Art Sample: New Crops Lineup (Patreon)

Judge Heath here, and I first wanted to apologize for the slow down on more active updates, favoring instead the more quiet animations being shown off and less information on the game. The reasoning for this was simple, we wanted to actually get back up to speed before dumping more information on you guys, and with the traits system being implemented in the upcoming update, we really feel like we can start to talk about future systems again. There'll still be quiet updates, but I'll try to include details on systems and design choices at least once a week.

This is something we've been discussing for a while internally and we're ready to release some more info on it.

Something we really want to include in the game is the idea that the seasons and crops you plant matter. We discussed in previous posts about how maintaining plants involves setting up monsters to protect and tend them, as well as fertilizing and watering them. Each crop is also related to one of 6 variables that are either buffs on the protagonist and NPCs, or will permanently increase something for the monster eating it (except in the case of HP and XP). The higher the quality of the plants, the better stats they'll give. Foods can be made that combine them to allow for things that will improve multiple stats at once, and they can be refined to improve their stats yet again.

For example, if you have a Rank 1 Bose item, feeding it to a monster will grant them +5 Physique. If it's Rank 5, then it'll grant them +25 Physique, if you then take that and apply honey-sap to it (An item you get through refining), that will double the gains. Then you can take the Honeyed Bose Bacon, and maybe include it in some dish that includes some Lavapple (We'll say having gone through the same general process), and the final dish will grant +50 Physique and +50 Stamina, permanently, to a monster (or as a long lasting temporary buff to the Protagonist or one of their Companions).

Just from this you can tell that it will have an enormous impact on raising your monsters.

Next week I'll try to give some more information on how the seasons will effect your crops, and why it's profitable, but difficult, to grow them out of season.