Hi everyone! Ivan's here. In this springey update i will be introducing some new features, a lot of fixes and the super mega awesome Polish localization made by Cubey!! Let's go!

• Polish localization: hey, our community member Cubey made this awesome thing come true! He translated the full game to Polish, so now we have a third language supported, apart from English and Italian. I'm so grateful for this: thank you!!
• Big backpacks have been added to the Vanilla game! Now we have a second and larger kind of backpack that can be used in game, it contains 12 slots compared to the small one which contains only 9 of them. Happy backpacking!
• Been fixed the hats and clothing achievement which was fired only on clicking on the use button (the gear one). Now it's correctly applied even by dragging stuff on the relative inventory (head and body).
• The crafting window is now diplaying more infos in the detail panel of each recipe and is also correctly displaying the ingredients tooltip.
• Fixed a bug in the crafting system which used to remove more items of the same type when crafting a recype marked with a wildcard in some ingredients list item. Now this is not happening anymore. Yuppi!
• As many users reported to me the game was producing strange and annoying sounds each time you loaded a savegame. This was a bug causated by the game updating it's status and making weird noises in the process. Now those annoying sounds are gone forever and we will not miss them!
• Labels, labels, labels. Why those labeling fixes do never end? I will survive them and fix them all!
• Credits have been updated, to make space for some of our awesome community members!

So this is all for this latest patch! I wish you to have a cool springtime, even if many of us have to face this strange and bad situation of the coronavirus. Many of us are stuck at home, myself included, many are in a struggle with their job, and many also had friends or relatives struck by this awful disease. I would like to wish you all of the luck in this situation, and i hope we will be out of this soon and also that we can learn something from it: this capitalist frenzy that we call modern society is killing us all, even those who - apparently - have much more privileges from it. We'll have to rethink it in some ways, since going back to the same point where all of it started would be like just going on for another crisis, which next time will maybe struck even worse. Let's think about it, and stay strong everybody in those grim times. For the next days I'll be here developing, and fixing stuff as usual. Please get in touch if you need help, or if you just want say hello! Happy Hard Times! iv.

[ 2020-04-27 14:50:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, Ivan's here! In this update i'm releasing the new command line console, which is an aid tool intended to help out for testing, modding and everything you want. There are also other implementations and a number of fixes. So let's list them all:

• The new console is available to the public branch from this update. Use F6 to open it and type 'Help' to start with a list of all the available commands. Each command can be called with the -h parameter to get additional, detailed help. For now the commands come in a limited number, but i'm planning on expanding them in the future. Also, it's important to note, commands can be expanded and modded via c# using the modding engine. This way people can write their own commands and share them with the community via modding.
• Application logging has been disabled by default in the build, to improve performance. It can, however, be activated and deactivated via the console. Press F6 to open it up and type Help for getting help on available commands.
• I Fixed an old time bug regarding tooltips appearing empty on some Linux installations. It was, basically, a resolution problem. Thanks to Cubey for helping out in recreating and understanding where it came from.
• I added two new configurable parameters to shops in the game: achievementOnRob and achievementOnSteal. Respectively giving you the opportunity to customize achievements fired up when robbing a shop or stealing an item from it. If omitted they will default to "RobShop" and "StealItem".
• As per the previous new feature I added a new achievement to the vanilla game: RobShop will be fired the first time you rob a shop.
• In the last updates we've been struggling a bit with shop refill routines, fixing and re-fixing them again and again, cause we didn't find the correct way to approach the problem. Now it SHOULD be fixed forever and ever, since the routine is now correctly taking into account the maxQuantity and minQuantity parameters specified in the shoppables list of each shop.
• Fixed a small bug which fired an error message when leaving certain scenes. It was there, not affecting anything apparently, but now is gone and we wont miss it.
• As always i'm fixing ever more labels patch after patch. They never end, labels are evil and them want me to turn crazy and howl at the moon.

This is it for this latest update. Let me know if you need help, if you want to mod console commands, if you want to report bugs or want me to implement some fancy new feature in the game (in the latter case i will probably decline, but you never know, sometimes some ideas are brilliant and i love them). As always thanks a lot for your support, your patience, and for playing my game, which is the most important thing right here. See you in the next days, for new updates, new patches and new labels to fix! iv.

[ 2020-04-19 12:35:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

I've pushed on the Beta branch the "console update". Now there's a command line console in-game (press F6 to open it) which you could use to manipolate doors and spawn items. The console backbone is there and is working, but there are few commands implemented. Another notable thing is that the console is fully moddable. You can write you own customized commands in c# and feed them to the modding engine for them to be used in the console. This way it will be possible to create mods expanding the console capabilities and such things. I will implements new commands as i see fit, and as i get the time, and i would like to hear from you which commands you feel could be most useful, so that i can work on them. Also if you write useful commands that you would like to see in the vanilla game for everyone to use just get in touch with me and we will see. As always, thanks everyone, and get in touch with me if you need further infos on how that works. I didn't manage to write a proper guide for it yet. But i will do asap. Happy Hard Times! PS: check this guide if you need to know how to get into the beta branch https://steamcommunity.com/app/907410/discussions/0/2264689848036012849/

[ 2020-04-17 11:40:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Ivan's here. In this latest patch i'm going to address some fixes but also i will introduce some new features regarding items and modding. So let's start!

