March Update ~ Designing, Trading, and Testing! š
Hello gardeners,
Spring equinox has come around at last, and with it a good sense of progression with all things behind the scenes in The Garden Path. Localisation is in full swing, while I continue to make headway with multiplayer mechanics. It's also been another busy month preparing for the upcoming 0.7 update. Let's take a look at whatās new since our last check-in.
Game Updates
The notification manager, task tracker and Overview have now been combined into one piece of UI. While the Overview can be opened and closed, the Overview's tabs can now be toggled between while playing, so you can preview the information you want to see while playing. For instance, the task tracker can now be viewed by switching to the Errand Tab, and a relevant tutorial can be read while playing by switching to the Tutorial tab.
The old notifications were helpful, but often expected attention, and would build up if not acted on. Now, tabs will contextually focus themselves as events happen in-game, and the information is categorised by subject, not chronologically, so updates will be easier to find. Then, if youād like more information, opening the Overview will bring you directly to the relevant tab.
Tutorials no longer pause the game, instead layering themselves over the game, so the flow of gameplay isn't broken. Tutorial text has also been streamlined to be more clear. Sometimes itās good to pause the game to ensure important information isnāt missed, but the response to the old system was that it was too intrusive. Iāll be following feedback on this one closely!
'Designer' mode is now even more functional, allowing you to quickly place, move and pick up decorative items in the Garden, where previously it could only be used to place new items. Interacting with any moveable item now allows you to enter Design mode, so you no longer need to select an item from the inventory to begin customising.
Design mode now follows a grid by default, making it easier to align items accurately. Holding the movement key will slow down the speed of the item you are placing, and break you away from the grid, so you can more finely tune an item's placement.
The trading view with a character is now a list rather than a grid, giving a clearer view of the items available instead of needing to highlight over each item. This menu also predetermines the cost of each item, instead of generating the cost on selection. Lastly, this design helps differentiate the playerās inventory from an NPCās, so itās always clear what UI youāre viewing. This change will be part of a bigger redesign to how the player uses NPC shops.
A new 'fulfiller' menu aims to consolidate those moments in the game when you need to offer items from your inventory - whether it's completing an errand, making a trade, or brewing items into a tea. The iconography and design have been refreshed to make it easier to understand what you've selected, and what slots you've left to fill. Gone are the strange transparent circles that sit under inventories!
Tradable items in the game now have grades, an easy way to get a sense for the value or rarity of an item. Meeting a character's trade requirements no longer requires meeting a hidden value threshold, but instead meeting the grades of items requested. If you have a stack of items, you donāt have to guess how many you need to meet the required grade - the menu shows you that exact number. Selecting the item will automatically move across the right amount.
Next week begins work on the final features to get 0.7 ready for testing. I'll see you in April!
Any thoughts?
Since we are inching closer to the release of The Garden Path, weāre going to be asking for general calls for feedback from those who have early access. Was there a mechanic or element in the game you felt needed a tutorial that didn't appear? Was there anything you found yourself having trouble understanding? Did you find the tutorial pop-ups a blessing or a nuisance?
Jump into the Discord server and let us know. All your thoughts and feelings about the game are more than appreciated. Until next timeā¦ Louis, carrotcake
Can you sense the turn of the season approaching? We certainly can here in the UK as the frosts are starting to ease as work continues on The Garden Path. Itās been an exciting month with work on multiplayer, localisation, and optimisation taking place. So, letās take a look shall we?
Game Updates
Development focus in February has been optimization, localization, and multiplayer.
You might remember last year the game had a big refactor to prepare its systems for eventual multiplayer. The good news is that the work is paying off!
While you may have seen in previous updates, we were able to have both characters on-screen, characters now have their own UI, inventory and equipment. It's now possible to run errands together, harvest the garden together, fish together, and more.
This is still only available in internal builds, but it shouldn't be long now before I can ship it out for testing.
Optimization work has been underway to prepare the game for Nintendo Switch and those on lower-end systems, but everyone should benefit from the game now being more light-weight.
Loading the game's world has been reworked, reducing loading into the garden from minutes down to seconds (on test systems!).
