Hello Foragers!


Thank you so much for all the questions you submitted to my previous AMA post! I will be answering most of the non-repeat questions here now!


As a thank you for your support and in the spirit of better developer-community communication, I will be giving a Steam key for Forager to the people that I respond to!


This is one of the many steps I am going to take to keep the community positive and healthy and awesome! I have another surprise coming soon that involves giving Forager Steam keys away every week! It should start this Friday, so stay tuned!

Anyway! Here come the questions!




The game price is $20 on all platforms. If you buy it on Steam, and depending on where you live, you can be eligible for regional discounts! Check this post to know more!





Yes! This is one of the things we are working on while the game is being delayed. We are expecting to have mod support ready for Steam players after the game releases!




Forager has been in development for 2.5 years so far. That's quite a while! Not too bad compared to the average though:

#Discussions_QuoteBlock_Author

Most modern PC or console games take from one to three years to complete, where as a mobile game can be developed in a few months. The length of development is influenced by a number of factors, such as genre, scale, development platform and number of assets.

Some games can take much longer than the average time frame to complete. An infamous example is 3D Realms' Duke Nukem Forever, announced to be in production in April 1997 and released fourteen years later in June 2011. Planning for Maxis' game Spore began in late 1999; the game was released nine years later in September 2008. The game Prey was briefly profiled in a 1997 issue of PC Gamer, but was not released until 2006, and only then in highly altered form. Finally, Team Fortress 2 was in development from 1998 until its 2007 release, and emerged from a convoluted development process involving "probably three or four different games", according to Gabe Newell.

Forager has been delayed for a total of 4 months. That's not nearly as bad as most videogames in this decade!

I explained the reasons behind the delays on this post. Here is the TLDR:

• I signed a contract that required me to release all console versions and PC versions simultaneously. Console versions notoriously take longer to develop (since you need to port the game to a new system). I had no idea how that worked and overestimated how long the process usually takes. Total beginner mistake, but this is my first ever commercial videogame after all!
  
  
• The game was technically "ready" in November 2018, but it wasn't nearly as good as it is now. Over time the community made me understand there are some things that NEEDED to be in the game, so it can be the best version of Forager possible. I decided to work on these things so I could release on Steam the BEST version of Forager that I could. Stuff like Mac and Linux support, cosmetic items and costumes, build and terrain replacement, more creative options for buildings, a better endgame, more combat based encounters, better farming aspects, mod support, multiplayer, etc...

Soon™


It's honestly crazy how much better the game got since I mistakenly said it was "ready" back in November. Here is a detailed list:

• Additional desktop exclusive options to disable screen effects, shakes and other accessibility options.
  
  
• 8 new items and 1 new structure, each with their own new sprite assets.
  
  
• 10 quality of life improvement or optimizations. They are all detailed here, here and here.
  
  
• 71 new bugfixes.
  
  
• 4 new music tracks.
  
  
• Discord rich presence support for Desktop builds.
  
  
• Mac version support.
  
  
• Linux version support.
  
  
• Massive file size optimization for all music files in the game.
  
  
• Error handling system that sends error reports from desktop to our server. Integrated with both Discord and Trello.
  
  
• Feature suggestion system for desktop, that lets players suggest features directly to us. Integrated with Discord, Trello, and Nolt.
  
  
• Automatic savefile backups for desktop.
  
  
• New main menu system with detailed development roadmap, community links and extra unlockable content (such as comic books, concept art with dev notes and the game's development story).
  
  
• Rebindable key support for both desktop and consoles.
  
  
• Code optimization reworks, bringing FPS to constant 60 for all platforms.
  
  
• Initial work on Mod Support for the Steam Workshop.
  
  
• Initial work on the PC-exclusive multiplayer version.

Multiplayer work has recently just started. It's going to take a while because we need to rework the entire game's systems to be compatible with several players at once. I have a lot of ideas on how it will work but here are some things I know for sure:

• I want it to be able to support at least 4 players at once on the same world.
  
  
• I want it to be able to support local multiplayer as well, maybe with splitscreens?
  
  
• I want to add more free content so there are fun projects for severla people to work together towards. Think something super hard that requires teamwork: New dungeons with difficult bossess, Building a spacerocket and exploring other worlds, Teleporting to super hard versions of the current biomes, etc...

