HELLO RABBITS (and maybe humans reading this…)

we are here to tell u that the Trash Panda Posse has OFFICIALLY had ENUF! 😤

we have been bonked with frying pans, frozen by ice magic (we didn’t know ELSA was in the game), and generally disrespected!! 

taking all of this into consideratsun, we are forming ✨ A RACCUNION ✨

yes u read that right. It’s real, it's happening, and we NEED ur support to keep morale HIGH!! ✊ 🦝 

pls read our demands below!

• less getting hit by… everything???
• respect for the POSSE!
• maybe ONE crop?? as a treat???

IS this so wrong??? 

to help support us, we are accepting union dues at this time in the form of: 

• wishlisting The Rabbit Haul on steam
• playing the demo (so we can continue to cause chaos!!!)
• leave a review and tell them the Trash Panda Posse sent ya to show them we’re RACCUNION STRONG! 💪
• Join da discord n let em know ur also RACCUNION STRONG!!!!!

this directly supports… uh… negotiations. 

becuz lets B REAL, is Sprout ACTUALLY the hero here????? Or is he just a very organized gardener with special flowers that have weird defensive tendencies…

all we raccoons want is a little food on the table. A little snack, if you will. And becuz of that we get FIREBALLS thrown at uS?! It all feels a lil extreme!!!!

we will NOT b SILIENCED! We will continue to grow our numbers and take as many carrots we can get our hands on!! This is about justice N snacks!!!

ty for your time, and pls consider where u stand in this dispute!!!!

r u Team Sprout 🌱 or Team Trash Panda Posse 🦝 ????

Happy April Fools! 😄

Don’t forget to claim your ✨ exclusive ✨ Watermelon Warrior cosmetic for being a newsletter subscriber!

🍉 Claim your hat here 🍉

Until next time 👋

Have you ever wanted to grow your own garden… and then defend it from a gang of chaotic raccoons at night? Well, now’s your chance because

🎉OUR STEAM DEMO IS NOW LIVE! 🎉

Head to the demo page to play it now!

Once you have played, it would mean the world to us if you left us a review! As a small indie team, that is the easiest way you can support us. 💚

Gift for Newsletter Subscribers!

As a small token of appreciation for our wonderful newsletter community, we’ve created a super secret Watermelon Cosmetic just for you!

Not only that… you can also claim an exclusive “Watermelon Warrior” Discord role so everyone knows you’re part of the inner circle (or is rind more accurate?) 🍉⚔️

How to claim your Watermelon

Head to https://calderainteractive.com/newsletter/ and subscribe to the newsletter. If you are subscribed already, simply re-enter your email to sign in. It won’t subscribe you again, we promise 🙂 If you are in the Discord already, rejoin using the button/links on the code page to get your new exclusive role 🍉

We can’t wait to see you rocking your watermelon look while defending your garden from the Trash Panda Posse. And don’t worry… this watermelon won’t make your head sticky.

About the Demo

🐰 What can I do in the demo?

You’ll be able to play through The Rabbit Haul, Learn the game’s mechanics, start to build your garden, and take on the Trash Panda Posse! You’ll meet some helpful townsfolk, and with every run, unlock new upgrades for your garden, and discover new weapons. You might also find some cosmetics!

⏰ How long is the demo?

Our demo includes the first main quest of the game, which is around 60 minutes of playtime! Once the quest is completed, there is still plenty more to unlock and explore, so you can keep on experimenting in your garden for as long as you would like!

🪲 What if I find bugs?

If you encounter bugs, it would be incredibly helpful if you could report these bugs on our Discord server! You’ll find a designated bug reports channel and a helpful explanation of how best to report them!

⭐ Can I give feedback somewhere/share my ideas for the game?

We’ve also set up a chat with devs channel in our Discord for any further ideas, suggestions, or general feedback! Any feedback really helps us make the game better, so we appreciate any insight you have (including just saying you love the game ♥️)

Thank you again for your support!

As a small indie studio, sharing our game would mean the world to us! Thank you again to everyone who has helped playtest and get the game to this point. We couldn’t have done it without you! 

