With fishing added, I’ve been taking the last week to respond to player feedback, do some decorating ahead of future updates, and add a few pieces of content. As I’m about to dive into planning the next major update, I thought it’d be good to post a roadmap update.
So here’s the headlines, with some more detail further below…
What’s next?
- Hal’s reserve
What's after that?
- Mining - New (secret!) location! - Animal Fashion and decorations
What might then come, depending on feedback?
- Romance update - Cooking - Expanded ranch
…and all along the way, there’s more animals, festivals, characters, cutscenes, dialogue, quests and music being added!
The next level of detail behind some of the items above…
Hal’s reserve adds an area to Autumn that was abandoned when the wildlife left. With the player arriving and wildlife returning, Hal will enlist the player as a partner to create a nature reserve that showcases all the animals of Autumn, attracting tourists to the town and providing ample research opportunities.
Once it exists, the player will be tasked to fill it with animals! The town will unite around it, with other characters getting involved, a brand new arrival, and if I can figure out a cool way to do it, I’ll also be adding a new tool during this update too!
Mining in Tales of Autumn will involve exploring a cave network in search for new creatures, and new materials that can be used to craft many things, most notably a new set of items: jewellery. Which leads on nicely into…
Animal fashion and decorations adds exactly that! A few decorations for your ranch, and the ability to dress and differentiate your animals with pet friendly clothings and accessories, available through crafting and a new store (that might just come with a few new faces). It’d be rude not to add a fashion contest festival at the same time too!
Romance update if added will give you the option to pursue some of the Autumnsfolk as a romantic partner. So, naturally this would primarily be a whole load of cutscenes and character content!
Cooking - why not help out Claudia at The Last Barrel and get stuck into a new crafting type, with a few resulting business opportunities for Autumn’s entrepreneurs
Expanded ranch would add a new field area that would give you far more room to work with. I actually anticipate that Hal’s reserve and related collections will take away some of the need for a huge farm land, but we’ll see. Rather than the straightforward path of giving a larger ranch, maybe I’ll be an alternative approach…
Everything can change of course based on player feedback, but this is the current direction! At some point amongst the big ticket items, I’ll review how everyones getting on with it, and potentially move the game out of early access.
The workload is pretty daunting, but I’m excited and hope that you’ll all join me on this journey! You’re all invited to get directly involved with design decisions, content feedback, and telling me where I’m going right and wrong! Swing on by the Discord, or get me on email if you prefer.
Scott
Tales of Autumn: Fishing update!
Tales of Autumn has now been in early access for just over a month! It’s flown past, and been a very positive experience for me so far! Thank you to everyone who’s played, and keep the feedback coming!
This weekend I’ve released the first major feature update, fishing!
The TLDR of what this update includes: - Fishing! - Automatic barn feeders - New town upgrades available from Matty - A new animal - Lots of new dialogue - A bunch of bug fixes
Visit Thimba at the fishing store (at the docks) to kick things off. For new players, this is available as soon as Thimba arrives at town, which is the 8th of Spring.
Once you’ve gotten the fishing rod, all you need to do is cast it into any fishing shadows you see! There are a couple of permanent fishing spots, but mostly they appear and disappear throughout the day in any of the main bodies of water.
As long as your float is cast into the shadow area, wait a couple of seconds for a bite, an as long as you react quick enough then you'll start the fishing challenge! Hopefully it’s obvious when you’re playing, but the goal is to reel the fish up to the surface, making sure you don’t break the line in the process.
There are 25 different fish to start with, and I’ll be adding more in the coming updates. Some are available all year round, others only in certain seasons or weather conditions. Each fish has a strength, speed, and an escape instinct, all of which affect the fishing challenge, but never fear as Thimba’s fishing store is open for business, where you can get lures to attach to your rod and regain the advantage!
During development I’ve also added a few other features, such as birdbaths for the ranch, and a new upgrade available to restore the town’s fountain. Most notably however, is that you can now have Matty build automatic barn feeders for your regular and biome barn!