As for free DLC, the game will get free updates and DLC thanks to our Patreon supporters! This includes at least 6 big updates that will come right after the game releases, but I will keep working on free updates and DLC for as long as you guys want me to!


Because it was not finished! I had to wait until the console versions were ready, so why not use that time to make the PC version better anyway? There are several groups of people following Forager's development. Some of them complain and insult me on Steam forums, the others join the Discord server, participate with the community, post guides and tutorials, and donate money for development so I can improve the game and buy food for my family. I assure you Forager's fans have been playing the game for a while now, and they send me their feedback and suggestions every single month!


No more savefile wipes! You are able to play Forager on whatever desktop platform you want and then move your savefiles to Steam/Discord/GOG/whatever and continue playing as normal!


We have established that I need to release all game versions simultaneously. Early Access is legally the same as an official game release. If I did EA I would get sued for breach of contract. That's why I do Patreon, as a donation platform, it doesn't legally count as having released the game on a storefront yet!


I honestly just thought it would be cool! I loved videogames ever since I was a kid and I always dreamed of having shirts made out of some of my games.

A lot of your favorite videogames offered players merch before they released (Binding of Isaac, Ooblets, Celeste, Cuphead, Super Meat Boy and Darkest Dungeon come to mind, I am sure there are many many more). And some of them delay their launches even more than Forager.

I really didn't think it was going to upset the community this much, and for that, I apologize. The worst part is that developers actually make almost no money with merch sales since they are much lower than game sales and also give a MUCH lower net revenue percentage.

It was 100% because I thought it would be cool, and I always dreamed to have shirts and plushies of my games. I am so sorry if I offended you by doing this. I swear it was not my intention!


I care about what the community thinks because this is the first time in my life I am actually on the other side. I was always just part of the community, and this time I am the actual dev. It's super weird and I never get fully used to it.

I want people to like me and I want them to like my game. I spent so much time and effort and money working on it and I feel it's something really special!

We have a new Code of Conduct and toxicity and hate won't be tolerated anymore. Constructive criticism is always appreciated but complaining and insulting is never constructive.

I really hope we can all work together and make this game the best it can be!




I am sorry if I didn't get to yours! If you enjoyed this we can do it more, it was a lot of fun!

And congrats to all the people that just won a Forager Steam key! Yay!

• skelly
  
• regeleedge
  
• Duckrinium
  
• H I M M
  
• hannasolo100
  
• BBackx
  
• iFood
  
• Flanders
  
• Gomarel
  
• 14_04_1987
  
• Awakeneer
  
• Bowlegs

These winners need to contact me in the Forager Group Chat to claim their keys!


What should we do in the meantime to keep the community active while we wait? I am open to event, contest and fun ideas! And I will be giving more and more free Steam keys as we approach release!

Thank you for all your support and Happy Foraging!

Hey everyone!

I have seen lots and lots of negative comments over the past month or so here on the Steam forums.

As a gamer myself that mostly uses Steam, I understand the frustrations and would like the chance to explain myself and why some things are weird and annoying. In the spirit of good communication with this lovely community, I will answer any doubts or questions you have!



Comment below on this post any question you want me to answer, and I will try to get to most of the important ones!


Some good examples:

• Why is the game taking so long?
  
  
• Is Patreon a scam to milk money out of supporters?
  
  
• How much does it cost to develop Forager or other similar games?
  
  
• Why couldn't I just release Forager through Early Access?
  
  
• Why am I selling Merch before the game is out?
  
  
• How long has Forager been in development?
  
  
• How many times has Forager been downloaded?
  
  
• How much money was donated to development?
  
  
• Anything else you can think of!

I will literally answer anything to the best of my abilities!


Thank you so much for the support and happy foraging!

Hey Foragers!

This will be a quick update to fix most bugs found on Betas 8 and 8.1 as we approach the final release date! I am so freaking excited!

I should note that apparently Microsoft has recently screwed something up on a recent WIndows update, and this may be causing lag issues for some videogames. We haven't had any issues at all with Forager but I thought I would mention it just in case!

• Amulets now work with digging (they used to only buff Sand drops).
  
  
• Added a few more things to the Extra Content menu (including the game's development story), marking it as officially completed! (for now anyway!).
  
  
• Added automatic savefile backup reading when the current savefile can't be loaded for any reason.
  