We have been building this game for the past 3 years and are so excited to finally get to the demo! We hope you have fun taking down the Trash Panda Posse. ♥️

Before you play, we’d love it if you would check out our Gameplay trailer: 

Until next time 👋

Hello everyone! 👋

We’ve been hard at work behind the scenes, and today we’re so excited to finally share the news…

✨ The Rabbit Haul Demo officially launches on Steam on March 18! ✨

To celebrate, we have an all-new trailer, and we would love it if you would check it out!

🌱 Want to Play Before Launch?

You can jump into the Demo before it goes public by joining our Discord playtest!

We’re actively gathering feedback, squashing bugs, and polishing features. Your input genuinely helps us make the game better.

💚 Join the Discord and help us playtest: https://discord.gg/E9kheX7puq

There are only a few days left to play, so don’t miss out!

🍓 What’s New for the Demo?

We are so glad you asked! It’s The Rabbit Haul you know and love, with some exciting additions:

🎥 Twitch Integration (bring your chat into the game!)

📖 A brand-new interactive tutorial

🎀 All-new cosmetics system

🃏 Lose condition, roguelike cards & exploration rework

⚖️ Difficulty rebalancing & various other improvements!

We’ll be sharing more details about these closer to Demo launch, so keep an eye on our Steam Page!

This is a huge milestone for our tiny (but mighty) team, and we couldn’t have made it this far without your support. Thank you for being part of The Rabbit Haul’s journey.

March 18th is just around the corner... Are you ready to protect the haul? 🦝⚔️

Until Next Time! 👋

Hello Hello 👋

Do you love being the first to see what’s coming next in indie games? Getting first looks at a brand new demo? Then we’ve got something just for you!

We’re hosting an exclusive first look at The Rabbit Haul Steam Demo, and you’re invited!

🗓 Date: February 25th

⏰ Time: 11 AM PST / 12 PM MST

📍 Where: The Rabbit Haul Discord Server

During this Demo Sneak Peek, we’ll be:

🌱 Showing off brand-new demo features

🦝 Sharing updates and improvements

🛠️ Gathering your feedback to help us polish the Demo before it goes public

💬 Answering your questions!

This is your chance to see what’s new, and help us squash any sneaky bugs before launch! You’ve helped shape this journey, so it only feels right to share this moment with you first and gather your feedback.

👉 Join our Discord today so you can help shape the Demo before it goes public!

We can’t wait to show you what’s next for The Rabbit Haul 🐰💚

Until Next time! 👋

Hello everyone! 👋

We hope this new year has been treating you well so far! We have been busy behind the scenes getting ready for our Demo, which we are excited to announce to you soon! 

While we get ready for that, we hosted a Community Q&A in our Discord to hear what you wanted to know about The Rabbit Haul, game development, and everything in between. Thank you so much to everyone who jumped in with questions—we loved reading and answering them!

If you’d like to be part of the next Q&A (and get early sneak peeks along the way), make sure to join our Discord!

Now, let’s hop into your questions! 🥕✨

Do you have plans to add new flowers or crops we can grow? 

Titus (Artist/Game Designer): Yes, the plan is to have more you can grow! We have some ideas cooking up, and part of it is finding ways these new plants interact with other plants in your garden! 

Are cosmetics going to be available in the full game, as they were during the last playtest?

Titus (Artist/Game Designer): Our cosmetics system is actually what we've been working on lately! We're excited to share how that will look soon, so yes, there will be cosmetics!

What made you choose to make a game based on a farmer rabbit that needs to defend his crops from raccoons at night? In addition, does the farmer rabbit even sleep since he works day and night?

Titus (Artist/Game Designer): To put it simply, we're animal enjoyers and had a cute idea that we thought might work! And Raccoons fit the vibe of a thieving, rascal-like enemy! Also, there are a lot of things we don't know about Sprout: Does he sleep? Use the bathroom? Blink? 🤷 an enigma 😆

How did the town get destroyed, since the playtests never told us the prequel story to the game?

Titus (Artist/Game Designer): The Trash Panda Posse invaded the town not long before the game begins!

Can the beehive spawn bees that can help you defend your crops in the future?

Titus (Artist/Game Designer): Beehives currently have two branching upgrades! Bees will spawn if you upgrade the beehive down one of those paths, and they'll be able to help you defend!

