Hello and welcome to the February developer update for Cattails: Wildwood Story! We’ll be talking all about the new features that are included in Alpha v1.00, available now on Steam for our alpha-tier backers.
Beta News!
Before we dive right into it, we wanted to give everyone who’s waiting on the Beta of the game a quick update! We’re right on track and can now confirm that the Beta of the game will become available on March 1 for our beta-tier backers. Hooray! 🎉
Alpha v1.00
Another busy month is behind us and great progress has been made on the game! Here’s a quick look at the exciting new features.
The Buddy System
Take your friends with you on your adventures! Once you reach 3-star friendship status with a cat a new option will appear called “Buddy Up?” Selecting this dialog option will reveal the cat’s Buddy stats (XP and level,) as well as their unique combination of Traits.
Traits come in two flavors: Passive and Active. They provide special benefits to you or your colonymates while you are adventuring with a particular buddy. For example, the “Lucky” trait makes it easier to find rare items; the “Inspiring” trait will give an attack damage boost to all nearby fighters from your colony; and the “Renowned” trait will allow you to gain a small amount of Influence in whatever region you hang around over time. Traits also become more powerful as your Buddy levels up.
Your Buddy will help you hunt, fight, and gather herbs. As they do so, they will gain Buddy XP. Once your Buddy has acquired enough Buddy XP they can level up and become stronger! Buddies can continue to be advanced to Level 10, the maximum Buddy Level.
Starting in Year 2, Ember will begin selling Training Manuals at their shop. Use a Training Manual to instantly grant Buddy XP to whoever you’re currently adventuring with.
Wedding Ceremonies
February is the month of romance, so what better time to introduce the most romantic event in the game– your Wedding!
Once you propose to the cat of your dreams, you’ll be prompted to select a Wedding Venue. There’s four lovely venues to pick from– The Temple, the Festival Plaza, the Beach, and the Meadow. Choose one and you’ll be whisked away to the ceremony, where all of your friends and family will join you to watch the wedding.
One of my favorite details of the wedding ceremony is all the little flower bouquets that you’ll find decorating the venue. The colors of the flowers will change based on the base coat color of you and your chosen spouse.
After the ceremony, remember to stick around for a bit and chat with all the attendees!
Expanded Map
14 new map regions are now available to explore! We’ve added a few interesting new biomes– a rugged mountain, a flowery meadow, and an overrun farm.
Of course there’s plenty of secret Power Paws hidden within these mysterious new areas, so be sure to search them thoroughly.
Tunnel Construction Projects
Now that the map is so big it can be a challenge getting around! We’ve added 4 new Construction Projects that you can view from your colony stockpiles– Tunnel: Northwest, Tunnel: Northeast, Tunnel: Southwest, and Tunnel: Southeast.
Once you construct these projects you’ll be able to place tunnel entrances anywhere in your town via the Build Menu. Use the tunnel entrances to instantly warp far away to regions near the corners of the map. This will make adventuring in the far reaches of the world much more accessible!
Invasions!
A new optional combat challenge has been added to the game– Invasions! These difficult combat encounters will cause enemy Voidlings to spawn in increasingly difficult waves and require you to come very well prepared if you wish to come out alive. If you complete the challenge you will be richly rewarded!
To start an invasion you’ll first need to craft a Wretched Talisman, a dark amulet that can call to the powers of the void. Use the Mole Forge to get started crafting your first Wretched Talisman.
Use your Wretched Talisman when you are ready to begin the Invasion. An Invasion can be started pretty much anywhere in the world, including your own colony town. If you leave the area while an Invasion is active it will immediately end and your challenge will be forfeit.
Greedy Paw Accessory
Lastly, we’ve added a useful new accessory called the Greedy Paw! You can purchase this accessory from Molo in the mines. While it is equipped, all nearby items will be magnetically drawn into you and automatically picked up into your inventory if you have space.
You can upgrade the range of your Greedy Paw accessory from the Mole Forge.
Dev Livestream #5!
Ok, that’s all the new features in v1.00! We’re also excited to announce another Developer Livestream to celebrate the launch of the beta in March.
Join us on March 2 @ 6pm Eastern Time over on our YouTube channel @CattailsGame for Developer Livestream #5! We’ll be playing the Beta version of the game, showcasing new features, and answering questions in chat about Wildwood Story.
That’s all for this month! We’ll be back in March with another update. Until then,
-Tyler (@FalconDevelops)