Hello Seedlings!

Welcome to a little update about where we are at, and what is happening in the Castle.

We are hurtling towards Feature Complete, as we aim steadfastly at that most precious and important of stages…the polish phase!

We plan to update you much more often with smaller but still very tasty information pies, baked in the best stoves Quill has to offer.

We shall be making more Twitter posts, and doing some fun things on our updated Discord, thanks to our sparkly new Community Manager.



Expect reveals and showings of some really fun features, such as this lovely little video we recently put out on Twitter. You can spot the Family Ledger, where you can give your loved ones a schedule and send them gathering; plus the arrival of a bouncy little baby via our old friend, the Stork.



Until next time!

Love,
PixelCount




You can follow us on Twitter and Discord for more updates using these links:

Welcome to another parchment of Quillian news, delivered by the news Chaffinches, as the Ravens and Pigeons are on holiday. We have been ferociously working on the game to hammer it into its final shape.

One feature we have always been keen on getting in is the idea of ‘NPC Stories’. What are they, you ask in whispered tones?

Each named NPC will say some flavour dialogue at each level gained on friendship, culminating in a bespoke task that you must complete before they 'love' you.

The new dialogue adds a bit of much needed depth and personality to the existing NPCs. Combined with an updated chat system and favours that are tied to their traits, the whole system really helps fill out the characters more.


You can find redemption in some NPC stories

Speaking of story, we are putting in more of the main story that you all so eagerly want, along with the player's main objective. Just what is your motivation to do the things you need to do? What’s that mysterious noise from the deep woods? What is behind that strange door? Who let the pugs out?


You'll need to get a handle on that door

One other area of the game which we have been putting a lot of code and art effort into is the User Interface, or UI to those who know their gaming acronyms.

The new UI system is now being implemented for remaining areas, such as the family ledger, shop ledgers and chat systems.

Using your lovely new ledgers, you will be able to assign shifts, send your family gathering or give them specific orders that will raise their stats via learning...from gardening to studying books.


Things are looking a bit shifty in the ledger

We have also been working on combat for Midwood, and Gary has done an absolutely magnificent job with the monsters and their varying anims.

Midwood’s creatures have a very different style to those of Simplewood, and are a bit faster and more aggressive. Get your dodging shoes on!


Our combat isn't a drag to play

There are lots of other treats being prepared, including the creation of new hubs, a new haven, generations, shop specialisations and more. So keep an eye out (not literally) for more developer updates in the coming weeks.


A big thanks from the team for your continued patience and support.

Happy chocolate egg eating time!

A comprehensive overhaul of the existing music and sound effects has been done with this update. New audio tracks and sound effects have been added to replace all of those by a previous composer.

With such a change, we will undoubtedly have further modifications based on spending many more hours immersed in the game ourselves and player feedback. So let us know your thoughts on any of the new sounds in the comments section as usual.

If you are getting any issues please send them in for us to look at (via discord or mailing bugs@kynseed.com).

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.

Cʜᴀɴɢᴇʟᴏɢ
🔷 All music and sfx by a previous composer replaced
🔶 Ambient sfx are now dynamic based on nearby game objects
🔶 Ambient sfx are now positioned in stereo on screen
🔶 Footstep sounds expanded on
🔶 Music now packaged and streams in earlier, this should fix stuttering on loading levels and going into and out of shops
🔶 Music now has a pause between repeating
🔶 Music is more controlled not to start during more of the night time hours
🔶 Sickle/Mining gamefeel adjusted
❌ Fix for Poppyhill house wall being out of place
❌ Fix for some npcs where footsteps weren't playing when they moved left and right
❌ Fix for mouse showing in gamepad mode if you exit from the calendar into the journal
❌ Fix for some music persisting if you exit to the title
❌ Fix for crash on calendar

🔷Additionᅠᅠ🔶Improvementᅠᅠ❌Fix

P.S. For those lucky enough to have a Steam Deck, we've been working on compatibility and currently have a opt in beta branch named steamdeck that should work.

Spring is upon us and the dandelions are out in bloom in Quill.
Picking one, we can see it is time for a little update on what is going on inside the game.
Our industrious team of ten gnomes are tinkering away so here are a couple of things being forged inside their little houses.


One of the final elements of the game to get up to launch quality is the User Interface. As such, UI has been a big focus lately, with all of us playing some part in making the menus more consistent, intuitive, and responsive. They also look and feel lovely, like the ferns of Pinehaven.

In addition, we've been making significant progress on many of the remaining screens. This includes the interaction system, which has had an overhaul, with chatting streamlined like one of our finest racing pigs.



Work is also underway on the shop ledgers. When you are sat up late at night, the candle flickering, you need a reliable and informative book to do your accounts and stock. It also helps that it looks great too.