I was interested if you guys have a price point for the game upon release or a range yet?

Isael (CEO/Sound Designer): We were originally planning on a $20 price point. However, the last few years have shown a shift in pricing strategy, and we are considering entering the market at a lower price point.

When is the next playtest, because I need more 👀👀👀

Isael (CEO/Sound Designer):  As for the next playtest, we are still not sure whether we'll have another playtest before the demo (which is coming soon). We have discussed giving access to the demo early to our Discord members, but that will depend on whether the build is ready to give early access. Sorry for not having anything more concrete to tell you, it is still being planned currently!

Will there be a fishing minigame?

Mickael (Programmer): No plans for that yet. We might consider it, but we have to get everything else in that we wanted to add first 😂 

We will have a level that's based around water, so it could fit in there 🤔, but no promises for now 

Do you plan on adding any monetization via in-game purchases (cosmetics, etc.)?

Mickael (Programmer): No in-game monetization! Everything will be unlockable through in-game currency.


What is your favorite feature that you added to the game so far? Additionally, why do you enjoy the feature from the previous question?

Titus (Artist/Game Designer): There are a few favorites in my opinion, I really enjoy the upgrade card + symbiosis features, which allows for each run to be a little different than your previous! It also opens the door for us to make more symbiotic relationships, and we have some new ideas we want to add in later updates! Additionally, I also like the bees, I think they're fun!


Are there any ideas that you look forward to implementing into future versions of The Rabbit Haul and why?

Titus (Artist/Game Designer): Future ideas I'm looking forward to implementing are different biomes! Right now, we have the forest biome, but the plan is to have more, Mickael teased one earlier, haha! Different biomes mean different enemies and things to discover, and therefore (hopefully) new challenges and new fun things to experiment with in your garden.

What's a skill you had to learn/get better at in the process of development?

Isael (CEO/Sound Designer): For me, I would say the one I am most proud of is taking breaks and work-life balance in general. I learnt that developing a game is a marathon not a sprint.

As for hands-on skills, I took a coding bootcamp back in 2023 – it was a 7 months intensive program working evenings and weekends, while working full-time on The Rabbit Haul. These skills have allowed me to be more independent in Unity, to the point where I write my own code now for my audio features and have fixed small bugs or implemented small changes. I also have a better understanding of the technical side of making games, which makes me a better producer in general.

Mickael (Programmer): It's so hard to pick one. There's so much that's not related to actually developing the game, but the whole "business" of gamedev was a lot of learning. 

Directly in the game, there's a lot of coding specifics. I had experience with Unity but I'd never been on a project for so long.

My code quality has dropped a little since there aren't many people in the codebase, but I've gotten better at understanding the tradeoffs that I'm making when I do something fast and quick vs creating a full system out of it.

Thank you again for all the amazing questions! We loved answering them and chatting with you all. Have more questions for us?  Join our Discord and drop them in! We always want to hear from you. 

With our demo coming very soon, now’s the perfect time to stay close. Make sure you’re following us on social and hanging out in Discord, so you don’t miss any news, sneak peeks, or demo updates. We can’t wait to share what’s next with you!

👉 Check out our socials
👉 Join the Discord

Until next time 👋

🐰✨ Happy New Year from The Rabbit Haul Team! ✨🐰 

We hope you all had a cozy, restful holiday season and are hopping into the new year feeling refreshed. As we turn the page on 2025, we wanted to take a moment to look back at everything we accomplished together, and share what’s ahead for The Rabbit Haul in 2026!

🌱 A Look Back at 2025

2025 was a huge year for us, and so much of it was made possible by you.

This year, we:

•  Attended PAX West for the very first time, getting to see so many of you try The Rabbit Haul in-person, laugh at raccoons causing chaos, and ask thoughtful questions about the future of the game reminded us why we do this.
  
• Ran two alpha playtests with our Discord community, gathering invaluable feedback that helped shape the game!
  
• Shared our first Dev Log, giving a behind-the-scenes look at development (if you missed it, you can check it out here!)
  
• And to close out the year, we launched our first-ever open playtest on Steam! With many new updates from your feedback!

