Spirit of the Island Goes Out of Early Access - Update 1.0 is LIVE!
Hello friends!
The big date has finally arrived. It’s been about two years since our adventure started. Back then we had a completely different name — Message in a Bottle — and a much smaller scope. Did you know that Spirit of the Island was originally planned as a much smaller single-player only experience? We know that it might sound crazy, but it’s true!
And then we started getting attention on socials, then we got a publisher, then Kickstarter happened – it was a crazy and very fun time! Our community has grown IMMENSELY and we are truly happy to see everyone here with us on this big day.
After almost half a year in Early Access, we are happy to announce the release of Spirit of the Island: Version 1.0! NONE of this would’ve been possible without our community’s support, without YOUR support. We’d like to say a huge “THANK YOU!” from our teams. Your support has given us lots of inspiration and power to make Spirit of the Island the game it is.
Before we jump into the patchnotes, please watch a video with the Head of Studio and the Lead Developer of the game Alexandre Kikuchi. We’ve prepared some very exciting announcements to celebrate the date!
And last but not least, the patch! Version 1.0 is a huge update with lots of new content, improvements, quality of life additions and adjustments. We even suggest we begin a brand new savegame for our older players, since the experience will be very different from the first days. Without further ado, let’s proceed to the update:
New
New building: Farm Machine. Using its power you can produce Super Seeds that will greatly increase your harvest.
New building: Seed Machine. With it, you can create seeds based on the ones you already have.
New building: Multiplier Machine. It allows you to duplicate ore!
New building: Transfiguration Machine. This machine can transform one type of ore into another.
New building: Aquatic Trap. Aquatic trap will catch fish for you! The type depends on the season and this object can only be built in your lake. Fishing skills will improve when you interact with these traps.
New building: Crustacean Trap. Can only be built in your lake. This trap will catch shrimp!
New building: Clothe Machine. Create clothes and hats for you and tourists.
New building: Insect House. Insect house will store all insects that you catch in your travels (yes, we have a new activity too!).
New equipment: 8 brand new types of shields.
New item: Super Seeds — grow better, faster and stronger crops!
New fish: Shrimp. You can now cook new recipes with shrimp.
New event: Halloween. Enjoy the night and go grab some candy!
New event: Town Anniversary. Enjoy the night while you eat, drink and chat with friends from the Town.
New clothes: 8 new clothing items that you can craft with the Clothe Machine: Party, Formal, Adventurer, Pirate, Town, Wedding, Engineer.
New hats: 9 new hats for you to wear: boater, bowler, cap, captain, chef, chief, cowboy, engineer, fishing.
New System – Insects. There are a total of 12 insects for you to collect: ant, bee, butterfly, cicada, cricket, dragonfly, grasshopper, ladybug, mantis, scorpion, snail and spider. Some can only be found inside caves, while others are hidden on different islands. To collect insects, you will need to craft a Bug Net.
New System – Diary. Many events will now be registered in the player’s diary. They will have a description, a picture and a date when they occurred. Currently, we have a total of 30 in-game moments to record. Will you find them all?
New character: The ????. He will be waiting for you at some old place
wink wink*
Abandoned House quest can now be finished!
New trader:????. The ??? will bring items from time to time, but you will need to find him at the right time! We don’t want to spoil some new things, hence the ???!
New Multiplayer storyline: Finish a brand new multiplayer storyline with a very different ending.
New island: Jungle Nest. We won’t spoil what’s there :)
New Localisation: Spanish language is now available in the game!
We’ve added Steam Achievements! There are a total of 49 of them. Can you unlock them all?
We now have game save sync in multiplayer: if host saves the game, it will save for the 2nd player as well.
Changes
Vacancy houses now require money to be built;
All shops received a new stock of items;
Improved game’s performance when your character gets hit;
The Ocean Day event has become more green: we removed all balloons from it;
Changed how SSAO effects work, so they consume less power and perform better;
Now more tourists can visit your island daily;
Changed font size for Chinese, Russian and Korean localisations;
Adjusted the minimum amount of damage that creatureds can deal to the player. A little spoiler: we increased it;
We’ve revamped how multiplayer works and you should have a much more stable experience now, especially in the Chinese region;
We’ve recorded a brand new main menu theme;
Ring and Bracelets received graphical improvements.
