Hi Townframers!

I'm very happy to announce that the first language update is out today.
The game now fully supports French! :)

Kudos to Anaïs Mairey who helped me with the translation of the game!!! That's so cool!

Besides the new language, I've also added an option to make the text of the characters' dialogs bigger.
However, this only works with 16:9 monitor ratios. If you play on a widescreen, it is also larger by default. And a larger text window at a smaller ratio than 16:9 would block out too much of the other UI elements in the game. So, that was my rather long explanation for this issue. :D

I hope you're all doing well and I wish you all a wonderful holiday season!

Sunny greetings,
Patrick

Hi Townframers,

here comes the first big Quality of Life Update with V 1.1.0


Settings

• There is now an option to change the resolutions
  
• There is now an option to disable the parallax effect of the townframe

Gameplay

• The photo tool now costs 15 coins instead of 17 coins
  
• Vivi's Level now has more solutions
  
• Billy's level now also has more solutions

Steamdeck and Ultra-Widescreen

• The UI is now better adapted to different screen ratios, such as Steamdeck and Ultra-Widescreen (21:9) You don't have to do anything. The game will automatically check if you have one of these.
  
  Disclaimer: I have only tested this by simulating the screen ratios as I do not own a Steamdeck or an ultra-widescreen. If you play on these and have problems, please contact me via the in-game feedback form or write to me on this post here.

Others

• You can now return to the main menu at any time
  
• Game saves are now stored in the Steam Cloud.
  Again, if you have a Steamdeck and are experiencing issues, please contact me

That's it for the new update so far.

I wish you all a good time.
And thank you all so much for the kind words you send me and for the reviews. :)

Sunny greetings,
Patrick

Changelog:

- fixed UI problem with the tool description (if you had problems with it on the Steamdeck, it should be fixed now)
- fixed some spelling mistakes in the intro and in the tool descriptions

Changelog:

- changed some words in the description of the hidden objects
- fixed spelling mistakes in the settings
- changed a bit the position of some very important hints ...
- changed the hint in Ridell's level

Changelog:

- fixed some spelling mistakes
- changed the puzzle layout of Magna's level
- fixed a small house bug in Mathew's level
- fixed the display of a store item

Hi everybody,

after a few weeks of hard work I have now finished the development of the game this week.
So I have a little announcement for you:

Townframe will be released on October 8, 2024 !!!

I'm really looking forward to you being able to play it completely soon!

Here's some new info about what I've added over the last few weeks:

• Since I did a bit more puzzles than initially planned, I have now drawn a completely new world map and it is now also much larger than the one in the demo.

• Apart from new puzzles, there is now also a small intro in the final game which will introduce you to the world of Townframe.

• On request, I have also added an additional help window that gives you more information about how the game works. This is very useful, for example, if you don't play the game for a few days. This will hopefully help you get back into the game more quickly.

• And all those who have filled out the Google Feedback form in recent months and left their names are now also listed as playtesters in the credits. It's become quite a long list and I'm very happy about that.

That's it for the announcement and the update on the game.
See you on October 8th. :)

Sunny greetings,
Patrick

Hi, everybody.

It's finally time for another development update on the current state of Townframe.

Some good productive time has passed since the release of the demo and the collected feedback.
I can now proudly say that I have now exceeded the minimum number of puzzles I wanted to make and the new ones are now in the testing phase, where I let others play them and then improve them.

I was also able to implement a few other feedback requests such as:

• the bunny puzzle
  
• separate volume slider for music and sound effects
  
• the possibility to make the selection wheel appear faster
  
• and I've also finished the most important feature of all: saving the game!

The current version of the demo has not yet implemented any of these features. I will be working on a new demo next, with one or two new puzzles that will be playable next week.

The last big thing missing now is (more) polishing. I will tackle this together with the new demo. So I can now say with a clear conscience that the game is about 80% done. Yay! :)

That's it for this update.

I wish you all a sunny day and see you next time
- Patrick

Hi everyone,

as you may have noticed, I didn't post a development update of the game last month because there was so much going on with the demo. It was really wild! So many of you also played the demo during Steam Next Fest and it was a very cool experience to read all the feedback and see all the Twitch streams and Youtube videos about it. I am so grateful for that!

