Welcome to Wishbone

A dev blog for Wishbone, a wild west-themed character drama/farming sim game. We're pushing RPG Maker VX Ace to its limits and beyond in one of the most lengthy and ambitious projects ever made with the engine. A public beta of the game's first half (through Fall of Year 1) is currently playable! See the links section for the game download.

[wishbonegame]

Fall Y1 Beta version 7.01.04 is out!

It fixes newspaper-related crashes (This Time For Real, You Guys) and adds... hmm, wait, what are these kitten particles doing here?

As usual, get the latest version here!

And for a non-patch related development update: Aside from debugging, we are working on taking inventory of the remaining story goals, ironing out some plot/quest specifics with the back half of the game before proceeding to the next season of the story. Big stuff stays the same, but some editing is going to take place to tighten up the pacing in the interest of cutting the game's full length down from 2 years to 1.5. Surprisingly little key stuff needed to be cut to hit this goal, which is... an indication that this was a good idea, hah.

Thank you again for all the feedback and bug reports, and for being patient while we slowly bring this massive project closer to completion. :)

[wishbonegame]

Hello! I've been exploring various aspects of the game while waiting for the new patch, and I have a few questions about breeding! So I've been trying to breed cows, I gave both parents some vitamins, but so far both calves have been worse than either parent in quality (bull is a 4, cow is a 3, both calves were 2). Have I just been been unlucky? I assume there's an element of randomness to it. Also is it possible to get rid of the rats there are so many of them :'D

You are correct that it's somewhat random!

The baby's minimum quality is 1 less than the worst parent quality and its maximum quality is 2 points higher than the best parent quality. The quality parameters are determined at the moment the breeding is initiated, though, so if you gave the parents vitamins after initiating the breeding, it wouldn't have any effect on the in-utero calf. Hopefully your next calf comes out better! (The sprites for the higher-quality cows are cute.)

The barn rats can be... erm... removed with the butcher knife or adopted as pets if you find a Rat Cage for sale. I'd like to make the pet cat able to suppress rats as well (the quest to get it isn't implemented yet, but I'd like to do so soon).

Thanks for playing the game! :D

[wishbonegame]

Hello! First off, I'm really enjoying the game, I'm having a blast playing through it! Unfortunately I'm encountering a persistent crash caused by (I think?) the newspaper, even on the latest version. I can't play through the second half of fall, I don't know if other people have had the same issue?

It probably is the newspaper! It seems that the greatest villain menacing the good town of Wishbone isn't the lawmen or the outlaws, but rather... Gideon Vanderdash. That fiend!

Please file a bug report here! Of particular interest is how your save file was started (is it an imported save from a previous beta? Or is it a fresh file started on the newest patch? Did you play through earlier months, or use the "Fall debug start" that starts you on Fall 1st?)

I plan to fix the currently reported bugs tonight and tomorrow and get another patch out Saturday evening. Thank you for bearing with us as we stomp out these issues!

[wishbonegame]

I have a question: the game mentions a readme file but I didn't find it in the game folder. Is this a bug? Am I looking in the wrong place?

It should be in the root of the zip file, outside the main game folder, alongside the patch notes and credits. These are the exact file names, if that's helpful for searching!

[wishbonegame]

there's so much lore and gameplay mechanics in this game! on one hand that's absolutely delightful on the other hand I'm having trouble remembering everything. honestly tempted to start a wiki, even though I've never done that before. If I (or anyone else) wanted to do that, would that be alright with y'all?

One was actually started in the past! Here's the link.

There was quite a bit of work done (particularly regarding areas, items, etc, less the characters and quests and lore) but it never got finished up and officially announced. It's also built on the Fandom Wiki infrastructure, which I know is not preferred these days, unfortunately.

I do think a wiki would be very useful to have as a resource, though!

If you or other peeps wanted to fill out the easy stuff I'd be happy to fill in some of the harder-to-map-out nitty gritty data, like complete lists of steps and fishing loot tables and such. Or just character details and trivia that fall into the "not quite a spoiler, but maybe hasn't been made obvious through dialog yet" category.

My sister holds the admin account for the Wishbone wiki and can approve any contributors as needed (we can't recall if it was set up that way or not...!) So if you wanna make an account and get started, feel free. :)

[capitainecorbeau]

it's kinda fun to see how differently a silent self-insert character ends up evolving depending on the gameplay and tone of a game. Stardew has a LOT of things to do so I ended up being a hyperactive hermit. Mistria has very friendly characters with lots of dialogue so i ended up spending lots of time with them and making money with the billions eggs I got from trying to breed chickens into rare colors. Wishbone (still in development, a new public beta came out recently go check it out -> @wishbonegame ) has you starting off flat broke in a town with very closed off characters so I played as a nosy bastard with no sense of preservation when it comes to making money!