  
• Added localization for all the missing text strings from Beta 7 and onwards.
  
  
• Large numbers are now abbreviated (1,000 is 1k, 1,000,000 is 1M, etc.)
  
  
• Shrines are more expensive and have longer cooldowns.
  
  
• Bosses have higher resistance to Freeze (to avoid cheesy permafreezing).
  
  
• Some more performance optimizations were added. For even higher FPS!

• Fixed a crash that would happen when having more than 20 items on your hotbar.
  
• Rainbow puzzle was not working correctly. (Some mushrooms would not spawn, or rewards could be gotten more than once).
  
• Fixed an issue that caused explosion effects to randomly crash the game.
  
• Fixed an issue that was causing bridges to become invisible.
  
• Area of effect circles for buildings no longer draw on top of the HopFrog trivia minigame.
  
• Fixed an issue that was preventing a switch puzzle in the fire biome to be solved.
  
• Fixed an issue that was preventing certain objects to melt outside of the Crystal Cave dungeon.
  
• Fixed a few issues that would get the player stuck in specific positions.
  
• Fixed an issue that would prevent any building from being placed immediately adjacent to an Offshore Drill or an Inscription Table.
  
• Fixed several resource spawn collision issues.
  
• Fixed an issue in which the spike traps in the Graveyard biome would not disappear after getting the 4 small treasure chests inside.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused it to randomly use seeds when planting without actually spawning the saplings.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the Waterproof achievement (build on top of every water tile) to be unobtainable.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the normal Rods to appear again after upgrading them at the Spirit Crystal.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused the Flower Press to not show accurate Coal and Steel counts when crafting stuff.
  
• Fixed a rare issue that would case the build menu to not contain any options at all.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused certain buildings to get negative efficiency after boosting them TOO much (for example: using a Droid, a Power Plant and the Thunder Rod on a Shrine).
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause NPCs to randomly disappear to never be seen again...
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause NPCs to give multiple rewards by quickly spamming E when completing a quest.
  
• Fixed an issue that would allow Demon Scrolls to be infinitely spammed when used directly from the inventory menu.

If you own Beta 6 or higher, click here!

If you don't know which Beta you own, but are a Patreon supporter, click here!

If you don't yet have access to the closed Beta but want to play the game, click here!


I have a few more surprises coming soon! Stay tuned!


Thanks for all the support and happy foraging!

Hey everyone!

We have developed a hotfix for Beta 8 that should solve most of the weird new issues you have been finding lately.

First of all, thank you so much for sending in those bug reports! It's been ridiculously useful, seriously! Let's keep them coming!





All savefiles older than Beta 7 are not officially supported anymore. They may or may not work when you try to load them! If you played Beta 7 or Beta 8 with those savefiles, however, you have nothing to worry about!

Also, we are looking into the bug that causes stuff to just disappear. For now, you can fix this by exiting to the main menu and reloading your savefile.

And finally, the game's folder in %LOCALAPPDATA% has been renamed from "Forager_Steam_" to "Forager". If you want to load your old savefiles make sure you go there and rename that folder!

Here is a quick way to do it:

• Press Windows + R
  
• Type %LOCALAPPDATA% and hit Enter
  
• Find the folder named Forager_Steam_ and rename it to Forager

• Added Mac OS support (Beta).
  
  
• The entire game's file sizes have been drastically reduced.
  
  
• Some new Extra Content has been added to the main menu. (Extras button).
  
  
• Controller selection changed from collision boxes to raycasting to improve accuracy.
  
  
• Several balance changes (Banks work faster, Animals drop more Hide, Most buildings are cheaper).
  
  
• The game's folder in %LOCALAPPDATA% has been renamed from "Forager_Steam_" to "Forager". This means that if you wish to load your old savefiles into Beta 8.1 you NEED TO GO AND RENAME THAT FOLDER!
  
  
• Added automatic savefile backups in case of emergencies. (They will be in the same folder as the normal savefiles).

• Capturing critters with bottles may crash the game or spawn spikes.
  
• Loading incompatible savefiles would crash the game without displaying a warning message.
  
• Resources may spawn on top of each other.
  
• Entities may occasionally walk through collisions and buildings.
  
• The puzzle in the Ancient Galaxy was not working (receptors were not being electrified by the cubes).
  
• Sprinklers were not working.
  
• Rainbow puzzle may be solved multiple times.
  