Each step brought us closer to the game we’ve always wanted to make, and closer to the community we’re so grateful to be building alongside our game.

🍓 Open Playtest Highlights

Our final playtest of the year was unforgettable:

🧑‍🌾 150+ players joined our first open Steam playtest

🌱 5,600+ crops planted

🦝 21,000+ raccoons defeated

🌼 2,000+ towers placed (Touch-me-nots were the fan favorite!)

You tested new enemies, encampments, beehive upgrades, and yes, pet the pig A LOT. Your feedback made a real impact, and we can’t thank you enough 💚

🌼 Looking Ahead to 2026

2026 is shaping up to be our biggest year yet, and we can’t wait to share it with you. Here’s a peek at what’s coming:

• A public demo, so even more players can get their hands on The Rabbit Haul
• More updates, events, and community feedback in our Discord. Make sure to join!
• Our full launch, bringing Sprout’s journey (and ours) to the world!

💚 Stay Connected

Want to be part of what’s next?

👉 Wishlist The Rabbit Haul on Steam

👉 Join our Discord to help shape the game and be the first to get updates!

Thank you again for being part of this journey with us. Whether you joined a playtest, dropped feedback in Discord, wishlisted on Steam, or simply liked a social post or opened this email, you’ve helped make 2025 unforgettable.

Here’s to an even bigger, cozier, and raccoon-filled 2026 💚 

Until next time 👋

Hey everyone! 👋

Our team has been busy behind the scenes, and we’re excited to share that the next playtest kicks off on December 3rd through Steam, complete with a bundle of new updates for you to explore!

✨ As a thank-you, all playtesters will be awarded a Special Playtester Hat, a finely engineered cardboard box, perfect for those with refined taste.

We’re also thrilled to share that The Rabbit Haul will be part of the Big Indie Showcase on December 2nd! Join us as we celebrate, show off new content, and welcome even more players into the burrow!

You can check out the showcase here: https://www.youtube.com/c/ClemmyGames

This playtest is a little different, as we are running it through Steam!

To participate, head over to our Steam page and look for the Playtest section. Click on Request Access. If you click before December 3, you will need to wait until the playtest is active to download the game. Starting December 3, you will be granted access and will be able to download the game to your Steam library.

Here’s a sneak peek at what you can expect during this open playtest:

This tricky trash panda has an affinity for casting spells from afar, disabling your towers, and more clever tricks you’ll uncover when you play!

The Beehive has received some well-deserved love, introducing the Bees to their very own upgrade path, allowing them to be leveled up!

The community asked for it, and we happily delivered. You can now officially pet the pig!

The new Dynamic Haul feature, your haul grows as you add more crops! But beware: when the Trash Panda Posse steals from your haul, it will shrink!

Additionally, New Town Music has been added, bringing an even more cozy charm to the game. Plus, many more Improvements/Balancing/Big Fixes based on your feedback!

As we head into the new year, we want to share our absolute gratitude to you, our community. You have been here with us since the very beginning of this newsletter and every step of the way since. We truly couldn't have done it without you and can’t wait to share more exciting updates and news in the new year!

Have any questions or want to learn more about the playtest? Be sure to join us on Discord. It’s the perfect place to chat, share your excitement, and give us your thoughts!

Until next time 👋

Hello Everyone! 👋

Our team has been hard at work this past month, getting everything ready for our upcoming Steam demo, and we can’t wait to share it with you!

From every haul you’ve helped Sprout deliver to the amazing feedback you’ve shared in Discord, your enthusiasm continues to shape the game in ways we’re so grateful for.

In case you missed it, we posted our first Dev Log that showcases what we have added to the game, plus everything we are prepping for the demo.

Check out the video!

We hope you enjoy these updates as much as we’ve loved creating them for you! Here’s a peek at what’s on the horizon:

🧙‍♂️ New Enemies & Boss – Get ready to face the mischievous Wizard Raccoon (who is looking to cause trouble to your towers…) and the mighty Trash Panda King!

🐝 Beehive Upgrades – Strengthen your nighttime defenses with an all-new upgrade path for the Beehive that has honey bees join the fight!

🦝 Camps – They are special activities that spawn on the map, where you’ll be rewarded with amazing loot by defeating all raccoons in the camp

🐷 And last but certainly not least, you will finally be able to pet the pig!