Fixes
Solar Panels and Power Generators energy production range is finally fixed. We know that it was pretty convenient to power the whole farm with one panel, but it is now working as intended;
Description for Solar Panels was fixed: we removed the incorrect Energy Box requirement;
Fixed localisation errors for Staff and Vacancy Houses descriptions;
Workstation’s collision model was improved and should no longer cause troubles;
A double harvest bug with Beehives and other objects that generate items automatically was fixed;
A recurring problem when seasonal crops didn’t have a correct growth texture was finally fixed;
Graphical errors with various items inside the Museum were fixed;
Events won’t occur on the wrong date now
“Move object” icons will always show up for buildings that generate items (like Beehives and Aquatic Traps);
“Move object” icon will now disappear after you move a building or an object;
Most of the Town’s buildings and objects are now indesctuctibale;
Character colors are not loaded correctly - fixed;
The localisation texts for the Artist have been corrected;
The wrong icons for different vehicles have been corrected;
A player’s character is a bit transparent in some places - fixed;
Super Seeds not showing the graphics - fixed;
English localization has been corrected;
Localized texts showing “Loading” for some languages - fixed;
UI for quests and other menus sometimes not aligning correctly when changing quests - fixed;
Synchronization of multiplayer objects when both players were on the same island, but in different interiors has been fixed;
The issue with the Staff House, where players could destroy it even though staff were living inside has been fixed;
All tourists casting the “Smoke” effect when they change jobs - fixed;
Minor issue with Fountain collision has been fixed;
Some creatures animation sync (mostly Pirates) is fixed;
Second player getting stuck if first player triggered a local quest - fixed;
Game events for multiplayer have been fixed (and also if players are playing for more than 2 months straight);
Players being attacked during a multiplayer quest - fixed;
Minor issue with graphics at the Trader shop has been fixed;
Minor issue with Fisherman’s pathfinding near his home has been fixed;
Pathfinding for the Ghost Pirates at Sand Cliffs has been fixed;
That’s a HUGE list, isn’t it? We were super busy for the past 1,5 months with bug fixes and improvements to shape-up the game for release. And we aren’t stopping here! We hope you are excited for the content that we announced in the video. We’ll share a post-launch roadmap in the coming weeks. OH, and we have a 20% launch discount for the next 7 days as well!
Enjoy Spirit of the Island and let’s have lots more fun together!
You probably have noticed that there are game achievements on Steam. Right now they are only available to testers, but after the game's release they will be available to all players. And until it happens, let's try to guess, what achievements are hidden? And which achievements will be easy for you to get?
We are glad to introduce our newest update! Some really cool stuff is awaiting you there
NEW
We've added a lot of new items to the museum! Listing them will take a lot of space, so we'll include pictures with some of them.
Two new islands are now available: Silver Lake and Land of the Ghosts! Land of the Ghosts is inhabited by really powerful creatures, so make sure to come prepared. And Silver Lake is THE fishing island
wink wink*.
New creatures: Ancient Golems. They are slow, but strong and resistant. There are 3 different types of them, so prepare for a tough fight.
New vehicles: Scooter and Quadricycle! They are really fast and cool, so make sure to prepare a big garage for them.
We've added new items to the Combat Bench: Boots, Shields, and Accessories! Shields will provide a passive defence bonus and accessories can do a variety of things, from increasing your HP to making you character more resistant to different deliberations.
CHNAGES
Added some texts when you interact with Vacancy House and Staff House, just to show what they are;
Quest log is now in the top-left corner of the screen.
FIXED
Fixed the bug when you weren't able to move some of the objects;
Fixed a bug when you couldn't go to the upper or lower floor of the upgraded house in multiplayer;
Fixed some audio problems with Dead Hunter;
Did some changes to creature animations;
Now all defeated pirates will show up in your stats;
Fixed item descriptions - quantity and days to harvest;
Fixed minimap graphics;
Are you enjoying Spirit of the Island? If yes, please make sure to leave us a review on Steam or some feedback on our Discord server!
We'll have more news about exciting things, such as full release coming up soon.
Until then, see you!