• Game credit's had a weird text gap.
  
• Fixed Inscription Table icon on the build menu.
  
• Venom bolts from Mandragora potion could poison and destroy spikes.
  
• Pressing E fast enough on animals would cause them to drop several resources at once.
  
• Main menu could randomly crash.
  
• Gem puzzle in the Graveyard wasn't working correctly.
  
• Bridges wouldn't auto-heal like the rest of the buildings.
  
• Markets were not being restocked correctly.
  
• Chests may randomly decided they didn't need to obey the laws of physics.
  
• Collecting Gear items could occasionally crash the game.
  
• Resources could spawn outside of the world bounds.
  
• Skeletons would play their spawn sounds every time the main screen was loaded.
  
• Droids could randomly have the player's sprite.

If you own Beta 6 or higher, click here!

If you don't know which Beta you own, but are a Patreon supporter, click here!

If you don't yet have access to the closed Beta but want to play the game, click here!



Happy Foraging!

Yay! I finally managed to make this happen!

So sorry for the delay, I know some of you were very excited to have some physical Forager merch for a while now.


CHECK OUT THE STUFF!


Also, if you are a Patreon supporter at the Iron or higher tier, you get a 30% discount on any item! Offer valid until March 1st! More info over here!

This is a first round of merch to gauge demand and interest. If you guys like these items we will start moving into making cooler things like the physical coloring book, those sweeeet beet plushies and more!

As for people that are not interested in merch, I have some biiiiiig news coming soon regarding Forager's development! Stay tuned!

It's time! We are done working on the ambitious Beta 8 and it's finally ready to be played by all closed beta testers!


This version will be available here! This is actually the same itch.io page as Beta 6.2 and Beta 7, so if you had access to either of those you can also download Beta 8!

If you don't have a closed beta key/link, remember the FREE DEMO has been updated and you can download it and play up to level 10 over here!


As I have been saying before, Beta 8 has reworked most of the game's codebase, which means the game will run faster than ever. BUT! This also means there may be new bugs, crashes and glitches we haven't encountered yet.

The new programmer that I hired thanks to the support of our hundreds of patrons, lazyeye, has been working on a new error report system. Whenever the game crashes, you will have the choice to send us the crash report from inside the game itself:



Please make sure to send us all the reports! This is now much quicker and easier than having to take a screenshot and sending me the report through email or Discord.

The other big change is the new Main Menu System that I talked about earlier in the week. I won't spoil what most of this is about!

• Reworked entire codebase, making the game run at constant 60 fps even in the late game.
  
  
• Added support for Ubuntu (In Beta).
  
  
• New Main Menu System with FREE unlockable extra content.
  
  
• Rods may now be upgraded at the Spirit Crystal structure into super strong end-game versions. (Ex: Fire Rod --> Meteor Rod).
  
  
• Several items and buildings have their price increased. This will hopefully re-balance the mid to late game to make it last a little longer, and make it so getting new Gear upgrades and droids feels more rewarding. (Sage Scrolls, Lighthouses and Droids in particular should be much more expensive now).
  
  
• New music tracks have been added.
  
  
• Discord rich presence added.
  
  
• Rebindable key support added.
  
  
• New error reporting system added.
  
  
• Vaults now display mini-icons of the items they contain.
  
  
• Architecture skill now also increases the inventory slots for Vaults.
  
  
• Humble Bundle's logo when the game starts is now animated!
  
  
• Fox character may now dab. This is objectively the best update of the game, ever.
  
  
• The camera system has been reworked to be less nausea-inducing and to stick to the game world's limits.

• 144hz monitors play the game at higher frame rates.
  
• When hitting a bridge more than a tile away with the Obliterator, instead of damaging the bridge it drops infinite landfills.
  
• The Obliterator doesn't instantly destroy Bridges.
  
• You can get infinite Landfill by using the Obliterator to "destroy" empty water tiles outside the map.
  
• Spirit Orb menus can be abused by clicking a bunch of times to get the same reward multiple times.
  
• While using a controller and selecting stats to upgrade from a Spirit Orb, the cursor seems always stuck on Max Energy.
  
• Shovel upgrades seem to dig half of the AoE at a time instead of all at once.
  
• It's impossible to place stuff on the tile adjacent to Factories.
  
• Necro Rod can summon skeletons outside the map limits.
  