💚 Let us know in Discord what you’re most excited to see, or if you have any more feedback or suggestions for us!

Before the demo drops, we’ve got one more playtest on the way so you can try out all the new additions. Be sure you are part of our Discord community to get the details first!

Until next time 👋

We have returned (and recovered 😅) from our first-ever PAX West, and we wanted to share our takeaways from the event! Let's get into it!

What is PAX West? Why did we go? 

PAX West is an annual gaming convention in Seattle, Washington, that celebrates gaming culture with panels, tournaments, live events, and an expo hall with publishers and developers showing off their products or demos. We wanted to show the new alpha build of The Rabbit Haul to a new audience at PAX West, and it didn’t disappoint! We made so many new fans and friends during the event, and we had a blast showing all the cool new things that we added to the game. PAX was also a great place to meet press and content creators to help spread the word about our monthly playtests. As we are gearing up towards a public demo on Steam (date TBD), we want to have as many people play the game to make it the best it can be. I think we were successful in that goal! We want to thank Edmonton Screen for their financial support. If you are an Edmonton studio, be sure to check out their funding programs!

What We Brought and our goals for PAX West 2025

To try and make the most out of PAX West, we had a few initiatives to help drive attention to our booth and boost Steam Wishlists:

• We teamed up with four other studios for an Indie Stamp Rally where PAX attendees could win a TV, Steam gift cards, and game codes by collecting stamps and entering a raffle. You should check out their games:
  • Ctrl Alt Deal
  • A Corgi's Cozy Hike
  • Starlight Re:Volver
• Our popular hair sprouts (let's go #sproutsquad!) returned after being such a hit at Gamescom, alongside postcards with game information to give away to attendees.
• Partnered with a PR agency to help secure influencer coverage during PAX West.
• We live-posted on social media during PAX West to keep up with everything exciting that was going on.

If you participated in the Indie Stamp Rally raffle, the prizes have been drawn and the winners contacted. Thank you for participating!

Since this was our first time at PAX West, our goals were: 

• Meet with press and influencers
• Collect feedback from playtests at the booth
• Spread the word about our monthly playtests in Discord
• Grow our community
• Make new developer/industry friends!

What did we take away?

• The hair sprouts we’re just as big a hit at PAX West as at Gamescom. 🌱
• We were awarded Saturday’s Best of PAX West 2025 from KujoPrime (Kurosh Jozavi)
• PAX is a great event to meet with press and influencers. Compared to other trade shows, media attendees have a recognizable badge that makes it easy to spot media on the showfloor.
• PAX West and its Steam festival, including all of our efforts leading up and during the event got us ~2000 wishlists.
• Attendees love raffles and prizes, and we had a total of 212 entries to our raffles. Among other prizes, the TV we bought for the booth was a huge hit! (We didn’t want to bring the TV back to Canada).
• We gained 72 newsletter subscribers from the Stamp Rally (hello and welcome!), and about 100 followers across social media and Discord. We’re happy to have you here!

We were also able to gain some event coverage. Here are some highlights:

• TechRaptor (USA) put us on a list of 11 games you should add to your Wishlist
• Chelora (Canada) stopped by to interview us 
• GG’s Game Room (Australia) put us on their YouTube thumbnail and list of 9 unique Steam games you NEED on your Wishlist

Final Thoughts

We hope you enjoyed our insights from our experience at PAX West 2025! We enjoyed seeing how much support there was for our game and getting to meet and talk with a bunch of you.

We have lots of exciting updates coming down the pipeline, and we can’t wait to share more with you soon! If you haven’t, please make sure to Wishlist The Rabbit Haul on Steam to help support us (and tell your friends too!), join our Discord to keep up to date on future playtest announcements, and follow us on social media for even more fun and exciting content!

Until next time 👋

Hello again! 👋

We have another Alpha Playtest on the horizon, and thanks to your feedback, it's better than ever!

But before we get into it, check out our newest trailer if you haven’t!

We want you! 

Playtests are the heart of how we make The Rabbit Haul the best it can be. Every bit of feedback, bug report, and idea you share is looked through and helps us grow and improve.

When and where?

