Staxel Reporter – Issue #33

Hey everyone, in this issue of the Staxel Reporter we’ll be talking about Gamescom, seasons and the new animal expressions. Enjoy!

Gamescom

Staxel is heading to Gamescom! If any of you are at the upcoming Gamescom, please be sure to drop by our Staxel booth. You can find us in the Indie Arena. Hall 10.1, Booth A020, we’ll be in the Humble Bundle section.

If you’re attending, be sure to drop by for some awesome stickers and a chat!

Seasons

What’s a farming game without seasons? Who cares, we’re adding them to Staxel anyway! They’re still being worked on but they should be hitting the public build soon. Let’s go over the new seasons mechanic and see what they add to Staxel.

When creating the seasons, we decided to stick with the classics: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Each season currently lasts 10 in-game days, but we still need to do some playtesting to make sure 10 days is the right amount so this could easily change in the future.

Not only will the world’s appearence change depending on the season, but the content will too. You’ll find the stores stock different goods, the wildlife will change, the weather will vary, and much more than I could simply list here!

Crops can only grow in specific seasons. This means that you will need to do some extra work on the farm on each season change.

That more or less sums it up for the upcoming seasons mechanic. It’s not in the public build yet, but you shouldn’t be waiting too long.

Animal Expressions

Picture your favourite animal. Great, now picture it pulling a cute facial expression. So much better, right? That’s why we’ve decided to add facial expressions to all the animals in Staxel!

You should play close attention to an animal’s expression as it will be an important tool for you. It will give you insight into the creature’s mood. You might find that something is off with your livestock, perhaps they’re not eating properly, or not being cared for properly. The first clue will be their mood.

The current moods creatures can express are:

Neutral

Happy

Sad

Extremely Happy

Depressed

It’s important to keep your animals happy if you want to continue getting the benefits they bring. For example, a depressed cow can’t be milked, and a depressed pet won’t bring you gifts. The new animated expressions will prove to be vital in gauging the state your animal is in. Also, the expressions are super cute!

That’s about it regarding animal expressions for now, we’re very happy with how they’ve turned out. We might need to add more expressions in the future too, so keep an eye out!

That’s it for this issue of the Staxel Reporter. You can grab ‘Staxel – Sprout Edition’ at www.playstaxel.com/store.

Or you can wishlist us on steam at http://store.steampowered.com/app/405710/Staxel/

Thanks for reading!

–EGadd