Autumn has arrived, and the Great Tree is adorned with colors. How about taking a closer look?
The village plaza is the central gathering place of the Great Tree!
Here, the inhabitants meet, chat, and shop at the stalls set up by merchants who regularly come to sell their goods.
Among them are the four Compass Chefs. Each one travels the world in search of unique recipes, stepping aside for the next chef as each season ends. Here are some concepts for their stands, inspired by the cultures associated with the recipes they offer.
This is also where seasonal events are held, bringing together all the Tree's inhabitants and offering unique activities and prizes !
The large building overlooking the square with its spire is the Town Hall. Once restored, it will allow Alva to recruit employees to help her with her tasks.
Hmm… Did autumn rains make the Great Tree branches grow ? It seems bigger than last time.
Right now, we're focused on making the journey visually engaging while hiding secrets throughout, so traversing it always brings surprises.
Another goal is to ensure exploration feels gradual, giving the player time to get familiar with the surroundings while sparking a desire to progress and discover new corners!
Running a shop, rebuilding a village, facing angry spirits... Alva couldn't accomplish her tasks without good nights of sleep !
Alva collapses into her bed every night at midnight to sleep, but she can also choose to sleep whenever she wants to skip to the next day. She lets herself be lulled by the gentle melody echoing in her room.
The room can also be decorated, just like the rest of the shop. It doesn't have a direct impact on gameplay, though some might say it makes the feature even more essential.
Two new furniture sets have been modeled: the Primitive Set and the Wooden Set.
These are early-game sets... We don't recommend them if you're suffering from back pain.
The overall appearance of the shop's public area has also evolved. In this model, you can see what it looks like at night, when the customers have gone home !
Quests are a central element of the game. They allow players to progress in the main storyline, unlock new gameplay features, new characters, earn unique rewards, and complete collections.
However, work on the quest system only began a few weeks ago. Here are our updates!
The quest journal interface has been designed to give players the ability to view the objectives of current stages, associated characters or locations, and other useful informations.
As for the quests themselves, we had to consider elements unique to the type of game that Acornia is, and anticipate all possible scenarios.
For example, some quest stages only make sense if they are completed during certain seasons, or at specific times of the day.
We also need to account for the fact that players can complete certain quests out of order, as the game is not fully linear. Characters can be unlocked in different sequences, so we have to ensure that all quests are designed with all possibilities in mind!
The quest system is now functional in Unity, allowing us to conduct tests.
Honna the carpenter is Alva's aunt. Tireless, she is determined to help Alva rebuild the village! She sometimes lacks confidence, though her talent is unmatched.
This squirrel hails from the mysterious snow globe of the Hearth. It's said that there are forests perpetually ablaze there. The wood is so difficult to work with that those who craft it are called "flame-sculptors”.
It wasn’t an easy childhood for Honna, and she still carries a certain fear of fire from that time. But Oliver, the forest keeper, watches over her. These two are truly inseparable.
For her design, we were inspired by the Indian squirrel species Ratufa. Their colors and the patterns on their fur evoke fire and charcoal! It was important to show her difference from the squirrels of Alva’s family.
The place most associated with Honna is the carpentry shop. There, she works the wood collected from the underbrush that stretches beneath the village. Turning the Great Tree into planks wouldn’t be looked upon favorably…
Fun fact: In the real world, it’s possible to char the surface of wood to make it resistant to weather, insects, and mold. This technique is called Shou Sugi Ban, and it also gives the wood a truly unique appearance.
This month, we held our first community event, a Halloween pumpkin contest !
Participants were invited to post a photo of their pumpkin on Acornia's Discord, with winners chosen by our panel of (improvised) experts.
And here are the results!
We were impressed by the third Acornian's precision with their pumpkin featuring a thousand teeth ! The second showed great originality with their cobra carved from pumpkin flesh. But it’s the trio of pumpkins which takes the first place, with one modeled after a Tinykin, the heroes from the studio's previous game !
We needed office plants, but not all team members are skilled at keeping them alive... So we came up with an alternative !
Now, everyone has one on their desk. And they should last the whole year, as long as no one tries to water them…
Apparently, there’s an "Acornia Out Of Context" account making the rounds on social media. The person behind it seems oddly well-informed about our work...
We’ll keep an eye on it...
That's all for October !
Join our official Discord to chat with other Acornians !
IM SO EXCITED FOR THIS!!!!!!!!!!