Greeting Travelers,

There was one core takeaway from the feedback and data we got from the playtest on Steam back in January: Fireside has a great atmosphere and okay gameplay. This means the way we can improve our game is by improving the gameplay. Therefore, we’re back with our very first playtest patch extending some of the current gameplay systems.

However, we need to be careful when doing this, since Fireside’s core vision is a cozy game about the breaks on a journey. The calmness of the campfire is an essential part of this vision, and this means keeping a focus on dialogue and not flooding the player with micro-management decisions.

Therefore, we’re trying the following changes, accessible now via Steam playtest:

• Added the ability to upgrade shrines.
  • Each shrine starts out at level one and can be upgraded two times with soul energy tokens and different materials depending on where the shrine is located.
    • Level 1: Send home up to two item stacks from this shrine
    • Level 2: This shrine can now be used as a starting point for your journey
    • Level 3: Send home up to three item stacks from this shrine
  • Two new campsite environments in the forest area.
  • Desire Hints
    • NPCs now tell you about items desired at nearby campfires
  • Speech bubble variants
    • Speech bubbles now show whether an NPC wants to tell you about
      • An item at a nearby campfire
      • A traveler waiting for you at a nearby campfire
    • Three new campfire stories based on the stories you submitted
    • Balancing and bugfixes
      • It is easier to gain soul energy tokens but requires more soul energy tokens to upgrade.

Once again, we’d like to have your feedback on how these changes have influenced gameplay. Remember that these features are a work in progress and we’re looking forward to trying more things. If you’ve got any suggestions gladly join our Discord server!