Hello there seedlings!

Another small batch of noted issues have been fixed so here is a small update to hotfix them!

A big thanks to all of your support whether by sending in bugs, leaving a review letting us know what you think, hanging out in the community, or even by simply playing the game.

🔶Made the map key toggle the map open and close
❌Fix for issue with keybindings causing all right click actions to lock up
❌Fix for map open not always working with mouse clicking the icon


🔷Additionᅠᅠ🔶Improvementᅠᅠ❌Fixᅠᅠ➕Internal

Hello there seedlings!

Another small batch of noted issues have been fixed so here is a small update to hotfix them!

A big thanks to all of your support whether by sending in bugs, leaving a review letting us know what you think, hanging out in the community, or even by simply playing the game.

❌Fix for occasional npcs getting stuck in queues
❌Fix for npc portraits in ledger being stretched
❌Fix for riding animals getting stuck in one pose
❌Fix for Tir Na Nog local map not displaying
❌Blacksmith seasonal tiles setup
❌Shop sign for apothecary is clearer about how to buy the shop
❌Ledger transactions for placebo going wrong correctly showing
❌Fix for early crashes to report more info

🔷Additionᅠᅠ🔶Improvementᅠᅠ❌Fixᅠᅠ➕Internal

Hello there seedlings!

With the Apothecary release yesterday a few problems have been noted so here is a small update to hotfix them along with a few improvements!

A big thanks to all of your support whether by sending in bugs, leaving a review letting us know what you think, hanging out in the community, or even by simply playing the game.

🔶 Some minor UI polish for the Apothecary
🔶 Shop interact takes priority over ledger
❌Fix for Cowpat Farm occasional crash from out of level npc returning
❌Speculative fix to stop the ledger crashing

🔷Additionᅠᅠ🔶Improvementᅠᅠ❌Fixᅠᅠ➕Internal

Greetings Seedlings!

The Apothecary Update is finally out and budding healers are getting their eager hands on their pestles, and giving things a good mash.

The update was a little bit slow to appear due to a large re-design of how parts of the apothecary worked...poor Nick was up to his eyeballs trying to make sense of our documents and discussions!
The team pulled through with a fantastic base we can build on, and with your valued feedback we can shape this very unique business into er...shape.

What is also very cool to come from this is that the UI developments, and the minigame mechanics made for the various apothecary stations, can now be utilised elsewhere, especially in regards to the cooking minigames.

Eventually you will be able to chop up your carrots, stir your stews and juice your berries like a regular Gordon Ramsbottom.

"Hey! PixelCount team! What's in the next update?" you shout, while keeping one eye on your boiling cauldron. Well we have a whole new section of intro to add, which will give a more exciting and mysterious start. The Prologue is having a fine tune, with brand new dialogue, character edits, story tweaks and tasks moved about etc.

We also want to set Nick and Mr Weekes free on the lighting and weather systems to bring our visuals and atmosphere bang up to date, to increase your immersion and make the world feel even better. Going beyond that, NPC stories to add depth, a spanky new top secret combat system, having kids and nurturing their little minds are all in our development sights.

As always we thank you for your amazing support and patience, and now in this latest update, patients.
Below is a little look at some of the treasures you can find within the game right now...

PATIENT DIAGNOSIS

Open your Apothecary and the NPCs of the world will come in with a variety of ailments.
Listen to their problems and try to work out how best to counter those bad Traits that are afflicting them.

THE MEDICAL TOME

Use your own knowledge or if wanting to speed things up, you can refer to a fine book that will tell you some of the recipes needed to cure various maladies.
Powders, Creams and Potions are available to view with any unlocked knowledge.

CRAFTING POWDERS

You can mix a nice Powder by chopping and grinding your ingredients and then mashing them with the pestle. Try and find all the crunchy bits to ensure a fine powder that will soothe your patient's problems in no time.

CRAFTING CREAMS

If it is something superficial, then perhaps a Cream will suffice?
Turn on the Bunsen burners and keep stirring to check consistency.
On the left, the extract seeps from your ingredients and emerges as concentrated drops of healing goodness.
On the right, wax to thicken. Don't make it too runny or too thick!

CREATING POTIONS

A more magical malady plaguing your patrons?
Then you need a fine potion.
Stick your ingredients in the crusher to extract that lovely juice.
Pour into the pot and watch the reaction.
Ice forming? Turn up the heat. Bubbles? Turn down the heat.
Check the colour chart and find the correct reagent dispenser of the opposite colour to the smoke to neutralise the reaction.
Grind, pull and squirt your way to success!

