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Summer Modding Update and Sale!

By Development

Verdant Skies is now at 1.4.0! This huge update has major new features for mod makers and mod enthusiasts. We’ve also reworked romance events for Sasha, Yuki, Rosie, Wyatt and Miles. You’ll now have new flirting options with these characters, and if you’re not hinting at a relationship, they won’t confess their love for you.

Verdant Skies is on sale 65% off on Steam! Now’s the perfect time to gift it to a friend! We’re also on sale on our itch.io store, where you can get a DRM-free version.

Have you played the new teenager update yet? Version 1.3 allows you to choose one of your children to grow up. Guide them through boarding school and interact with them once they return to the colony. A new set of Quantum Technology events tie into the growth of your child and provide high-priced end-game goodies! There’s even a new vocal music track in a special ending event!

Major New Features in 1.4.0:

  • The Mod Uploader tool is now built into the game, making it easier than ever to share your mod. 
  • Create and view waypoints for custom dialog events, schedules, and more.
  • A large amount of documentation for modding has been added to the wiki!
  • Rework character events for Sasha, Yuki, Rosie, Wyatt, and Miles. These characters have a few flirting questions, and won’t confess their love to you unless you hint pretty strongly that you’re interested. If you don’t hint to them, you’ll have the option to confess to them.

New Changes:

  • More changes to support stranger aspect ratios.
  • Intro now has an animated starfield. This might help with a few people who got stuck on black screens on the intro.
  • Redo the mod list to better show mod information.
  • Modders can use the “talkTo” element when defining event triggers to specify which person’s friendship is checked with minFriendship.
  • Better logging for potential audio engine issues.
  • Minor typo fixes and text improvements, like telling you which inventory is full when you get seeds.
  • Add a dropdown list to choose your resolution.
  • Yuki fan art dialog added.
  • Lots of new Yuki daily dialog if you’ve had a commitment ceremony with her.
  • Clean up save file format- it’s now easier to browse and debug.
  • Save files track which mods were used in their creation. It will warn you if you’ve loaded a save and might not have the correct mods.
  • Ratchet up the compression quality on a few assets.

Fixes:

  • Items mounted on bookcases, etc sometimes would end up on the floor until you re-entered your house. This is fixed.
  • Fix Miles’ shipping quest value calculation being off by one.
  • Fix typo in Rosie’s marsh boots dialog and Jade’s 4th heart event.
  • Mouseover icon could sometimes be incorrect if you’re the keyboard and mouse at the same time.
  • Wyatt now gets a big bed, just like everyone else.
  • Sometimes greyed out buttons wouldn’t highlight. This is fixed now.
  • Some waypoints were incorrect in Wyatt’s 8th heart event.
  • Prevent a weird case where you could move items during the shipping animation and lose them.
  • Fix the JumpIfOutdoors modding command.
  • Fix an issue where baby rename events might happen even if you don’t have a baby with that person (save migration issue prior to 1.3.0).
This amazing fan art is by keicyanyanart, check her out on Twitter!

Final Stretch to Release!

By Development

Final Stretch!

We’re grateful to all of you folks who have been patiently waiting for our release! We haven’t nailed down an exact date yet, but we’re in the final phase of testing and clean up, so you should expect to see us on Steam sometime later this month or in early February. Thanks for your patience and engagement throughout the development process. You are why we do what we do!

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End of 2017 Update!

By Development

Announcing Mod Support!

Customize artwork, dialogs, mails, items, crafting recipes and more using the Verdant Skies modding system! Since development started, we knew we wanted to support modding. We’re allowing users to use the same methods we used to create the content for the game to create their own content.

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December Developer Update

By Development

Making New Friends

As you build your colony on Viridis Primus, you’ll also be building relationships with your fellow colonists. Today we’ll explore some of the technical and creative tricks we use to craft the immersive narrative in Verdant Skies. We’ll also give you an update on our Steam integration progress and reveal another NPC.

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November Development Update

By Development

Steam Page is Live!

Our Steam page ( http://store.steampowered.com/app/730050/Verdant_Skies/ ) is up! If you haven’t already, please visit and follow, favorite, or wishlist your copy of Verdant Skies today!

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Eclipse Season

There may be four seasons on Earth, but there’s only two on Viridis Primus – Summer and Eclipse. No crops grow during the Eclipse season, giving you a chance to catch up with the other colonists. But don’t worry! Unlike winters on Earth, Eclipse season only lasts 5 days.


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New Icons

Here’s a few of our new cooking and tools icons, courtesy of Sarah Seember Huisken ( https://www.movieshouting.com/ ). There will be more to come as we continue to expand our crafting systems.

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Customizable Furniture

Making your house feel like a home is hard work! Now you can change the color of the wood on your furniture to suit your style. Don’t worry about the high price tag! Once you purchase a stain color you may reuse it again and again.