• Obliterating terrain tiles with the number clues for that one volcano puzzle doesn't get rid of the clues.
  
• Water Shovel stops you from making progress towards the Irrigator Feat.
  
• Getting a new Gear item while the Spirit Orb menu is open may cancel and consume the Spirit Orb without providing a bonus.
  
• Using landfills on a biome border tile will consume the landfill item even though there is already a tile there.
  
• When assigning all droids on buildings, the cost to craft a new one goes back down to 1.
  
• Froststrike skill description doesn't display unlocking of the Spirit Crystal.
  
• Resizing the window to anything but 16:9 could potentially bug the UI.
  
• Savefile images are sometimes bigger than the saveslot frame.
  
• If you move the cursor quickly after clicking to place a building, the building will be placed where the cursor is, not where you initially clicked, even if that space is blocked by something else.
  
• Treasury Skill doesn't affect already placed Banks.
  
• Enemies can push the character into water tiles.
  
• Depth sorting issues when drawing texts in the Gear screen.
  
• General terrain overlap bugs on certain biomes.
  
• Controller selection can feel clunky and make it impossible to select certain things.
  
• Minecart paths in the Crystal Cave are somehow being saved when exiting the dungeon.
  
• Some items at the Inscription Table have a craft time requirement of 0.
  
• Using the Thunder Rod may randomly crash the game.
  
• Collected item notifications cover up certain menus.
  
• Fixed various typos for several languages.

In case you missed the download link, here it is again!

Thanks for all the patience and support!

As always, here is the Trello board that shows what's planned and what we are working on at all times!

Happy Foraging!

Hey everyone, great news today!

Beta 8 is almost ready to be play-tested and will go live this Friday (February 15th).

There have been a lot of changes to the game's code, which will maximize performance even in the late game for all computers and devices. I am talking constant 60-fps! Time to get some mega-bases going!

This of course means there probably will be new bugs we haven't caught, so please let me know if you see or find anything weird. Lazyeye has implemented a fancy new system that lets you send me bug reports from inside the game itself! I will go on more detail about this on Friday.

Anyway! I wanted to show you a sneak peek of what's coming this weekend. Mainly the new and improved Menu System!





What I love about this new design are all the exciting new things we can do with it. You will notice we have a few new buttons: Extras, Roadmap and Community.

I will also be featuring a fan art from the community every week in the main menu. I have been doing this on my social media channels for a bit, but now the incredible artists of the Forager community will be featured inside the game itself too!





The Extras submenu is my personal favorite! We have added hours of new content to the game, that will be unlocked directly from the main menu by completing Feats during your playthroughs (achievements).
Some of them will be ingame content, some will be outside the game, and some will be stuff like the official Forager Comic Book, that will now be viewable directly from this menu!

More secret extras will be coming in the future, even after release!





The Roadmap submenu will show what content updates are coming to the game after release!

Reminder: ALL content updates will be FREE FOR EVERYONE thanks to the generous support of our hundreds of patrons!





That's pretty much it for now! I know I have been quiet lately as we were getting ready to add the final details to the game.

During my birthday last week, I promised myself this year of my life I am going to be much more active with the community. Forager has turned into such an awesome project thanks to all of you giving me feedback and telling me what works and what doesn't. Thousands of gamers are WAY smarter than just one dev, so we need to keep this going and make the best game that we can together!

I will be posting content updates and devlogs more often, and also I have started an Instagram page to post behind the scenes secrets and goodies.
Feel free to follow me there if you are curious what it looks like to make video games for a living!


I am really looking forward to people trying Beta 8 this Friday! It's gonna be awesome!





Happy Foraging!

Hey everyone!

Today I want to address the current situation with Forager and the constant lack of release date announcements.

As I have said in the past, the reason Forager was delayed back from it's November 2018 release date was that the console versions of the game weren't done yet, and for contractual reasons, I needed to release all of the game's versions at the same time. (PC, PS4 and Nintendo Switch).


We are now in the middle of January and I am honestly still not sure how long this process will take. I have several estimates on when could be the earliest release date, but all of them are just speculation at this point.


Forager is my first ever "real" game, and there are lot of things I am learning how to do on the job. One of them is communicating with this amazing community and trying to keep expectations managed. I made a mistake putting dates and numbers to when I thought the game would be ready, and because of that the team and I are under a lot of stress trying to get this done so everyone has a chance to play the finished game at the same time. This is all my fault.


