March 2021 Update: Locking orders, preparing for merchandise production, and development updates!
about 3 years ago – Thu, Mar 04, 2021 at 12:20:09 AM

With the short month of February behind us it's time for yet another monthly update on Sovereign Tea! We've been thrilled at the recent progress we're making and would like to share some of that with you today. Let's get to it!

Updated Timeline of Rewards

Before we dive into gameplay updates, we want to answer some frequently asked questions regarding the merchandise of the game and when rewards will be sent out. Let's first note that orders have been locked. This is important because it allows us to accurately determine the exact quantity of rewards we need to produce. You are still able to update your addresses by going to our BackerKit. If there is an issue with your order or you need to make a last-minute change, please contact us immediately.

With that out of the way, let's take a look at the remaining approximate timeline for delivery. Please note that this has changed since the last update and is subject to further changes.

• March 15 - We charge credit cards for add-ons that you may have purchased. We b
• April 2 - We send a reminder to update your addresses if necessary.
• April 15 - Addresses are locked.
• April 22 - We begin to ship out the physical rewards. Tracking numbers will be provided.

If you are intending to move after the addresses are locked please contact us immediately. We want to ensure every backer gets their rewards! We're able to hold onto your order and ship it later as necessary, so just let us know.

Release Schedule for the Game

We've received questions about when the game will be released. The estimated release of the game, noted on the Kickstarter page, is May 2021. There are only a few months between then and now, so let's break down what our plan looks like:

• March - Finish development of all units and levels. Finish all character sprites.
• April - Finish all writing. Finish all unit sprites. Fix bugs. Optimize performance.
• May - Finish all audio work. Finish all UI art. Final polish passes. Release. 
• June - Post-release fixes based on feedback as necessary.

Gameplay Development Updates

We post our gameplay-centric updates to our itch.io in order to target a wider audience. In our latest post we discuss how we build levels from the ground up, showcase a handful of new units, and reveal a new Coffee Regent, Marocchino! Marocchino, shown above, is the in-game cousin of Café au Lait, the most fearsome of the Coffee Regents. Check out our latest devlog update and learn more!

Thank you for supporting the development of Sovereign Tea! Be sure to follow us on social media, on Twitter, Facebook, and Discord. Until next time!

February 2021 Update: Reward tier updates! Teas revealed!
about 3 years ago – Wed, Feb 03, 2021 at 06:36:19 PM

Hey everybody, we hope your 2021 has been going swell so far. We're back once more with a monthly update on what's been happening with the development of Sovereign Tea. There are lots of exciting things to discuss, so let's dive in!

Backer-Designed Tea Units

We're proud to showcase five new units for the game. These ones are special, however, as they're designed by those who backed our title at the highest tiers! We'd like to introduce these in order, noting that gameplay may still evolve as playtesting occurs:

•  Knightea Knight is a scary and powerful soldier that rides a silly tea spirit horse that's way too small for it. This rather expensive brew has the ability to strike enemies from afar.
•  Alpine Ranger is a healer tea that wears an extremely comfortable coat. It has the ability to make units it heals temporarily impervious to damage.
•  Lapidarian Mystic is a position-aware healer based on the famous tea, Da Hong Pao. It can only heal units diagonal to it, but the further the unit is, the better the healing will be.
•  Blushing Honeybomb is a cute little lethargic fellow. When it dies it explodes and causes adjacent units to get sticky, slowing them down. Once it explodes, it reveals a Tea of War that was hiding inside!
•  Refined Fusilier is a position-aware ranged attack tea. It can only attack in the four cardinal directions, and it might end up hitting an ally, but once it lands a hit it's sure to pack a punch.

We'd like to thank our backers for working quickly with us to get these designs ready. Bringing them to life has been a lot of fun!

T-Shirt Design Revealed

We're pleased to show the final design of our Tea VS Coffee "tea"-shirt. Some backers already have this shirt included through their pledge tier, but if you don't and want it, or if you want another one, head on over to our BackerKit page and add it as an extra.

Tea Flavors Revealed

One of our primary rewards was tea. After all, what could be a more fitting reward for a game about tea than a nice refreshing cuppa? We're pleased to announce the final flavor palettes:

•  White Tea: white peony blend with blueberries
•  Green Tea: slightly spiced green tea blend with vanilla and chocolate
•  Herbal Tea: chamomile with hints of rooibos and a touch of lemon balm
•  Black Tea: lavender earl grey and hazelnut blend with raspberry pieces

If you want to modify your tea selections or adjust your orders, please do so on our BackerKit page.