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A Curious Cave…

No mining will be happening in this cave. It’s far too small for you to squeeze inside! But a voice from the depths implores you… “bring snacks…” Can you decipher the mystery of the tiny cave to unlock a special item?

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Introducing Skye Miller!

Despite being paid by Planetary Pioneers, Skye takes seriously her ethical responsibility to produce an unbiased narrative of the colonization of Viridis Primus. Her desire for an honest representation sometimes puts her at odds with Jade who would prefer a more positive spin on the colony’s progress.

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Winter Is Coming

As the cold weather moves into the Midwest, it’s the perfect time of year for game development. We’re definitely not going into hibernation over the holiday season! In fact, you can look forward to two developer updates in the month of December.

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October Development Update

By Development

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Featured in PCGamer!

We are very happy to have been featured on PC Gamer’s website. Lauren Morton focused on one of the mechanics that makes Verdant Skies stand out in the farming life simulation genre – genetic splicing! If you haven’t checked out the piece, you should. It’s a great read!

http://www.pcgamer.com/verdant-skies-is-a-farming-sim-where-you-play-as-a-space-scientist/

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Exterior Excellence

One thing any homeowner can tell you is that painting your house is no easy task. Thankfully, Andy’s made it a far more enjoyable experience to customize your home’s exterior in Verdant Skies. You can now change the design and color of your door, windows, as well as the texture and color of your exterior and roof.

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Improved Beds

The exterior of the player’s home isn’t the only decorative feature that’s received an overhaul! Our flat beds have been upgraded. The layers have been tweaked to give them a much more realistic depth. Check out the before (left) and after (right) below!

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Livestock Leashes!

Since adding animals to Verdant Skies our playtesters have had an overwhelming urge to treat their livestock like a pet. You asked, and we listened! Using the same awesome physics as the gardening hose, Andy created this little rope leash so that you can take your favorite friend out for a stroll.

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Meet Miles!

As a stipulation of his contract to sponsor the colony, Miles Kelly owns the only shop on Viridis Primus. Frugal and always on the lookout for a great investment opportunity, at times he seems more concerned with profits than people. However, Miles can make anyone feel like his most important customer once they enter his shop.

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August Developer Update

By Development

Verdant Skies Coming to PAX West!

It feels surreal to say that we are showing Verdant Skies at PAX West September 1-4 in Seattle, but we are! Our booth is # 7115, and we are very excited to be right across the aisle from Larian Studios on the 6th floor of the expo hall. (We’re really big fans!)

This is a huge step for us in our development process, and it is exciting as well as stressful! Depending on how our meetings go with publishers, we may finally be able to say we have a release date!

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Best Artwork at 2D Con 2017!

Even though most of the compliments we receive are about our very unique art style, it is always a pleasant surprise to be officially recognized. Congratulations and thanks to our very talented artist Lizzy on a much deserved win! There were a ton of awesome games at 2D Con this year, so we feel extra proud of our win for Best Artwork! Congratulations to the other winners: Pinbrawl (Best Multiplayer & Gameplay) and Newt One (Best Single Player, Soundtrack, Gameplay, and Game of the Show).

Game Development as a Science

The Verdant Skies team was back at the Science Museum of Minnesota for their Social Science: The Science of Pixar event on August 16th. Andy (@kortham), Beth (@BethKorth), Lizzy (@Pixilizi_Art), and Troy (@YellowChord) gathered some valuable feedback on our latest build. Despite a strong hesitancy to cut down any trees in game, everyone really enjoyed themselves, and a bunch of folks joined our mailing list.

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New Animals!

While Lizzy would love to create every art asset in game, it just isn’t possible with the sheer number of items we need illustrated. With that in mind, we reached out to local artist Deborah Garcia to bring the animals of Viridis Primus to life. We don’t know about you, but the team is absolutely in love with the little critters!

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New Avatar Creator with Mouths and Noses

We really want our players to be able to see themselves in Verdant Skies. One of the key features that makes that possible is the avatar creation interface. Though the original interface wasn’t terrible, we think this revamp will really help folks visualize their options.

A recurring criticism of our avatars has been that they look “creepy” without anything occupying the bottom half of the face. We played around with different combinations to address this issue, and are pretty happy with the direction we’re headed. They need a little polish, but we now have mouth and nose options!

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Genetic Splicer Tutorial!

Many of our playtesters have loved diving into the genetic splicer to create seeds with amazing traits. However, some folks have trouble figuring out how the slider works, and how to best utilize the machine. So Andy made this handy video tutorial to explain how to get the most out of modifying your crops.

Combine two seeds of the same type to create a better hybrid!

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Play Verdant Skies at PAX West 2017!

We always love to meet our fans and get their feedback. If you, or someone you know is going to be at PAX, please stop by our booth and say hi!

July Developer Update

By Development

Busy as Bees!

The last few weeks we’ve been buzzing about preparing for several showings. First up is 2D Con from August 11th to 13th at the Doubletree in Minneapolis. We will also be at the Social Science event on August 16th at the Science Museum of Minnesota. We’ve also had some longer playtests that allowed us to test content beyond the tutorial.

