Hello everyone! 👋
We hope this new year has been treating you well so far! We have been busy behind the scenes getting ready for our Demo, which we are excited to announce to you soon!
While we get ready for that, we hosted a Community Q&A in our Discord to hear what you wanted to know about The Rabbit Haul, game development, and everything in between. Thank you so much to everyone who jumped in with questions—we loved reading and answering them!
If you’d like to be part of the next Q&A (and get early sneak peeks along the way), make sure to join our Discord!
Now, let’s hop into your questions! 🥕✨
Do you have plans to add new flowers or crops we can grow?
Titus (Artist/Game Designer): Yes, the plan is to have more you can grow! We have some ideas cooking up, and part of it is finding ways these new plants interact with other plants in your garden!
Are cosmetics going to be available in the full game, as they were during the last playtest?
Titus (Artist/Game Designer): Our cosmetics system is actually what we've been working on lately! We're excited to share how that will look soon, so yes, there will be cosmetics!
What made you choose to make a game based on a farmer rabbit that needs to defend his crops from raccoons at night? In addition, does the farmer rabbit even sleep since he works day and night?
Titus (Artist/Game Designer): To put it simply, we're animal enjoyers and had a cute idea that we thought might work! And Raccoons fit the vibe of a thieving, rascal-like enemy! Also, there are a lot of things we don't know about Sprout: Does he sleep? Use the bathroom? Blink? 🤷 an enigma 😆
How did the town get destroyed, since the playtests never told us the prequel story to the game?
Titus (Artist/Game Designer): The Trash Panda Posse invaded the town not long before the game begins!
Can the beehive spawn bees that can help you defend your crops in the future?
Titus (Artist/Game Designer): Beehives currently have two branching upgrades! Bees will spawn if you upgrade the beehive down one of those paths, and they'll be able to help you defend!
I was interested if you guys have a price point for the game upon release or a range yet?
Isael (CEO/Sound Designer): We were originally planning on a $20 price point. However, the last few years have shown a shift in pricing strategy, and we are considering entering the market at a lower price point.
When is the next playtest, because I need more 👀👀👀
Isael (CEO/Sound Designer): As for the next playtest, we are still not sure whether we'll have another playtest before the demo (which is coming soon). We have discussed giving access to the demo early to our Discord members, but that will depend on whether the build is ready to give early access. Sorry for not having anything more concrete to tell you, it is still being planned currently!
Will there be a fishing minigame?
Mickael (Programmer): No plans for that yet. We might consider it, but we have to get everything else in that we wanted to add first 😂
We will have a level that's based around water, so it could fit in there 🤔, but no promises for now
Do you plan on adding any monetization via in-game purchases (cosmetics, etc.)?
Mickael (Programmer): No in-game monetization! Everything will be unlockable through in-game currency. What is your favorite feature that you added to the game so far? Additionally, why do you enjoy the feature from the previous question?
Titus (Artist/Game Designer): There are a few favorites in my opinion, I really enjoy the upgrade card + symbiosis features, which allows for each run to be a little different than your previous! It also opens the door for us to make more symbiotic relationships, and we have some new ideas we want to add in later updates! Additionally, I also like the bees, I think they're fun! Are there any ideas that you look forward to implementing into future versions of The Rabbit Haul and why?
Titus (Artist/Game Designer): Future ideas I'm looking forward to implementing are different biomes! Right now, we have the forest biome, but the plan is to have more, Mickael teased one earlier, haha! Different biomes mean different enemies and things to discover, and therefore (hopefully) new challenges and new fun things to experiment with in your garden.
What's a skill you had to learn/get better at in the process of development?
Isael (CEO/Sound Designer): For me, I would say the one I am most proud of is taking breaks and work-life balance in general. I learnt that developing a game is a marathon not a sprint.
As for hands-on skills, I took a coding bootcamp back in 2023 – it was a 7 months intensive program working evenings and weekends, while working full-time on The Rabbit Haul. These skills have allowed me to be more independent in Unity, to the point where I write my own code now for my audio features and have fixed small bugs or implemented small changes. I also have a better understanding of the technical side of making games, which makes me a better producer in general.
Mickael (Programmer): It's so hard to pick one. There's so much that's not related to actually developing the game, but the whole "business" of gamedev was a lot of learning.
Directly in the game, there's a lot of coding specifics. I had experience with Unity but I'd never been on a project for so long.
My code quality has dropped a little since there aren't many people in the codebase, but I've gotten better at understanding the tradeoffs that I'm making when I do something fast and quick vs creating a full system out of it.
Thank you again for all the amazing questions! We loved answering them and chatting with you all. Have more questions for us? Join our Discord and drop them in! We always want to hear from you.
With our demo coming very soon, now’s the perfect time to stay close. Make sure you’re following us on social and hanging out in Discord, so you don’t miss any news, sneak peeks, or demo updates. We can’t wait to share what’s next with you!
Until next time 👋