MR FAIRWEATHER'S NEW STOCK

As well as the Apothecary, there are some nice new items from our Fae friend to consider.
Below are three such items, Mirror Mirror, Waterman's Reminder, and the Vase of Forgiveness.
You can also buy Forget-Me-Yet seeds, Judith's Charming Charmer Charm and the brilliantly useful Turdis.
Just don't use the latter one if someone else hasn't flushed.



That's it for this update. For full details of the changelog check here and if you want reach us try our Discord!

We hope you enjoyed your peek inside the world of Kynseed and its ongoing quest to become a game we can be proud of and that players will cherish.

To all who have already jumped aboard, we thank you deeply and await your bugs, feedback and bribes with an excited trepidation. If that's such a thing. Feel free to join us here

Til next time, friends.

LOVE,

Hello there seedlings!

Within the update you can now buy any Apothecary and diagnose the local populaces problems.
As always, these things are an ongoing development, so expect bugs, balancing issues and an overwhelming urge to sprinkle herbs on things.

We appreciated any feedback at our usual channels on Discord, our forums or in the Steam Discussions.

🔷 Apothecary is now open for business
ᅠᅠ🔷 Serve patients to cure 22 ailments (these unlock as your reputation gets higher)
ᅠᅠ🔷 3 minigames to help craft powders, creams and potions
ᅠᅠ🔷 Discover branded and off-brand cures that can be made and stored for future customers
ᅠᅠ🔷Order stock of common ingredients
ᅠᅠ🔷Send your spouse to gather rare ingredients from ‘Other’ as a temporary measure
ᅠᅠ🔷Fob customers off with a placebo that has a 50% chance of helping them feel better
ᅠᅠ🔷Hire a worker to take over running the shop (but remember they need premade items or ingredients to craft with for the best results)
ᅠᅠ🔷Help is available on most screens with F1 or pressing the left stick in on gamepad which will give both text instructions and an overlay showing controls
ᅠᅠ🔷Rework of the Clockwork Clock visuals and functions
🔷 Major reworking of the texture system in progress. Game currently uses more graphics memory but that should be reduced soon.
🔷 6 new Fairweather items are available, up to 3 appear per year
ᅠᅠ🔷A lovely vase to keep your spouse sweet
ᅠᅠ🔷A pendant that lets you buy gossip from those who don’t like you
ᅠᅠ🔷A magical mirror that increases your charm
ᅠᅠ🔷A Reminder system that attaches to your clock
ᅠᅠ🔷Forget-Me-Yet seeds that grow a flower that makes any opinion neutral
ᅠᅠ🔷Introducing TURDIS – Get around the world from outhouse to outhouse via a quick flush
🔶Several books rewritten
🔶Additional items available from shops/traders and gathering for the apothecary
🔶Gossip and proverbs from apothecary owning npcs has a bias towards relevant items
🔶Changed logging to show attempted resolution and current resolution
❌Fix for keybinding crash
❌Fix for unresponsive characters in tavern levels when there were no spaces to fill
❌Further navigation and AI upgrades to fix current issues
❌Fix for rare crash in racing event levels when the event closes
❌Fix for Willowdown Farm map screen not drawing correctly at the start

🔷Additionᅠᅠ🔶Improvementᅠᅠ❌Fixᅠᅠ➕Internal

Steam Sale

Seasoned Greetings Seedlings! Christmas is nigh and as always the Steam Winter Sale has begun.
PixelCount Studios is glad to be part of the sale again, and Kynseed is available with a humble 10 percent discount.

So, get thee hence to the market (Steam) and grab yourself a copy before Herbert Lemon gets there and scares you away by offering you one of his seasoned walnuts.

Price Rise

To give fair notice, once the next two updates are in place in 2021 we will be raising the price of the game a little to help with maintaining the castle. Those cobwebs won’t clean themselves and the castle Broonies eat a ridiculous amount of food from our larders. No wonder Old Mother Hubbard’s dog is always hungry!

Upcoming content

What are the next two updates you might ask? Well the first is the exciting Apothecary Update, and after that a new intro and more story being written by none other than super talented Fable trilogy/Assassins Creed and Sackboy writer, Mark Llabres Hill (Mark is locked in a small room with a large supply of candles and writing supplies... we should maybe consider actually giving him some food too). Along with the new intro we'll also be doing a lot of spring cleaning on the game to make it even more entertaining.


Have a great Christmas all and stay safe. Things are not easy but by pulling together and escaping into our favourite hobby, we hope you can all get through these tough times.

See you in the New Year!

Love,
PixelCount

Hello there seedlings!

While work continues on the next larger update including the Apothecary, here is another small update of fixes and improvements!

