Dev Update: January 2024
Hello, Palians!
And hello to a whole new year ahead of us! Here at S6, we’re starting up the engines again, so to speak, and ready to go full steam ahead. 🚂
We’ve got a lot of exciting things to share with you all, so let’s get right into it.
An Update to Our Patch Cadence
Since Palia went into Open Beta, we’ve committed to a patch cadence of one patch every other week. And by patch, we mean fully fledged content updates chock-full of new features, quality-of-life improvements, adjustments, and bug fixes.
In total, we had nine patches (0.166 - 0.175) and more than fifteen hotfixes… all in a span of just five months.
That’s a lot! But we also don’t want to discount what it takes for a dev team to commit to such a schedule.
Going into 2024, we’re going to adjust our cadence to be closer to one major update a month (with room for some content drops in between), especially now that Palia is on multiple platforms. Of course, we want to clarify: this isn’t to say that we’ll be adding less overall. If anything, it’ll be just as much content, but at a different pace than what was done before. The intention is to ensure our updates are at a quality level that the game deserves to be, and what you, as our players, deserve to experience.
That also means a greater commitment to fixing the issues that have been raised to us, large and small. We want to thank the community and everyone’s contributions in this regard. It might not seem like it, but every ticket helps.
Up Next: Patch 0.176
With our new cadence in mind, we definitely know the question that everyone wants an answer to: So, when is the next patch going to be?
While we don’t have a more specific date at the moment, we want to be clear that the next patch, 0.176, will be further out toward the end of this month or early February. Of course, more information will be shared as soon as we can.
In the meantime, please enjoy a tease of what’s to be included:
- Celebrate the return of Maji Market — now even bigger and better! 🐲
- Looks like a bit of romance isn’t off the books for our newest villager, Subira… 👀
- Freshen up your home’s exterior with some new outdoor-focused options! 🏡
And for those wondering, Winterlights will conclude with 0.176 — so make sure to enjoy all the festivities while you still can!🎄
Get Ready to Celebrate Luna New Year
Back in August, we introduced our very first Game Event, the Maji Market. Some savvy Palians playing lately may have even noticed dialogue hints in-game from villagers mentioning its return…
…and we’re happy to share that Maji Market will be back for 0.176 to celebrate a very special occasion amongst all Palians: Luna New Year!
Majiri, Grimalkin, Galdur, and humans alike all celebrate Luna New Year as we’re all united under the watch of Palia’s two moons, one of them being Luna.
“The meaning of Luna New Year differs from person to person, culture to culture, but at its heart, it’s a celebration of community and new beginnings.” - S6 Reine, Narrative Designer
Expect an even bigger and better event in store at the fairgrounds. Exciting new activities such as a hotpot game inspired by mahjong will make their debut. And of course, tons of new fireworks, foods, and furniture options for Palians to grab while enjoying the event. 🎆
We’ll be sharing more details in an upcoming blog post, so stay tuned!
Looking Forward
It’s hard to believe that it’s been barely six months since Palia started this new chapter in our journey. All the years of work behind the scenes, and with our Alpha testers, culminated in a moment in which we finally pulled aside the curtains and showed what we had to offer to the world. 🌟
Alongside all the content updates, we even set up full regional servers for Europe and Asia-Pacific. And of course,
There’s been lots of incredible moments, and lots of learnings since then.
“If there’s one big thing that’s top of mind for us: know that there will be a committed effort to address and reduce the number of bugs presently in the game. We definitely want to acknowledge there’s quite a few and that we’re actively working on polishing Palia to be a smoother and more enjoyable experience across the board for our players. ” - S6 Aidan, Game Director
In fact, you can expect the focus on the patch after the next, 0.177, to be on fixing bugs (and a couple content additions, of course!). Beyond that, we’re also going to take a look at some hot topics in the community, such as shared resource nodes, general economy balancing, and player progression flow.
To all the Palians who have decided to join us for this adventure, thank you. We hope you’ve enjoyed the world we’ve created so far, because even more definitely awaits on the horizon. Here at S6, we’re just as excited as our players. Please look forward to it!
And as always, welcome home.