Dragons Brew Beta 0.7.0.0 - A New Beginning

major update

Dragon's Brew · build 25251457 · published

On SteamNotes only · this build shipped before we watched the app

This is a particularly big update for Dragon’s Brew, bringing major changes to progression, the opening experience, and how customers behave in your cafe. Here are three of the biggest changes with this update:

The Guild of Games

Welcome to The Black Rook, home of the mysterious Guild of Games... a secretive guild dedicated to the greatest board game masters and collectors!

Once you've reached the required cafe level, you'll be able to access The Black Rook by bus. Here, you can donate board games to complete genres and collections, unlocking exclusive Legendary Board Games as rewards!!

And who knows... there may even be a few secrets hidden within its ancient walls.

A New Intro and Extended Demo

We've completely revamped the opening of Dragon's Brew with a brand-new Act 1, now featuring 60+ quests to create a much richer introduction to the world, characters, and systems before the future main story begins!

We've also expanded the demo from 2 days to 6 days! The new demo covers the first six days of the game with no content locks, giving new players a much better chance to experience what Dragon's Brew has to offer!

A New Way to Serve Customers

Following feedback in our discord community poll, we've reworked the way customers queue at the cafe.

Instead of standing in one long queue, customers will now wait in individual positions at the counter, meaning you'll need to walk up to each customer to serve them.

This makes the cafe feel more active and gives serving customers a little more interaction!

0.7 Patch Notes:

Main Features

  • A universal font system has been introduced across the game, laying the groundwork for future localisation support.

  • A brand-new camera system has been added. The camera will now remain within the boundaries of the current room or location rather than following the player beyond the zone.

  • The Guild of Games has been added and can be unlocked through progression. Players can donate boardgames to complete genre collections and, in return, unlock powerful Legendary Boardgames.

  • A brand-new Act 1 intro questline has been added, providing a new introduction to the story and early-game progression. Starting a new save is recommended to experience the questline as intended, although progress can be carried over from older saves to integrate with the new system. If the previous questline has already been completed, the new questline will not replace it.

  • Customer ordering has been reworked. Customers will now queue in up to three positions rather than forming a single line behind the till. Orders must now be fulfilled by interacting directly with customers from behind the counter.

Demo Changes

  • The demo has been expanded to 6 days, with progression able to be continued from your existing demo save.

  • The new demo now covers the first 6 days of the game, with previously locked content becoming available depending on your save progression.

Minor Features & Changes

  • The chalkboard quest sound will no longer play when loading a save and will only trigger when starting a new quest.

  • The build zone on the Green House cafe floor has been opened. This space was originally intended for the boardgame shop system, which is no longer required.

  • Snow will now only appear during Winter and will no longer occur during Spring.

  • Tooltips now fade in rather than appearing instantly.

  • New pop-scale animations have been added to quest completion, order, item, EXP, and money popups.

  • Special coffee bean icons have been updated to better communicate their unique recipe bonuses.

  • An Inventory Overflow system has been added. If the toolbar and extended inventory are full when receiving items, they will now be placed into an overflow system with a notification. Freeing up inventory space by moving or deleting items will allow overflow items to be added automatically.

  • The cafe name is now reflected in the return address of letters sent to the player.

  • An Accessible Font toggle has been added to Settings. When enabled, the pixel-style font is replaced with a more traditional and legible font.

  • The Map UI can now display both unlocked town maps regardless of the player's current location, allowing players to check shop opening times without travelling.

  • Delivery quests are now prioritised at the top of the quest list and will remain visible even when the player has more than three other active quests.

  • Delivery quests now display a dedicated quest completion popup when completed.

  • Seasonal recipes now receive a +1 bonus to their sell price when sold during their associated season.

  • Recipe tooltips now display their preparation method and season.

  • Unlocking items through quests or the skill tree now displays a dedicated unlock notification popup.

  • Right-click dragging an item stack now removes a single item from the stack.

  • The inventory sort function has been reactivated. Developer Note: This has been extensively tested and we believe the previous edge cases have been resolved, but please use the feature with caution and report any issues you encounter.