New look for blacksmith orders in the ledger


What is that over there, glinting on the horizon? Why it’s the exciting new title screen based on our brand new Key Art! We can't wait to show you - it is pretty amazing, even if we say so ourselves. Which we just did.


The second central area of the game we are getting launch-ready is the story and task system, including the main narrative thread and the unique adventures you will embark upon based on the numerous NPCs.

So, to start filling out the game with all the delicious content we need, we created an 'Event and AI behaviour Editor' or ‘EAABE’ for short. We may need to change that acronym.
This drag and drop game design tool allows us to easily create new events and the sim behaviours to support them. We've been replacing events that had previously been 'hard-coded' to now run using the new system, and the benefits to time and bug fixing have been more marvellous than Herbert’s beard.


This screen shows a few different parts of the tree for a cooking competition event


Each node is a small bit of code with settable properties making it easy to add new ones


We'll be posting more development updates in the near future, so keep an eye on the news raven to see what fresh produce Quill has to offer!

Hello there seedlings!

Hotfix Update 0.5.5.6121 is now live! Today's update rounds up quite a few fixes from reported issues that should make the experience better.

If you are getting any issues please send them in for us to look at (via discord or mailing bugs@kynseed.com).

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.

Cʜᴀɴɢᴇʟᴏɢ
🔶 Meeting a character allows you to see their traits as well as stats
🔶 Pig poop is now effective as fertiliser to speed all grown seeds by one day
🔶 Sheep poop is now effective as fertiliser to raise the rating of certain growables
🔶 Traits visible for recipe results once the player has made the recipe once
🔶 Adjusted player speedup to happen from becoming adult in the game
🔶 Switch a character introduction to cutscene to hopefully fix issues with it getting stuck
❌ Fixed lost item tasks using legacy items by switching them to new ones (this will reset progress of these tasks in existing saves)
❌ Fix for shop book not displaying when you buy a shop
❌ Fix for shoppers continuing to spawn in while certain UI menus are onscreen
❌ Fix for gift mails giving duplicate recipes/proverbs of existing unread gift mails
❌ Fix for some mails going to archive automatically
❌ Fixed accidental gifting when clicking up/down arrows in the inventory box
❌ Fix visual appearance of hotbar for buckets/jars not changing when swapping in a different one
❌ Fixed Retirement Home curse not affecting spouse when loading save
❌ Fix for sword not levelling up in combat
❌ Fix for fishing rod not enabling skills menu
❌ Correct spouse age in save portrait
❌ Fixed issue with Fae shops not getting restocked during a play session
❌ Fixed issue with npcs not resetting their info limit each season
❌ Fixed item names not showing on skills screen
❌ Fixed night ambient carrying over when quitting to title screen
❌ Collection tasks don't count items dropped from the inventory that are picked up again
❌ NPCs in alphabetical order on the relationship screen
❌ Inventory proverbs listed alphabetically
❌ Multipart task steps in order with previously completed steps at the top
❌ Clicking on the hotbar area while it was invisible no longer makes sound
❌ Fixes for the player movement on various level exits/entrances
❌ Each market stall is guaranteed to sell unique seeds based on those available for that haven

🔷Additionᅠᅠ🔶Improvementᅠᅠ❌Fix

Hello there seedlings!

Just a small hotfix today while work continues apace on improvements and adding more content.

If you are getting any issues please send them in for us to look at (via discord or mailing bugs@kynseed.com).

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.

Cʜᴀɴɢᴇʟᴏɢ
❌ Fix for not receiving items from gifts in the mail

🔷Additionᅠᅠ🔶Improvementᅠᅠ❌Fix

Hello there seedlings!

Just squeezing into 2021 here's a small hotfix update.

If you are getting any issues please send them in for us to look at (via discord or mailing bugs@kynseed.com).

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.

Cʜᴀɴɢᴇʟᴏɢ
❌ Fix for issue starting new game after going to load a save
❌ Fix for chat boxes having the dpad options accessible leading to not get the fishing rod
❌ Fix to make fishing rod available after the first season in the game if it wasn't acquired (including existing saves)
❌ Fix to prevent crash when selling certain items to the Fae from the blacksmith with a certain perk
❌ Fix for crash loading into Briar with a follower

🔷Additionᅠᅠ🔶Improvementᅠᅠ❌Fix

Hello there seedlings!

Just in time for the winter holidays here's another update bringing further UI improvements and fixes along with new water visuals!

If you are getting any issues please send them in for us to look at (via discord or mailing bugs@kynseed.com).

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.