A big thanks to all of your support whether by sending in bugs, leaving a review letting us know what you think, hanging out in the community, or even by simply playing the game.

🔷 Npcs will occasionally now have mini conversations with each other
🔶 Npc navigation has had some further upgrades for avoiding one another and correctly positioning
🔶 Various level fixes for layering and navigation
🔶 Mouse scroll works for changing time on the sleeping UI
🔶 The sack on the farm groups items from gathering and orders them to see all star rating versions next to each other if there are any
🔶 Adjustment to npc talk range to be a bit closer to the player
➕ New npc behaviours setup with state machine to gradually replace and simplify the existing system
❌ Fix for sequence triggering early on day 13 meaning the sibling wasn't at North Gate
❌ Preventative fix for crash related to npc dates
❌ Fix for crash around closing time for certain events on festival levels
❌ Fix for possible cause of partner delay after gathering
❌ Fix for Fine Fayre and Fest Field navigation around stalls
❌ Fix for Marshtyt getting out of position rarely
❌ Fix for pets stuck on sale when they shouldn't be
❌ Fix for create custom task task only working on the player farm level
❌ Lower left icon set is correct for all seasons
❌ Teleports in Candlewych West/Loverwood/Naida's Glory now work as intended
❌ Fixed an issue where having a certain item would unlock all portals!

🔷Additionᅠᅠ🔶Improvementᅠᅠ❌Fixᅠᅠ➕Internal
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Hello there seedlings!

While work continues on the next larger update, here is another small update of fixes based on player reported issues!

A big thanks to all of your support whether by sending in bugs, leaving a review letting us know what you think, hanging out in the community, or even by simply playing the game.

🔷 Original dog now ages ingame
🔶 Some menus and the shortcuts for gamepad have changed
🔶 Map is on the back button now
🔶 Status is now on dpad left and contains the overview of npcs
🔶 Skills is now on dpad right on its own separate to npc overview
🔶 Lute is back as a minigame prize but has lost its power to make people sleep
❌ Moved eat marker for Boots/Winters house so they should appear in different spots
❌ NPCs will no longer buy items for crazy prices at the Good Store if you are out of the level and have a worker
❌ Reduced instances of landfish and made fish move a bit more often
❌ Fix for animals resetting opinion after loading a savegame from now on
❌ Adjust throwing position for adult while riding
❌ Fix for goddess offering stacking items disappearing
❌ Fix for left mouse down facing direction not working correctly while in a fixed camera position such as the Good Store
❌ 2 preventative fix for potential navigation crashes while changing levels
❌ Fix for extra exit appearing on Burial Grounds map
❌ Reduced player snapping out of position from riding and dismounting. Some cases of issues may still persist
❌ Reduced player wall glitch on leaving bed potential
❌ Preventative fix for crash on trying to go through a level exit to a level id that does not exist

🔷Additionᅠᅠ🔶Improvementᅠᅠ❌Fixᅠᅠ➕Internal
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Hello there seedlings!

This is just a quick patch to followup from the recent Relationship Update based on player reported issues!

A big thanks to all of your support whether by sending in bugs, leaving a review letting us know what you think, hanging out in the community, or even by simply playing the game.

🔶 Switched dog in Vale to be a puppy
🔶 Aging version of villagers used in preference to old version. Initially sleep anims will be missing due to this.
🔶 Options on options screen a bit more spread out so you can't select two at once
🔶 Adjusted some nav in Candlewych Village to get the npcs moving around more
🔶 Some debug to help figure out screen freeze problems
❌ Various nav fixes to improve overall navigation positioning, erratic movement paths, one frame character flickering and an occasional crash caused by threading
❌ Fix for softlock on level changing while alt-tabbing
❌ Fix for dates in Mellowfield not working for the go to show step
❌ Fixed missing Pott greeting text
❌ Fix for normal apples sometimes acting like gassy now that the two are separate, apples on trees show as normal apples
❌ Fix for extra exits showing in Mellowbrook
❌ Fix for Rosie Crust animations being the wrong way round
❌ Fix for Roger side idle sprite size difference
❌ Crash fix for pinning invalid task in the calendar
❌ Crash fix for wheel with certain stats
❌ Can remove tasks of noticeboard/gift item/delivery type in the prologue
❌ Can no longer gain milk at random locations on the levels

🔷Additionᅠᅠ🔶Improvementᅠᅠ❌Fixᅠᅠ➕Internal
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Hello again purveyors of fine gaming. While everyone else is celebrating scary things, it seems we're over here celebrating...*checks notes*...love! (Unless you find commitment scary, I suppose.) Witch which is to say, the long awaited Relationship Update has been released!