The playtest takes place from September 8th to the 15th, giving you a whole week to test and enjoy the game, WOO! 

How to participate?

To participate, you need to join our community Discord and choose the interested role. Everyone with the interested role will receive a Steam key via Discord DM the day the playtest starts, and will be able to redeem it on Steam to download The Rabbit Haul.

There will be more instructions for you in the Discord, so hop on in to be ready to jump into The Rabbit Haul! If you can't make this one, no problem. We have more planned down the road!

What’s new for this playtest?

All the fun from the last playtest is back (the town, quests, exploring, new weapons, roguelite cards), PLUS some new updates from your feedback on the last playtest:

New Tutorial Pop-ups

We’ve added new tutorial pop-ups to guide you through key mechanics. Whether you’re brand new or just need a refresher, these tips will make it easier to understand how to build a strong garden!

New difficulty modes (Easy & Normal)

Sometimes you just want to relax in the garden, and sometimes you want to test your limits. Now you can choose between Easy and Normal modes to best suit how you want to play!

New enemy and Tower

Take on the new Reaper level 2, and try out the new Giant Stink Bomb on the rest of the Trash Panda Posse! (We can’t wait to see how you use it)

Controller support

Controller support has been fixed!  Xbox layouts are supported for now, with more to come in the future.

Improvements/Balancing/Bug Fixes

• Fixed overselling issue in the shop 🛒
• Delivery Truck now requires the right amount of carrot coins💰
• Sell basket resets correctly 🧺
• Sniper Violet now unlocks the correct evolution 🌸
• Item sprite display bugs have been cleaned up 🎨
• Typos from last playtest polished up ✏️
• UI for planting seeds feels smoother 🌱
• Improved overall performance for smoother runs 🎮
• Balance tweaks based on your feedback 💌

As always, we are so grateful to have this community here with us as we continue to build our game. We look forward to sharing this latest playtest with you, so make sure you join our Discord to take part, and feel free to invite your friends to spread the word! ✨

-- Until next time 👋

SURPRISE! You’re getting a bonus newsletter this month, because we’re going to PAX West for the very first time! 🥳

But before we get into it, check out our brand new trailer!

We’re bringing our brand-new demo to the show, and we can’t wait for you to try it. We hope this new trailer gets you as excited as we are! 🙌

👾 PAX West Information

📍 Booth #652, Arch Expo Hall
📅 August 29 - September 1
🎮An exclusive PAX West demo
💟Indie Stamp Rally fun with our other awesome indie games friends
🌱The return of the #SproutSquad!

What is the #SproutSquad? 👀

Play The Rabbit Haul demo at our booth and snag your very own adorable sprout hair clip! We love seeing the squad grow, so snap a pic rocking your sprout and share your #SproutSquad and Rabbit Haul love on social media! 💚 Sprouts are available while supplies last (one per person).

💟 Indie Stamp Rally

We’ve teamed up with A Corgi’s Cozy Hike, Starlight Re:Volver, and ctrl.alt.DEAL to bring you a mini indie stamp rally adventure across PAX! Visit all four booths, collect unique stamps, and you’ll be entered to win some sweet prizes 🎁 

• 2× 55” LED TVs — For local participants ONLY (must be able to pick up at PAX (Arch North Building) by 6:00 PM on Sept 1. Winners will be notified by text at 2 PM.
• 1× $100 USD Steam Gift Card — Emailed to the winner after the show
• 2× Starlight Re:Volver Steam Keys — Emailed to winners after the show
• 2× ctrl.alt.DEAL Steam Keys — Emailed to winners after the show
• 2× A Corgi's Cozy Hike Steam Keys - Emailed to winners after the show

🚀 What's Next After PAX?

Not attending PAX West? Sad to be missing out on the new demo? Want to know what is next for our Team? We have answers for all of that! 

Our next Alpha Playtest is right around the corner! We will have more information for you soon, so make sure you join our Discord and stay up to date with us on social media so you don’t miss out.

🐰 Where to Find us

Join our Discord to be first in line for the next playtest and get all the latest updates.

Follow us on social media for more exclusive content!