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The Relationship Journal, Badges, & More!

Andy finished programming the journal, which is an important tool to manage your relationships with the other colonists. At first, the journal only shows your current relationship status.

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As your relationships mature, additional options unlock. The journal is used to breakup with someone you’re dating, to ask them to marry you, or to move in together. If you’ve broken up with someone, the journal can be used to start your second chance to the relationship. As we’ve been discovering, there are a huge number of possible routes you can take through a relationship. Beth has been diligently working to ensure that all the possible events for relationship changes are covered.

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We have finalized a lot of technical details around how relationships will progress. We’ve decided which characters will require exclusivity, which ones don’t, and what exactly that means when it comes time for the player to settle down. Here the player has had a baby with Rosie, so they have earned a special badge that shows up alongside the relationship hearts.

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Player’s Log

You can track your tool upgrades and special items in the new player’s log. Tools have three different levels. Better axes and hammers use less energy and work faster. The improved hoe allows farming in different areas. The fishing spear throws faster and affects a larger area, making it easier to get multiple fish with one spear.

Crops will also be tracked in the player’s log. Certain crops can initially only be obtained and grown in specific biomes. As you progress, you may find the genetic trait that allows you to grow a crop in any biome.

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The log will also keep track of your progress as you collect fish and insects. Like crops, certain insects and fish are only found in one biome. You’ll have to explore far and wide to make sure you catch them all!

Map Complete

The world has finally been completely filled in! We’ll have minor tweaks and cleanup, but it’s nice to have this big task finished. The world is roughly divided into a six different areas: the town, the plains, the marsh, the mountains, the forest, and across the east river. In our testing, most players get into the marsh first, and then build the bridge for the other side of the river, but sometimes people switch that around. Although some of the mountain is available from the start, getting to most of it requires some special equipment…

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More Late-game Content

Andy spent a few weeks adding end game content. One of the things that our testers really would have appreciated is a way to increase their storage size. Seed storage seemed to run out first, but having extra storage in each group will be very useful! Next up in this category will be to add some mysterious content to the world…

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Play Verdant Skies at 2D Con 2017!

Verdant Skies is honored to be included in this year’s Indie Island at 2D Con! Come check us out August 11-13th and be some of our first beta testers!

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Happy Spring from the Verdant Skies Team!

By Development

Spring has sprung!

Much like our world outside, there’s many things blooming in the development of Verdant Skies! From crops to insects, we’ve added some great new art. Love is in the air as we continue to expand on the relationship system. Of course, what update is complete without some bug fixes!

Working on Relationships

Lead Writer Beth ( @bethkorth ) finished the first draft of Rosie’s entire character arc. From your first meeting all the way to the commitment ceremony, it’s amazing to see it all come together! Andy ( @kortham )  worked on the programming required to flag relationships as exclusively dating or married. Different characters respond differently to you based on your relationship status, and each individual relationship moves at a unique pace. Some characters want exclusive status early in the relationship, and others don’t care at all.
If you become good friends with someone, but decide not to date them, you move down a friendship path, and you’ll get an extra friendship event in place of the dating ones. Next month, we’ll give players a way to break up with someone they are dating. A similar interface can be used to start dating someone you previously turned down.

Finalized Crop List

Crops are done! Lizzy ( @Pixilizi_Art ) has completed the artwork for all the growing stages of the 14 crops in the game. There are four crops native to each of the regions – plains, mountains, and marsh, and there are two extra crops found across the river. In testing, this is a pretty good sweet spot where you’ve got a lot of variety but you don’t have crop-overload. Since the player can genetically modify each species they have, they can end up with a lot of seeds!

New Bug Art

Lizzy has also been busy working on art for the bugs that will be inhabiting Viridis Primus. Here’s six in addition to the Angler Mite you’ll see in the insect collection image below. These little guys are probably a lot cuter than the insects that may be invading your garden or home this spring. Check out that fuzzy coat on our adorable little Umbra Bee on the bottom right!

Lots and lots and lots of fixes

I skim through the changelog to remind myself what we did over the past month, and this month there were about 4 pages worth of fixes. A lot of these are too small to mention, but it includes many fixes to furniture, controller support fixes, improving the usability of various UIs. We made a concerted effort to go through all the clothing and fix minor layout problems with them. One playtester noticed that the crafting recipe for sawdust required that they already had some sawdust, so that was fixed. Some of the oldest art in the game, such as the shipping box and scrap pile was redone to match the improved standards we have now.

Play Verdant Skies at GlitchCon17!

Verdant Skies is honored to be included in this year’s Minnecade! Come playtest at GlitchCon May 5-7th. We’re hoping to get some really long playtests out of this convention in order to test some of the new content. Most people who play for 2 hours really only start to scratch the surface of what we’ve got finished… which is really encouraging!