The console versions are almost done, but I don't want to announce possible release date windows anymore in case I am wrong again. From now on, I will not announce any type of release date window until I am 100% sure we can actually release that day/month. I know for sure Forager is releasing soon, but I am not exactly sure when.



Since the console ports are still under work, I took the last couple of months as an opportunity to improve the game and add more free content. Everyone that played Beta 7 knows of the new features, which are conveniently listed here!


Additionally, I have added some new things, fixed some annoying bugs and hired a very talented programmer that has actually improved the performance of the game GREATLY. I am talking about constant 60 fps, even in the super late game!


Due to the recent reworks in code systems to improve performance, I think it's a good idea to do some massive testing before we officially release. This is why there will be a Beta 8 in the near future. My goal is to get this done by the end of January or the first week of February.


Beta 8 will contain some new features and reworks that I haven't announced yet plus all the things added and fixed that are currently visible on the official development Trello board.


We have now entered the final stretch and this is a very stressful time for us, so I would like to thank you all for your patience and continued support and once again apologize for all the dumb mistakes I have made while trying to finish this amazing passion project of mine.

I would also like to note that thanks to the supporters on Patreon, Forager will get FREE DLC updates for EVERYONE on ALL PLATFORMS! There will be plenty of new content added to the game even after it releases!


Forager WILL be great and I promise I won't let you down!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

We've decided to run an Advent Calendar this holiday season as a way to give out to the community! It will be going for 15 days starting from the 11th through to the 25th!

Each day will be a selected game which has been generously donated by me or one of our community members!

Alongside the games of the day, there will also be a key for the Forager beta for each winner! So that's a FREE game and also access to the beta! Yay!

In the very last week, we will also be giving away Steam keys for the full Forager game!

To participate, you will need to be level 10 or higher on our Discord server. This can be achieved simply by chatting and you also get other rewards as you level up! You have the entire month to take part in this!

This event will be hosted each day in our Discord server, click here to participate!

Hey everyone!

Today I will be talking through some of the features I got to implement for Beta 7 as a result of the recent delay in Forager's release date.

Beta 7 will be released next week, on Thursday 13th of December. If you do not have a closed beta key, please read this!

Here are a few of the things I have added:



This is a new item crafted at the Flower Press that lets you put blocks of land anywhere you want! This is functionally the same as building a Bridge, but it allows for some prettier base building and customization. Additionally, you may even plant and harvest crops in these land tiles!





You may now assign Droids to most buildings by pressing right click when selection them:



This will solve the problem of having too many droids as they will just stay there "powering" the building (which grants it an increased bonus in efficiency!)

Once you need the Droid again for mining or enemy slaying, just come back to pick him up and continue your adventure!



Another new item! This one is a Gear piece found in the Skull Maze. It works like any other Rod in the sense that it has a charge but a very powerful effect. In this case, it summons skeletons!



Why would you want to summon skeletons? The big ones now drop a new item called the Great Skull:



It will be used for a very important crafting recipe. With the Necro Rod + Holy Relic + Magic Scepter, you can get some pretty crazy Great Skull farming!



These are new consumable items that replace Heart Containers and Energy Vessels found in treasure chests. Once you get a Spirit Orb, you can intermediately consume it from your inventory to gain a permanent bonus:

• +1 permanent Max HP
  
• +36 permanent Max Energy
  
• +1 permanent Damage
  
• +1 instant and permanent Level Up

Spirit Orbs can be found in big treasure chests, small skull chests and they can also be crafted in a new structure on the Magic skill branch:



Crafting Spirit Orbs requires a LOT of Great Skulls, so go find that Necro Rod if you want to speed things up!

And finally...



Yup, we finally did it! Upgrades for the Shovel item!



Each one of those provides new fun effects besides increasing the dig area:

• Water Shovel: 2x2 dig area, digging irrigates the dirt
  
• Nomad's Shovel: 3x3 dig area, digging always yields sand
  
• Royal Shovel: 4x4 dig area, digging always yields ores
  
• Robotic Shovel: 5x5 dig area, digging always yields rare items

Besides all of these additions, I am still working every day to try to include more things for Beta 7 and the final release in general. You may always check what I am working on in the official Forager Trello!