Last but not least, there’s a new animal: Platypus!
What’s next you ask? I’m going to take a week to get a few smaller tasks done, adding some story content and resolve any bugs that arise from fishing. Then, I’ll get cracking on the next major update: Hal’s exhibition.
As always, a heartfelt thank you for all players so far. Those who haven’t, please drop by the Discord, the Steam forums, or drop me an email with any issues you find, any features you’d like to see added, or just to say hi!
Scott
Week 2.5 of Early Access update!
Hey everyone!
Hope you’re all doing well, I just wanted to post a progress update for anyone not on Discord! Here’s a summary of everything that’s been added since I last posted on the 8th!
A new festival! This ones a hidden festival, which happens at the end of Fall. IF you don’t want to miss it, make sure you get your friendship up with Akra!
A new ranch upgrade, available at Matty’s workshop A nice upgrade to save you precious time with your animal dailies!
A couple of cutscenes for when you unlock the Bison at Ruth’s farm store
You now get notifications when festivals are about to start
Various changes to animal spawning, so the animals that don’t like it will now avoid the rain (stopping them from getting grumpy at you!)
And of course I’m continuing to prioritise bug fixing over everything else! Quite a few have been found and fixed, here’s a quick rundown of the most noticeable ones:
Sometimes tomorrow’s weather wasn’t being loaded correctly when you next started playing, this is fixed
Danica’s bug collecting checklist now counts correctly!
Fixed issues with the workshop store not resetting correctly after some upgrades were complete
Stopped Matty from going missing after upgrading the shipping bin
Seasonal cows now produce properly
Corrected white bison’s stay requirements
Removed the potential for players to get stuck during snowball practice
Various typos!
Thanks for reading. I’ve also made a start on fishing! Join the Discord to see the early design, and chat about anything else you’d like to see!
Scott
One week down!
Hey all,
Just a quick note, as it’s somehow been a full week since I quietly put Tale of Autumn in early access! I’m pleased to say that it’s gone much smoother than anticipated! Plenty of issues as expected, but definitely fewer than I anticipated!
I want to take the opportunity to give a heartfelt thanks to every player so far, especially those joining Discord to share your feedback and ideas for the future! The feedback has been really positive, and I can’t wait to involve you in the upcoming content updates!
Below is a summary of the patches delivered throughout the week. This week I’ll be continuing to prioritise any issues you come across, whilst getting on with some new content!
- Added some more mouse and keyboard controls - Added help banners to shipping crate and player chests that show the controls - Added a new cutscene when you first arrive at the ruins - A few UX tweaks to the main menus and backpack - Fixed a bug where deers were not producing items correctly - Added a new animal produce item - Added a few more signs to help you get around Autumn! - Added new buying options at the farm store, making it easier to buy food for the biome barn - Resolved plenty of typos!
Speak soon! Scott
Early access release!
Friends,
I’m both excited and terrified to announce that Tales of Autumn is now officially in early access!
It’s been a stressful week of trying to get things ready, but everyone has been very helpful with testing, and the feedback has been positive so far, so let’s just go for it!
Tales of Autumn is very much in early access. I hope there aren’t many, but there are bound to be issues hidden around. Please let me know directly if you encounter anything, and I’ll do my best to fix it straightaway. The same goes for any other feedback, good or bad! You’re welcome to catch me on email, or join Discord to talk with me directly, and see what other players are up to!
Progress so far is that the core gameplay loops are done, there are over 70 animal species and variants, 17 NPCs, and four festivals. There’s loads more I’ll be adding as we go, and I’ll be prioritising fixing any issues that players find, and tweaking things as I get your feedback.
I’ve written a blog post that goes into some more detail, as well as a roadmap snippet if you’re interested!
This is a part-time, solo project that I started about 16 months ago. I’ve been a lifelong fan of farming sim and RPG games, and have always wanted to get into game development. So, here we are!
Thanks again to all of my testers so far, your honest feedback has been vital for me to get here - keep it coming!
