Hello Community,

The update V1.4 is about the textures of trees and paths and includes many other small improvements. The textures of the trees were stretched in the past and therefore the trees did not look so good in the game. Now the textures are integrated into the game in double resolution.

The trees now grow gradually to full size and each have three different textures in their growth phase, which provides more variety.

The road textures have also been renewed and integrated into the game in a different way, which makes them look more harmonious.

With this update the polishing of the game is finished as far as I can see. It feels all in all good.
Next on the agenda are two more big content updates that continue the main story and answer unanswered questions, while of course also expanding the nature and farm area (new plants and trees, new animals and new nature events). Of course, this will take time and cannot be done in a weekly cycle as before. I will take it easy with these addons, because the last time was quite exhausting.

Jadawin

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Homepage: https://www.jadawinindiegames.de

Trailer English https://youtu.be/AZH1CXES4mE

Here is the link to my shop page at Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1453430?beta=0

My shop page at itch.io: https://jadawin1.itch.io/behind-the-horizon

Cool update!
You certainly put lots of hard work and love into this game.

Farming games are not my thing, but I'm considering purchasing Behind the Horizon any of these days. There are many aspects of the game that look quite appealing to me...

Meanwhile, let's toss our votes to the wishlist entry in hopes it joins GOG's catalog some day.

Looks good.
I especially like, that I can find things more easily (like my character and those blue crystal things). I assume, that's because they are depicted in a different style then the background, makes them more noticable (at least to me).
I'm still keeping my eye on this.

In case they don't bring it here I promise to boycott your game until they do! Or was it boycotting GOG until they decide to add your game? *just joking* :P

I very much hope GOG will budge on that matter and add it. You have done a great job improving on your initial release, making it look way better than some small time Indie games already being sold here. Games made by a single developer, like this WoW clone which name I can't remember ... I already voted for it, so it's GOG's turn now. Please fulfill this wish.

Looks like a nice breed between Stardew light, Diablo light, and early HoMM. It's still fascinating to see a game grow like this, especially the trees looks really nice and I like the RPG side of the game, although, I have to be honest (since this is v1.4 now):

My gf bought Stardew Valley a weeks ago and to her that one costs less and offers more (at least visually, since we haven't actually tried Behind the Horizon yet) and I have to agree. I still think $15 is too much for this. Your main problem is the huge and barren squared spaces that looks very copy-pasted, and that's why I wrote it looked like early HoMM.

The reality is that it's all about perceived value and in comprising to something else, and thus it should be reasonably priced. I think if you lowered the price (perhaps 9.99) a little you're going to see more copies sold. I would even consider buying it to my gf if you did.

And yes, I've already wishlisted it :D

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I think I'm quite comfortable with the price and every now and then there are promotions on Steam and then also on GOG, where I can give a little discount. In the end, you shouldn't forget that we developers only get about 50% of it, and some of that goes for advertising and so on.

It's also hard to estimate how much a game offers a player. Stardew is very different from Behind the Horizon, because basically my game is story based and all the other elements are interwoven with it. Just playing through the story with a minimum of farm building, side quests and exploring caves takes 50-100 hours and it is, if you like the game, no problem to enjoy it for more than 200 hours (as you can see from the first reviews on Steam). I think $15 is a good value, isn't it?

What do you mean by the "huge barren spaces"? -----------------------------------------------------

Thanks! I try to improve it further on, every time I get some new ideas from my community.

50%? Unless I've forgotten something, isn't it about 70? Both Steam and GOG take 30% which is the standard. I can understand it's not easy to put a value on the work one has done, I've even been in the same situation at one point and another, but I have to be honest (again, haven't played it) to me it doesn't look like it is worth it, compared to other games. That's the biggest reason to why I haven't bought it yet.

In CyberPlunked 2077 I could have spent 1000 hours if I wanted to because the game just resets your encounters after a few hours, and the story lasts for maybe 20 hours, and it's barely worth 30 buck... so amount of hours today is a poor measurement for how good value it is. (Then again, that one was technically a scam.)