[capitainecorbeau]

@wishbonegame knows how to get me wondering about the characters

Maybe too much

[wishbonegame]

Public Beta v7.01.03 is out!

The 7.01.03 patch mostly fixes some conversation pathing bugs in the "Official Business" quest, a couple of which could lead to soft locks in the unpatched version of the game. Other than that, the main fixes are typos and small visual issues.

...Though, huh. Did Tobias always have a mustache?

As usual, get the latest version here!

[wishbonegame]

Public Beta v7.01.02 is out!

This update fixes issues that caused the game to crash during rollover in Fall after a few days, and also fixes crashes in the Cheat! minigame, as well as a bug that blocked progress in Sam's "Den of Thieves" quest.

Download the new patch here! The README explains how to import your older saves, if you so choose.

[wishbonegame]

Just wanted to say I've been having a lot of fun with the game, I love this project so much, from the characters to the plot to the atmosphere! Also sorry for spamming the bug report form, I have been plagued by a most terrible curse named "Script 'Game_interpreter' line 1411: NoMethodError occurred". I hope things are going well for you and Iook forward to the rest of the game's development!

Thank you so much for the kind words, we really appreciate it! And we appreciate the bug reports, too!

Normally I'd have pushed out (another) patch by this point but being at a convention last week took up all my free time and brain power.

You can expect a patch this coming weekend, though! If anyone hasn't already downloaded the game, it might be a good idea to hold off until I get the big weekend patch out before taking a deep dive into it.

(Gotta love the complete dearth of useful info script errors in VX Ace give when they crash! What I wouldn't give for a proper stack trace. :I That's what the reams of debug text in the console are for, though! At some point I'd like to turn the console off for the public beta, but for now, it'll be a lifesaver for bug reports...)

[wishbonegame]

Working on the patch right now! A solid half of the bug reports are related to the same issue, a copy/paste error I made during the "start in Fall" game start mode initialization code where the block of code to initialize the newspaper was in the wrong place, resulting in it never getting created properly and crashing every time the game tried to issue a new newspaper (or you tried to read it, etc). Oops!

Going to fix that + a scattering of other (mostly minor) bugs and push out a new patch tomorrow night!

...Also, once the major bugs are stomped out, I am going to look into placing the game on itch.io for version control purposes... my friends at @forevergoldgame suggested it! That will make it a lot easier for people to track releases and make sure they're playing the latest patch.

And thank you so much to everyone who left bug reports and feedback! It means so much to us that folks are enjoying Wishbone. <3 And soon, you should be able to enjoy more of Fall, once the weekly paper stops crashing things...!

[wishbonegame]

Just wanted to say I've been having a lot of fun with the game, I love this project so much, from the characters to the plot to the atmosphere! Also sorry for spamming the bug report form, I have been plagued by a most terrible curse named "Script 'Game_interpreter' line 1411: NoMethodError occurred". I hope things are going well for you and Iook forward to the rest of the game's development!

Thank you so much for the kind words, we really appreciate it! And we appreciate the bug reports, too!

Normally I'd have pushed out (another) patch by this point but being at a convention last week took up all my free time and brain power.

You can expect a patch this coming weekend, though! If anyone hasn't already downloaded the game, it might be a good idea to hold off until I get the big weekend patch out before taking a deep dive into it.

(Gotta love the complete dearth of useful info script errors in VX Ace give when they crash! What I wouldn't give for a proper stack trace. :I That's what the reams of debug text in the console are for, though! At some point I'd like to turn the console off for the public beta, but for now, it'll be a lifesaver for bug reports...)

[wishbonegame]

i just wanted to say i've been a long time follower of your project and you've inspired me to learn to make my own game :D

it's really hard learning to pixel from scratch, but it's been a lot of fun too! so tysm for everything!

Aw thank you so much! That's so cool to hear you've taken an interest in the medium! Pixel stuff is tricky to wrap your head around but one of the nice things about it is that it's a pretty forgiving medium... even very simple or stylistically rough pixel art has a lot of charm and personality.

Best of luck to you with your projects, Anon!

[wishbonegame]

Fall Y1 Public Beta Release!

I am pleased to announce that the Wishbone Fall Year 1 beta is now available for download for Windows PCs! Go to the Beta Download page to grab the latest patch.

Wishbone is a cowboy character drama with farming sim elements. Raise critters, farm crops, and get entangled in the eccentric townspeople's personal drama via quests, minigames, tons of dialog, and a story that gradually builds in intensity as the seasons pass.

