Hello mechies & friends! 👋🏽
The Uncommon team has been hard at work and we’re happy to announce that the Animalkind demo has been updated just in time for Steam Next Fest, starting Monday, February 23rd at 10am PT. This is a really big update so we wanted to share some details about what you can expect and what to look out for! If you have been enjoying the demo before this and want to continue playing on your island, please make sure to read this full post.
Co-op Multiplayer 🤝🏽
The most anticipated addition to this demo update is the addition of co-op multiplayer, which means you can play with up to four of your friends and explore the island together! You can complete quests and make friends with the adorable characters that reside with you on your island. Invite your friends to your island and prepare to build something fantastic together! We had the pleasure of watching people play this in one of closed tests, and it was so heartwarming seeing people come together and build lovely towns.
As a special bonus, we’ve also added a shared save system that means any members of multiplayer world will be able to access that world, regardless of who started it or was hosting when they last played! 💾 ↔️ ☁️
Writing & Story ✍🏽
Animalkind’s story and dialogue has been revamped thanks to our writer, Kelsey! The core story and characters will still be familiar, but our characters will have more colorful dialogue, more variety in their conversations, and more depth overall. You’ll also find that you as a player have more options to roleplay in your friendship with the other villagers of Animalkind.
UI Overhaul 🖱️
Alongside many of the gameplay changes, the UI of Animalkind is also being improved! Expect to see the following:
Overhauled HUD with cleaner, more contextual UI, reducing clutter, as well as a warmer, cozier feel!
More consistency across user interfaces, especially amongst inventory, crafting, and the sales box.
New Items and Customization Options 😎
We’re adding new items to the game as well as customization options for both the animals and the mechs. You’ll find some of these items are pretty useful and change the way that you play the game. Thanks to the horde of people that played the pink raccoon in our playtests, the customization options now include some less natural colorings for our playable animals!
Sleeping & Day/Night Cycle 😴
We heard your feedback from the first version of the demo and we’ve made a change. Your animal character will no longer be forced to go to sleep! There’s a new user interface indicator for the day/night cycle in the game, which will indicate what time of day it is! Once you have your first housing placed with a bed, you’ll be able to go to sleep during the evening hours. Sleeping is still important because it recharges your mech’s energy, so make sure to crawl into your beds when it’s night time and get a good night’s rest! You’ll find that your gardens and other things grow over night as well.
And more!
You’ll find that many aspects of Animalkind that you may have experienced for have been updated and improved. We really appreciate the time and feedback we received from our Alpha players, thank you!
⚠️ PLEASE READ IF YOU HAVE AN EXISTING WORLD ⚠️
With all of the changes in this update, existing Animalkind demo worlds will not be available going forward unless you switch to a special version we’ve set up in Steam. You can continue your existing worlds on the version labeled “demo-v1” and you can switch to the other version to play the update. Switching between these versions can be done in your Steam Library by right-clicking on Animalkind and selecting properties. You should see a screen that looks like this (see below).
And that is that! Please play our new demo! 🙏🏽
As always, our team is looking for ways to make Animalkind the most exciting and enjoyable game it can possibly be, and we can’t do that without our players. If you’d like to support us, please consider playing the demo with your friends, watching content creators, or sharing our game with others!
As we kickoff Steam Next Fest, feel free to share your favorite parts of the new demo, your feedback on what could be better, and any bugs you might encounter while you adventure through your islands! We’re looking forward to hearing from you!
The Uncommon Team 🐾
Join our Discord Server 🗨️
Join up to chat with the devs, find fellow villagers to play with, and share feedback. We are actively looking to the community to help shape Animalkind into the best game it can be!