Cʜᴀɴɢᴇʟᴏɢ
🔷 Further UI switched to the new system
🔷 Skill screen
🔷 Mailbox
🔷 Intro choice
🔷 Gamepad Radial
🔷 Monument stone
🔷 Pet whistle
🔷 Noticeboard
🔷 Overhead text and more onscreen messages
🔷 Water and lighting has been visually enhanced with shaders (for lower spec PCs there are settings in the options to adjust the quality of the effects which may improve framerate)
🔷 Bubble help (currently on F3 key), this pauses the game and gives some context sensitive help for a variety of onscreen objects and certain npcs
🔶 Can toggle to view the descriptions of goddess effects on the results screen after offering
❌ Fix where mosses would not grow out of level
❌ Throwing minigame is ended on leaving the level and the npc now returns if you do go back that same day
❌ Elderberry bushes preset in Evergreen
❌ Salad Days blessing works with using the sickle
❌ Fixed cases where melee and ranged tutorials could get reactivated as tasks and stuck because they were already completed
❌ Fixed item ratings text and conditions where it was mismatched
❌ Correct blacksmith prices when selling from the shelf from balance data

🔷Additionᅠᅠ🔶Improvementᅠᅠ❌Fix

Hello there seedlings!

Here's another small hotfix following the latest update! If you are still getting any issues please send them in for us to look at (via discord or mailing bugs@kynseed.com).

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.

Cʜᴀɴɢᴇʟᴏɢ
🔷 Setup moss growing on certain tree stumps
🔶 Switched Spade in shops to be the Tin Shovel
❌ Fix for hotbar disappearing after completing combat
❌ Prevented exiting the lemonade stand via dpad menu options that could lead to crashes
❌ Goddess Offerings no longer partially save placed offerings to avoid issues
❌ If multiple tasks expect the same item it correctly gifts towards ones where progress can be made
❌ Fixed an assert for Truffles when loading certain save games
❌ Correctly display calendar cooking event in Summer season only

🔷Additionᅠᅠ🔶Improvementᅠᅠ❌Fixᅠᅠ➕Internal!

Greetings Seedings!

What is that smell coming from the castle kitchens?
Hmmmm smells like some sort of freshly baked pie!
Our stomachs are rumbling like distant thunder.
Let's head downstairs and see what's cooking, in the Oven Ready Cooking Update.

What better way to start your culinary career than with a good old fashioned Recipe Book.
Collect recipes and flick through the jam-encrusted pages in search of marvellous meals.
There are 7, yes SEVEN different cooking minigames to try as you whip up a creamy frenzy of fantastical foodstuffs.



Thick, creamy, tasty, homely, simple.
But enough about me! Let's talk soups.
Simply grind your ingredients in the Hob, before you put it on the hob.
Confused?
Well, it will all make sense.
Just time the arrow to the groove in this simplest of soup-making sections.



Do people called Stu like stew? Does Stewart make stew art?
How much stew could a Stu stew if a stewing stew could stew stew?
Who knows?
In this minigame, you must choose the ingredients and add them to the pot in the right order.
The timers will flip one by one so try to get them all to finish at the same time!



We're jammin'!
Yes, preserve your preserves for posterity with the jam making!
Chop up your berries and pop them in the pot before the sands of time run out.
Watch the temperature and always try to keep it balanced.
Hmmm sticky, sweet and jam-packed with goodness.



Rollin' rollin' rollin',
Keep that pastry rollin',
Rollin' rollin' rollin'
Raw dough!
The world is a much better place with pastry on your face.



Puddings always bring glad tidings, as well as adding a few inches to the waistline.
Fairly simple to make, just make sure you don't burn them in the kiln.
I just realised I am drooling as I type this, but...must...resist...puddings...



Man can not live on bread alone, they say.
You could, if the bread was big enough. You could have a baguette as a table and a nice sourdough chair too. At night, you'd take off your loafers and slip into bread, and your naan would come and tuck you in.
Can you tell that I am hungry?



Sandwiches are the best thing since sliced bread, with a filling.
Invented by the Earl of Sandwich, thousands of years ago, Quillians keep the quaint tradition alive by making some truly disgusting homages to a once noble art.
Can you do any better? Could you create a toastie that won't make even your pigs barf?



Cooking is not the only thing included in this lovely update.
We have started overhauling the entire UI!
So expect a new WIP inventory, Status, Task screen and calendar.
We added new banners, task systems, hotbars and all sorts of other goodies.
Please excuse that some of the old UI is still hanging around like a bad smell, but we will get rid of that stink with some freshly baked Apple Bread.







We have spent a good couple of months or so creating a new editor tool that allows us to create events to finally flesh out the land of Quill.
We have 3 such tests of it's power in this update...a weather event, a competition and something a little bit more quirky.
This all paves the way for tons of new story, goals, things to see, things to do, things to mess with and surprises aplenty.
See if you can discover them!



We also have a few extra lovely bits and bobs in the update...please read the patch notes for more information.
Until next time friends! Happy cooking!

LOVE,