The ARPG Rum & Gun (in EA) is also a one-man project which is actually priced a little low, and has many reviews:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1210800/Rum__Gun/ In many of the pictures and videos you've showcased the game with has these huge barren empty spaces which is the same square over and over again, that is a little turn off for me:
https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvNjc2MzM1LzUxNTQ4MDIuanBn/original/y1PxsN.jpg
https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvNjc2MzM1LzUxNTQ4MDYuanBn/original/Do2ofI.jpg

On itch.io there was one other that mentioned the same. Adding a little variety to the ground would go a long way, I think, and maybe try to fill the spaces a little.

But then again, this is just an old opinionated rambling. I might buy it on a sale one day, preferably here on GOG :)

Then I understand what you mean. Thanks for the links and the explanation.
As far as your upper world is concerned, you are free to design your farm differently. I have attached a few screenshots with a farm without large monotonous areas (but it is in the evening and therefore somewhat darker in colour).

For the paths textures I would like to have more embellishments, but so far I don't have any good ideas! Everything I have tried so far looks somehow artificial.If you have some good ideas tell me :-) !


The playtime in my case doesn't come from the fact that monsters are revived again and again and you get lost in the grinding. The world is simply interesting and the mechanics exciting. Of course, these are things you have to experience and I can write so much about them here and in the end it just looks like I'm just trying to advertise ;-) ! I don't know of any other game with a world-spanning nature simulation and it is this and everything that follows from it that makes Behind the Horizon unique.

There's actually a game that comes to my mind in that aspect: Unreal World. I am a big fan of that game and, if Behind the Horizon provides a similar nature simulation, I will certainly enjoy it.

Country road when it rains or snows? Puddles of mud and water or ice. Stone? Cover parts of it with moss. Wood path? Animal tracks, rubble and stones.

To get an idea what you could do fire up your favorite search engine and search for "Wargaming Terrain" or "Tabletop Terrains". Pinterest got some truly amazing examples

As you see there is a number of things you can do but can you? ;-)

Yes, you can make more tiles and randomize the ground a little (or have something on it). In the links I provided you can clearly see the ground tiles are not randomized, it's just the same one filling the background.

Se here for what I mean:
https://wallup.net/tile-simple-pattern-shapes-2/
https://i.imgur.com/599XOVM.png

This actually have an artificial looking when placed with other things in the scene. You've opted for a square based game graphically so this just becomes worse when the tiles have sharp edges and then repeated. And it's glaringly obvious in the cave when there are few to nothing occupying/filled on the ground.

If you've stayed in development, I wouldn't have said much, but since you've gone above and beyond the 1.0 mark, it still doesn't look good. Might be wrong here but unlike Steam, GOG has (usually) a much higher eye for quality when picking up new games. Steam is just flooded with all sorts of crap and games that straight up doesn't work.

(Though, sometimes I have to wonder since Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar is here, and the lone dev used 20-30 years on that thing(!). Again, without having tried your game yet, I'm sure it is a much better example of good modern programming, even though the tiles looks the same ;) )

Considering Knights of the Chalice and the upcoming Knights of the Chalice 2 If theirs and others not particularly looking good are for sale here - to put it mildly, Jan Robin's deserves to be here as well. Or how about a game for 14.99, which is Soul Saga developer seems to have abandoned completely by now? GOG, please remove it! Or games sold here but not supported like Monster Jam 1 and now 2 if it takes any more reasons to convince GOG to add his and remove all of theirs. ;-)

His was released and he will certainly keep supporting his baby here! Beware if he doesn't! A ticket to France would cost me a mere Euro 25.00 and Covid will not be around forever! :P

Provided he is able to sell enough copies, for maybe a tenner tops, he will be able to hire a freelancer to work on an overhaul. Meantime he could buy texture packs and alter them if he can't manage to create his own. :-)

Thanks for the link. I have looked at the pictures, and yes it looks good, but creating such textures is a completely different matter. At the moment I can't really afford a graphics professional to do it for me and I haven't found one in the open art sector yet -- but I'm not giving up ;-) !
Sooner or later I´ll do something about it :-) ! Thanks for the links .
The development of a game is over when you give up the project not before. It hasn´t anything to do which the version number. For me it was most important that the game mechanics and the story function without grave bugs and the graphics are only second in my opinion.

No, I meant the classic development staging; Alpha around 0.1+ barely playable, then beta until 1.0. full release (after that it's usually patching/DLC's). Some use the "Early Access" tag before going full release.

I understand it can be difficult when one is developing alone, so kudos for you for not giving up. Good luck further! :D