Wishbone may seem like a sleepy little town at first, but don't let the cute cow sprites fool you--this is not a cozy game. Fall of Year 1 is when the story's stakes really ramp up. The outlaw characters from Summer are back and a whole new side of the town will be revealed. Before the season is through, the player will come face to face with kidnapping, explosions, drugs, dark secrets, and death. :)

[wishbonegame]

Aaand the first major patch has already been uploaded! Please download version 7.01.01 instead! The first version from this morning has a game-breaking bug in it for the Standard Intro mode, which causes the game to try to be in Spring and Winter at the same time. Hence all the, erm, Christmas trees (and also some chars that are not supposed to be present in the town yet).

This WILL break your save if you keep playing on this file so I strongly recommend grabbing the current newest patch instead! Importing yours saves will auto-patch them as long as you're still early in Spring.

[wishbonegame]

Fall Y1 Public Beta Release!

I am pleased to announce that the Wishbone Fall Year 1 beta is now available for download for Windows PCs! Go to the Beta Download page to grab the latest patch.

Wishbone is a cowboy character drama with farming sim elements. Raise critters, farm crops, and get entangled in the eccentric townspeople's personal drama via quests, minigames, tons of dialog, and a story that gradually builds in intensity as the seasons pass.

Wishbone may seem like a sleepy little town at first, but don't let the cute cow sprites fool you--this is not a cozy game. Fall of Year 1 is when the story's stakes really ramp up. The outlaw characters from Summer are back and a whole new side of the town will be revealed. Before the season is through, the player will come face to face with kidnapping, explosions, drugs, dark secrets, and death. :)

[wishbonegame]

is there currently a way to financially support the games development? i think the team is far past the point of deserving some form of pay for all the work youve been doing and i feel like i am stealing wishbone by playing it for free

Ah, thank you for the generous offer!

Truthfully though, my intention is to never even consider taking money for the game until it's 100% complete--I just wouldn't feel good taking payment for a slow-moving and highly personal project that I can only work on in my free time.

I have a day job that pays well enough, so money is no real problem for me. Lack of free time is a far, far bigger problem... if they ever invent gift cards that add 30 extra minutes to your Saturday, I will absolutely accept those. :P But in the meantime, knowing you played the game and enjoyed it is "payment" enough!

[wishbonegame]

Fall Y1 Public Beta on the horizon!?

Hello everyone! It's been a while, hasn't it?

I've been kinda underwater with IRL stuff these last few months and was feeling frustrated making so many monthly updates that amounted to "still busy, working where I can, don't know when it'll change". So I took a little break to focus on the project more quietly.

And it's paid off! Fall Y1 is done and the private beta went out to testers yesterday. I'm going to spend the next few weeks working with them to get bugs fixed and finishing up some tertiary features (like the weekly town newspaper that reports on goings-on and the player's actions) to create something that's ready for public release.

It's a little hard to show many screenshots from Fall without going into spoiler territory because whoooa boy does the plot tempo ramp up this month. You get the chance to know the outlaw characters much more deeply and some of the existing Wishbone residents are revealed to be a little less law-abiding than they might initially appear. The cutscenes/events and quests are more involved and fancier, with more complex animations and sequences that build on what was developed for Spring and Summer. And, before the season is up, you'll see betrayal, explosions, grievous injury, and maybe even a little bit of named character death.

Yeehaw!

[wishbonegame]

September Update

It's been a busy couple of months! I've lost a lot of work-weekends this summer to life stuff--work, social engagements, getting married--but work on Fall continues nonetheless. Most of the big quests and events have been implemented--two very large ones and a handful of smaller ones remain. But I think it's far enough along that I can show you some sneak peeks at what the next season of Wishbone will bring!

The game's cast expands significantly. Several new characters will move to Wishbone as the stakes begin to rise. The outlaw faction, too, will fully reveal itself. (If you played all the way to the end of the Summer beta, you'll have gotten your first real outlaw meet-'n'-greet, but Fall sees them and their base camp become fully accessible to the player.)

Along with the new characters and new areas, some new shops and quests will appear, and the hard mode (or final stages) of several minigames will become available, allowing players to obtain the prize for "completing" them. :)

You might find that some of the townspeople have more to them than you first suspected and some of the town's darker secrets will begin to reveal themselves. In fact, it's quite possible that not everyone will make it out of this season alive...

Thanks, as always, for sticking with us during Wishbone's development! It's been a long road and there's a way to go yet, but I'm so proud of what we've put together and it's so cool to see these twists and turns play out within the game engine rather than just as words on a page. I hope that you'll enjoy it, too!