Update 22: IMPORTANT: Backerkit Orders Lock Soon + General Update
20 days ago
– Fri, Nov 01, 2024 at 12:48:05 PM
Important News Up Front
I'm going to lock BackerKit orders in one month (on December 1st). What does this mean? Well, for most of you, probably nothing since you've already modified your orders to your liking and done your surveys. However, for the rest of you, the next month is your last opportunity to make any changes to your BackerKit order. This means pre-orders, add-ons, and extra copies of the game can no longer be purchased after December 1st! So make sure you get your magical unideer skin, your iridescent fur patterns, and whatever else you'd like! After December 1st, all of your bunny-loving friends will have to wait until the game actually releases to purchase on Steam and they will not be able to get those special add-ons since they are intended for special backers like you <3.
Note: If you have not yet done your survey, you NEED to do it in the next month or I cannot guarantee delivery of your rewards.
General Update
Well folks, there are still piles of downed trees, logs, and broken fences all around my neighborhood, but the wife and I have power and finally, as of yesterday, a stable internet connection. As I mentioned in my previous report, we were also fortunate to leave behind the chaos for a bit as we went on vacation for a couple weeks.
Given the circumstances, Cinnabunny production over the last month was very scarce. I'm back in the saddle now and my nose is pressed firmly against that grindstone so I'm hoping to make significant progress this month. It's possible that the hurricane has set back the timeline a bit but, for my own sanity, I would like to get this game in the hands of the bun-lovin' populace as soon as possible. As of now, I'm still hoping for a mid-December beta for those who backed at the appropriate tiers, and a mid-March release. This will largely depend on how successful my efforts are this month, but I plan to work very hard to make it happen.
Furniture Designers and Bun Designers
With a couple of exceptions, most of the furniture designers should have received an email from me showcasing the piece of furniture they helped design. I have not yet begun to work on the custom bunny fur patterns yet, so don't worry if you sent me stuff and haven't heard anything yet. It's possible those fur patterns won't make it in time for the beta as it is a time consuming task and I want to make sure all the gameplay and other functions are there. I assure you they will make it into the game's release though :)
That's all for now! Thank you folks for all your support and I can't wait for everyone to play the game when it's ready (I really hope you like it)!
Update 21: Fweeeewoooooo!!
about 2 months ago
– Wed, Oct 02, 2024 at 09:18:32 AM
Hurricane Woes
What is fweeeeewooo, you ask? Well, that's supposed to be the sound of raging winds. Because, as luck would have it, my community got hit by Hurricane Helene quite badly, though not as bad as Asheville — my sister, brother-in-law, and baby niece live there but they are fortunately okay, albeit without water and power in their home.
So many huge trees in my neighborhood fell over on garages, some houses, and definitely power lines. It took a couple days before chainsaw bro heroes (shout-out to the goats) were able to clear paths out of our neighborhood from fallen trees blocking the roads. Our power is still out and we're told we won't have it back until October 7th at the earliest. Mobile service has been very spotty as well.
My wife and I are safe and thankfully have a good community of people around us who are helping each other. Though we have no power, we do have water and some neighbors with generators so we are getting by alright, trying to help where we can by donating food and such. My wife and I shopped in a local grocery store by flashlight and it was kind of fun so there's that haha.
Cinnabunny Progress
All that to say, Cinnabunny production was going well earlier in September, but now, obviously, things are not progressing. Add on top of this, the fact that my wife and I have a vacation we had planned a while back for two weeks in October which will take me away from production as well.
When we return from said trip, I plan to work extra hard to try to make up for lost time since I do really want to hit my goal of getting the beta out to people in December. I'll definitely keep you all updated though!
Thank you for your understanding and patience! I hope anyone else who was affected by Hurricane Helene is doing okay. Seriously, reach out if you need something and if it is within my power to help I will do so!
Update 20: A Productive Month + Do Your Surveys!
3 months ago
– Fri, Sep 06, 2024 at 08:21:35 AM
Welp, it's about that time for another backer report. I hope you all had a lovely summer as we slowly transition to autumn. Personally, I'm excited for cooler weather because South Carolina gets dumb hot and it sucks the life force out of my body. Anywaaaaay...
