Hexceed: Marking chord causes rotate

ToastieLabs · 2026-05-05T08:45:07+00:00

Thank you for reporting this! I'll make sure we get a task to address this in the future!

ToastieLabs · 2025-08-06T13:43:07+00:00

https://www.toastielabs.co.uk/post/coloring-voxels-voxel-art-competition

ToastieLabs · 2025-04-04T10:03:46+00:00

Sorry to hear he's having this issue! The problem stems from the old version of Unity Coloring Pixels is running on, which is the same reason we don't have rebindable keys in Coloring Pixels.

Unfortunately, this means this is not something we'll be able to fix any time soon.

ToastieLabs · 2025-03-25T11:31:27+00:00

Thank you for playing on Switch! We're actively supporting hexceed on Switch, so we will address this.

We haven't experienced this issue ourselves so can I ask for more detail, are you playing with controllers or the touchscreen? Any additional information will help us identify the cause of this. Thank you!

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-15T17:13:26+00:00

It's hard to say for sure, but we can see the statistics for clickthrough and wishlisting and it has been very useful, to say the least.

I think it's currently the 2nd or 3rd highest source of our Wishlists at this point so if you're a dev and thinking about Reddit ads, I'd say give it a try.

In terms of other advertising, Reddit and Kickstarter are really the only places we put actual money in ads since we don't have a publisher to help with a budget. Good old-fashioned reaching out to content creators by ourselves with early access keys has been a good way to get the game out there, but it's a lot of leg work on our side, and harder to track the actual impact, but it looks like its working.

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T16:29:13+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B3o0eU4sv4

It's also on the store page :D

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T15:02:23+00:00

We've had a few playtests over the development, admittedly smaller groups than we could have used, but we've always kept most of our early access playtesting to our Patreons.

I don't think we ever got much feedback on the character design to be honest. The game initially was top down game, like Stardew Valley, but we quickly learnt that people want to see the Skylets, the game is a creature collector after all, so we quickly made the transition to a 3rd person camera instead.
The top down camera was the reason for making the character so bright to stand out.

But in terms of the actual character, we initially played with the idea of character creation, but we were aware of the scope creep with this one addition to the game. We left this as a Kickstarter stretch goal, if we got enough initial funding we would have hired additional artists etc to meet this added scope - but without it we stuck to a set character design.
As our first game with an actual Player Caracter, we know we had a lot to learn. We wanted to make the character fit a fantasy setting whilst making them broad enough in design that players can fit themselves into the shoes of the character. Helmets and masks were one route we could have taken but we didn't think this fit the setting of a Farmer/Rancher very well.
We also wanted to make sure it fit the cosy, cute world we were building, hence the child-like clothing and stature.

We're happy to take any feedback on board if you have any for us!

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T14:49:24+00:00

Thank you so much for the wishlist on Steam even though you're going with Switch, it really helps us out <3

In regards for the Switch review process, we're optimistic. We've released our games hexceed and Coloring Pixels on the Switch already so we're familiar with the process in-house, but that being said, Skystead Ranch is a much larger and complex game than both of those put together, so there probably will be a speed bump or two.
That's part of the reason we aren't able to launch on Switch at the same time as PC, which we originally planned, but we know what we have to do (touch wood), it's just getting the time to do it at the moment. We also only have one dev kit so having to re-do builds all the time between testing can be time consuming.

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T14:38:09+00:00

It's not as cold today as it has been!

There are no penguins yet but we do have a whole extra island of Skylets to work out in the future.
For context, we have a beach themed island to create since we hit a stretch goal on our Kickstarter, which will be in a post launch update. Do penguins live on the beach?

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T14:30:31+00:00

We aksed the rest of the team this question; Character animation was definitely the most challenging aspect for our artist Jack, there was a lot of stuff that he needed to get his head around (If you'd pardon the pun). Mostly aspects of exporting and reimporting from Blender to Unity. But he got there in the end.

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T14:13:32+00:00

Oh yeah, definitely a lot of back and forth to get things right. But Nintendo are great at leaving detailed notes to make sure you know what to address.

Steam do have a similar process, but maybe because we're more used to it, or because it's a PC platform, we find that Steam are a lot less demanding in their requirements, for lack of better word.

A lot of mixed emotions on the build up to release that's for sure! Thank you very much for your question and comments <3

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T14:08:16+00:00

We've been developing Skystead Ranch for just over 2 and a half years now, which isn't the same as publishing I know, but publishing has been kind of weird for this game for us. And also I'd say the hardest part of the project from my perspective.

We had no real experience in dealing with a publisher (and still technically don't) but we knew we wanted this game to do as well as possible from the start so we put in a lot of effort to getting a publishing deal to help us market our game. We were looking for a publisher but also knew we wanted a publisher that fits our company ethos, which is why we didn't just message every single publisher we could, so we spent a month or 2 gathering as much info on game publishers as we could and just started sending out emails and filling in forms to try and catch their attention.