Whether we get to meet you at PAX West or you’re cheering us on from home, we can’t wait to share what’s next. 🌟

Until next time! 👋

We’re back with this month’s newsletter and this one’s all about our latest playtest!

From July 25 to August 5, our Discord community got exclusive early access to the newest version of The Rabbit Haul. And wow… y’all did not hold back!

Our server has been hopping with bug reports, awesome suggestions, epic run stats, and some truly wild raccoon-slaying numbers. It’s been amazing to see your reactions in real time and to have you right there with us. 🐇💚

Here are some highlights from the playtest:

📊 Playtest by the numbers:

• 142 runs were played
• 457 chests opened
• 6 victories by defeating all waves (MVPs, where you at?👀)
• 23 victories by ordering Gerald’s Delivery Service
• 55 homes rebuilt in Town
• 7,767 Symbiosis Crystals collected
• 23,935 blades of grass mowed down
• 12,832 raccoons met their match 🦝💥

🌱 Player choices:

• 76% of all crops planted were Strawberries (3243) 🍓
• Most-planted tower? Touch Me Not at 59% (815), followed by Power Flower at 20% (277)
• Most-picked Roguelite Card? Beehive at 9% (40) 🐝
• Most common symbiotic relationship: Sprinkler at 46% (66), with Beehive close behind at 38% (55)
• Most popular Town shop upgrade? Power Flower at 26% of all upgrades (106 upgrades purchased in total)

⏱ Total time played:

You all logged a whopping 79 hours and 48 minutes of gameplay in just 12 days! 😮

⭐ Player ratings:

• 52.2% gave the game 4 stars
• 26.1% gave it 5 stars

🚧 A glimpse at what is next:

Your feedback is gold, and here’s what came up the most at first glance:

• Lack of controller support (yep, we’re already fixing that)
• Difficulty curve (we’ll look at adding an easy mode)
• Missing indicators for low health/low haul (those surprise losses hurt)
• Some mechanics are not clearly explained (Delivery Truck, Symbiosis Crystals/XP)
• Plus, 44 bugs were reported which are logged and ready to be prioritized for our team to tackle! 💥🐞

Rest assured that we read through all the bug reports, feature suggestions and survey responses we receive. We might not get to your bug or suggestions right away, but we will eventually.

🌱  How you can support us

• Join our Discord to be first in line for the next playtest and get all the latest updates.
• Wishlist The Rabbit Haul on Steam –  it’s one of the best ways to help our game reach more players!

We can’t thank you enough for playing, testing, and helping us grow the game. Your support makes every day worth it for our team. 💛

Stay tuned for details on the next playtest!

Until next time! 👋

Welcome back to our monthly newsletter. This month we are excited to announce that playtests are BACK! Keep reading to know how to get involved and what to expect!

This playtest is a BIG one because we’ve been working on a bunch of new features for the last 6 months, some of which we’ve been promising for years! This is also a huge milestone for us because The Rabbit Haul is finally hitting the Alpha stage. 

We need your help!

Playtests are SO important to make the game the best that it can be! Whether you are a seasoned veteran in our community, or have just joined, we are so thankful for your time and interest in playing the game, giving us feedback, suggesting features, submitting bug reports, and filling out surveys. It means a great deal to us and it truly motivates us to keep going! This next one will be the biggest yet, and we hope that you will take part in it in big numbers!

When, What, How, Who and Where, you say?

The playtest is planned to start on July 23rd and will be open for a whole week. YAY! To participate, you need to join our community Discord and when prompted choose the interested role. Everyone with the interested role will receive a Steam key by Discord DM on July 23rd, and will be able to redeem it on Steam to download The Rabbit Haul.

There will be more instructions for you in the Discord, so hop on in to be ready to jump in game on July 23rd! If you can't make this one, no need to worry, there will be more in the future!

What’s new in the game?

As you might have read in our monthly updates, we’ve been hard at work on a lot of new features. So on July 23, you’ll be able to experience for the first time ever:

The Town

The new safe hub for our cute bunny protagonist and his friends! The Town has vendors to upgrade your defenses, NPCs, quests and will serve as the anchor point of the story as you rebuild the home of your neighbours to its former glory.

