Out and About
PLAYTEST LIVE NOW!
New Next Fest Demo!
As you know, Steam Next Fest contains hundreds of demos of exciting games, and for this purpose we have updated our demo! Even if you have already played it, we recommend playing it again because it has:
- new music and sounds (they are amazing and make a huge difference!)
- clothing as part of the customization, so you can finally choose some starting outfits!
- the new player rig (which makes the character look a lot higher quality!)
- and a new area (just above town) to roam around and find some plants in.
So don't think twice and press play!
We've also updated our Steam Trailer to show some of the amazing environments we've been working on - they aren't accessible in the demo because we're still polishing them. But we can't wait for you to explore them in the future!
We've been hard at work and improving the game constantly, so we hope it shows
Have a great week full of demos!
Elena & the Yaldi Team!
Developer Update January
I hope you all had a restful festive season and a good start into the new year! 2025 will be our most exciting year so we're really looking forward to it!
As you know, we want to release Out and About into Early Access on PC in Spring! We can't yet tell you when exactly (it's still a secret) 😉 but it won't be too long!
So let's look at some of the things we worked on in January!
New Music Direction
We hadn't been able to invest in music in a long time, but last year we finally got to create a few more pieces. However, the direction of the music changed because the game itself had grown and changed. Now, the focus is much more on relaxation and nature. Have a listen to this sample of the forest music and tell us what you think!
New Sea Shader
Our artist Niko recently reworked our water shader and blew us away with the result. It's hard to remember our old water now that we have seen this beautiful shader in action. It's almost like our minds forcefully forgot it - we'll have to find some old videos to compare them one day! 🤣
Filler NPCs for a more lively world
If you played our demo, you know that our beautiful little town feels a bit like a ghost town - but now we created a wide range of characters that we can place in the world to make it feel more lively. Since this is our first game, there is lots to learn about NPC navigation (and performance relating to that), so we'll have to start with the basics. But we're sure that this will already have an enormous effect on the liveliness of the world, so we're very excited to implement them!
Barbara's Farm
Barbara is your foraging teacher, but her family also owned a farm outside town. Now Barbara wants to restore it, and combine traditional farming with Paludiculture (= productive land use of wet and rewetted peatlands). We're excited to integrate this into the game and shed some light on this topic. Here are some concept sketches of the farm and the colored version we chose!
As you can see, we went for a combination of Nr 3 and 1. Which number of the concept art would you have chosen?
That's it for this month's update! Take care and have a good week everyone!
Jen & Elena💖
November Update
We've been creating monthly updates on Kickstarter for a year now, additionally to our 3 posts on TikTok per week, but we hadn't posted any of this here. Which must have completely slipped my mind and obviously needs to change!
Outfit Concept Art!
Here’s some concept art we created a while ago and are now creating as 3D models. We can't wait to finally have new starter outfits, and new outfits in general, since we had the old outfit for ages now and do not like it anymore.
We would love to hear about your preferences for clothing! So join our Discord (link at the bottom) and talk to us there!
Community Garden
As you know this game is about highlighting community and how we can come together. So of course our little town has a community garden! The community garden will be a place for the NPCs to have their own garden lots and grow their favourite vegetables and fruit, which they will share with you. There will be a long list of community projects for you to rebuild and grow this garden, unlocking more and more as the game progresses.
This is not final and will likely change and adapt in the future as we continue implementing it, but what is certain is that it will be a beautiful place for you to rebuild and bond with characters!
And of course we're planning for beautiful and sustainable gardening methods inspired by real-life references!
Storefronts UI
We're working on a list of UIs related to new systems, and the storefronts are part of that. This UI shows the general layout of storefronts, where you can buy essential items, and special ones too! This is only a FIRST DRAFT :) Every store will have a different store keeper, decorations and color scheme.
Past Kickstarter Updates:
If you want to see our past updates, check out our Kickstarter updates page!
Join Our Discord!
Don't forget to join our Discord so that you get updates and news, and can ask us questions directly!
Have a great day everyone!
Small Demo Update Out Now✨
Hi everyone!
As you know, we had a lot of fun at Gamescom watching you play the game. Through this observation we learned a lot of valuable lessons, which we immediately implemented once we came back.
This new and improved demo now contains all these smaller, quality of life improvements, as well as the new customization User Interface, which we completely overhauled.
If you haven't played the demo yet, give it a go! :)
Play the Gamescom Demo now!
Hi everyone!
We’re excited to share some fresh updates with you since our last demo release in May! The team has been hard at work, brewing up some exciting new features that we can’t wait for you to try out.
We’ve carefully considered your feedback from the previous version and incorporated it into our new update.
In the earlier demo, you got a taste of character creation and foraging. Now, we’re taking the experience to the next level. You can venture into the town for the very first time, experiment with recipes in the community kitchen, and even sell your culinary creations at the market stall.
Make sure to update or re-download the demo to access all these new features. The overall experience now offers just under an hour of immersive gameplay.
As always, we’d love to hear what you think. Your feedback is crucial to us, so please share your thoughts on what you enjoyed, what could be improved, and why. Together, we can shape this game into something truly special.
Thank you for your continued support, and happy foraging!
Foraging Added to Our Demo!
Thanks to a reminder from one of our amazing supporters on Discord we realised that we never did an official update tell you all about the update to the demo, which happened in March.
Previously, our demo only featured customization options, which we know left many of you wanting more. We hear you and appreciate your feedback!
In March, we released an updated demo that now includes both customization and foraging. By updating or re-downloading the demo, you can explore a small part of our world and experience the very beginning of the game. Enjoy 15-20 minutes of immersive gameplay.
We're committed to enhance this demo further, so stay tuned for our next update, which will feature a free-form photo mode! In the meantime, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Your feedback is invaluable to us: tell us what you like, don't like and why. By doing so, you can help us shape this game and make it better!
Here's some footage of the demo!
Thank you for your continued support and happy foraging!
PS: We are aware that some PCs that do not meet our minimum requirements may experience a crash error. We're sorry for the inconvenience! While we are currently focused on development and cannot investigate and resolve this issue immediately, your assistance is invaluable. If you encounter this problem, please let us know on Discord and provide your computer specs. Gathering this data will greatly help us address the issue in the future. Thank you for your understanding and support :)
Coastal Foraging and The Last Few Days of Kickstarter
As we approach the last few days of the Out and About Kickstarter campaign, I’m excited to share some huge stretch goals with you. Last week you, being the amazing community that you are, unlocked the following stretch goals!
Nintendo Switch port - That’s right, you can literally go out and about while playing Out and About.
Coastal Foraging - There’s only one thing nicer than foraging in the wilderness, and that’s foraging by the sea. This will bring a host of new plants and recipes, which can only be found in coastal regions.
More mushrooms and plants - I know, I didn't think we would have much-room to fit more ingredients into the game (sorry, not sorry). This will increase the amount of recipes you can learn, both in and out of Out and About.
Campfire cooking - After foraging all day, you will now be able to perch up on a cozy rock and start a cute little campfire to cook your ingredients on and master the long list of recipes.
The Kickstarter campaign isn’t over yet, we still have 3 days to go. The next stretch goal is crafting! This allows you to collect natural material and tinker with small crafts - in the game and in real life.
The past 4 weeks have been amazing and I’m completely blown away by your support for Out and About. We are still very early in the journey of bringing the power of foraging to everyone.
Thank you,
Elena