Here at Castle PixelCount we have been stewing this very large update over a very long time. At long last, we are pleased to finally pour the contents of the cauldron into the phial, ready for you all to have a sip of. Along the way we also recently hired not one but two passing Tinkers (colloquially known as programmers) and their expertise has added some extra special froth to the brew.

The amount of people now milling about our castle is growing. The excitement in the dusty corridors and damp, gloomy vaults is palpable. You could palp it if you wanted. So as the sun rises over this latest update, we are all filled with a new energy, inspired partly by our new helping hands but also by our amazing, growing community. Without your little faces peering at us across the moat from your little cottages, we wouldn’t even open the shutters. We look forward to you joining us on the next stage of the adventure and to enjoy the fare we cooked up in the Cauldron of Development.

Though for today, we shall give you a highlight of some of the changes you can expect to find in this latest update concoction of ours. The Relationship Update has been a long time coming and is actually many incremental updates combined into one. (You can check out all those incremental updates here if you like.) So feel free to peruse the highlight's delights below.

CHANGELOG HIGHLIGHTS

Building NPC Relationships

You can now befriend NPC's through your actions (or, you know, make a few enemies too). Much like in real life, it'll take more than just gift giving to build lasting relationships with those around you.

• Players can reach adulthood where you can date and marry suitable partners if your friendship level is high enough
  
• All the mortal NPC's in the game fully age, so you can find the perfect someone among the 60 or so villagers currently in the game
• Many newly added NPC reactions to the player's actions
• A collection of noticeboard tasks to help raise your friendship level and earn you some rewards
  
• NPC's will react to things like the weather and sometimes gossip

Marrying NPC's

The land of Quill is one of tradition and the process of marriage is no different.

• After building up to love in friendship, there's a seven-step tradition for marriage culminating in your wedding day
  
• After marrying, your partner will live on your farm and carry out tasks as organised in the Family Ledger (which can include helping out with feeding the animals, cooking, farming, and gathering fruit on the farm)
  
• You can send out your partner on gathering trips to find resources and return home with them
  
• Your spouse will comment on the state of your marriage, farm, and wealth (or lack of it)

Item Improvements

Another area that's seen a fair bit of improvements are the plethora of items in the game.

• Many of the items now have multiple star rating versions to obtain based on conditions that can be discovered or uncovered from NPC's
  
• Higher rated items help with better boons from offerings, fulfilling tasks, earning more money, and a better friendship increase from NPC's
  
• Proverbs also help to locate the many growables and fish out there in the world
  
• A multitude of delicious new recipes added to the game
  
• Many properties for items are now in place

Continuing Improvements to Presentation

Visual polish and presentation work is a constant process for a game in development. Here's a handful of areas we've recently turned our attention to.

• Minimap now shows locations, dating spots, and homes
  
• A plethora of UI improvements, especially within the inventory and chat boxes
  
• Upgraded to MonoGame 3.7 (the framework our engine is built on) which brings with it a more elegant handling of different screen aspect ratios

Full Changelogs

As always, there's vastly more additions and fixes made than we can list here. So jump on over to this recent changelog of ours to check out the details or just drop by our changelog repository thread to see the myriad of smaller incremental updates over recent months that have gone into this Relationship Update.

OTHER BITS AND BOBS

Family Brounie
Pott the Brounie will offer guidance and insults in equal measure, while helping keep your farm tidy.

Skin Customisation
The player can now choose from skin tones to add to their hair colour choices. (This is just a first pass at this, but more customisation options are still likely to come.)

Goddess Offering Rework
A cool, strategic new system for gaining boons, blessings, jinxes, and curses!

Gift Mails
NPC's will send you gifts if they are particularly fond of you.

Family Secret Boxes
Discover the codes to unlock a variety of heirlooms, from secret recipes to valuable information.

Fertiliser
Scoop the poop to enhance and speed up your crop growing.

Equipment Experience
Your tools can be levelled up with use, bestowing extra bonuses.

Milling
Not enough grinding in the game? Use these stones in a windmill to grind to your heart's content.

Marshtyt the Master Gardener
Meet this cheeky chappie who can teach you how to sow your seeds effectively.

UNTIL NEXT TIME

Next on our game development journey we'll be moving on to more exciting and long-awaited features such as combat, Apothecary ownership, having children, and a plethora of other wonderful delights.

As always, a most heartfelt thanks to all of you for your support and the myriad of ways you give it - whether by sending in bugs, leaving a review letting us know what you think, hanging out in the community, or just by simply playing our game. This community genuinely means the world to us and all this would be quite literally impossible without each of you. Take care friends and we'll meet again further down the road.

Love,
PixelCount