May Devlog!

Howdy, everyone! I hope you're staying strong and finding time for yourself. We've had a very busy month, so I'm happy to have this chance to reflect on it.

🗺️ Can You Do Me A Favor?

Nothing makes me feel more like a real game developer than writing QUESTS! These tasks refresh daily and are often written from the perspective of your neighbors, which I think is a nice way to use a common trope in a charming way. Here are some examples of what I think would be fun quests and quest-types:

HELP WANTED

"I've noticed there are a few too many anchovies in our waters. In order to maintain a healthy ecosystem, we should consider removing some. They're yours to keep, of course!" -Kip

• OBJECTIVE: Catch 5 Anchovies
• REWARD: 10 JOY
• WHEN: No rush

WILL BUY

"I need 10 blueberries yesterday! Willing to pay extra if you can get them quickly." -Winston

• OBJECTIVE: Deliver 5 blueberries to Winston
• REWARD: 100 GOLD
• WHEN: 6 hours remaining

TO-GO

"I don't wanna move and lose this perfect picnic spot, but I forgot to bring any food! (I had a friend post this for me, don't worry!)" -Ruby

• OBJECTIVE: Deliver 3 Veggie Rolls to Ruby
• REWARD: 200 GOLD
• WHEN: 3 hours remaining

Some quests will be randomly generated to keep things fresh, and others will be more story-focused. As you can see, the examples above are more on the random side.

Do you have some cool quest ideas or examples from other games? Let me know in the comments!

🌠 Make A Wish

I'm addicted to cool metaphors. These clever devices are everywhere in good game design, because they help us easily understand potentially complex ideas. Take Animal Crossing: New Horizon's airport for example. It isn't just cute, it serves as a perfect metaphor for traveling to another player's island. Theoretically, this could've just been another menu option on your NookPhone, but it isn't. For a reason.

For Rolling Hills, we needed a centralized place where the player could purchase upgrades. There are many ways to tackle this, but personally I'm a fan of games like Forager, where it's easy to see the upgrade options available to you and make an informed decision about what to spend your experience on.

As many of you know, Rolling Hills doesn't have traditional experience points. Instead we have JOY--an imaginary currency collected by performing good deeds. So what's a logical place to "spend" all that goodwill?

At the highest elevation in Rolling Hills rests a mysterious shrine. The weathered wood and tattered shingles protect a curious, frog-like figure. Here you'll be able to offer the JOY you've collected in exchange for helpful rewards and upgrades. These upgrades are incredibly varied, but you can imagine gaining the ability to fish, better communicate with your customers, or even learn a new recipe.

🌳 Fluffy Trees

Ever since we returned from PAX East back in February, Rolling Hills has undergone a ton of visual improvements. For instance, check out these fluffy trees gently swaying in the wind 😌

📺 Wholesome Direct

I wanted to mention that I recently got the chance to produce an E3-style showcase of wholesome games called "Wholesome Direct". I knew we had a great community that would be excited about this event, but I had no idea it would garner as much interest as it did. To speak only of how it affects Rolling Hills, I think it's very helpful to know that there is a big audience for these unique, heartfelt, compassionate kinds of games. If you want to see all 50+ games featured in the Direct, it's available here: https://youtu.be/AwCNzOPR8Ck 

❤️ Thank you

For the past few months I've ended each devlog with a thank you, and although the pattern remains the same, what that "thank you" means to me changes a little every month. This month I'm thinking about how profoundly lucky I am to be busy at a time when so many are out of work or otherwise struggling. So whether you're a patron or just stopping by to read an update on our game, thank you sincerely. James and I are so lucky.