• robbery_effect: the effect fired when robbing a shop is not fixed anymore but can be modified and changed by modding. Every shop now has a "robberyEffect" property that defaults to "robbery_effect" but can be changed and set to a custom effect if needed. For example: { "shopId": "Business Mailbox", "shopSpriteName": "business_mailbox.png", "shopType": "Shop", "openHour": 23, "openMinute": 59, "closeHour": 00, "closeMinute": 00, "refillIntervalMins": 60, "robberyDuration": 10, "robberyRecoveryMins": 500, "effectNeededToRob": "business_key_effect", "robberyEffect": "business_mailbox_effect", "shopMinItemsDropOnRob": 5, "shopMaxItemsDropOnRob": 5, "shoppables": [ { "itemId": "business_contracts", "itemType": "SpecialItem", "price": 1000, "minQuality": 4, "maxQuality": 4, "minQuantity": 5, "maxQuantity": 5 } ] } This example of usage is taken from the BigLife mod by XC.
• maxUses property for items: i've implemented a new property to the BaseItem class called maxUses which controls how many times items can be used before being destroyed. It defaults to 1 but can be raised to create multi-usage items. Example: { "itemId": "Old Goat liquor", "itemSpriteName": "old_goat.png", "itemExpiration": 43800, "maxStackable": 1, "maxUses": 5, "itemEffectOnUse": "alcohol_effect", "achievementsOnUse": "UseAlcohool", "achievementsOnCraft": "BrewAlcohol", "effectModifiers": [ { "statId": "playerTemperature", "statModifier": 5 }, { "statId": "playerClean", "statModifier": -2 }, { "statId": "playerSpeed", "statModifier": -0.3 }, { "statId": "playerScandal", "statModifier": -2 } ] } This example is taken from the Vanilla game
• Now equipping a blanket in your equit slot will make you wrap in it like a burrito. This is going to give you some additional warmt modificator. Neat and easy. Thanks to Mike Yamato for suggesting it to me.
  
• Added support for items containers to have up to 30 slots! This is following the recent update which introduced big containers furnitures. So now also container items (bags, backpacks and so on) can sport lots of slots. In a next patch i will introduce also some big backpacks in the Vanilla game. Until then this feature will be available only via modded content.
• Fixed the Scaby Doo liniment description, which was still missing!!!
• Camping tent confort value was raised due to balancing problems. It is now more comfortable that a bench or a carton box bed.
• The text of the better cardboard bed quest for Harry has been slightly modified to make more clear that he is referring to a Better cardboard bed.
• Some italian localization labels were fixed due to the famous neverending label fixing effect, which causes localization labels to have always some more to be fixed, more and more, for ever and never finishing even if i continue to fix them day after day.

Hey, looks like that's all for now! Those were the patch notes, me it's Ivan, the game is Hard Times and you players are awesome. Thank you for all your support! Happy Hard Times everybody! iv.

[ 2020-04-16 10:16:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everybody! Ivan's here. In this big new patch the game is receiving a good amount of fixes and improvements, focused especially on modding. So let's start the dance:

• Added support for scripting custom state machine actions for Npc's ai behaviours. Those new actions can be scripted in c# and can be attached to player effects and executed on player interaction. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities for modders to create brand new and complex behaviours for in game's npcs. I also made a small and ameliorable guide on the official Hard Times Wiki. I am juggling between fixing stuff, developing new features, writing docs, helping players. So have pity on me if the guide is kinda small and not excellent. I will, nonetheless, be super happy and available to help any single modder who should need clarifications, help or anything. Just get in touch with me via mail, steam forum or discord.
• Also on the modding end i added a super small helper for those who are creating custom modded scenes or are editing the vanilla ones, adding stuff, npcs and more. Now while playing in any game scene you can press and hold the F5 key and a small widget will apear telling you the exact ingame coordinates under the mouse cursor. This is meant to help you placing shops, people, spawners and so on while designing custom scenes.
• Another fix on the modding engine is the introduction of the custom shop collider offset properties in the custom scene json document. Now you can use it to fix the default offset the colliders has on vanilla shops objects (which is: 0.25,-0.63). This way you can avoid having collider not properly centered on your custom shops sprites. Just set in manually to 0,0 to have it properly centered. This is an example from the forthcoming new version of the Bestfriends mod by XC: { "sceneId": "zero", "sceneDirectory": {}, "doOverwriteBaseproperties": false, "pavementSpriteName": "", "objects": [ ], "doors": [ ], "shops": [ { "modShopId": "Business Mailbox", "shopInteractableDistance": 2, "modShopPositionX": -14.00, "modShopPositionY": -5.7, "shopColliderWidth": 1, "shopColliderHeight": 1, "shopColliderTrigger": false, "shopColliderOffsetX": 0, "shopColliderOffsetY": 0, "modShopRotation": 0 }], "spawners": [ ] }
• A bug was fixed causing items defined without explicitly setting the effectModifiers array to empty, in the case there was none to declare, causing the item to not work properly. As of now, instead, you can safely omit that parameter from modded items definition, in case such items do not need it and have no effect modifiers set.
• Fixed shop robbing which still had problems after last week's fixes. Now the drop rate is consistent and correct. Plus i added another configurable parameter "shopMinItemsDropOnRob" in addition to the one introduced last time (was shopMaxItemsDropOnRob) to completely define the robbery drop rate of any single shop in the game.
• Added medium (12 slots) and large (15 slots) containers furnitures in the Vanilla game. Nonetheless the game supports containers furnitures of up to 30 slots for modded furnitures. Actual supported containers furnitures sizes are: 1, 4, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30 slots.
• Fixed a bug in church flyier items behaving strangely when you had not a church quest ongoing. This problem should fixed now.
• Fixed a bug in punk concert event causing music of the concert to play over game music in some occasions. This caused a mess and is now fixed for good.
• As always im also ever fixing lang labels which seems to be a neverending story necessiting neverending fixes. When you think you made it all, it always pops out some obscure and rare label that is not yet implemented or just needs to be fixed and edited. That's life i guess.

Thats all for now, this was a pretty fat update with some important fixes and new features. I hope you are enjoying the game and, if it's the case, let me know, leave a review, drop by the discord or send me a message as most of you are already doing. This is a passion project, a free game, and this is the fuel which let's me still - after more than 4 years - be here, coding and juggling and crying and swearing and debugging and so on. Happy Hard Times Everydoby!! iv.

[ 2020-04-14 11:18:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi Everybody! Ivan's here. I am pushing this new patch today which addresses some problems which were pointed out in the forums and some new stuff: the support for bigger containers.

• Tooltip bug: some users are having problems with in game tooltips. Those users experience all void tooltips. I have seen a couple of videos of the problem but i wasn't able to reproduce the problem, not on windows nor on linux. I am, in this difficult situation pushing out blind fixes which i hope will make fix the problem, but i can't tell for sure. Let me know if you experience this problem: get in touch via mail or on the discord and we will try to sort it out!
• I have reworked shops filling routines. That was kind of a nightmare. It is strange how some of the things more easy on the paper will then come out as a literal bloodbath. Existing problems, design mistakes and other stuff made this work so hard. Still them are not perfect, so i will come on this topic again. But for now they work and should be good enough.
• I corrected and fixed many localization labels both in english and in italian. This is a never ending work, labels seem to come in an infinite number and so does fixing and correcting them.
• As reported by a kind user there was a problem with lightning not despawning when they happen in the exact moment as a player is changing room. This problem has been fixed.
• Due to great request i have implemented support for many different sizes of craftable container furnitures in game. In the next patch Vanilla game will have added a medium (12 slots) and a big (15 slots) container, while other sizes are left out to modders to express their creativity. (Thanks to XC for his help on this matter). The support is implemented in the game with this patch.
• Fixed a bug on shop robbing which caused the possibility to start multiple robberies as the preceding ones were not concluded. This is now fixed, also thanks to Mama Llama for hints and for reporting the problem.

That's it for now. I still have new features and fixes to be pushed on the beta branch, so - if everything will go smoothly - they will be live in the next few days. As always, super mega iper tera thanks to all the folks playing the game, reviewing it on steam, chatting in the discord and giving me tons of support. See you in a few days. Happy Hard Times everybody!! iv.

[ 2020-04-11 15:38:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everybody! Ivan's here. In the latest patch i have released a small number of improvements, thanks to all the suggestions and hints given to me by players on the forum and on the discord server!

• Fixed the "spare metro ticket" miniquest image, which was wrong
• Lowered consistently the wallets and bags spawn rate in all of the game scenes.
• Now the drop rate of shops being robbed is much lower, from 1 to 3 items. Also shops have now a parameter in their json file ("shopMaxItemsDropOnRob") which can be tweaked to choose the maximum number of item that can be spawned when each shop is robbed (default is 3). I will take some time to tweak them and release another update in the next days.
• Fixed a bug in the modding engine which prevented custom c# scripts to be properly compiled when attached to furniture items. Now furniture items created by modders can implement custom c# scripts for new behaviours to be created.
• Consistently lowered the prices paid for furnitures by the furniture buy shop in the vanilla game.

As always thanks to all the people playing the game and giving me support, advices and hints. Also i would like to give a special thanks to modders who are working on the modding engine, helping me out in developing new features and fixing problems as they find out about them (especially XC who is creating a lot of content and helped me point out many problems and things to fix). That's all for now, i will be back in the next few days with further improvements, balancing and fixing. Happy Hard Times everybody! iv.

[ 2020-04-08 20:59:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everybody, Ivan's here. I just pushed out a small patch addressing a problem existing in the weather system which caused some players to end up in a loop of ever raining weather which was very hard to break out from. I should have corrected the issue and now the weather in game should be way more balanced. Also remember that the weather system is fully moddable via the WeatherDescriptor.json, so creating new weather scenarios (icy polar or hot equatorial towns for example) is possible via modding. Check out the wiki: https://wiki.tempi-duri.net/doku.php?id=starting_modding And the mods repository: https://hardtimes.mod.io/ For some guides and examples about how to do it! Finally I would like to express my gratitude to XCoder for his support and problems reporting, and also for his patience about me working on the project in my free time and after my day job. Thanks to everyone who is supporting the game, this is a free game and a passion project and your help and support is the fuel that makes me go on developing and fixing it. Bye!!! iv.

[ 2020-04-04 12:14:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everybody, Ivan's here. I'm writing this patch note for the last two bugfix patches released in the last days. I've been correcting some issues as reported from users on the Steam forums, including:

• removed the possibility to pack up containers containing items. You have to emty them up before.
• fixed a problem with hammers not showing up correctly in shops and spawners
• fixed a number of mini quest dialogues bugs with localization

As always i have also fixed some errors in the localization (they are never ending). And that's it! I would like to thank a lot all the users which are playing the game and reporting ideas, bugs and suggestions on the steam forum. I am keeping a close eye on it and i am trying to fix and tweak the game as new feedbacks and ideas come up. Thanks a lot! iv.

[ 2020-02-15 10:27:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi Everyone! Ivan's here. In this latest Hard Times patch I'm pushing some bugfix to the game (thanks to user plank'st for pointing them out). -- The first bug was an horrid and blasphemous problem concerning the drag system, letting ghostly images remain on screen when someone initiated a drag action and then suddenly closing the original inventory. In that case ghostly images remained on screen until a restart of the game, scaring and terrorizing users worldwide. -- Another bug was concerning the green ghost representing furniture images being placed, which was interacting with npc and people in general, pushing them around as it's collider was inadvertedly firing collisions. Now is, hopefully, fixed and won't be a problem any more. -- On some machines the intro text was not being showed correctly, on the bootstrap screen. This was a very disappointing bug since i like that text very much, and i couldn't stay with my arms crosed staring at such a misfuncional software disaster. So i took actions to correct the problem and now everyone should be able to read it and make their considerations about it. -- Lastly, this is not a bug (unbelievable uh?), but i would like to point you to the amazing Hard Times Official Soundtrack, composed and performed by my best friend "HELLO MY NAME IS" which is available for streaming and downloading on bandcamp: https://hmni.bandcamp.com/album/tempi-duri-ost-promo-version Go listen to it now! It's an order! This is it for this last patch, thanks to all the peolple who is playing the game and thanks to everyone who took some time to get in touch with me, asking questions or reporting bugs. Thanks, much love! iv.

[ 2020-02-06 11:09:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everybody!!! Ivan's here!

HARD TIMES GOES FREE TO PLAY

The great news here is that starting from 1st february 2020 Hard Times is going to be released as a Free to Play game. Open and free for everyone to play. I'm gonna close the Early Access phase, in which copies were sold and every single cent of any revenue coming from it have been donated to L'Alternativa Onlus to support their projects with homeless people in our town. We managed to raise quite a nice amount and supported this year's program distributing blankets and general assistance and legal support to homeless people with the help of you buying the game. As i said many times before i chose not to get a single cent from the game revenues, and if you bought the game 100% of your money (except taxes and steam revenues) are going to charity. So you still have time until the end of january to buy Hard Times and support homeless help programs with a little money. Otherwise you can wait for february and have the chance to play the game for free, as it will become free to play for everyone. In this way I hope to be able to expand the community of players and, perhaps, find new stimuli to develop new tools for modding and new support and content for the game. In the meantime, there are also new projects in the pipeline and new adventures are at the start, so there is no shortage of things to do. Precise plans for the future, however, there are none, we navigate - as always - on sight, we go where the wind takes us and, tomorrow, blessed is he who still has an eye! Happy New Year to everyone!

[ 2020-01-07 09:21:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Ivan's here. With this new patch I am introducing the scriptable quests, a new api which let's modders script their own custom quests type to be played in game, along with the base quest types already present in the game. So lets start with the awesome change list:

• Scriptable quests Now you can extend the BaseQuest class with your own custom quest class scripts and use them in the game, by placing the c# class in the Scripts folder under a mod. I will, in the next few days, add a tutorial on the official wiki so things will hopefully get a little clearer on how to implement this. As always just get in touch with me if you want to know something more or discuss the topic! I am looking for brave modders to wreck the game!
• Scriptable quests example mod I have released a new minimod on Hard Times official mods repository on https://hardtimes.mod.io/. The new mod adds a new custom quest class script which implements a new silly quest type to be used in game. The quest is then attached to a new Npc and used in game via the json descriptors as you would do with a legacy quest. The mod can be downloaded here: https://hardtimes.mod.io/scriptable-quests-example
• Updated the credits Just a little update to the credits section.

That's all for now. If you are experimenting with the new scripts features let me know and I will do my best to help and explain all that is needed to create awesome mods in Hard Times. I will add new tutorials along the way, in the official Hard Times wiki, but i am doing it a bit slowly, so don't hesitate to ping me to get infos on things that may be unclear about the modding engine. Thanks again to all of you this month I did the first donation to L'Alternativa Onlus. I am donating 100% of the revenues of the game, keeping nothing for me, until the new year. So every game purchase made until 31 dec 2019 will go 100% to charity, less steams revenues and bank transfers expenses. After that date we will see how to proceed further... So Happy Hard Times to everybody and see you next patch! \m/ iv.

[ 2019-11-11 19:20:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Ivan's here. In this brand new update there are a number of juicy news regarding modding with the HTSA (Hard Times Scripting Api), particularly about creating new scriptable items in game which can add unforeseen radical changes to the game, further expanding modding support in game. Also I created a brand new mod on the Hard Times official mod repository on mod.io, to better explain how everything works. I will also add a new wiki article on the official wiki in the next days! But let's go in order and lets start with the usual awsome change list:

• Scriptable items After releasing the scriptable posters part the api in the last patch i am now releasing the scriptable items api. It's now possible for modders to write new classes, extending the BaseItem class to script new kind of behaviours for new items.
• The Magical Restful Staff mod I have created a tiny new mod package to show how to implement a new kind of item in game: a magical staff which has 20 uses and will replenish your stamina bar. Just an example to help people get started with it. You can download it from mod.io: https://hardtimes.mod.io/magical-restful-staff Check it out and get in touch with me if you need help or need more infos. I will write a guide on the official wiki in the next days.
• Fixed the language changing mechanism I took some time to fix up the language changing mechanism. So now switching language from the options panel of the main menu (you can't change language from the in game options, only from the main menu). So now switching language correctly updates all the labels in the scene, without the problems experienced before, when you had to change scene for all changes to be properly rendered.
• Fixed a bug with proxy sprites There was a bug lurking in the game items loading code which prevented proxy sprites to be properly loaded when they had a different name from the main item sprite. This unbearable problem has been dealt with with decision and compassion. It should not bother anyone anymore.
• The search for broken labels I managed to find and purge more broken language labels for the italian localization. The hunt is still going on tough.
• Rebalanced taming values for all pets All pets in game now have a more properly balanced tame value (which is set in the Vanilla files). Now any kind of pet has a different value. You can still mod them as you see fit anyway.

Well, this is all for this last patch. I am happy with how the HTSA thing is coming out and would like to know if anyone of you is using it or is interested in knowing better how to use it. I think is going to be a very powerful tool for game customization and modding in general. As always, thanks for your support, it means a lot to me! And Happy Hard Times Everybody! PS: I know, i didn't do any Halloween thing, as everywhere is happening. I'm sorry, i was so into this modding thing that i didn't see it coming!! \\m/
iv.

[ 2019-10-31 19:31:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello all! Ivan's here. In this lates patch i am finally introducing a couple of important new things which i was working on since quite a while. So let's start dancing and let's introduce Patch #4312836 new features:

• LINUX SUPPORT: I've finally managed to release also the native Linux version of Hard Times, following the OSX and Windows version wihch were already released earlier. I am also not planning to port the game to any further platform. Finally i would like to thank Giuseppe Longo for helping me out in testing and preparing the OSX version of the game and Giangiacomo Pignacoretti for helping out and testing on Linux platforms! Thanks a lot!
• Hard Times Scripting API (HTSA): Another great introduction pushed with this patch in the starting of the gradual implementation of the new Hard Times Scripting API which is a new addition to the modding engine, opening some new exciting possibilities in the front of game modding in Hard Times. Thanks to the adoption of the Trivial Interactive's awesome Dinamic C# library Hard Times is now capable of loading and compiling C# scripts at runtime, giving modders the possibility to script out new entities and behaviours in game. Obviously this is gonna be a long a gradual process of adoption and checking of this new technology and modding paradigm. So in this first patch i am pushing a first bunch of features involving the possibility to start scripting only Posters entities. This is a way to start experimenting with something easy and not central to the Hard Times engine. The idea is, of course, to expand with any new patch the game's support for this feature, and to try to do my best to - at same time - give a little documentation and examples for modders to start out. Check this first tutorial in the official Hard Times wiki for more informations: http://wiki.tempi-duri.net/doku.php?id=hard_times_scripting_api And, please, bear in mind that i'm doing this all alone and in my spare time after my daytime jobs. So please, if you find problems or errors in any part of all this, get in touch with me and i will do my best to solve any problem ASAP. Also you will find me on the game's Discord server if you want more infos, you want to discuss anything regarding HT or even if you want to play Rocket League with me (I've recently became Platinum!).
• Announcement: 100% of al proceedings from the game, relative to the first two months from launch (namely: September and October sales) will be donated, entirely, to charity. Money will be donated to L'Alternativa Onlus, in Ostia Lido (Rome - Italy). So you are still in time to buy your copy of the game to get 100% of my share for the game to be donated to charity!
• BugFix: Tutorial panel on smaller resolutions: What an infamous bug is the one who target lower resolutions players? Do you thing is funny? I've had to take a resolutive stance against this unacceptable behaviour and proceeded to fix this bug. Now the tutorial panel should look fine even if you play on a lower resolution screen.
• BugFix: Mettere minigame ui bug: Mettere, la la la lala lala, mettere! There was an annoying bug that caused the minigame "mettere" to spawn on top of the info messages panel, preventing it from being correcly displayed. This was clearly wrong, so i said don't be a fool, you minigame panel, stay in your assigned place! Thanks to my greater wisdom i managed to fix this problem without any need to resort to violence against any silicon entity being hurt.
• Fix: fixed trashcans positions in squat: I've repositioned in a better fashion trashcans in the squat scene.
• Feature: Added support for toggling VSync from the game options: VSync is a nice feature which helps syncing your game framerate to your monitor refresh rate. In this way problems like tearing will be prevented avoiding at the same time extra unecessary work for your hardware. But toggling off VSync can also have a positive impact on game performances, so check this option if you experience problems with game performance overall.
• Label: Added the Mettere minigame instructions text: So now you can understand what the heck was this minigame about.

This is all for this patch! I'm working hard to deliver fixes and new features on a timely fashion. And in all this what continues to drive me in this project is your support and the possibility to do, for once in my life, someting useful for someone, donating proceedings from my work to charity. So thanks a lot everyone for your support and thanks to the people from L'Alternativa Onlus for doing some great work to help people in need who suffer from living as homeless in the great metropolis of indifference. iv.

[ 2019-10-23 14:32:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, Ivan's here. In this latest patch i am addressing a number of important bugs. Other than that i am introducing a new poster entity. It is moddable via json, as everything else around here... Lets start with the list of things addressed in this patch:

• Furniture overwriting mechanism In Hard Times mods are loading in a additive manner. Also i am implementing a overwriting approach when handling duplicate entities (this is why mod loading order is so important). This way modders have the possibility to overwrite any vanilla defined entity. Furnitures were not following this approach as the modding engine skipped duplicate furnitures definitions when loading mods. This unintended behaviour should be now fixed.
• Fixed the horripilant "mods unsupported lang bug" When loading new mods it happened that the loaded mod did not have support for the current active language. This occurence made the game crash to a hideous halt. Now in case the loaded mod is not supporting the current selected lang the mod engine will try to load the DEFAULT_LANGUAGE constant value which is now set to "English". If not even this language is supported (this would be BAD since any mod should support at least the english language) the engine will simply skip loading those files.
• More lang labels fixed I discovered and fixed more lang labels which were not correct!

The new poster entity

I have added a new entity to the game, which can represent any kind of poster or sign. I will add more types of posters in the next patches. Now a simple poster will look like that(remember to go looking inside vanilla to get many examples of moddable entities): { "posterId": "basic_poster", "posterType": "BasePoster", "posterSpriteName": "basic_poster_graphics.png", "posterThumbSpritename" : "basic_poster_graphics_thumb.png" } You can add posters to scenes as you do with other entities, like this: { "sceneId": "zero", [...] "posters": [ { "modPosterId": "concert_poster", "modPosterPositionX": 0, "modPosterPositionY": -22.8, "modPosterRotation": 0, "posterColliderWidth": 1, "posterColliderHeight": 1 } ] } You can go to the Hard Times wiki for guides and tutorials about modding. Also you can check my Discord or drop me a mail if you need help with modding issues! This is all for this patch! I'll be back with a new one in a week or so! As always thanks a lot for your support and Happy Hard Times! iv.

