Accessibility Options for Botany Manor, Mythwrecked and Princess Farmer Revealed Today During the Access-Ability Summer Showcase

Today, we’re excited to share our participation in the first annual Access-Ability Summer Showcase. The inaugural event, hosted by Laura Kate Dale and sponsored by I Need Diverse Games, featured recently released and upcoming video games made by disabled game developers and games that feature accessibility settings that help to ensure more disabled gamers are able to play. During the showcase, we shared several videos that provided detailed explanations of the accessibility features available in upcoming and existing titles, including upcoming games Botany Manor and  Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island, and the fan-loved Princess Farmer.

During the showcase, Chief Accessibility Officer, Britt Dye, revealed for the first time some of the accessibility features included in Botany Manor and Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island. With accessibility at the forefront of the development process, both titles include a variety of options to help players enjoy a relaxing, inclusive gaming experience.

Watch the videos revealed during the Access-Ability Summer Showcase below:

Botany Manor accessibility features include:

• Field of view slider for a customized point-of-focus experience

• Camera X/Y inversion

• Camera smoothing and motion sensitivity sliders to alleviate motion sickness

• Plain text overlay of all text for greater visual clarity

• Toggle / hold option for “look around” view that allows the player to view their surroundings while standing still

• Single-button sprint toggle

• Single stick mode allows the game to be played with one hand

• No time limit to allow players to explore and solve puzzles at their own pace

Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island accessibility features include:

• High-contrast text / backgrounds with text presented in a readable sans-serif font by default for greater visual clarity

• Dark and light mode text display options

• Several dialogue scrolling options, including dialogue speed settings, no dialogue scrolling, and dialogue auto-play

• Visual, audio, and haptic feedback to alert players as they solve puzzles and explore

• Dynamic tracking camera

• Sprint toggle 

• Full key remapping

• Haptics toggle

• Non-Dialogue Captions for ambient and environmental sound effects

In addition, match-3 visual novel Princess Farmer – a game created with diverse representation and accessibility in mind – detailed some of the accessibility features that were implemented into the game right from the start of development. After Samobee Games game designer, artist, and story creator suffered a hand injury, she decided to create a game that was easy to pick up and play with one hand.

Watch the video revealed during the Access-Ability Summer Showcase below:

Accessibility features in Princess Farmer include:

• One-handed gameplay for both controller and keyboard

• Game modes to accommodate different play styles and gameplay experiences

• Non-gated story advancement

• Skippable dialog and interactions

• A variety of button mapping options for controller, keypad and mobile 

• Haptic feedback

• Separate audio channels for music and in-game alerts

• High-contrast text and font control for increased visual clarity

• High-contrast colours and shapes for easier matching

• No screen shake

• Optional match flashing 

A full detailed description of Princess Farmer’s accessibility features can be found here: https://whitethorngames.com/princessfarmer/accessibility.

[Press Release] Christmas Comes Early With a Prequel to Lake – Announced Today During The Mix | Guerrilla Collective 2023 Showcase

Christmas Comes Early to Providence Oaks in New DLC For Mail Delivery Narrative Adventure Lake

Announced During The Mix | Guerrilla Collective 2023 Showcase, the Prequel Story, Season’s Greetings, Introduces New Story Lines and New Characters to the Peaceful Oregon Town  

Erie, Pennsylvania (June 7, 2023) – Today, developer Gamious and publisher Whitethorn Games unveiled the announcement trailer for Season's Greetings: a holiday-themed DLC prequel to the successful and relaxing mail carrier game Lake. 

In Season's Greetings, players will take on the role of Thomas Weiss, father to Lake's protagonist Meredith Weiss. The story takes place during 1985's holiday season, in the year before the original Lake game.

The trailer was first revealed during The Mix | Guerrilla Collective 2023 Showcase. Watch it here:

"We can't wait for players to jump back into Lake's world, which might look even prettier covered in a layer of snow, and cheered up with lots of Christmas lighting,” said Gamious' Creative Director Jos Bouman. "As far as we know, Season's Greetings might be the first game that doesn't just add a visual layer to make it a 'Christmas game', but is built from the ground up to let players experience a game in the true spirit of Christmas. With the annual bombardment of Christmas-themed music and movies, we think it's about time to add a holiday game to that tradition!”

"Players also don't have to worry that the Lake ending they chose won't be compatible with Season's Greetings, as the prequel takes place nine months before the events of Lake," adds Bouman.

Season's Greetings will offer the same relaxing gameplay as Lake. While this new chapter will star many familiar faces, it will also introduce five completely new characters to the town of Providence Oaks, each of them with their own slice-of-life storylines. Changing the perspective from Meredith to her father, Thomas, presents a new perspective on the relationship Meredith has with her parents for players to explore. Players will also get to find out more about some of the unanswered questions that were teased in Lake, and learn more about life in Providence Oaks and its inhabitants, and the positive role an amiable mailman can play in all sorts of small-town drama.

In Lake, travel back to 1986 and take on the role of 40-something-year-old Meredith, who leaves the fast-paced drudgery of her big city life and returns to her quiet, rustic hometown. During her two-week stay in the beautiful lakeside community of Providence Oaks, Oregon, she’ll fill in for her father – the local mail carrier – where she will not only deliver letters and parcels to new and old friendly faces but will also rekindle old friendships, make new ones, and maybe even find romance.

