Jun 17, 2023

Mini Anniversary Update is ready to download

Dinkum - taj14

Hey there everyone, long time no post.

As you know I’ve been hard at work on the Summer Sun update. Things are taking a bit longer than expected, so I’ve taken a little bit of time off to work on a smaller update. In this update John is running a little event in his shop to celebrate Dinkum’s anniversary! That’s right, next month marks Dinkum’s first year since entering Early Access.

When I put Dinkum up on Steam I expected it to be in Early Access for at least a year (now it looks like it might actually be a bit longer). I never expected so many people to play and enjoy my game, so I decided I wanted the updates to contain a lot more content than I was originally planning.

So, while you wait for the next major update please enjoy the new items available in this “Anniversary Event” update.

If you visit John on your island you’ll find his little green prize box on his counter. The items in here can be used to decorate your island and celebrate one year of Dinkum. To get the items you’re going to have to earn some Prize Tickets (John needs to make some Dinks off this event after all). Prize tickets can be earned by selling John any fish. You’ll receive one ticket per fish, so get your rod ready.

Oh, and there are a few more things to discover in this mini update. If you give Franklyn some shiny discs he might come up with a new way to get around the island with your mates. There is a new item to discover at the Tuckerbox, it’s a pretty groovy contraption and I think you’ll like it. I’ve also snuck in some other new craftable items in this update and a few new furniture items.

I hope you have fun discovering all the new things in this mini update and hopefully it’s enough stuff to play with until the Summer Sun update is ready to go.

Until next time,

Thanks for playing Dinkum!

James

Here are the patch notes:

New:

John’s Goods is running an event!
Earn Prize Tickets and exchange them for new special items and prizes
Franklyn can craft a new vehicle (he might need to learn it from a shiny disc)
The Tuckerbox sells a new machine to help display your food
Added some new crafting recipes to learn
Seaweed now drops it can be brewed or placed

Changes:

John will pay less for relics
Lowered Camera Tripod price
Spinifex will now grow back in the tropical biome
Improved performance of flower beds and water beds
Improved performance of placeable lights
Improved performance of chests
Improved performance of changers such as furnaces, mills, campfires, etc
Improved performance in large farms
Improved performance related to terraforming
Added LOD to certain placeable objects.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug that caused visitors using gliders to experience lag when opening and closing them
Fixed a bug that caused the compactor to dig down twice when visitors used them
Fixed a bug that didn’t update the telepads icon position when it was moved
Fixed a bug that caused the mailbox to softlock when deleting mail
Animals and NPCs can’t walk through Lilly Pilly plants anymore
Fixed a bug that caused problems when auto stacking into your travel bag
Fixed a bug that caused some chests to desync when using quick move
Jetskis now only require Vehicle Licence Level 1, instead of level 2
Cloth can no longer be placed into the spinning wheel
Fixed a bug that caused character to show an incorrect animation when their vehicle was destroyed
Fixed a bug that shows the wrong tool when dropped
Tape Measure no longer requires Deep Mining Licence
Buying farm animals now counts towards the spend money daily task

Mar 24, 2023

The Bloomin’ Spring Major Update is Here!

Dinkum - taj14

G’day everyone,

I hope you are all doing well this morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you may be. I’ve been working on new Dinkum content for quite some time, and I am now happy to announce that the second major Dinkum update is ready for you to play! With the Bloomin’ Spring update a new resident is joining our community, some new wildflowers will spring up on the Island, you can build a new building in your town, dive deeper into the deep min, and many more surprises that I left here and there for you to find. If you want to know more details about what’s coming to Dinkum, keep on reading. But if you don’t want to spoil the fun of discovery, you can jump into your Dinkum island and find the surprises yourself. Whatever option you choose, I hope you enjoy all the new content. Ok, I’m just about to get into more details, so if you don’t want spoilers, now is the time to go!! But before you do, thank you for your support!

You’re still here? In that case, let me tell you more about the Bloomin’ Spring update. From today you can say hello and become friends with Sheila, our new villager on Dinkum Island. You can find her at your local Visitor Site. Sheila loves food and her hobby is cooking. She is known to make some tasty tucker. If you want her to move permanently to your town, you’re going to have to cook up some treats for her. Sheila is the owner of Tuckerbox, a local tuckshop. And if you collect all the necessary materials to build it, she will happily run it for you and all the other residents so that everyone on the island can enjoy her treats.

Sheila and her Tuckerbox have a lot of comfort to offer.

When spring starts, some new wildflowers will start appearing all over the island. Keep your eyes open for Jackaroo Paw, the Flannel Flower, River Daisies and a bunch of Paper Daisies Rayne has started selling Jacaranda saplings in her greenhouse. These are available all year, but blossom into a bright purple colour in spring. What can be better than the back garden full of flowering plants. And that smell!

Is there a better way to relax than taking a nap in your garden?

From now on you can also add a Band Stand to your town! This is a place to host events, parties, gatherings, and celebrations. If you want to build one, just talk to Fletch and you will build it in no time.

Can’t wait to see what events we can have here!

Are you looking for a way to organize your town a little bit better? Perhaps making it easier to navigate? Or perhaps you would like to commemorate some special places? Well from now on you can place signs which you can use to mark directions, highlight spots, or just to upgrade the look of the town’s street. Before you can place them, speak to Fletch first and get a Sign Writing Licence – thanks to that licence you will get The Sign Writing Table, a pen, and a few sign recipes. With these, you can start putting signs anywhere you like!

Is it possible to have too many signs?