Lighting in the game has been reworked to be less system resource reliant. For those with older graphics cards, having multiple lights on screen, especially where they overlap, caused heavy loss in FPS. Most lights in the game have been replaced with much less heavy alternatives. It gives ambient lights, especially in the Garden's dark hours, a more fuzzy, filmic look. Looking forward to hearing any feedback.
Many of the game's textures have been reworked to load faster and use fewer resources, while (hopefully) still looking just as good. In some instances, the game now uses half as much VRAM as it did previously.
Most of my time this month has been spent preparing the game for localization so that the game can be enjoyed by players whose first language isn't English.
I've been on a big push to get all the game's text ready, and so while most of the work has been under the hood, testers will soon enjoy more item descriptions, dialogue, and errands to arrive in the build soon.
This also marks the start of moving on from the limited number of items included in the closed beta for testing, with the building blocks for the items that will be in the game's release now in place.
Your usual reminder!
And as always, here is your reminder that you can join our official Discord Community server, which you can join here. Here you can chat with the team, meet fellow backers, and help me shape The Garden Path. And of course, we encourage you to share your real-life gardening with your fellow gardening gamers.
Happy New Year everyone, and let me begin by saying thank you again to everyone who has supported The Garden Path and the team over the last year. As we inch closer to release each month, I am so grateful to be able to share this exciting and tumultuous experience with you all.
December was a month of work and rest, but weāre now back in full force working on localisation, coding, and more. Without further ado, letās hop into the update proper.
A Look Back
While we thought 2021 had been a busy year for The Garden Path, 2022 managed to surpass our expectations! Some pivotal additions, improvements, and revamps happened behind the scenes to make the game more stable and more enjoyable, while elsewhere the team were busy taking The Garden Path to festivals and streams alike.
Hereās a not-quite-extensive list of what happened in the garden over 2022:
We started small by adding new flora, including marigolds, pansies, daffodils, and chrysanthemum.
Bunkās new design was introduced alongside a refresh to the tea-pouring visualizer.
We introduced treasure into the game, allowing you to unlock the old gardenerās journal and learn more about the old garden.
We made an Anatomical-Tabbal for April Foolsā Day (who still loves some rain).
We sold 100 early access copies of The Garden Path on Itch.io ahead of its full launch later this year!
The character customiser had a revamp, increasing the combination of hair colour and skin tone from 22 to almost 2,000.
We added (and played) conkers with our villagers!
Tabbal was featured on the charity shirt for Wholesome Direct 2022, while The Garden Path returned to the cosy showcase.
The āGarden Designerā was added to the game, allowing you to quickly plot out how you want your garden to look.
The Community Centre opened its door in-game, with the brand new toad Worm in tow.
We smashed past 10k followers on TikTok (with a couple viral videos too)!
We went live on stream 26 times!
A revisited tutorial system went live for our early access Itch players.
Local multiplayer work took place, thanks to our wonderful backers getting us to our co-op stretch goal.
We went to Steam Next Fest (again)!
The Garden Path went all the way to San Francisco for Day of the Devs.
Our release window trailer was published, announcing that The Garden Path will be blooming in Spring 2023!
We launched the beta version of the game on Steam!
Weyley and Terracottaās caravan of gardening furnishings, planters, and paraphernalia rolled into the garden.
As I said, this list is not exhaustive and plenty of other work went on both in-front of and behind the curtains. None of this would have been possible without you, of course, and the generous support extended to The Garden Path.
And now weāre in the final stretch. Itās hard to believe how far the game has come, so here is to the next few months of tweaking and polishing ~ weāll be sure to bring you along as usual.
Game Updates
Work on the game before the new year was focused on polishing the 0.6 update that had been a long-time in the works, and released early December.
The Garden is now almost twice the size, expanding from 8 acres (2x4) to 15 acres (3x5), providing more room to explore and build on. This was based on feedback from testers as a good happy-medium between the originally planned 8 and 24 acre Gardens.
Load times have been greatly improved with further content streaming introduced, making it easier to load in and start seeing whatās new in the Garden, especially with a much larger Garden now under your feet. This will be part of general performance tweaking between now and the gameās release.
