Sovereign Tea v1.6.2 is now available. It is also the birthdays of the lead game developer (January 22) and designer (January 19), so we're putting the game on sale to celebrate! Thanks for all the support over all the years, everybody. 🎂
Here are the patch notes:
Features
Adjusted Main Menu external button UI to be more clear on their functionality.
Adjusted the escape button functionality on the Level Select screen to close it, not to bring up the Settings.
Gameplay
Increased movement for all units in Fort Steep by 2 to allow for easier conversational navigation.
Bugfixes
Fixed a typo in a post-Level 23 Fort Steep dialogue between Bai Mudan and Earl Grey.
Fixed a typo in a post-Level 24 Fort Steep dialogue between Genmaicha and Earl Grey.
Fixed a typo in the pre-Level 25 dialogue.
v1.6.1 Released! New Dialogues! Endosymbiont Level!
We have a pretty significant update to Sovereign Tea that should be of interest to fans old and new alike. The game is now 70% off for one week as part of the Steam Strategy Fest! First, the patch notes:
Features
Added "Level 14.5" to specifically teach Mint and Endosymbiont interaction prior to Levels 15 and 16.
Completely rewrote post-Level 09 Fort Steep dialogue between Silver Needle and Genmaicha.
Minor tweaks to post-Level 09 Fort Steep dialogue between Bai Mudan and Silver Needle.
Minor tweaks to post-Level 13 Fort Steep dialogue between Silver Needle and Genmaicha.
Gameplay
Adjusted BGM in Level 25 to hit dynamic loop at an earlier point.
Bugfixes
Fixed a softlock condition involving the Brew Experimentation while a Compendium entry is open.
Fixed a typo in a post-Level 20 Fort Steep dialogue between Dragon Well and Earl Grey.
This has a surprising change in that we willingly changed one of the earlier dialogues involving Genmaicha. Genmaicha was always a character defined by her edges, amplified by the devastation she personally suffered at the hands of the Coffee Empire. On replay, years out, there was one dialogue that stood out to me as lacking, which was the post-Level 09 Fort Steep dialogue between her and Silver Needle. This is a dialogue that plays immediately after the Matcha letter scene, so in hindsight, it was unusual for Genmaicha to be so confrontational in this instance.
Thanks to this dialogue change, some later dialogues needed very minor edits to help improve cohesiveness. I hope you go back and give Genmaicha another chance, and I hope this story change, minor though it may be, helps you understand more about what's going on between her and the rest of the Tea Realms.
Finally, the new level of the game, Level 14.5 technically, exists to solve a problem we believed exists with the game's design. You see, we designed Level 15 and Level 16, the final two Green Tea levels, around understanding this big, new unit: Endosymbiont. We also designed them around understanding how to interface Endosymbiont with Mint's abilities. However, we never explained or showcased this explicitly.
Broadly, this is true for the whole game: you can brew a brand new Tea Minion and not know anything about how it works. We have considered, for the sake for clarity, adding mini-tutorial levels, levels you are meant to beat in just one turn, to all units, just to showcase how they behave. For now, we added one just for Endosymbiont, because understanding that unit is critical for seeing how to quickly and efficiently get through the next levels.
We hope you enjoy this update! And we hope to see you across our socials too:
It's Marimo, lead developer for 3 Halves Games. I thought my last update would be the last. I also thought the update before that was the last. Oh well.
Let's get to the big news: the teas are back and available for order! These teas are available on Adagio, as are many other fandom blends you may enjoy. To be clear, we make no money out of this arrangement; the initial tea rewards existed as a major motivating factor to get backers to help fund our project. These are now available again as a courtesy to fans, particularly the fans who drank all their tea ages ago and have been begging for more.
Incidentally, you can create your own blends based off of the Tea Princesses and Tea Minions from the game! If you do please let me know, because I and everybody on the development team would love to taste it!
Now, onto the second order of business...
It's been over a year since the last update. This new update is a performance-specific update. The update is now available on Steam! Did you know I work in video games professionally? Of late I've been hardcore UI-focused at work, and that got me thinking: is the UI in Sovereign Tea as performant as it could be? The answer was... no. This update does a couple of amazing things:
Reduces (compressed) game file size by about 50MB!
In our testbench scene (Level 04 with the Brew Action menu open) reduces RAM consumption by about 200MB! (this number shocked me)
In our testbench scene (Level 04 with the Brew Action menu open) reduces draw calls by about 100! (again, a shocking number)
If you're somebody with a lower end machine, it might be a good idea to update. The game should run better for you!
This update isn't done yet though. Far from it, because...
The lead game designer and I were having a silly discussion about the fact that Sovereign Tea sometimes is called "tea chess" by fans. So, we tried making a chess level just as a joke for one. We got in a call on Discord and spent about 20 minutes throwing assets together and found out that... it looks really good. We were actually upset about how good this looks, because it means we have to now put it into the game.
Chess mode (or something equivalent) is thus officially in development! We still aren't sure what this is going to look like in the final product, but we've committed internally to another major update with at least one more level. So that's pretty cool, right? We hope you look forward to it.
