Hello leafers!

It’s Alexandra here with the monthly development update for Loose Leaf: A Tea Witch Simulator. We’ve been enjoying the latest spring blends while iterating on the results of our most recent playtest, designing new characters and adding to our relaxing soundscape with sound effects and music.


Since January, we’ve been working with Sound Designer Murray Cameron Smith and a few others from A Shell in the Pit[ashellinthepit.com] to create and implement beautiful sound effects for Loose Leaf. A Shell in the Pit has also worked on Kitfox-published Caves of Qud and other cozy games like Chicory and Cozy Grove. We think they are a perfect fit for making everything in Loose Leaf clinky and tactile-sounding.

Along with the sound effects, we have more to share from the music side of things. Composer Leaf has shared a new sample of another track on the soundtrack temporarily called ‘Bustling Theme’, intended to capture that feeling of managing a lively tea shop. Give it a listen here on Soundcloud[on.soundcloud.com] and imagine yourself calmly constructing the perfect brew for your customer. Also check out the sample on Leaf’s Twitter.[x.com]


I asked Tanya how the playtests went and she said:

“We watched a few playtesters try the gamepad controls we've been refining, as well as 3 'nights' worth of content, and although we’re always nervous before these things, the results were very positive! We gained a lot of insight. People had a relatively easy time figuring out how to pick up and pour and infuse, and there were just a few misleading notes in the tea master's journal that caused some confusion. So we have some tweaks there but people seemed to have a good time and want more, so that's encouraging.The main things we're worried about, especially in wake of the playtests, are how best to keep deepening the tea brewing, and how to approach characters. For tea brewing, I'm going to keep quiet here to avoid spoilers, but we're exploring a few mechanisms to make it more fun and expressive to brew."

Playtesting also means we can to experience fun bugs and glitches, like when the sugar suddenly becomes small boulder size:

”As for characters, we initially thought we'd have a bunch of "casual" spirits and monsters as guests that would come once or twice, and then 1-3 "main" characters, such as Pearl here, who you would get to know better over the course of the game, learning all of her secrets and eccentricities. But after thinking it through and watching the playtesters, a more even-handed ensemble approach might make more sense, as in Coffee Talk, which has the same concept but more subtly implemented.”

We're still pondering these questions and developing the world of Loose Leaf. Do you have any favorite spirits or ghost stories to share? Let us know and maybe they'll come ask for a cup of tea!

We aren’t taking on any new playtesters right now but we will fish for some in future in the newsletter. You can sign up for the newsletter here[www.kitfoxgames.com]. That’s all for now, but stay tuned next month for even more updates. I need more tea recommendations for spring, something to make me feel like I’m drinking cherry blossom season! Let me know on the loose-leaf channel on Discord! [discord.gg]

-Alexandra + Tanya

Hey leafers!

A bunch of us at Kitfox are headed to the Game Developer’s Conference next week but we thought we’d update you on how the game is going and what’s new lately!

You might have noticed that your guests in Loose Leaf are otherworldly in nature, a spirit of sorts, at least most of the time. As you get to know them better, you may come to perceive their more human side, like Fanning in the trailer:

We’ve been widening and deepening our cast with the help of Cohen Edenfield[www.cohenedenfield.com], a writer of some repute who’s helping define how the different characters talk and how they react to your brews. I don’t want to spoil anything that’s still “in the oven” so to speak, but I’m already a bit in love with Pearl, Camellia, Joncquet, Suro, and others! (Pssst also Cohen has additional hours available, if anyone’s looking for writing or narrative assistance on their own project!)

These past weeks Charly (who you may have seen in the Day of the Devs spotlight) has been focusing on supporting gamepad controls. Although we started developing for mouse and keyboard, we soon realized that for ultimate gamefeel, controllers are actually the most natural — it feels more like you’re holding an object, because you already are! Right now you look around/move with the left stick and move things around (such as tilting vessels to pour them out) with the right stick.

We’re currently building a “vertical slice” version of the game that shows off 3 days worth of content, and to do that we’ve had to improve the dialogue system to support multiple characters and better timing, borrowing a few technical elements from Boyfriend Dungeon’s dialogue system. After GDC we’ll probably have a playtest and learn more about what’s working and what isn’t. We’ll let you know what we learn!

Do you have any questions you’d ask a Loose Leaf playtester?

Blessed be your brews,

Tanya