dev diary: astra's garden steam version and a belated syrup 2 update (Patreon)

it's thursday. i've been meaning to consistently write these things on mondays but i either totally forget or try to wait a couple days to have something more substantial to show off, but like... this is a "diary", it's informal... i want to talk about some of the things i've been getting done lately, because it's a lot of random junk.

i don't know that any of this is particularly exciting. maybe you'll be excited! i'm not gonna presume to know!!!! anyway i'll just get into it...

new mechanics for astra's garden

i've been working on a way to make the idle game slightly less idle. i'm a little stuck, so maybe by posting about it i can talk myself through the problems, or get some useful feedback from u guys... (if you're so inclined...)

HERE'S THE IDEA:

you can spend a resource (magic energy? idk) to put a charm on the pot for various effects. currently it's coded to remove the charm when the plant is harvested, but i'm considering making them permanent, which would make it more expensive to set them... i think because they are a physical thing it's weird that it disappears after being placed, so i'm leaning toward them being a permanent upgrade for each pot (you can stack them).

the charms/effects are:

haste: cuts the timer in half

skip-a-phase: needs a real name, but it goes from seed to final plant without stopping in the middle to be watered again

double: grows two flowers at once

nurture: gives you more of the new resource to buy charms when harvested (maybe this one made more sense when i was calling them fertilizers)

i haven't actually MADE the charms menu buttons yet, but it is a tab you can choose when selecting the pot. the left pot has the double charm on it, and the middle one has haste. i think those two are the only ones that function ingame rn, i was having trouble with the skip-a-phase one (even though i thought it would be easy?!?!?), and the nurture one is buggy and i'll need to balance the numbers it gives you for things anyway... and i gotta draw an icon for the resource... (probably magic!!! i don't know!!!!! like it takes energy to charge them but if it's permanent then shouldn't i just use the money?!?!??? but i want to reward growing the plants, not farming customers, waugh!!!!!)

um, one of the things i want to do is add a tooltip when you hover that tells you what the bonus is doing... very standard pc game type function that i will have to change a bit for mobile, but we're not thinking about mobile right now...! this is steam!!! steam users tend to be more harsh about game mechanics in their reviews so i guess i've been self-conscious trying to make something that people will generally think is good and fun... the original release was "good enough" imo but i did want to try a little harder since it's a paid game... and i gave myself on a tight deadline so i'm all stressed out now... wait ok i don't want to sound like i'm miserable, i do think the pressure is good for me sometimes AHHH i'm rambling too much SORRY

my goal right now is to finish coding the new features before monday so i can send a build to my trailer person (harriet ford!) so that i can upload the trailer in time for release (may 28th?!?!?!??). i have been feeling a little guilty every day that i have not finished this build, but this kind of work takes a lot of brainpower, so i'm trying to be patient with myself. i think writing everything out did help though, and i'd be curious to hear your guyses thoughts... i wanted to present a more finalized thing, but gamedev be like this sometimes... lesson learned for next time, haha.

here is the steam page if you havent wishlisted yet, i'll be giving you all keys as usual though so... do whatever you want...! hmph!!!

i also updated syrup 2 yesterday

this has been a long time coming, but i released another syrup 2 update!!!!!!

i thought i'd be able to add new cutscenes for it, but i've been focused on other things.... the korean translation has been done for like a month, so i wanted to make sure to make that available to everyone! i just needed to fix various bugs before releasing it. the problem is, the barrier to working on big projects like this is so high, it's hard to just quickly jump in and effectively change things. there are so many files to navigate. oh my god. but i managed to address a bunch of random things, probably most notably adding a level cap so that you can't grind too much too early and beat all the story bosses in one hit lol.

one of the issues people were encountering is like, when trying to get osmanthus' bad end, he is just... TOO PASSIVE... he will only shoot you when you break out of his cage, but otherwise there was no punishment for you just staying in there. and toffee's attack stat is based on syrup's, so if you're a high level, toffee will just kill him for you. i wanted his bad ending to be a little hard to get, but not THIS hard...

so i changed it to give him a cool instakill move when you hang out in the cage for too long. i also drew two new sprites so he looks meaner while taunting you.

[SPOILERS] his guillotine will return in the future... i'm so fucking excited for it... wahhh i want to work on [obvious other game with osmanthus in it]

so yeah, not a ton of progress on syrup 2 sadly, but i would really like to start updating it more often... there are a few new translations still in progress as well, so the next update will likely be sneaking more polish/fixes into the pending updates... i should write new cutscenes too... a little intimidated to start the final arc, but it'll be cool, so maybe after the next WWT build or something...

other random updates and stray thoughts

still working on escape from wormwood translations! russian version is currently being playtested! expecting to update that soon, there are others in progress as well, so i will continue to be working on it on-and-off haha.

been updating my site a bit too, i think i will try to put up another character page soon (cassia, senna, and astra are my priority rn!). i love my website. my website is my treasure. some of the pages i sink my time into are a little silly, but it really does bring me so much joy.

annndddd... i'm adjusting my steam release plans to something more reasonable after june. i'm not changing the one i have planned for june (pride month) because it's starry flowers (gay). sorry for the unceremonious reveal. surely you saw it coming! i don't know what i'll add to it, i might make it free so that i don't feel the need to add anything and then more people will play it which would be great... (it's already popular but you know!!!)

ok ok LAST THING: july will be the 10th anniversary of KAIMA's release. i really like that game, so i want to put real effort into the rerelease. clearly though i have too many things going on, so it's not like i can release something cool in july unless i made it my exclusive focus right now, which i don't feel like doing (i'm still too timber-brained). so i think i will just announce something instead. what will it be?!?!? i haven't 100% decided yet, i just know for sure that i want to give it lots of love and attention!!!!

sorry for the frantic energy of this post. but i got all my thoughts out, which was very necessary because they are really banging all around in my brain as you can probably tell!!!!! thank you for reading~