Campfireās can now be found across the Garden, providing spaces for certain characters to hang out and rest, and for certain events to centre around. And, as part of the tea overhaul, youāll also be able to use the fires to brew teas yourself on-the-go.
Shovels can now be used across the Garden using the focus system, much like your axe and secateurs. You can collect soil, and dig up treasure.
Characterās time-tables have been simplified, no longer coming and going across the day. Instead, any visiting character will come for the day and stay for the day. This means that won't matter when you decide to come to the Garden, you won't miss out on visitors.
Lastly (and maybe most excitingly) work for The Garden Path on Switch started earlier this month and we're already seeing some great results. There's only so much I can say at this point, but I'm happy to report there haven't been any nasty surprises (touch wood)!
0.7 is in the works and will be focusing on stats and stars - the things youāll want to start focusing on once youāve gotten to grips with the basics. I'm eager to show off what I've had in the works - more on that to come, so stay tuned.
Your usual reminder!
And as always, here is your reminder that you can join our official Discord Community server, which you can join here. Here you can chat with the team, meet fellow backers, and help me shape The Garden Path. And of course, we encourage you to share your real-life gardening with your fellow gardening gamers.
November Update ~ New Trailer, New Release Window š»
Hello gardeners,
How was your November? Itās certainly been a busy month for The Garden Path. This is an exciting update, with a new Autumn trailer to reveal, plenty of game updates, and even some release date news. Letās get started.
Autumn Trailer
While we may be inching ever closer to the end of Autumn and the oncoming of Winter, itās not too late to enjoy the comforts of the season. What better way to feel cosy, then, than with a brand new Autumnal trailer for The Garden Path? Take a peek inside the Gardenerās journal, and say hello to some familiar travellers. Not only that, but with this trailer weāre also revealing that The Garden Path will now be blooming in Spring 2023!šŖ“
I understand this might be a disappointing set-back for some, as I had hoped to have the game ready before the year came to an end.
It's important to me to make sure I get the game right, and while many have enjoyed the game during our demos and beta builds, with so many more fresh eyes on the game there has been a wealth of feedback for me to work through - be it something 'not feeling right', or sometimes not understanding why certain parts of the game work the way they do.
Myself and the team came to the decision that this extra breathing room would be the best option to ensure that the final product is as good as possible when it comes to launch. The game is already so much stronger than it would have been had I decided to keep the builds closed, and I'm confident in how the game will shape up in 2023 - I'll be keeping you posted in my updates as usual!
I hope it'll be worth any extra wait - it's well and truly been a privilege having anyone waiting on my work at all.
Game Updates
0.6 has been in-the-works since the summer, and it's a great relief to finally start introducing the changes into the main game. Starting today, the update will be rolling out to different beta platforms for testing.
Welcome to the Garden: Weyley and Terracotta! These two sisters will travel to your Garden on-schedule, and carry with them on their caravan all sorts of different garden furnishings they've collected on their travels - they'll be the go-to for larger decorations, planters and paraphernalia. Unlike other travellers, Weyley and Terracotta's stock will be available in the Garden to browse, so you can get a real-world before you buy. Also, before arriving in the Garden, they will notify you when they'll be visiting, and what items they'll be especially looking out for - giving you time to gather-up and get the best deals.
To help keep you notified while playing, the function of the community board has been expanded to support bulletins. While the daily report keeps record of what's happening that day, bulletins will help to give you a heads-up on what will be happening in the coming days. You can now also view the daily report from the community board, should you wish to read it again.
The social tab in the game's overview is now fleshed out to help bring the Garden's residents to the forefront. You now have a record of the residents living in your garden, and your progress to unlocking a new resident. Locked residents are even automatically ordered, so you can see who you're closest to unlocking.
Those who joined me in last week's stream will know we can also welcome in two new residents - Jaime and Leslie! Perhaps no taller, nor wider resident has stepped into the garden until now.
And you might not have to wait too long to meet them, as each day a new resident will now visit the Garden whether unlocked or not. If you haven't met the requirements to unlock a resident, a random resident will visit the Garden to say hi, giving you a chance to see just whoās wandering around, and who you might want to stay.