Updated Delivery Timeline

We have an updated timeline for when rewards will be delivered. These have been updated since our last monthly post. The intended release date remains May 2021.

• February 28 - We send the final notifications to confirm your survey answers.
• March 15 - We lock all orders. You must have your survey filled by this date to receive your rewards.  Locking orders is important as it will allow us to verify inventory.
• March 22 - We charge cards for add-ons that you may have purchased via BackerKit.
• March 29 - We lock addresses. If you're intending to move after this period of time  but before the rewards are shipped, please reach out to us immediately.
• April 19 - With all the above finalized, we ship out physical rewards.

More Dev News!

We have more to say about the game's development that isn't related to Kickstarter. Check out our latest devlog on itch.io to learn more! Who knows, you might even meet a new Coffee Regent...!

Thank you for supporting the development of Sovereign Tea! Be sure to follow us on social media, on Twitter, Facebook, and Discord. Until next time!

Sovereign Tier Commission Reward Fulfillment Underway!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 07:56:59 PM

Those of you who have backed Sovereign Tea at its highest tier, the Sovereign Tier, have the unique and fun opportunity to design your own Tea or Coffee Minion for the game! We've started reaching out to some of you to begin this process. We'd like to give more detailed explanations of how it works, what to expect, and what to have prepared when we begin these conversations.

When do the units appear in the game?

In the reward, we explicitly state that you get to make either a Tea Minion of a Coffee Minion. Tea Minions are brewable by the player. They will be discovered through the Kitchen mechanic in Fort Steep, an area where you can combine resources together to create new and exciting units. Following that, you will be able to utilize these new units in levels by customizing your per-level loadout, another feature that is coming to the full game. Coffee Minions, on the other hand, will appear in various levels. Enemies will have access to them as appropriate. They show up a lot less frequently as a result of this, so we would recommend making a Tea Minion unless you really want to do the opposite.

We cannot entertain or create units that do not belong to either team, as that is a fundamental change to the game's mechanics.

Guidelines for unit creation based on art direction

All Tea and Coffee Minions in the game are stylized by having a blue head adorned with either a tea leaf or a coffee bean. There is a slight exception allowed to this rule: the absolute top-tier units (e.g. Stoma, Soluble Admiral, Coffeecake) are allowed to adjust their heads, so long as the tea leaf or coffee bean is incorporated in the visual design. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is communication to the player on which team the unit belongs to. The general rule is as follows:

• Units are always brewed using their team's primary resource (tea leaf, coffee bean)
• Additionally, units may be brewed with up to three special resources
• If the unit is brewed with 2 or less special resources, it must conform with a standard unit head
• If the unit is brewed with 3 special resources, it must not use the standard unit head
• An exception exists where if a unit's stats are powerful enough to be comparable to a unit made with 3 special resources, it may be treated as such, e.g. Soluble Admiral

There is finally a question about animals, as multiple people have requested dog-like units in the past. We need to make this clear: This is a game where minions die frequently. We cannot show animal death in this game. As a result, we cannot simply take a dog designed to look like a retriever and give it a tea leaf. Imagine it this way: if the player base can summon golden retrievers with features that match reality, only to have those units very quickly die, they would be disturbed and upset.

That said, there is a way around this: the universe has a concept of animals presenting themselves as either Tea or Coffee Spirits. You can think of these as animated blobs of liquid, where the liquid is either made of tea or coffee. These creatures can represent a very stylized animal, but will not be adorned with a tea leaf or coffee bean, as they are not the unit itself. Using this framework, you can have a Tea Minion riding a Tea Spirit that functionally and slightly visually behaves as a horse.

The last note is on animation capabilities of the title. Each unit essentially gets one bitmap that is custom-animated to stretch, skew, bounce, and transform in its own unique way. There are no specific unique combat animations, for example. Assume you get one bitmap to work with as the result. If your idea doesn't work out because of that restriction, we recommend either rethinking it or talking to us to see how we can present the intent of your unit.

It is critically important to remain consistent in our art direction even with these commissioned units to have the most cohesive final product. If you do have specific questions on what can and cannot be done with the units, please ask us and we will answer!

A note on gameplay mechanics

Ultimately, one of our goals of this tier is to help take your initial unit idea and create an enticing unit true to your theme out of it. We expect most to not have any hard gameplay mechanics known yet, but if you are somebody who wants to talk shop on mechanics, our advice is to play the beta of the game first. There are 8 levels available to you, all of which should illustrate how the game works. It's very likely an idea you have may already be in the game, so we highly recommend going through this step first.