Update 0.20.1
Hello!
Second part of the "Now Hiring!" update is now live, with a bit more additions than planned!
NEW
We've added house upgrades! To use them, interact with the Gear icon at the left side your house;
Vacancy Houses are now available. You can build them to rent out for tourists. The rent will be collected automatically and the amount will depend on Decoration system, which will be added later;
New Island, - “Good Old Flies”! There, you will find many treasures, fishing spots, pirates and some strong trolls - better come prepared!
You can now see all creatures behind walls and objects - we've added the same transparecny effect as we did for the players.
CHNGED
Adjusted destroyable objects (like mining stones) respawn rate from 15 to 5 days;
Adjusted fruits, mushrooms and other interactive objects growth rate from 18 days to 6;
Changed coin prices for all staff houses;
Improved rain performance;
Increased the interactive range of the Water Pump;
Now you can fill all water bottles at once - the tech is here!
FIXES
Fixed trade audio playing anywhere on the map;
Fixed the error, when Staff Tower allowed only 2 workers, instead of 3;
Fixed the bug when buying new animals wouldn't cost coins;
Fixed town names in French and German.
The Dragon Boat Festival!
Hello!
Today is the Dragon Boat Festival - a traditional Chinese holiday which occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar.
There are several stories tied to the origin of this event:
The ancient one says that this national holiday originated as a ritual, which will help avoid bad luck. But why the bad luck in June? You see, people believed that fifth month of the calendar is unlucky and that illness and natural disasters are more common at this time of year.
But a more commonly believed story tells us that the festival commemorates the passing of Qu Yuan, a poet and minister in the ancient state of Chu. When the emperor decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance and even accused of treason. During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry. Twenty-eight years later, Qin captured Ying, the Chu capital. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River.
It is said that the local people, who admired him, raced out in their boats to save him, or at least retrieve his body. This is said to have been the origin of dragon boat races. When his body could not be found, they dropped balls of sticky rice into the river so that the fish would eat them instead of Qu Yuan's body. This is said to be the origin of zongzi - is a traditional Chinese rice dish made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves.
Photo Credit: 內灣野薑花粽 by Flickr user shenghunglin
You might be thinking "why tell you this?". Well, we kinda stumbled upon and thought that it could be really cool to try and recreate some of the historic events in Spirit of the Island later on. Would you like to see time-limited themed events in the game? Please tell us in the comments!
As for the date, sadly, we don't have boat racing or zongzi, but you can do a memorial voyage across the Archipelago with your friend to commemorate the date - it's the thought that counts after all.
Have a great weekend everyone - we are looking forward for your thoughts!
Major Update "Now Hiring!" is Live!
Hello!
Our most awaited update, which includes the Staff system, is now live! This time, the update will be distributed in two parts: today we are releasing Staff, some of the new content and fixes, and a bit later we'll add House Upgrades and a whole new Decoration System. Without further ado, let's proceed to the patchnotes!
NEW
Brand new Staff System: build Staff houses and hire sellers and housekeepers by using contracts on tourists! To create contracts, you'd need to make an Office Table first. You sellers will always go to the shop that you've first built - meaning that if you made a smaller shop first, they will go there and then to the next one and so on;
Added the new Finance window (accessed by pressing "Z" on the keyboard), where you can manage staff roles;
Additionally, we've added brand new Rich Tourists: they look bigger and more fancy plus their pockets are full of coin!
Added transparency effects to the player's model - now you can see yourself behind various objects;
Red, Purple and Orange Mushrooms and also Bee Hives, Fruit Bushes and different valuable Rocks can respawn on a wider selection of islands now;
New building - Silo. You need Silo to store animal food for your workers. Please note that once you add your animal feed there, you can't take it out anymore.
How to use Staff? First things first: to make an office table, you'll need one star in Crafting and many electrical parts!
After this, you'd need a house for all of your future staff. This is where things get a bit tricky: to build a Simple Staff House or Staff tower, you will need three starts in crafting, $2000 and a bunch of various resources. Staff House will host 1 worker, and Staff Tower can host 2.
But if you want to make the biggest one - Fancy Staff House - get ready to work for it! You'll need to get your crafting to the max level, the same $2000 and a moderate amount of other resources. But this one can host 3 workers at once!
