Hello witches,
Thanks so much for all your supportive comments on our previous blog. Postponing REKA 1.0 was a tough choice but reading through your kind words we realise it was definitely the right choice. A polished 1.0 launch is what you all deserve, and what we hope we can now bring you. 💜
We also mentioned a Beta build that we'd love to get feedback on. For anybody interested in testing out a REKA 1.0 build which isn't fully baked yet, it's brings us loads of excitement to say...
The REKA 1.0 Beta build is live!
Your feedback for past betas has been so helpful to us, and we really want to give REKA the best 1.0 launch we can, so if you'd like to test our latest update we'd be super grateful! We fully understand if you'd prefer to wait until the final result, so there's zero pressure. 🍂
If you'd like to play an early version of REKA 1.0, here's some important info:
The final part of the story isn't in this build: The ending to the main story of REKA is very important to us, and we want all our players to experience the finale as we've intended. We've been working closely as a team to bring Reka's journey to a close, and we'd like to continue to test this chapter internally for the time being. We'd hate to spoil this moment, so we're thinking of running a closed playtest where players can come and see how Reka's journey concludes. More info on this soon!
New house building materials
Here's a snapshot of what's new to this build (and what we'd love your feedback on!)
- Japanese and Simplified Chinese language support
- New house building materials (spruce wood, birch wood, beech wood, pine wood, and clay. You can unlock them by finding their respective material in the wild)
- New quests and points of interest. (Poor Family, The Botanist, The Farmer's Mill, Rebellious Herd)
- Many new small shrines with little puzzles
- More loot
- Two new hairstyles
- You can now unequip your shoes and explore barefoot!
- New animals. (Fox, sheep, and cows)
- Improved art for POIs (decorations and grass to blend them into the environment)
- Major rebalancing and tightening of all chapters, especially "Learning the Ropes"
- Major improvements to the way maps are generated:
- System will now intelligently track which POIs were already completed or seen and try to give you something fresh
- Biomes are now more themed to the current chapter you are playing
- Biome distribution now behaves more naturally
- Major improvements to how loot is given out
- Individual containers now have different loot tables and try to give you things you actually want - New instrument building blocks you can find that enable new music at home
- New exploration music tracks
- Many new sounds for animals
- 'Mortar and Pestle Talisman' can now call the chicken hut to you (Right Mouse Button)
- New building block 'Mill' to craft your own flour
- New friend that helps you find specific loot / fill out your journal
- New friend that helps your plants grow faster
- New insects you can find in the wild and collect at home on a new display table
- Your pet cats and foxes can now act as familiars, following you around the map and occasionally showing you interesting things. Pick them up and set them down outside to start.
- New recipe for the dish 'cabbage soup'
- Improved 'Teleport Home' VFX, now with actual feathers
- Most building blocks can now be placed on any surface, even the ceiling (and flipped to be aligned with that surface or stay upright)
- Content warnings can now be switched on or off individually
- Added option for a more legible font
- Added option for high-contrast colors in the journal
- Added option for reduced motion
New hairstyle and barefoot option
Plus loads of UI improvements, English language proofreading (many changes have been made!), performance improvements, and of course, a whole lot of bug fixing!
How can you leave us feedback? 🙏
All feedback is invaluable to us, and we do of course read all our Steam comments. However, if you're able to, leaving your feedback over on Discord would be really appreciated! You can join the Discord here, and chat with other players and us too about how you get on! You'll find more instructions on how to leave your feedback in the announcement channel. Thank you! (If you're unable to use Discord or would rather not, you can still use our bug form to report issues too!)
How to access the Beta branch
- Right-click REKA in your Steam library and select Properties
- Select the BETAS tab
- Enter the code REKAopenBeta and click the Check Code button
- Choose REKA Open Beta from the dropdown
- Update and enjoy!A couple suggestions! 💭
It'd be wonderful if you could test the full game, so starting from the beginning and creating a new save file would really help us out as we've improved the beginning of the game a lot. However, it's totally cool if you'd rather continue your current game too, in which case, we'd suggest backing up your files just in case!
- Create a save file: Start the game and manually save. Your save will be located here:
C:UsersYOUR USERNAMEAppDataRoamingRekaGameSavesYOUR STEAM ID
- Back up your save: Make a copy of the save folder and paste it somewhere safe (e.g., your desktop)
- Restore if needed: If you run into any issues after updating, replace the new save files with your backup.
- By doing this, you can safely explore the new features of the Open Beta without worrying about losing progress! Happy testing!Thank you for everything!
Your support means the world to us and we're really excited to have you test REKA 1.0. Thank you so much in advance, and if you have any questions, please do let us know and we'll do our best to answer!
Talk soon,
Emberstorm x