The reason for this is we don't want you to be set on a unit that, ultimately, wouldn't be great for the game. It would be a shame to have a commissioned unit not be liked or enjoyed by players, after all. We're here to help guide the conversation such that your unit will be the best it can be; we want players to fall in love with your creations!

How to start the process of making a unit

The best way to get the conversation started is to join us on our Discord server. Once you join, please DM me at marimo#5968. Once I confirm that you have indeed backed at the Sovereign Tier, we can get the conversation started. Here's how we expect it to go:

• We schedule a time for you, myself, and our designer to talk, preferably on voice, but text works too if you do not wish to use a microphone.
• We spend an hour going back and forth on your unit pitches. You may bring multiple if you're uncertain on which to choose, and we can help find the one you're most excited about. You can start with a vague idea, e.g. a unit that surfs, or something more specific with a sketch of your idea.
• After we chat, if we have reached an agreement on which unit we are to pursue in terms of its mechanics, we will send the ideas over to our artist to start sketching concepts out.
• You will look at the concepts and provide feedback on which one it is you want us to push forward with. If none hit the mark, you can also ask us to try again, providing new details on what should change.
• Once the unit's visual concept is decided upon, we will move forward with implementing the unit in the game and working on its final art and animation.
• We will share the unit, now in a completed state, to you once more for final approval. Once approved, it's in the game!

Do reach out to us sooner than later so we can get the ball rolling. We're really excited to hear what it is you've come up with, and we cannot wait to work alongside you. Thank you!

January 2021 Update: New beta update, rewards timeline, and more!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Jan 04, 2021 at 01:28:06 PM

Happy New Year! It's time for another monthly update on Sovereign Tea and its development. Let's start by answering some Kickstarter-specific questions that have come up regarding the timeline of the project.

When will the game come out?

Excellent question. All our reward tiers state that the intended release is May 2021, which is only a few months away. If you backed at the appropriate tier, you can already play the closed beta of the game. If you haven't gotten access to that yet, please head to our BackerKit page, fill out your survey, and redeem your beta keys.

When will the rewards come out?

The same answer as before: May 2021. We want to ship the rewards all at once, which means we need to wait for all the BackerKit surveys to be fulfilled. An estimated schedule is below:

• February 15 - We send the final notification to confirm your survey answers.
• March 1 - We lock all orders. You must have your survey filled by this date to receive your rewards. Locking orders is important as it will allow us to verify inventory.
• Early March - We charge cards for add-ons that you may have purchased via BackerKit.
• Mid-March - We lock addresses. If you're intending to move after this period of time but before the rewards are shipped, please reach out to us immediately.
• May 1 - With all the above finalized, we ship out physical rewards.

When will the designs of the t-shirt and flavors of the tea blends be finalized?

This month. Stayed tuned!

For those of you that do have the beta, we released a significant update to the beta just yesterday. This update, v0.3.2, we're dubbing the Quality of Life (QOL) update, as it addresses a significant amount of player feedback we received recently. We introduced new features to the game as well, including the Libary at Fort Steep, where you can both replay past Fort Steep conversations and read in-universe books.

Most notably, we added a new piece of music to the game. This Kickstarter was to fund music, after all! The new track plays during the Genmaicha-Mailbox conversation and replaces the previous track for the duration of her cutscene. Now that you can replay past conversations, go give it a watch and listen.

Check out our latest devlog on itch.io to both download and learn more about the update.

Thank you for supporting the development of Sovereign Tea! Be sure to follow us on social media, on Twitter, Facebook, and Discord. Ta-ta for now!

December 2020 Devlog
over 3 years ago – Wed, Dec 02, 2020 at 08:00:15 PM

It's us again, here to give you the latest news on the development of Sovereign Tea! Before diving into that, we'd like to take note of a few Kickstarter-specific items:

• If you have not already, please fill out your BackerKit survey. You can always update your answers later, but the earlier the better! This is especially important since we've already started distributing digital beta keys for the game through that platform.
• As you can see in the image above, we've recently received our supply of wooden charms, a backer reward. They're quite large and looking really nice! We'll have more updates on backer rewards in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

Every month we put out a devlog documenting the progress we've made on the game. You can now read our latest devlog on itch. In it, we discuss three important topics:

• Beta: Future QOL Work
• Beta: New Feature -- The Library
• Full Game: Mate and New Tea Units

All the details are in the devlog, so we'll keep this email short. Thank you once again for supporting Sovereign Tea! Be sure to follow us on social media, on Twitter, Facebook, and Discord. Until next time!