Well, there's a sneak peek, but I’ll leave you with the fun of discovering all the other new additions. There’s plenty of new stuff that isn’t mentioned here, but if you really, really, really want to know more, check out the changelog below. And before I go, I just want to thank you all for all your help, your comments, feedback, and support. You have no idea how much it means to me to get such positivity from all of you. So once again, thank you and I really hope you like the new update!

Speak to you all soon,
James

Patch Notes

New

- Spring has sprung with new wild flowers appearing in the season.
- A special Town event will occur on the last day of spring.
- A new villager can move to the island.
- A new building can be built.
- Travel deeper into the Deep Mines.
- New enemies can be encountered in the deeper mines.
- There is a new Signwriting Licence.
- Added several new sign related craftable recipes.
- There is a new Brewing licence to unlock new recipes.
- There is a new Water Scaping licence to unlock.
- Water Beds can be crafted to create decorative waterfalls around your island.
- A new visitor will visit the island in Autumn and Spring to hold a competition.
- Each season now has its own sunset time.
- The bulletin board now contains a calendar.
- Villagers will now visit other buildings on their days off.
- Each villager now has a birthday.
- Pleep are now bought as babies.
- Saddled Mus are alive now!
- There is a new whistle that can call saddled Mus to you from anywhere.
- Added a Tripod Camera used for taking selfies.
- There is a new vehicle to discover.
- Added several new plants.
- Added several new milestones.
- Added an auto stack button for storage containers.
- Added a collect and delete all button to the mailbox.
- Added “save” button to letters you want to protect from the collect all button.
- Motorbikes now have boost for cool and extreme jumps.
- A shady visitor has some new items for sale.
- Each villager now has their own shop music.
- All furniture and clothing has a icon now.

Changes

- The Cheese maker and Spinning wheel are now unlocked through the animal processing licence.
- You can now donate multiple items to the museum all at once.
- You can now buy up to 999 seeds at once.
- Magpies no longer eat crops.
- Villagers with high friendship will slowly lose some friendship if they aren’t talked to for a while.
- Changed the texture of fertilised soil.
- Mail in the mailbox is now sorted newest to oldest.
- Lowered the value of flour and sugar a bit.
- Decreased the likelihood of villagers rewarding players with clothing and increased likelihood of rewarding with Dinks.
- John’s Goods rotates his eatable stock.
- Queen bees are more likely to spawn from hives.
- Cooked meats now have additional buffs.
- Hammer weapons swing a bit faster.
- Bush Devils are now immune to fire.
- Players will move to the position they were standing before they sat down instead of always moving forward.
- Hovering over buff icon will show it’s name.
- Dinking Rich milestone now only grants 1000 Permit Points per level instead of 3000.
- Increased the sell value of fossils.
- Fullness effect was increased after late.
- NPCs offer new items when offering to sell things.
- Fish are more common on rainy days.
- Bugs are more common in spring.
- Some brew recipes have changed.

Bug Fixed

- Fixed a bug that would not let visitors cast their fishing line properly in multiplayer.
- Dinks earnt from selling discs now count towards Dink related milestones.
- Players can no longer accidentally pick things up in the overworld when inside a building.
- Fixed a bug that would cause power tools to charge twice when placed on charge overnight and saving and reloading.
- Fixed a bug that would cause problems if the player passed out while riding a vehicle.
- Fixed a desync problem with furniture placed on top of other furniture.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Torch to stun animals during the day.
- Fixed a bug that could very rarely teleport players while sleeping.
- Fixed a bug that made the fish pulling speed frame rate dependent.
- Fixed a bug that could cause the player to fall through the ground when using a wheelbarrow
- Wheelbarrow can jump again.
- Fixed a bug that would make objects on certain tiles always drop the same drops.
- Fixed a bug that caused Watermelons and Pumpkins to give harvesting XP.
- Fixed a bug that caused the sounds from bugs to not use volume settings.
- Fixed a bug that destroyed bushes and ferns when planting grass seeds under them.
- Fixed a bug that caused gates to rotate incorrectly when being placed on their own.
- Fixed a bug that would let animals walk through fences.
- Fixed a bug that would softlock players who have been revived in water.
- Lots of other smaller fixes.

Jan 27, 2023

A few words from me to you

Dinkum - taj14

Hey there,

I've had my head down working hard on Dinkum's next update. I really wanted to have it ready for everyone to play in early February, but things are taking a little bit longer than expected, so I will need a bit more time.

The Bloomin’ Spring update is the first of many updates where I will be focusing on a specific season. My goal for this update is to make the in-game Spring feel different to the other seasons by offering different events and new things to discover around the island.

I would like to keep some of these things a surprise, but being Spring, you can imagine there will be a lot of wildflowers spawning around your island. Another change I’m happy to share is the sun now sets at different times in each season. Winter being the shortest day with the sun setting around 6pm like usual. Summer and Spring have longer days, with the sun setting around 8pm-9pm.

I have been teasing some of the upcoming items and features through screenshots on Dinkum's Discord. But I have some new pics to show off here as well.

These mines look different…

The Rowboat grew up?

Finally, this update will include a bunch of smaller quality-of-life tweaks. Things like crates and chests now have an auto stack button, for stacking all the items from your inventory straight into the chest’s stack. There is now a "collect and delete all" button for collecting all your mail at once. This will hopefully make trapping rewards a bit less tedious. Oh and Theodore will now accept more than one donation at a time at the museum, so you can get back out there and catch even more fish and bugs for him.

There is a bit more that’s coming in the next update, but I will tell you all about it next time - unless Fletch beats me to it! And I hope you all understand that I want this update to be as good as it can be. I do appreciate your patience and I hope you don't mind waiting just a little bit longer for it. I hope that you will feel the wait was worth it.

That’s all for this post, so I’m going to get back to working on the update.

Thanks,

James