Remember: how you customise the Garden will change who wants to call your garden their home. The Garden designer was introduced in the summer to help those who wanted to plot out their vision for the Garden, and now it's becoming the central place to alter and preview your garden design. All furnishings in your inventory can now be accessed through the designer menu, and selecting furnishing from your inventory will also open the menu. It's now much easier to place paths, fencing and garden furnishing while also building projects of your own.
Much of the guess-work has been removed in a small rework of the game's star system. Names of stars now always show, no matter whether you've observed the star or not - important for residents that require certain stars to be unlocked. Observing stars now reveals their unlock requirements. Star maps no longer observe a random star in the sky, but can be used from the star map to unlock a star of your choosing. Constellations are also no longer hidden, allowing you to see which stars you need to focus on to unlock a constellation.
Tea has also received a shake-up. You can now purchase and collect different 'vessels' for containing your tea. You'll start the game with a camping flask, but you'll soon be able to browse and collect various teapots and gaiwans to best suit the tea you're brewing. Different vessels will be able to carry different capacities of tea, keep your tea warmer for longer, or have effects on the brew itself.
And new on your equipment list - your favourite mug! A variety of mugs will be available to purchase from travellers for you to sip from. These changes are in place for a planned rework of the player stat system, toward something that feels more impactful while playing - more on that coming soon.
Dye colours are also now shown on botanical items, so you can start to track which items to collect for which colours, as the dye system is rolled out in the coming months for hair and clothes.
And that's me all caught up. Looking forward to hearing any and all feedback. As with any new features in the beta, there may be quirks, oddities, and breakages, all of which I'll be working through in December. Otherwise, plans are to begin a steady trickle-in of 'mini-content' - all the furnishing, clothing and stories that have been in the works but yet to be finalised. Work on finishing up multiplayer and the Switch version begin in January - so hopefully we'll start seeing some footage of each soon, stay tuned!
October Update ~ Day of the Devs, Itch Updates, and more š
Hello gardeners,
A belated Happy Hallowās Eve. October has been and gone, with some exciting happenings for The Garden Path. Today, we have a shorter update for you as we ramp up elsewhere, with an indie dev celebration to share alongside your usual game updates. Letās dive in.
Day of the Devs
We're so excited to be a part of Day of the Devs 10th Anniversary celebration, and itās happening this week!
The Garden Path is fortunate enough to have been invited to take part in both the Digital Showcase and the In-Person event taking place at The Midway in San Francisco.
We will be showing some brand-new gameplay footage (including some bits you might expect to see in our new Itch update) and will have a demo available to play for those visiting on site.
Tune in November 3rd at 5pm GMT for the digital show, or head on down this Saturday from 3pm PST to see The Garden Path and some other wonderful indie games.
We had a big influx of interest and new players for the Steam Next Fest demo, which we decided to continue throughout October. It was a great opportunity to see the response to the game through new eyes and expectations, while also providing a sweep of new bug reports that came about after porting the game to the new two-player system. (For those out-of-the-loop, the game doesn't currently support two players, but the game's system has been largely redesigned to accommodate a second player).
The new tutorials were a success, and helped focus feedback and attention toward game-feel and balance, rather than new players feeling lost on what to do.
Perhaps most overwhelmingly the response was that interacting with the garden could often feel cumbersome and overcomplicated. It can, for instance, be frustrating when you wish to chop a tree, but a small fern in front of the tree takes priority. The Garden is densely populated with trees and flora, and so conventional interaction systems don't always work, despite my efforts with fine tuning. The existing focus system was introduced to remedy this, but it's a mechanic that becomes more natural to use as you become experienced with the game, and so was often forgotten by those jumping in for the first time.
As such, the interaction/harvesting system has been redesigned to bring focussing to the forefront, and make focussing as a concept more friendly to newer players. The old harvest button now draws an area in front of you, highlighting the trees and flora inside. This not only gives you a more clear overview of the space around you, but also allows the harvesting of multiple flora. With harvesting now done symbolically, you're free to queue up harvests, and move between flora on-the-go.