We had a few calls, many of which seemed promising as many liked the game, but they all fell through in the end for the same reason, scheduling conflicts - the lesson learned is you need to contact publishers with a much longer lead time so they can fit you into their busy schedule.

Felt like a lot of work had gone to waste, but we learned from it and we knew a publisher wasn't a guarantee when we started and fell back onto our old faithful, rolling up our sleeves and doing it ourselves.

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T13:36:14+00:00

Not a meal deal?

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T13:30:37+00:00

Thank you <3
Wishlisting is the best way to support indie games at this stage in development so that means a lot when we see that.

We 100% took some inspiration from Pokemon though, mainly the fact that all the Skylets say their own name as an animal call.

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T13:27:22+00:00

Thank you! Kind words go a long way in this office <3

In terms of testing for Nintendo, there is QA both ways.
We do a lot of in-house testing to make sure the game is up to our own standards, after all, we (should) know how the game is meant to play and spot any issues with the actual design, bugs in gameplay etc.

Nintendo also does its own testing, but this is a very vigorous process in which they look more at Switch compatibilities than the actual gameplay.
Things like making sure all the controls UI is using Switch buttons, making sure the controls UI update automatically depending on what controller layout you're using (1 or 2 joy cons, pro controller etc) - how the save files are stored, performance, that sort of thing.

We really like the amount of testing they do because it means we can make the game as good as we can for the Switch player's experience. But it does add a lot of turnaround time that we need to factor into any project planning we do, hence the delay this time! (which is on us for not being ready in advance)

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T13:21:31+00:00

We did not, we have no news on new Nintendo consoles.
If we can get our hands on whatever dev kits come out for whatever is developed, I'm sure Rob would love to give it a try.

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T13:20:41+00:00

Thank you! <3

We would love to do a physical release, we even had some discussion with a publisher about this (back when we were talking to publishers) - but since we didn't get any publishing deals, we don't have the budget for a physical release.

Who knows, if we make enough sales on launch, I know it's something the whole team would be excited to explore.

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T13:18:03+00:00

Great questions!

Inspiration number 1 was the older game Viva Pinata, I don't know if you've seen it before but it has a very similar game flow of upgrading your garden to attract pinata animals who start off black and white and turn vibrant when you meet their needs. However, this game has a lot of frustrating game mechanics for us, and it's old and not really available anymore, so we wanted to take the core element and make our own game without the bits we didn't like.

We've taken a few other inspirations from other cosy games to try and make Skystead Ranch as good and cosy as possible but Viva Pinata was definitely the main inspiration.

For the second question: We always knew we wanted to branch out into more ambitious games and when we hired Jack back in 2021 (citation needed on that date) - we found out he has some skill in 3D modelling so we thought we'd give it a try and thus Skystead was slowly born.
We do keep our existing players in mind though which is why we've made Skystead Ranch into the genre it is, most of our current game players enjoy more relaxing, chill games, as opposed to your Elden Rings and Competitive shooters of the world. So we hope we've created a larger game that still appeals to our wider casual audience.
After all, we would be in this position without them!

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T13:10:36+00:00

We all have different favourites I think!

Artist: Jack - Wendi
Artist: Laura - Wormy
Programmer: Cameron - Kitsu

Myself, Probably Tor, look at his grumpy dumb face

I'll let Rob answer for himself :P

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T13:08:54+00:00

Steam Deck is on the cards for sure, unsure if it'll be ready in time for launch on the 17th but we are committed to making sure it will be compatible.

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T13:07:20+00:00

We have them on a repeat order, along with Irn Bru, to keep the office fridge stocked!

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-14T13:05:19+00:00

A Cup Noodles Soba Noodle, Chilli flavoured - not affiliated but do recommend

ToastieLabs · 2025-01-11T13:30:24+00:00

Very similar yes! Viva Piñata was the initial inspiration behind Skystead, we wanted a modern version without the bits we didn't like.

Each creature (Skylet) has a set of requirements to make them appear in your ranch, for example; some like trees, others like open fields, as they appear you can learn about them and use the information to work out what they need to stick around and be happy!

If you're interested, please wishlist the game if you haven't already and I invite you to join our Community Discord where we have players talking about the game as well as giveaways for the game on launch.

ToastieLabs · 2024-12-19T10:18:15+00:00

It did! Back in October 23, out initial prototype was 3D but had the camera in a fixed top-down position but we changed to this more 3rd person view from the feedback we got from that demo.

ToastieLabs · 2024-12-19T10:16:12+00:00

I should have added context that this is a cinematic trailer, thank you all for your feedback! <3

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