The Almighty Checklist
At the beginning of August I completely redid my master checklist of tasks which is a working document that helps me track how much stuff I have left to complete before the game is ready for beta testing. Some tasks are simple like "fix tool visibility during tutorial cutscene" and some are more complicated like "add all villager interior houses."
The checklist is quite helpful for me as it takes the monumental task of making a life simulator game and breaks it down into smaller achievable chunks. I had another document I was working from a while back but I thought freshening it up and reorganizing some tasks would be worth the effort. I think that it was a good choice!
Right now, I've got 74 tasks left to complete before I feel the game is ready for the beta. As long as I stay on my current trajectory, I'd say we're looking good for my original plan (which was/is to release the beta to the appropriate backers in December).
So like... what did I do?
This past month I've been working on a myriad of tasks. I can't list them all (because there are a lot, but I'll put a few notable ones below so you can get a taste :)
One system that feels quite good to get finished up and polished is the Community Projects Bulletin Board.
As a citizen in Sugar Creek Burrows, you have the ability to donate your hard earned carrots to various projects which can improve your new town. This includes things like: repairing the broken down handcart, removing rocks that block a cave entrance, adding a community garden, and even purchasing kiteboarding equipment to ride when it's windy. This will add a meaningful sense of progression and an ownership of the way your town improves.
Hats
Just like in Bunhouse, I've added various hats to the game so you can add some style to your bun. Some hats will be purchasable by the clothier in your village. Other hats will be a reward for completing difficult tasks (like photographing every species of bird, for example.)
Interior Houses
There are a good number of non-player characters in Cinnabunny. A lot of them still don't have homes :( But some of them do thanks to my efforts this month! I'm working my way through adding all the interiors; six more to go and then I should be done with all the environments in the game!
Coming Up
Thanks for reading for those who were interested! I'm working very hard to meet the deadlines I set for myself and so far I'd say we're on track! September should be another wonderfully productive month and then I'll be taking a two week vacation in October to recharge before plowing forward until the beta is ready.
I'm nervous and excited for you all to finally play the game and I truly hope everyone loves it!
Update 19: Development Continues
4 months ago
– Thu, Aug 01, 2024 at 01:34:27 PM
Just doing my thang!
Nothing super exciting to report but it's been another month so I thought I would send out a backer update regardless.
I'm still just quietly developing cute little bunny things over here! The kiteboarding has turned out absolutely excellent and adorable and has been one of the most fun things I've added/refined recently. Other than that, I've still been hammering through some of the more tedious systems, dialogue, and, as always, squashing bugs. More continued work on saving and loading, tutorialization, and UI as well.
I'm still shooting for the beta test in December for those that backed at an appropriate tier but I'll keep doing monthly updates as well to make sure you all stay in the loop! Thank you again for all your support!
Oh, and 7% of you still haven't completed your backerkit surveys. DO THEM OR I CANNOT REWARD YOU AND THAT WOULD BE VERY TRAGIC!
Update 18: Development Chugging Along
5 months ago
– Tue, Jul 02, 2024 at 12:00:35 PM
Still Chugging Along
Hello everyone! I don't have any extremely pressing news or anything but it's been a month since my last backer update so I thought I would just keep you all in the loop!
Development on Cinnabunny has been moving forward quietly and consistently. I've been spending a lot of time over the past month working on the saving and loading systems (which are complex and take forever since farming/life sims have a lot of data to save and load dynamically between maps). I've also been creating and refining the initial parts of the story which includes tutorialization and an introduction to your bunny family. Of course there's always UI and UX refinements, gameplay refinements, and bug fixing as well.
Things have been going steady so nothing much else to report! I'm still hoping to have a closed alpha test in a few months and then a beta for all the backers who backed at the beta access tier sometime in December as initially planned.
Hey You, Yeah You
If you haven't done your survey yet... do your survey! You should have gotten a few emails from backerkit reminding you. It's at most two questions so it will take less than five minutes. Do it for the buns!
I hope you are all having a good summer! Sun's out buns out, amirite?