The response to the new system so far has been positive, and I'm looking forward to hearing how it holds up long-term. I think it feels quite novel to have a whole button dedicated to analysing the space around you, and I think it helps bring a sense of your surroundings to the forefront. The old focus system is still in-place, activated by holding the focus button rather than tapping it, so it's a natural progression to move from one to the other.
I'll be gathering more feedback in the coming weeks, but for now I hope working the garden feels more deliberate, and more satisfying as a result.
0.6 has been in-the-works alongside 0.5, and I'm really excited to finish up the new content for the backers who'll be joining us for the first time before the official launch. Be sure to follow us at the usual places for more updates!
For our next trick, carrotcake game dev Louis will be joined by cozy connoisseur Fern as they jump into The Garden Path's brand new demo for Next Fest!
Catch the two at 4pm BST on Saturday, October 8th, right here on Steam carrotcake
Grab your fishing rod, watering can, trusty axe, and... well, maybe you'll need a rucksack first...
So, set a reminder and come wander with us...
Watch the dev play š® š
Hello gardeners,
Join carrotcake game dev, Louis, and his streaming partner in crime, Fern, as they play the brand-new demo of The Garden Path in the first of our Next Fest streams!
Catch the pair at 12 o'clock noon BST on Wednesday, October 5th, right here on Steam š
Will we catch some fish? Will we make some veggie-friends? Will they just sit around and drink some tea?
Set a reminder, and find out...
Watch the dev play š® š
Hello gardeners,
Join carrotcake game dev, Louis, and his streaming partner in crime, Fern, as they play the brand-new demo of The Garden Path in the first of our Next Fest streams!
Catch the pair at 12 o'clock noon BST on Wednesday, October 5th, right here on Steam š
Will we catch some fish? Will we make some veggie-friends? Will they just sit around and drink some tea?
Set a reminder, and find out...
September Update ~ Steam, Demos, and Local Multiplayer š®
Hello gardeners,
I hope everyone has enjoyed the now-passing summer season - or whichever season you might find yourself in over on your part of the world. Itās been good to take a couple of weeks away and return with a fresh head, and Iām looking forward to the Autumnal weather (already well underway) and getting stuck-in with the busy months we have ahead of us.
Sizeable work has been made on The Garden Path since our last update in July. So, letās dive in and see whatās new.
Steam Next Fest
Up first, Next Fest! The Garden Path is going to be in the Steam Next Fest starting on October 3rd. From then until October 10th, youāll be able to download and play a brand-new demo for the game.
Not only that, but myself and my streaming partner in crime, Fern, will also be dropping in for some special Steam exclusive streams. Keep your eyes peeled to find out when weāll be going live. Learn more, and wishlist The Garden Path, here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1638500/The_Garden_Path/.
Steam Backer Access
More exciting Steam news: The Garden Path beta access will be coming to backers sometime in October! For those of you who chose to get an early digital copy of The Garden Path through Steam, youāll be getting your hands on that soon and I canāt wait for you to begin wandering and growing gardens of your own.
When this goes live, youāll receive an email with your code and information on how to activate it. So, keep an eye out but worry not, weāll likely be sending out another mini update telling you to check your inboxes when it drops!
Game Updates
Firstly, thanks to everyone for your patience on the upcoming build. While I had hoped for the new tutorial system to be ready this Summer, to help keep things going smoothly work on local multiplayer has taken priority and started earlier than planned.
As such, the game's code has had sweeping changes to support an extra player character occupying the Garden. Not dissimilar to renovating a house, when everything's in bits it's a good excuse to improve the foundations, and so I've taken the opportunity this summer to do some proper Spring cleaning to help make the game more stable and debuggable in the long-run.
The good news is that most of the heavy-lifting for local multiplayer is now done! The next version of the game will be running on the new build that is built with two players in mind, only without the second player present just yet. This means that, if all's gone well, you'll notice very little difference! The downside for those excited for upcoming content, with most of the work under-the-hood, you'll notice very little difference.
I hope all the hard work in this update will soon pay-off, when it eventually comes time to pick up that second controller. For now, here's a snippet from a build a few months ago!
