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?
Update 17: Finish Your Surveys! Bun / Furniture Designer Deadline in Two Weeks
6 months ago
– Thu, May 30, 2024 at 08:15:25 AM
Finish Your Surveys
All of you should have received an email from Backerkit giving you a link to your reward survey. If you do not complete your survey, I cannot give you your rewards! If you didn't receive a survey, try this link or reach out to me.
89% of you are good, upstanding citizens, but 11% of you have left your surveys in a terrifying state of non-completeness! Ahh! Look, I get it, life is hectic and sometimes you need a little extra push. To help you out, I've included an angry bunny that will stare at you until you complete your survey:
To the rest of you who have already successfully filled out your survey, thank you! As a reward, here is a picture of a really small bunny in a field of flowers. Remember, if you haven't filled out your survey, you're not allowed to look:
Bun / Furniture Designers
Most of you have given me your wonderful bun fur patterns or furniture designs, but there are still a few hold outs! I've sent the rest of you a reminder email about an hour ago. Make sure you respond to that email and get back to me! Remember, you only have two more weeks to give me your ideas (I need time to organize and complete everything, after all). If you didn't receive any of my emails, please reach out to me and let me know.
Game Development
I took two weeks off for vacation and some house renovation stuff, but I'm back on the grind. Going forward I'll be sending roughly monthly updates to let you know how development is going. As a reminder, I plan for the beta test in December of this year so if you backed at the beta testing tier, look forward to that! Thank you all and I'll catch you on the flippity flip.
Update 16: Reward Surveys Sent Out via Backerkit
7 months ago
– Tue, May 07, 2024 at 09:07:07 PM
Reward Surveys Sent Out
Check your emails for your reward survey from Backerkit! Even as I'm typing this, an impressive 121 people have already completed their surveys; thank you so much! Doing the surveys quickly definitely helps me get my ducks (buns?) in a row so I appreciate your speediness!
I'll send out reminders to anyone who might forget to do their survey in a couple weeks. Remember, if you don't do your survey, I can't guarantee you actually receiving your well-deserved rewards!
Bunhouse Steam Game Keys
In the next few days — provided there are no issues with Steam key generation — I'll be sending out a digital download reward via Backerkit for those backers who pledged for the Bunhouse Steam Game Key add-on. I've never used this Backerkit service before so I'm a little in the dark with how the system operates but, to my understanding, you'll simply receive an email with a link to the download. Then you can input that game key on Steam and start your new Bunny greenhouse right away!
Help Me Out — Toss A Wishlist to Your Dev
Even though the vast majority of you will be receiving the game on steam already, if you would take a couple of moments to wishlist Cinnabunny on Steam if you haven't yet, it would help me greatly! Getting a high number of wishlists is crucial for my visibility at launch!
Lastly, as a reminder, if you have any friends who might be interested in Cinnabunny but missed out on the Kickstarter, you can send them this link to pre-order.
THANK YOU EVERYONE!
Update 15: Backerkit Surveys + Designers Emailed + Opportunity For Those Who Missed the Kickstarter
7 months ago
– Fri, May 03, 2024 at 07:22:58 PM
It's already been two weeks since the close of the Cinnabunny Kickstarter, can you believe it!? It's been amazing to go from marketing mode back to development mode which I enjoy much more :)
Backerkit Surveys Going Out Soon
In the next week or two, I'll be sending out surveys via Backerkit. All reward fulfillment will be had through this service, so make sure you read everything from them regarding Cinnabunny! The surveys will include at most two questions. Easy peasy. Even if your tier doesn't require more information, confirming your order on Backerkit is very important to make sure I can deliver your rewards! I'll send out another message on Kickstarter to remind you all, plus a survey deadline which will happen in a couple months.
Emails Sent to Decorative Bun and Bun Lovin' Bun Tiers
I reached out personally via my reky studios email to everyone in these two tiers. If you didn't get an email, please check your spam. If there's nothing there, definitely send me a note on Kickstarter.
The email is essentially asking you for your design ideas which I'm so excited to hear! Make sure to send those in to me within the next month so I can get working on them and ensure they're in the final product!
Missed the Kickstarter? Don't Fret!
Another benefit of using Backerkit is it allows me to extend the Kickstarter campaign a bit beyond its closing date. While certain rewards are not available (like designing furniture), you can still pre-order Cinnabunny and purchase the Kickstarter add-ons like the beautiful Deer-i-corn! So, if you had friends who missed out, they can still participate! The store will be up for a limited time only so take advantage in the next few weeks while you can!
Backerkit Pre-order Page
Cinnabunny Development
Since we've last spoke, I've gotten the basic mechanics down for the Kiteboarding and Hang Gliding. I'm not going to show off anything just yet but oh man, they are both really fun and cute! I tried to strike a balance between showcasing what is actually important about real life kiteboarding (i.e. kite control and the related mechanics) while still making it super accessible and easy to pick up, and I'm really happy with how it turned out (and it came together pretty darn quickly too!)
Welp, that's all for now. Thank you wonderful backers!
Update 14: Campaign Officially Over | Info About Reward Timelines
8 months ago
– Fri, Apr 19, 2024 at 09:02:02 AM
AHHHH WE DID IT!!!!! We ended the campaign with a total funding of $30,002. An amazing backer came in at the last second to send us over the edge for our final, kiteboarding stretch goal! YOU ARE AMAZING MY FRIEND! KITEBOARDING BUNNIES FOR THE WIN!!!
One of my favorite things about making bunny games is the kind of audience these games seem to attract. Everyone I interact with is so nice, respectful, understanding, and passionate, which is not something that every developer can say. Know that I don't take this community for granted and I'm grateful for all of you just being who you are! YOU ARE AWESOME SO THANK YOU!
As a reminder, the game's planned release date is in March 2025. While the majority of the systems in the game are completed, there is still plenty to do so I'm giving myself a lot of leeway (development always takes longer than you'd expect, after all!)
As far as rewards go, most of your backed items will be delivered just before release. This would include rewards like the soundtrack, digital copies of the game, wallpaper, and in-game iridescent items. For those that backed for beta access, I plan for the beta test sometime in Q4 2024.
There are also some rewards that will be delivered earlier. This would include things like discord roles and copies of my previous game Bunhouse. I'm working with BackerKit as my pledge manager and I'm unfamiliar with the process in its entirety (using default Kickstarter functions was a nightmare to do for my previous campaign so I had to adapt). That said, I can't say for sure how long it will take to get those rewards in particular, but I know it will take at least a couple of weeks for all the payments and things to go through. Beyond that, I'm unsure if I can grant digital rewards immediately after individual surveys or if I need to wait for all surveys to be completed beforehand. I will for sure keep you updated though!
For those with discord roles to receive, make sure you join the Reky Studios discord so I can grant you your new titles!
All of my backers will receive a survey from BackerKit sometime in the next few weeks and, beyond that, I'll keep you updated with every bit of info and progress as it happens! THANK YOU AGAIN FOR A SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN!!!