  • A virtual keyboard has been added for controllers, Steam Deck, and handheld devices when entering text into fields.

  • The right stick can now be used to control scrollbars throughout the UI when using a controller.

  • Controller users will now receive tooltips throughout the UI.

  • Purchasing multiple quantities of the same item from shops will now combine them into a single purchase popup.

  • The “Night City” music track has been added to the cafe.

New Items

  • Legendary Boardgames can now be obtained through the Guild of Games, with one Legendary Boardgame available for each genre.

  • The Clockmaker’s Conundrum has been added as a new boardgame unlockable through the skill tree.

  • Balloons have been added and can be received from Elizabeth as part of the new intro questline.

Balancing

  • Harbour Market is now open from 6am – 11pm Sunday–Friday and is closed on Saturdays.

  • Ivy Estates now opens on Fridays.

  • All other shops will now open from 6am on their respective opening days.

  • The maximum customer queue length has been increased to 8 positions.

  • House deed prices have been reduced:

    • Red & Blue Houses: 1,250

    • Green & Yellow Houses: 8,000

  • The EXP required for levelling has been reduced from 1,000 + 500 per new level cumulatively to 600 + 200 per new level cumulatively.

  • Stray pets will now appear only on the 20th of each month.

  • Coffee Bean bonuses have been reworked:

    • Verdant Beans: Changed from +5 sell price when served in Spring to +2 sell price on Mochi recipes

    • Carnival Beans: Changed from +5 sell price when served in Summer to +2 sell price on Pie recipes

    • Maple Beans: Changed from +5 sell price when served in Autumn to +2 sell price on Pancake recipes

    • Frost Beans: Changed from +5 sell price when served in Winter to +2 sell price on Ice Cream recipes

  • Carrot and Basil Seeds now take 2 days to grow, down from 4.

  • Phone call probability has been increased from 10% every in-game hour to 10% every 30 in-game minutes.

  • Newly arrived seated customers now have a 25% chance to change the boardgame currently being played on their chosen table, helping prevent the same boardgame from becoming permanently associated with one table, reducing uses.

  • The Mini-Quest Board will now only display quests that the player can actually fulfil using their currently unlocked recipes.

Bug Fixes

  • Slightly reduced the player collider to prevent the player from becoming stuck between tables.

  • Fixed multiple issues with UI scrolling and the scroll wheel.

  • Fixed an issue where Craft and Buy buttons did not highlight or change colour correctly.

  • Fixed an issue where simply interacting with an NPC could increase friendship without requiring the player to actually chat with them.

  • Refactored and improved pet movement to resolve various navigation issues.

  • Fixed an issue where the Heavy Snow particle system could turn off abruptly.

  • Fixed an issue where the café's outdoor name sign could extend beyond its intended boundaries.

  • Fixed an issue where purchased item popups would only appear after closing the shop UI. They will now animate correctly while the shop remains open.

  • Fixed appliance unlock issues and added additional retroactive unlocking for previously missed appliances.

  • Fixed issues where special coffee bean and boardgame protective icons could display random sprites after reloading.

  • Fixed an issue where tree planters could revert fully grown trees back into seeds after reloading a save.

  • Fixed issues with camera zoom and improved the associated player settings.

  • The player's location indicator has been temporarily removed from the map due to accuracy issues.

  • Fixed multiple performance issues across the game.

  • Fixed an issue where sound effects could change pitch midway through playback when another sound effect played simultaneously.

  • Corrected the rarity of several boardgames to better reflect their position within the skill tree.

  • Fixed issues with the property system. Players must now have both the Red and Blue Houses unlocked before the Green and Yellow House Deeds become available.

  • Fixed issues with inventory input switching between clicking and dragging when using keyboard and mouse. Inventory items now use drag and drop only for keyboard and mouse controls.

  • Fixed issues with Shift-click quick merging of inventory stacks.

  • Fixed multiple issues with controller navigation throughout the UI.

  • Fixed issues with key rebinding.