudy and rainy • Mine Sections: A part of the mine can now be explored, providing insight into our mine progression system • Random Objects can be found in the world • It's not so quiet anymore: Initial dummy sound effects are present • Assets: Some new assets for the decoration menu
March plans What's planned for March? March primarily focuses on animal breeding. It's not certain if you can take care of animals in the demo, but we're working hard to make it possible. Since crossbreeding is a key feature in Magical Harvest, the focus is on providing insight into "Crossbreeding." We had a prototype minigame for this, but we're replacing it with a theme-appropriate one that better illustrates the magical crossing of animals.
Another goal is to include at least a showcase section for our "The Sims"-inspired dialogue system for the bachelors. This depends on the progress of the animals and the rest of the Demo progress. March is still about adding more content; April will focus on improving the current version.
In addition to feature content, the focus is on new 3D models. Crafting tables and farm tools will be revamped. Also, we need to slowly define the style direction for our main character model.
As you can see, there's a lot to do! Our motivation is stronger than ever, and we are thrilled about Farm-Fest in April to showcase the demo!
Best regards, Your Magical Harvest Team Moon Flame Games
Games in Sweden & Game Updates
Hey together!
Hope you're all doing well and you are enjoying the winter days!
We've got some quick updates on what's been happening in January and what's coming up next for Magical Harvest.
First off, we're excited to share that we're taking part in the Games in Sweden event on Steam. It's a fantastic opportunity for us to showcase Magical Harvest the first time in a Steam event!
And: mark your calendars for the end of April because we're gearing up to release a demo for the Steam "Farm fest". Get ready to dive into the magical farming fun!
In January, we welcomed a new addition to the team – our talented 3D artist intern: Sassa! It's great to have her on board, and together, we've had a productive month.
Some highlights:
<*>Adding a decoration system for the outside farm.
<*>Implementing a basic dialogue system.
<*>Smaller features like sleeping (ending the day) and the initial phase of basic fishing. <*> Oh, and did you notice? We've freshened up our look with a new simple white logo. It fits more than the old colors and looks more modern.
Next steps: - Looking ahead, our focus is on creating the first part of the quest system – to work towards a basic tutorial for the demo! - Additionally, it’s planned to create the system for random spawned items in the world. - We’re also working on a new website!
That was a quick roundup of what's been happening and what's on the horizon this month. Thank you for your support, and stay tuned for more updates as we continue to grow and refine Magical Harvest!
