Hey Everyone! Tyla here!

This sprint we made a lot of changes. 

First off, we removed the timers for crafting items. The reason we did this I had mentioned last dev blog but will reiterate. We found with feedback as well as our own experiences playing the game that having to wait to be able to decorate after gathering all the resources lacked the feeling of being rewarded.

Now, the garden will still have a time/waiting mechanic to show the growth time of a plant. But, we will be adjusting this soon to no longer have a floating timer and will be switching to having the model visually display the plants growing in stages. The purpose of making the switch is to increase performance and maintain a pleasing aesthetic for the game.

The next mechanic we removed was the upgrade mechanic for both the alchemy table as well as the crafting table. After removing the timers this mechanic was unneeded due to the fact that it would have made crafting items faster as the main mechanic. 

The storage portal still has an upgrade mechanic so that players can increase the inventory slots to hold more items. That way, players can store decorations if they want to change the aesthetic of their workshop without having to lose the decorations they have worked hard for.

We have also decided to remove the cursed hog planned for the game as an enemy so that we can focus on different elements of the game. But don't worry! We will still have the wild hog available as an NPC in the garden through the use of the "potion of recreation" to compensate. 

The potion of recreation is a mechanic we are implementing that can be applied when interacting with these three stone statue decorations once placed. Below is a sneak peak at what's to come!

• Seedling statue

• Wild Spitter statue

• Cursed Hog Statue.

Another addition that we have added was the ability to place potions made as decorations. The reason we did this is it adds more customizability and helps you all achieve a more alchemic look/style to your workshop. 

Now for the playtests, we had seven play testers. During our playtesting faze for the most current build, we learned that we had an unusual amount of lag to the game; because of this, players were unable to progress, which was very disappointing. We have since found the specific issues causing this problem and will have it fixed for the next build.

But, there were a couple of positives from those who played to their best ability. We no longer have complaints about the movement, which was definitely a big highlight of the sprint.

I am also very happy to say that we did not receive negative feedback about having a tutorial system. We focused this sprint on implementing an invitation to play so that you all were able to have a front-and-center description of the game. Additionally, we implemented a selection in the options menu so that if a player were to accidentally exit the menu, they could reopen the menu to review the information.

A lot of exciting things are happening. I can't wait to bring forth the next build for everyone! Thank you for your time!