To manage your stuff, press "Z" to open Finance window, and then click on this button:
Here, you can manage all your current staff. You'll be able to rename them as well! To fire someone, just click on the red thumbs down button.
That's it! Pretty simple, right? Staff will add a lot of free time for your adventures, so use it wisely!
CHANGES
Now items will drop from Shops if you break them down;
Increased number of tourists who visit your island on a daily basis, but it will still depend on your player level.
Pressing "F1" will now show the debug console - this is to improve our bug reporting!
FIXES
Fixed a bug, where you could fish with a broken fishing rod;
Fixed fruit trees changing their colors way too much at Fall;
Fixed many pathfinding issues with tourists - they won't mindlessly wander away now;
Fixed a bug when tourists started ignoring your shops after a certain amount of days has passed in the game;
Fixed NPC chat resetting in every new season.
Fixed a bug where tourists would get stuck in the shop in multiplayer, making you unable to use it;
Now tea works properly and makes you feel good and refreshed, instead of making you tired;
Ui icons won't glitch out now;
Sailing now uses the correct amount of fuel;
Fixed a bug, when your bike wasn't moving with your garage;
Version v0.19.2 is now live with some new content and fixes. This month we will also have another big update soon and this week we achieved an amazing Milestone: 2000 members in our Discord community. THANK YOU!
News
New building move mode: some buildings are now able to move, after you build it. Usually props like chairs, tables, workbench and more. To move, default key is ‘G’, press it near objects that has an Icon indicating that you can move, when you get near.
# Fixes
Fixed major bug where some props were missing for new games starting from v0.19.0;
Fixed remap key language texts (working with other languages now);
Fixed translation texts for key remapping;
Fixed combat bonus per skill not working;
Stay tuned. Cheers.
Update v0.19.1
Changes and Fixes:
New pirate bosses turned out to be way too strong, so we've toned down the difficulty a bit;
Fixed major bug with the final quest, where players could not get more quests from town after finishing the story;
Fixed UI not focusing on Chat window when using a controller;
Fixed crafting window sometimes not updating the item's recipe;
Fixed texture problems with characters' faces;
Fixed problem with water always showing up for creatures;
Fixed problem with some quests were incorrectly appearing in multiplayer;
Fixed problem when campfires and tents couldn't be built in lower terrain;
Fixed wrong tree position on Swamp island;
Fixed various error with pirate animations;
Fixed the collision model of some trees near the bridge;
Fixed collision issues near Player island lake, you can now build anything there if there are no objects in conflict;
Fixed a visual glitch, when fish in aquariums wasn't showing up when you loaded a saved game;
Major Update v0.19.0 - Finished Story, New Treasures, New Enemies and More!
Hello!
We are glad to present our next major update, which will finalize the game’s main quest, add new treasure, islands and bosses! We’ve prepared a lot of cool things for this month, so let’s dig into the changes!
New
Main story is finished! You can continue from your saved game,
We’ve added ten brand new treasures to the game, which brings the total amount to 20!
New Island: Gray Rocks, a brutal land of pirates and dangerous dungeons;
New Pirate Enemies: now you can meet power level 2 and 3 Pirates;
New Cave: The Miner’s Cave. Are you brave enough to explore this dungeon and obtain numerous treasures hidden inside?
New Items: a new big backpack is now obtainable in one of the caves;
New Quests: Herbalist, Pub Owner and Artist now have their own quests. Find them on the quest board!
New Bosses: there are 3 islands with a Pirate Boss each. They will drop important main quest items, so prepare for a fight!
Please note, that the new mechanic, which will allow you to move buildings will be added next week!
Changes
Changed gas and damage costs for sailing with a ship;
Gas can and repair kits can now stack up in your inventory;
Some creatures now have a random chance of dropping various treasures;
Fixes
Fixed missing Camp Kit at the Workbench;
Fixed collision for objects and creatures;
Fixed and edited many localization texts;
Fixed an issue with quests where some objects might not disable, if you load the game from a different region (multiplayer).
Tutorial is now available in multiplayer!
We are also celebrating the update with a 15% discount on the game and our updated roadmap! Please take a look:
