KINGDOMS OF GRIFFIA

Devlog [09.24.25]

NEWS

Hello Sprouts!

We’ve been busy behind the scenes, and this devlog is a sneak peek at what’s coming next and some future systems! New cultural content will launch with the mid-October event, bringing lots of collectibles and more to discover. This event will be a large art event with a trophy. It will last till the end of November.

In October, we’ll also be starting our biggest art project of the year: side, front, and back view references for every Companion subtype. These will show free color areas to make designing easier. Since it’s a huge task, we’ll upload the references as they’re completed, rather than all 300+ images at once.

The remainder of this update concerns a significant upcoming change to game logic and functionality. Part of the update is now live, and the rest is incoming or a preview of the concept. This update will predominantly affect the Eather Forge and its functions. This preview is designed to help everyone prepare for the change and keep users informed about our progress. These features are not being removed; we are just reorganizing them to improve the ARPG for the future. As always, we will automatically refund everything where necessary.

Awards and Achievements - [Live]
Award items have finally been converted into Achievements. For example, this means that instead of receiving Participation Critters from a moderator during the event, there will now be an Achievement for participating in yearly events. This Achievement will then automatically award the Participation Critters to the user. This change makes more sense from a gameplay perspective, helps us transition away from a manual process, and reduces the likelihood of human error. It also allows us to add the Achievements to all event games, which will be easier for everyone.

To implement this change properly, we need to take a very convoluted approach. All existing Participation Critters will be moved to the user inventory. They will be converted into Achievements, then the Achievement will re-reward the Participation Critter back to the user. We know this is confusing, but in the end, the only change is that your critters will move. Users won’t see any of this happening; we just want to make everyone aware that these changes took place. This ensures current critters are accurately logged in the code. If your critters were placed in character inventories, you will need to sort them back once they are re-received. We have saved logs in case you do not remember which characters they were assigned to, if that was important to you. You can create a ticket if you need help locating where they were originally stored. To request this information, please file a General Support Ticket under the “Other” category in the Help Desk.


Annual Achievements Missing Art - [Live]
The Annual Achievements are currently missing artwork. This will be added as soon as possible.

Missing Participation Critter Redemption - [Live]
As promised, we have reopened the redemption for users from past events to claim missing Participation Critters. To submit proof of missing Participation Critters, please file a "Missing Participation Critter" Ticket in the Help Desk.

[ Excluded Events: Draw to Adopts]

Eather Forge Changes/ Temporary Closure - [Live]
This sounds more serious than it is, and we apologize for the short notice. We typically aim to give users as much notice as possible, but this change arose unexpectedly, and proceeding with it is the most logical next step in the coding process. 

To make our plans a reality, we need to start with a clean slate and transition to a new system. The best way to do this is to liquidate all boosts and upgrades, and separate any remaining status boosts found on old Love Items.

As of this update, the Eather Forge will be closed to begin reorganizing portions of its functions into separate entities. 

Currently:
The Eather Forge system applies upgrades, perks, boosts, and visual modifiers within the same framework. This includes things like size changes, Sidekick coloration and mutations, and gear upgrades. Our current upgrade system is outdated and combines too many effects in one shop, making it clunky and hard to expand.

Change:
We are simplifying the system and temporarily closing the shop. It will be reintroduced in the future with expanded features and improved code. To prepare for this, we are reorganizing all of the Eather Forge's features, splitting them into three distinct parts: Modifiers, Variations, and  Upgrade/Boosts.

Old Love Items with Statuses, Separation/Liquidation
Some older Love Items were created with statuses included on the item; these special love items will have their statuses converted into Status Berries. The Love Item will not be touched. This will be done sometime this week, as the current update is already very large.

1. Item/Sidekick Modifiers [Live]
Upgrades and Boosts currently allow certain items, such as Bags and Sidekicks, to gain special effects, including mutations or size changes. Instead of stacking boosts on each item, Griffolk will now be able to unlock abilities that share some of their modifiers and mutations with their Gear and Sidekicks. Two new abilities have been created to replace all of these boosts. This will be specified on the ability page, which has been updated as of this update. This makes the system cleaner and easier to understand, as users only need to unlock an ability once on a character, rather than unlocking the same modifiers on multiple items. At the same time, this adds more uses to the existing ability system.

Ability - Infusion
- Affects Sidekicks (Except Chronopods, because they will have many variations in the future.)
- This ability allows eligible Sidekicks to use Gene Colors, Mutations, and abilities that the Griffolk has unlocked, such as size-change.
- Unlocking Gene Colors will allow the user to change a Sidekick’s design.
- Previously, Chronopods could unlock size-change; we are removing this as an unlockable modifier, and from now on, Chronopods will be able to change sizes as part of their species lore.
- Companions cannot have Sidekicks, so this ability will have more companion-specific flavor added to it later.

Ability - Geargeist
- This ability allows Bags and Tools to come alive and also receive an Animal/Beast form.
- Event Bagbeans will receive this new Geargeist ability as a species perk, while other characters will need to unlock it with an Ability Fruit.

2. Variations [Future]
We have had this planned for a long time, but we have always intended to create variations and alternate versions of some items. This future update will enable us to create different skins for items such as the Podual, Portal Pass, Tools, Bags (see the portion of the update specific to bags), Participation Critters, and Chronopods, allowing users to further personalize their characters' inventories. We want these item reskins to be seamless to apply and change at any time with a GC cost, and that is not currently possible without a rework.

3. Upgrades/Boosts [Future]
Upgrades will return later when the Gear items have more practical uses in-game. The update would allow us to create permanent upgrades and temporary boosts that impact gameplay, affecting how and where gear is used. That is not currently possible without a rework.

Chronopod Charge - [Live]
Since we are removing upgrades and boosts, we are also sunsetting the need to charge Chronopods for the Time Activity and for the future Time Plots Activity. We are liquifying the boosts automatically for users. We have long-standing plans to include Chronopods in the variation system, and removing the charge boost now makes things simpler.

Liquidations Details:
- All charged Chronopods in inventories will have their upgrades automatically converted back into GC.
- Any charged Chronopods placed on Time Activities will award an extra 10 GC when loot is collected, and their charge will be automatically removed once that bonus is received.
- If at any time a charged Chronopod is removed from a Time Activity, the user will be refunded the 10GC at that time.

This means all uncharged Chronopods can now be used freely on all Time Activities.

The charged look on Chronopods may return as a variation in the future if users are interested. Please share your thoughts in the Feedback Box about that.

Time Activity Color Upgrade - Unaffected 
These upgrades will remain active.

Sidekick Activation Boosts/Exhanges - Unaffected 
These upgrades will remain active because they are necessary for the game to function correctly.

Basic Bag Changes - [Partially Live]
It has been in the works for a while, but in the future, all Griffolk will start with a bag variant unique to their species. This has already been noted on the Griffolk Pages for some time. The goal of this update is to add more species-specific flavor to the inventory system and give users more creative inventory options.

Users will be able to change their bag variant by purchasing a reskin with GC. To begin this process, all bags currently in inventories will be converted back into GC as of today, except for Bagbeans, since they already own the correct variant they will receive in the future. Once the variant system is ready, all Griffolk will receive a free bag in their inventory.

We are also removing the requirement to own a bag in order to draw one. For our purposes, all Griffolk are now considered to have bags, even though the update is not fully ready.

Finally, any Companions that currently have bags will have them removed and converted into GC. Companions will no longer be able to use Griffolk basic bags.

DEVLOG

Additions
Masterlist - All character image slot buttons are now visible in edit mode.
Achievements - The 1 Million Voiding Trophy Achievement has been changed from a communication achievement to a trophy achievement.
Masterlist - Gave users the ability to search "History Includes" field when searching the masterlist.
Masterlist - Made it possible to search the masterlist ID and Number fields with ranges. Example: 1-50.
Site - Added user message when adding character relationships.
Relationships - Added "Name" filtering field in the "Add Relationship" modal.
Settings -  Added a new option to set the default value of the "is accepting relationships" flag. This only applies when adding new characters (via creation or trade). Changing the setting won’t update characters you already own.
Help Desk Tickets - Added a ticket type, “Missing Participation Critter”.

Changes
Achievement - All User Award Items converted into Achievements.
Achievement - Added Annual Event Achievement reward that awards the corresponding Participation Critter.
Calendar - Changed calendar clock format to be more similar to GT/LT timestamps.
Site - Renamed "Characters" tab on the user dashboard page to "User Characters"
Relationships - Fixed the order of sorting in the relationship tab to the following:

Soulbond - Other Relationships - Companion order

Removal
Items - Removed old deleted items that were still visible in the character inventory.
Items - All Basic bags not on a Bagbean have been converted to 50 GC.
Market - Eather Forge temporarily closed and removed.
Market - Chonopod Charge removed from the Magic Shop.
Help Desk Tickets - Removed ticket type “Remove Chronopod Charges.”

Bug
Love Raffle - Fixed bug where some users could select manually owned Characters.

This log came out of nowhere!