Quests

We are testing a new feature, Quests! You will be able to accept Quests from NPCs which will help you progress and offer amazing and sometimes exclusive rewards! It definitely pays to be a good neighbour! 😀

Exploration

The map just got BIGGER! We’ve added areas to discover during runs that will reward you for exploring your surroundings. The further you are in a run, the more you will be able to explore

New Weapons & Improved Combat

Combat got a lot more fun, with a much needed improvement on the feel of melee and range combat! You’ll also have an onslaught of new weapons to discover and master!

Roguelite Cards

Symbiosis crystals, a currency you collect when establishing and maintaining powerful synergies between your towers, will now provide you with items, special abilities and upgrades! The symbiosis crystals fill up an XP bar that when filled, gives you a choice between 3 rewards. Your gardening skills will surely pay dividends with this new feature.

New Music

This new build will feature new custom music from the amazing A Shell in the Pit. Can’t wait for you all to groove to these new tracks!

And More

There’s so much more tweaks and polish that’s been added to the game, in fact, too many to list them all here. So you’ll have to play it next month to see it all in action. hehe

Before then, we want to know which one of these are you most excited to try next month?

We’re thrilled to have you along for this exciting chapter in our journey! If you haven't already, please wishlist The Rabbit Haul on Steam, join us and invite your friends to our Discord to playtest the game! 

– Until next time 👋

Need a place to rest after a round of hauling crops? Looking to upgrade and unlock new towers and abilities? Want to relax with some cute critters? Then the Town is just for you!

Welcome back as this month we are sharing our latest big update: The Town!

The Town

The Town is in ruins after a raid from the Trash Panda Posse. Aid the mayor and rebuild the Town from the ground up! Boost the morale of the townsfolk with the crops that you have hauled from your run. Doing so will unlock new features, new friendly critters, stores, towers and crops as the Town comes back to life!

Art for the Town

We had a lot of fun designing what the town would look like. Take a sneak peak at some of the art. Here are a few sample concepts of town assets!

Quests!

In the Town, you can talk, find and accept quests from townsfolk. Discover how you can be of help. There's much to do in this rebuilding season!

Additionally, we are introducing our dialogue system. Now you can interact and talk with other friendly animals!

Quest Tracking

We are currently building a method to track quests. Here is a concept of the Journal, a feature that will allow you to keep track of what quests you are working towards and quests that you have finished.

Thanks for reading

There's still lots for us to develop in the Town, but we can’t wait to let you guys try it out! If you haven't already please wishlist The Rabbit Haul here and be on the lookout for our next playtest coming soon.

-- Until next time! 👋

All hands on deck as we continue the development of The Rabbit Haul. Lots of progress is being made behind the scenes and we are waiting for the right time to reveal all the work that has been done so far! For now, let's talk about the changes we made to the combat!

Combat Redesign

We’ve been eager to polish the combat system in our game. Based on your feedback during the playtest it was something we knew you would appreciate as well. In the beginning, it was a necessity to develop a simple combat system that acted as a foundation for us to develop other features. Now, we are ready to push our combat to the next level!

Old Sword Attacks

New Sword Attack
The new system implements a few techniques to add a feeling of weight and feedback. We are also allowing players to have access to combo slashes without needing to buy it from Pauline in-run.

Camera Work

A subtle yet effective polish we added was a camera sway. Before, the camera would move with the player one for one. Now, the camera feels reactive to your movements as the camera follows with a slight delay. It's a small change but it adds a layer of refinement we were looking for.

Old Camera: No Sway Effect

New Camera: Sway Effect

Screen Shake

Additionally, with our new camera set up we are able to test different effects like screen shake to really sell a heavy attack! This is still a work in progress and as you can see this feature requires a gentle touch.

Weapons

It's been our goal to implement an array of exciting new weapons that promote discovery and highlight different playstyles. We are eagerly designing and testing them out and we are so excited to get it into your hands soon. For now, here's a quick tease at some new weapon concepts!

Have an idea for a weapon you’d love to see? Join us in our Discord and share your ideas with us and our community.

Thanks so much for your continued support for The Rabbit Haul. We can’t wait to share more as we work hard to create an experience you will enjoy!

If you have not done so yet, please support us by wishlisting The Rabbit Haul on Steam.

Until next time! 👋