When Everafter Falls was released almost a year ago, we always knew that the game was going to be changing – what we didn’t know was how different it would look after talking with our players. Today, we released a new major content update, which went to some surprising places. Before talking about what’s new in the update, I think it is important to go back about a year and talk about the initial release of Everafter Falls. And just to introduce myself: I’m Joseph Shockley, otherwise known as Riv Otter, the Community Manager for Akupara Games.
Everafter Falls is the first farming sim we ever released, and we saw feedback from a wide variety of players. To gather feedback, I opened a channel in the Everafter Falls Discord where people could discuss, suggest, and see the thoughts of what other players were after. I also kept an eye on the Steam forums and stayed active in them to show that we care about their feedback and that we will take it seriously. Because Everafter Falls was developed by just one developer, we knew that getting insight from players was going to be core to the game’s release.
Our first surprise came from the completionists in the community. They talked about how hard and frustrating it is to collect every item and raise every insect to finish out the journal. There wasn’t a way to improve your chances of finding what you needed, so the more players put hours into collection, the harder it became to clear out every last item. Some people were just getting super unlucky and failing to get that missing item after retrying for hundreds of times, and there wasn’t a way to improve those odds. As soon as we noticed the bottleneck this was creating for completionist players, it was clear we needed to add something to help. In the version 2.0 patch, there are two new items that should help completionists gather the last missing items they need:
- The Golden Shroom Terrarium: a prize item and will give you a 100% chance to get a shroom you haven’t already gotten.
- The Epic Critter Terrarium: lets you breed only insects you haven’t currently found.
Specifically, creating hard-to-craft late-game chase items that can help players fill out their collections was an easy way we could answer the call for this.
In Everafter Falls, players can decorate their farm and house with different ornamentation. We always knew that giving players purely cosmetic options for their farms would be helpful, but the community was so excited for all the different options they had to really express their creativity in their farm. Even positive feedback can be used as a guide to improve the game in a content patch, which is why, with positive feedback on the variety of decorations that Everafter Falls had, this content update added an abundance of new adornments, and we’ve already seen players adding them to their farm and house.
We received a ton of feedback, which I categorized as quality of life requests. Things that don’t directly affect the game but are nice to have for certain tasks, and can make the events more accessible for people. For example, there is an achievement in the game to craft every single item; however, at release, there was no way to keep track of which items you had crafted, making the achievement annoying to try to shoot for. In version 2.0, we remedied that by adding a blue star in the crafting menu for any item the player has crafted. No more Google Sheets or pen and paper tracking needed!
There are countless things I could talk about in this content update and how player feedback shaped the way this was developed. Learning how to take the feedback players give you and using them to guide a content update really scratches the itch that designers have to create engaging experiences with their games. I’m glad that I could help shape the course of the Everafter Falls 2.0 update, which is out now on Xbox!
Everafter Falls
Akupara Games
You wake up to discover your previous life was nothing but a simulation. You've no memory of this place, your quaint animal neighbors, the refreshing wind and fragrant flowers, the little farm you had tucked away just outside town, none of it. But once you spend a little time with your forgotten friends and your helpful pet, doesn't Everafter Falls just feel perfect? Isn't it where you always wanted to be?
Sure, you'll need to farm, fish and fight your way back to prominence in the tiny, cozy town, but you know your way around a sword, right? You know how to water your farm and progress through the dungeons. You know how to upgrade your stats and beat back tougher and tougher enemies, don't you? Just give those cards a good chomp and you'll have everything you need!
Of course, if you need a little help, don't worry! Automated drones can expand your inventory, tend to your harvest, and even help you fight. And your pet missed you more than anything while you were under. They're here to help out around the farm, learning all sorts of neat things, like tilling your soil, watering your crops, and even teleporting you across the map. What? You've never heard of a teleporting cat before?
It's Everafter Falls! Things are peaceful here. There's nothing to worry about… right?
The post Everafter Falls 2.0 – A Year in Listening and Twisting appeared first on Xbox Wire.