In this post I would like to answer some questions that were asked via the Google Feedback Form[forms.gle] included in the demo.


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Q: Can you make the selection wheel for the buildings appear more quickly?
A: Yes, I will add a toggle button so you can choose if you only want to create buildings with the wheel (which will appear immediately when held down) which then doesn't have the short click option or you can have both, the short click of buildings and the wheel (but you have to hold 1s, like it's now).

Q: Can we have a little bunny in the game?
A: YES!

Q: More difficult levels that might be optional?
A: Yes, there are currently some harder/complex ones and there will be more. But I will also include a few more easier levels here and there. Because the problem with hard puzzle levels is that some people simply have big problems with them and others don't, so balancing both is important.
That's why I've designed the game so that you can choose the levels you want to complete, and many of the levels are indeed optional.

Q: Please make at least 100 puzzles to solve!
A: There probably won't be 100 levels when the game comes out because I mainly want to make unique puzzles, characters and townscapes and not just a lot of them. At the moment it also takes me between 2-4 days to create a puzzle, test it and polish it. That would take a while to make 100 of them.... But if the game does well after release, I'll definitely want to make more puzzles for it! :)

Q: Can we have a hint system?
A: After reading this question for the first time back then, I immediately implemented one in the demo. It's a very subtle one that just has drawings to get you thinking in the right direction.
But it's not perfect yet, so I need to refine it further for the final game.

Q: Can we have cosmetic upgrades or more building options?
A: I'm mainly focusing on creating the puzzles with the things that are currently in the game at the moment. When I have more ideas for puzzles where much more diverse buildings are needed, I'll make them, but that's not a focus for me right now. But maybe later!

Q: Can we have other sources of memory besides the written stories of the characters?
A: Yes, I'm currently working on a new puzzle where you can ******* to solve it.



Q: Controller support?
A: That will take some time to make it make it feel good. So I will do it after I will be done with the game.

Q: Can there be different text sizes and fonts?
A: I see that can be an issue if you have smaller screens. I will look into it!

Q: Can we have Music Volume and Soundeffects Volume seperated in the settings?
A: Yes!

Q: Can we have a better UI for widescreen users?
A: Yes, I will look into it!



Q: Steam Deck optimization?
A: Unfortunately I don't have a Steam Deck to test everything. I'll try to get one in the next few weeks. But people say the game runs fine on the Steam Deck, just a few issues with the ingame buttons (which I've changed now and should be fixed)



Q: Switch, Mobile & other plattforms?
A: I really want to port it to Switch and other platforms, but in the end it depends on my financial and time resources, which I don't have much left at the moment.
So I'll see how well the game does on Steam and then I'll look into porting it. This means that the game will only be available on Steam at realease.



Q: Will the game support more languages?
A: For financial and time reasons, only German and English will be available at release, but I would like to add more languages over time.

Q: I have seen spelling and grammatical mistakes in the demo!
A: Thanks for pointing this out! I fixed them now.


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And that's it for the Q&A. Thank you once again! I'm very grateful for all your feedback and if you have anything else to say, the comments section or the Google Feedback Form[forms.gle] are still is open. :)

With all the feedback, I now have a few more things to do. So I'll be posting a more detailed development update of the game in the next few weeks.

Have a nice day and see you next time,
Patrick

Hi everyone!

Exciting news: the first public Demo of Townframe is finally done and now playable for all of you!

Content: In this demo you can play a total of 8 levels, you can decide the order and which ones you want to solve. The playtime is 20 minutes. You can also unlock two main tools that allow you to solve some puzzles in a completely different way than just changing the house types.

Please note that the puzzles in this demo, their order and the entire world map are still open to change in the final game.

Language: The demo is currently only playable in English and German. As I still have a lot to do before the final release, I can't guarantee any other languages until then. But I definitely want to support more languages later!

Feedback: There is also the possibility to leave anonymous feedback directly in a Google form. This is completely optional, but I am very grateful for any feedback, no matter how small! Here's the link to the Google form in case you miss it in the game: Google Feedback Form[forms.gle]

And that's it for now. I wish you all a good time with the demo and see you soon. :)


-Patrick