[ 2019-10-12 23:17:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Ivan's here. In this small update i am fixing a number of pesky bugs which should be banned from the game. Or at least i hope so!

• The infamous 'equipped item bug' Thanks to Mastadans for pointing it out! When you had equipped items and corrupt cops took your stuff some infamous bug appeared making you equip a non existent item. It should be corrected now and not happening anymore.
• Pickpocket bug Thanks to Mastadans for pointing it out! When you were pickpocketing a npc and it happened to despawn a hideous bug appeared leaving you with scandal level red forever! (Saving and loading seemed to correct the issue). Anyway it should be banned forever! (I hope)
• Achievements save bug A horrendous bug prevented achievements from saving properly with the savegame. Some users reported issues and i found the cause. It should be fixed now.
• Don't despawn on camera, please! Npcs were occasionally despawning while in the players field of view. That was a very uneducated behaviour and i took steps to fix this thing. At the moment they should, and i stress on should, not despawn while on camera anymore. Let's be positive!
• Object labels I fixed and added a number of localization labels for stuff which didn't have one still. I am working on it continuosly as i find them. Ping me if you happen to stumble upon one of them.

Thats's all for this patch folks. I am doing my best to answer anyone and be reachable on discord if someone needs to. I apologize if someone didn't get an answer quickly! As always thanks everybody for your support and Happy Hard Times!! iv.

[ 2019-10-03 12:45:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Ivan's here. So i'm pushing this small update with some new features and a small improvement.

In the church of Father Squid

Have you ever been in the church of father Squid?
In case you haven't yet you should go and check it out, cause you could find different ways of helping your street survival there.
Go and look for it in the big metropolis of indifference.

A new furniture type

This quite easy, to create some props in the church of father squid i implemented a new kind of furniture: "DescriptionFurniture". What it does is simply displaying it's own name and description in a UI window. It's now usable also in mods. For example: { "furnitureId": "church_candles", "furnitureType": "DescriptionFurniture", "boxedItemAncestorName": "base_container_boxed", "boxedItemAncestorType": "BoxedFurnituresItem", "furnitureArchetipusName": "FurnitureArchetipus", "furnitureSpriteName": "church_candles.png", "furnitureColliderRadius": 1, "isPackable": false, "freezePosition": true, "furnitureUiPanelName": "FurnitureDescriptionPanel", "achievementsOnUse": "", "mass": 20, "positionRestrictions": ["outdoor"], "extras": [] } Refer to the Hard Times wiki for more info about modding, or ping for help in the Hard Times Discord Server.

Improved the Effects log panel

I just added a small red bullet style dot next to every entry of the effects log panel. It should improve the overall readability of the feature. Remember, anyway, that you can disable it from the options menu in the main menu and in the pause menu.
Thats all for this patch note! As always thanks a lot for your support and for enjoying the game! Happy Hard Times everybody! iv.

[ 2019-09-30 17:10:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everybody! Ivan's here. This patch introduces the Player effects log panel. It sits on top of the healt panel and will display all effects activating or disactivating. Easy enough. It's meant to have a way to get an overall idea of whats going on. I am planning on expanding this feature in the future. Who knows? The logging can be turned off and on in the options panel.
I made some adjustments at some props overlapping buildings and similar issues. I fix them as I notice them. If you happen to stumble upon some please tell me, i will be grateful. I created proper effects, and descriptions, for the washing and berry harvesting activities. Before they shared a generic effect. The descriptions went also in the hints, so you can read more about in fortune cookies found around. "FountainFurniture" furnitures now have a new moddable extra property called: "timedActionEffect". It points to an effect to be applied to the player as he uses the secondary action (in this case to assign a new effect to the washing action). This is all, for now! As always thanks for your support, and for playing the game and having fun! Happy Hard Times everybody!

[ 2019-09-20 19:47:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everybody! Ivan's here. I have just released Alpha 0.0.2 b.4204364, which fixes a number of small issues with scene components, adds the Credits section in the main menu and fixes the Discord button. It's been three days since the Early Access release and I am quite happy about how the game is going. I see people is having fun with it and players are giving me some good feedbacks. Don't hesitate to get in touch with me, via mail, steam, discord or whatever mean to give me feedbacks, ideas and suggestions. I will be more than happy to hear from you. I'm also planning about expanding the modding tutorials wiki and finalizing the integration with mods.io. As of today you have to manually download mods packages from the repository and then you have to unzip them in the proper mods folder (there is a handy "open mods folder" button in the mods panel of the main menu). I am pondering about fully integrating mods.io in the game, but I am still unsure and I will have to ponder about it a bit. Lastly I've also been testing out the Linux build (with the patient help of a linux expert friend!) and i plan to release it shortly in the future. Let me know if there's some willing Linux tester out there who would like to help out! Thanks, as usual, for your support and happy hard times everybody!