As mentioned, the tutorial system has had a full review, and there'll be plenty of changes for new players to enjoy. Tutorials have been promoted from small notification cards, and are now fully fledged - designed to present the most important information first, with further details available for those who want to get into the nitty gritty.
The Old Gardener's Stones have been redesigned to no longer accept dustflies, but instead Guide Stones which you will collect as you explore the garden and gather tutorials. Something small to help the tutorials feel less of a nuisance, and something of a reward.
A new tutorial tab in the Overview keeps a record of the tutorials you've seen, so you can revisit them any time. And another tab will soon be making an appearance - the social tab. Moved away from the encyclopedia, it'll soon be much easier to keep tabs on which residents are available, and how you can attract them to your Garden, whether or not youāve progressed to unlocking the encyclopedia itself.
And there'll be even more yet to come! Work is well underway for new NPCs, events and furnishings, which I'm excited to finally take across the production line once the new build is stable.
Your usual reminder!
And as always, here is your reminder that you can join our official Discord Community server, which you can join here. Here you can chat with the team, meet fellow backers, and help me shape The Garden Path. And of course, we encourage you to share your real-life gardening with your fellow gardening gamers.
July Update ~ Tutorials, Multiplayer, and Switch News š»
Hello gardeners,
It feels as though July has rushed right past us this year. While work has been ploughing on as ever - with lots of proofreading, coding, designing, and music mixing - it has also been good to take a little break from the hot weather this month.
Letās take a look at whatās been happening around The Garden Path this July.
Some Streams
Recently my streaming partner-in-crime, Fern, made me aware that it has now been over a year since our first Twitch stream for fromcarrotcake. 24 streams and 283 followers later, itās been a real treat sharing art and time with you all as weāve discussed just about everything from how to create peaceful UIās to ātheoretical banana societiesā.
More recently I've dipped my toe into a less scheduled format for streaming, where last Friday I hit the 'stream' button while working through mastering and mixing the game's soundtrack. Thanks to everyone who stopped by, it was fun sharing my thoughts, and made the time fly by. These ālazy streamsā might make an appearance every now and then, so make sure youāre following our channel if youād like to be notified when we go live! Follow us here: twitch.tv/fromcarrotcake.
And of course, if you want even more The Garden Path streaming content, you can find us on TikTok where our wonderful community manager, Alex, goes live every other week as well as sharing all sorts of fun content. Have a look here: tiktok.com/@fromcarrotcake.
Game Updates
With last monthās update being feature-focused, much of the work this July has been under-the-hood in preparation for big changes to come.
My priority for the upcoming 0.5 update will be a revisited tutorial and new-player-experience. Iāve been hard at work drawing up designs for a tutorial system that feels rewarding, unobtrusive, optional, and scales its information depending on how much the player wants to learn. This has been in-the-works for some time, and Iām eager to invite new players to try out the game for the first time, and hear how they get on.
Work on local multiplayer, our second stretch goal, is now in full swing, as we figure out camera, UI and controls to suit two players working side by side.
The gameās code is being changed in big-ways to accommodate multiple player characters and their respective data thatās collected while playing the game. Once the new systems work for single-player, it should be a simple step to drop another player into the Garden.
Plans are in the works for an interface that works across two smaller screens, with both shared and player-specific elements, and a control system that adapts to more simple devices (such as a single joy-con).
A small UI change has already made its way into the public build of the game - the new ID Card which helps provide more details for the item youāre inspecting in the gameās different UI elements. Itās been redesigned to better take advantage of vertical screen real-estate, allowing more room horizontally on-screen for single-player, and better fitting the slimmer split-screen views when multiplayer is ready. Also some exciting news - a Nintendo Switch Dev Kit has been approved and will be on its way very soon! Hopefully, weāll start to see some very real Nintendo Switch footage of the game in the coming months. Watch this space!
Your usual reminder!
And as always, here is your reminder that you can join our official Discord Community server, which you can join here. Here you can chat with the team, meet fellow backers, and help me shape The Garden Path. And of course, we encourage you to share your real-life gardening with your fellow gardening gamers. šŖ“