At the end of her vacation, will Meredith return to the big city, or will she choose a different path for her life? It’s up to players to steer the story how they see fit in this slice-of-life interactive game.

Key Features of Lake include:

• Travel back to 1986 and escape to a beautiful, rustic town that is free of the stresses of smartphones, the Internet, and social media.

• Ditch that city life and desk job and go to drive your father's mail truck in rural Oregon, or kick up your feet and let auto-pilot do the work.

• Choose from a variety of after-work activities that include hanging with friends, helping out your neighbors, or staying in with a good book.

• Experience a branching story that doesn’t shy away from slice-of-life themes. Like life, there are no right or wrong answers.

Lake is available now on PC via Steam, or Epic Games Store, on PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X|S. Lake: Season’s Greetings will be released on PC and several other platforms this holiday season. More info about the precise release date and launch platforms will be revealed in the coming months.

Follow Lake on Twitter, Facebook, and visit the official website, for more updates. 

For more updates from Whitethorn Games, follow the publisher on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitch, join the official Whitethorn Games Discord, and visit https://whitethorngames.com.

A press kit including art, screenshots, logos, and trailers can be found here: https://cozygames.pub/Lake-Press-Kit. 

To learn more about the accessibility features available for Lake, visit: https://whitethorngames.com/lake/accessibility. 

About Gamious

We are Gamious, a game developer based in Haarlem, The Netherlands. We love to create original and accessible games with pure gameplay – games we love to play ourselves. We either self-publish, work with publishers, or a mix between these two, to get the games to the right platforms. For more information, visit: https://www.gamious.com. 

About Whitethorn Games

We’re an indie game publisher focusing on pleasant, low-stress games that can be played in pieces, that require no special skills or knowledge and that anyone can pick up and play. We’re believers in accessibility, inclusion, and widening the audience that gets to play. We like to consider ourselves the defenders of easy games. While our games might challenge you, they’ll respect your time, they’ll make sure you can play, and most importantly, they’ll never punish you. Learn more at whitethorngames.com.

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PRESS CONTACT

Lisa Mior and Yared Admasse
Whitethorn Games
press@whitethorngames.com
whitethorngames.com

We're not Pollen your Leg - Beekeeping Sim APICO is Coming to Xbox June 22!

Have you heard the Buzz?! The Queen is calling, and Honey, you better Bee-hive because on June 22, the bee-utiful beekeeping sim from publisher Whitethorn Games and developers TNgineers, APICO, is coming to the Xbox One and Series S|X!

Check out the trailer below!

APICO combines resource gathering, biology, and minigames with ideas from both real-life and fantasy beekeeping and gardening, as it teaches players about the ins-and-outs of maintaining a healthy hive and the importance of our irreplaceable pollinating pals. The islands of APICO were once abuzz with different species of bees, and it’s up to players to rediscover lost species, cross-breed new ones, and repopulate each unique bee-ome. Progressing further into the game may also uncover some forgotten secrets. 

As well, a portion of the games’ profits goes toward bee conservation. Full details about these efforts can be found here: https://apico.buzz/savethebees.

Features of APICO include:

• Play together with up to four in online co-op, with cross-play available on all platforms!

• Unique crafting and beekeeping minigames that drive gameplay progression

• Cross-breed different bees to discover over 30 new species

• Make and sell honey, Apicola, and other beekeeping products

• Repopulate lost species and release them back into the wild

• Multiple biomes to explore, each with their own unique bee species

• Uncover the forgotten secrets of the APICO Islands

But(terfly) wait – there’s more! Included at launch is the highly anticipated Update 2.0: I Can’t Beelieve It’s Not Butter(flies)! The new update is honey in the bank with the wild amount of new content, including new pollinators, new characters to meet, and more:

• New NPCs: New friends from the mainland, Cody and Sto, have come to the APICO Islands to further their research.

• Butterflies: Discover, collect and breed a variety of brand-new pollinators.

• Solitary Bees: These new pollinators prefer to do things on their own – build new solitary bee hotels and help them along!

• New Flowers: Now, there are more ways to keep the pollinator population happy – each new flower has its own new effect on the environment.

• Incense: Through the magic of alchemy, make your own incense and candles!

• Bee-Sides: New tracks have been added to the chill soundtrack

• And More: New books, decorations, and a host of quality-of-life improvements have been added.

Find out more details about Update 2.0: I Can’t Beelieve It’s Not Butter(flies)! here. 

APICO is currently available on PC via Steam, Epic Game Store, Humble Games, itch.io, Utomik, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Nintendo Switch™. The game will be available on Xbox One and Xbox Series S|X on June 22, 2023. 

Get Cozy With Whitethorn Games During the Cozy & Family Friendly Games Steam Event!

Get ready to get cozy! The Cozy & Family Friendly Games Steam Event is now live! 

Hosted by Roka Play, the event runs from June 1 through June 5 and features dozens of fun, relaxing, adorable games for everyone to enjoy, including Lake and Calico. Throughout the event, demos for many of the titles will be available, as well as some terrific discounts.

Visit https://store.steampowered.com/sale/cozyfamilyfriendlygamescelebration to check it out!