Wait, what's that? More update?! Really?
That's right, we've seen what's going on with Twitter (X?) and the implosion of Tweetdeck (XPro?) and decided it might be time to start setting up shop elsewhere. You can now follow us on Bluesky! Of course, you'll need an account to be able to access it... Baby steps, baby steps...
And while we're here, we still have a Discord server you can join. It's been slowly gaining in popularity! Alright, that's the update(s) for now. Until next time! ♥
70% Off! Steam Summer Sale!
It's our biggest sale yet, which for the owners of this game don't mean much (though you can tell your friends) and so we decided to couple this announcement with... new art!
In a first for us, here's every Coffee Regent, looking down upon a delegation of Tea Princesses... menacingly!
Mostly we just wanted to have art of the Coffee Regents since we don't have enough art of them, and this was a good excuse to do so.
Speaking of art, did you know we at 3 Halves Games post new art on a monthly basis? Usually it's for our social media banners, including our Discord banner, but sometimes, like for this event, it's something different. We've been experimenting with different ideas for our monthly art, all while working on our next title.
So hey, if you've made it to the end of this event post and are into a small and chill community of tea and coffee enthusiasts, sans elitism, then why not join our Discord? We're a very welcoming place if I do say so myself.
And with that, we hope you enjoy the Summer Sale! Whether you're picking up our game or not, we're sure there's something on the platform out there for you. 🏖️
Version 1.5 Released! 50% Off Sale!
Everybody, we have two exciting announcements for you!
First... The game is now on sale for 50% off!
And second, for those you already own the game... Version 1.5 is released!
This new version of the game introduces an all-new Story Mode designed for newcomers to the tactical genre of games, as well as for those who would prefer a story-focused experience over a gameplay-focused one. In Story Mode, enemies will instantly end their turn. There is still gameplay to be had in picking your units and moving your armies forward, but it is a remarkably easier experience. We know many of you struggled with the game's difficulty in the past; with this new mode we hope you enjoy the game!
Sovereign Tea v1.5.0 Patch Notes
Features
Added Story Mode; enable this feature to greatly reduce gameplay difficulty.
Added quick navigation buttons in the Compendium bestiary.
Gameplay
Added tooltips to the intelligence and manor switch in Level 9.
Improve tooltips in Level Select to showcase core unit stats.
Bugfixes
Fixed a handful of small typos.
Fixed functionality of Sludge Tea.
Fixed a softlock condition involving the Compendium.
We thought we were done making the game, but turns out we're not!
Friends, we want to let you know that we've heard your feedback. For some of you, you want to go through the deep storyline without being hindered by the tactical gameplay. Some of you may not have many hours in the day and simply wish to clear through things faster. Others may want to do full replays without having to go through the same level of tactical thinking as their first playthrough. Whatever your reason is, we want you to know that we're on it.
Introducing Story Mode. Story Mode is our game's Easy Mode. We brainstormed for ages on the best way to approach this and we decided that the easiest option that still maintains some level of gameplay was this: The enemy AI will instantly end its turn. We felt this was the best option forward, as we still wanted you, the player, to experience what it's like to brew your Tea Minions!
The patch containing this mode, v1.5, will be out very soon. We hope you enjoy playing it when it's ready! Until then, be sure to keep up with us on social media. We're working on this as well as a brand new RPG, so you won't want to miss it!
If you downloaded the Halloween Update, you need to re-download this latest update to fix a game-breaking bug.
With that said, here are the patch notes... or the patch note, singular:
Bugfixes
Fix softlock that can happen with Structural Brew.
Halloween Update: Return to the Milky Woods!
Welcome to Sovereign Tea's permanent Halloween Update! We are so excited to finally release this much-awaited update to the masses. To start, this update comprises post-game content, unlocked after beating Level 25 and viewing the credits. Consider it a reward for our earliest players and motivation for our newest ones.
After the events of the main game, a spooky and fun costume party is underway. Attending this event in costume are Masala Chai as a witch, Silver Needle as a vampire, Mate as an angel, Yuenyeung as a devil, and Matcha as a pumpkin. Instant is also in attendance, though she is not in an outfit. Overall, a merry time is being had by all partygoers, full of laughs and love.
Instant reveals her real intention for showing up to the party: to warn everybody about a disastrous situation unfolding within the Milky Woods. The Milky Woods are unique in their ability to seemingly produce corrupt Coffee Minions without the direct influence of a Coffee Regent. These minions, unlike others, do not discriminate between friend and foe, only caring for one thing: destruction.
It is up to you in this new, Level 26, to brew an army large enough to deal with the threat before you. This level is very different from the others in the game in that your Tea Princesses (and Yuenyeung!) will leave the battlefield after the first turn. To compensate for this, you are given unlimited Brew and Move actions with your commanders, allowing you to place behind an extremely large force to deal with the threat.
A new slew of units are available to you, including the most demanded Tea Minion of all, the Pumpkin Spice Latte. The enemy also has a number of cute (and/or scary) new units to throw your way.
All in all, we hope this update gets you super duper excited about October and hyped for Halloween! Thank you so much for playing our game, and please enjoy this very special update.