[ 2019-09-17 18:25:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

I've finally made it! Hard Times is now available for everyone on Steam Early Access!! I will continue to do my best to keep up with the community, gathering feedbacks and suggestions as new players will try the game. Please, feel free to get in touch with me, for any kind of tought, suggestion or bug you might happen to find while playing Hard Times. You can use the Official Discord Server, open a thread on the Steam forum, use the game's socials or drop me a line at: info@tempi-duri.net I will be more than glad to get in touch and discuss any idea or tip you might want to share. Happy Hard Times everybody!! <3

[ 2019-09-14 09:54:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all! I just released patch 4102034 which is meant to introduce a new element and to fix a small, existing, problem.

Introducing the tutorial panel

I felt the need, fueled by some feedbacks, to create a small and unobtrusive tutorial panel. It will show up at any given fresh game starting, unless you check the "Don't show anymore!" checkbox to hide it permanently. In case you wanted to activate it again, you can do it from the option panel.

Fixed the outline on the shops

Shop's outline was broken. I fixed it. It should be ok everywhere now! These were the main changes i made in this last patch. Please get in touch if you have problems to report, suggestions, motivational speeches or insults you would like to share with me. Happy hard times! iv.

[ 2019-08-13 18:33:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi All! I released patch 4093623 addressing some problems reported in the latest tests and introducing a new kind of furniture: the hostile bench.

Hostile bench

This bench was designed to be hostile to certain categories of people. Thanks to the presence of metal armrests placed where necessary, these benches are unusable for sleeping. Unless the metal armrests are removed, of course.

Fixed Player Collider

I fixed the player collider since it was glitchy and sometimes trashbins would remain attached to the player with no reason. The problem should be fixed now.

Larger NPC hotspot

I see some people had problems clicking the hotspot of NPCs, since it was too small. I made it larger, so that it should be more usable now.

Reduced flies audio volume

Flies were a real hassle since the audio fx volume was too loud. I reduced it consistently even if i should consider reducing it even more... :P These were the main changes i made in this last patch. Please get in touch if you have problems to report, suggestions, motivational speeches or insults you would like to share with me. Happy hard times! iv.

[ 2019-08-10 13:12:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all! Ivan's here. Not only hard working in this hot summer days. As release on Early Access approaches, we also need to cool down and relax a bit, from time to time. So here it is, Hello My Name Is performing a song from Hard Times OST before an audience of friends @ a super cool wedding party!! Special thanks to Cri&Simo!! <3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4efHBFVIzdM And don't forget to stay in touch and wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/907410/Hard_Times/ Bye! Ivan

[ 2019-08-09 10:24:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Ivan's here, and I'm writing this to say hello to our great soundtrack artist:

"Hello my name is",

who created the beautiful music of Hard Times! At the moment I'm using some pre-mix and temporary masters in the game, waiting for the work to be properly mixed, mastered and finished. Then I will proceed to update the music present in the game as well. In the meantime you will have to opportunity to listen to them in game, even if in a non definitive version. The complete and original Hard Times soundtrack, by "Hello my name is" will be also available for sale, in digital download, here on Steam and, probably, even on other platforms. If you ever want to ask something about this subject or any other thing related to the game, feel free to get in touch!! Best regards! iv. a(1) = "HELLO MY NAME IS" a(n) = a(n-1) + ": HELLO MY NAME IS"

[ 2019-07-23 08:59:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! I'm Ivan, and I'm the developer at work on Hard Times. While I am posting this announcement I am working on the last iterations before the launch in Early Access, later in September, something that makes me very nervous and excited, since this is my first big project being published in a store!! I look forward to starting to interact with the community to get feedback, suggestions and ideas on how to further develop the game. I am also anxious to see the modding engine in action and hopefully see many people create and have fun with it (there is also an official wiki I'm working on, with tutorials on modding and more). Just remember that this is a solo dev project, carried out by me alone and in my spare time, after my day job! In any case, the game has been in development for about three years now, and has had the opportunity to showcase around and be known a little, within the Italian Indie scene. It received some good covering on the italian gaming press and was selected as "Indie Prize Finalist" to participate in the showcase to be held at the GameDaily Connect in Los Angeles in August 2019. All this is a source of great happiness and satisfaction for me and so I have nothing else to do but continue to do my best until September, "Waiting for the Great Leap Forward!" NB: The game is in closed Alpha now, being played by just a handful of players. If you want to know when the game will be available for early access be sure to whishlist it now! Finally, feel free to get in contact with me to ask whatever you want to ask or just to say hello!

• Official Hard Times Website
• info@tempi-duri.net

Thank you!

[ 2019-07-18 12:24:21 CET ] [ Original post ]