Development on an update of Earthsong continues slowly. We've had a heat wave here in Australia and our aircon broke, so staying in the house at all, much less using the computer, has been hellish.
I'm sitting outside writing this - the heat broke this afternoon with a sudden brief bout of rain - and the creature I've heard on my roof for the past few months finally hopped out to say hi. It's a quenda (bandicoot)!
I take it as a good omen - I spent a lot of time today on Earthsong, but I really do need to write about what I know... And that's Australia. The setting is shifting to a pretend village or island in Western Australia with a quokka as the guide. Quokkas are not only adorable and known world-wide, they are also a vulnerable species, with their mainland numbers and spread diminished greatly in recent years, so it will still serve the same role as the kākāpō did in the original jam game!
Visiting creatures will still include birds such as cockatoos, magpies and ibis, but also creatures like my backyard's quenda helping keep pests out of crops or an echidna serving as a bioturbator.
The game has shifted to more of a simulation game as a way to work through grief/depression, with hobbies you can choose, changing room descriptions based on things you do as well as time of day/seasons, a village to participate in and nature to explore.
I've been updating the UI. The background images feel too busy and the icons are placeholders so I'm not done with it yet, plus I will be swapping this all for Aussie creatures!
Today I added this unskinned (it will look nicer when done!) journal system - the eventual goal is to give players a way to work through feelings as they experience them, to help process grief. Take a look in the video below!
Check out the original jam version, set in New Zealand, bugs and all (please read the itch.io page for details on how to bypass those bugs):