Bonobo Software

Hey all, we're back! It's been a super busy year. As you might imagine, making a game this big with just four people means we have to work is if we were a team of ten people when it comes to working hours. We've been doing our best at it, and a ton of amazing things have happened this year. Truth is

October was full of exciting new things for Taival. On the systems side of things we added a sneaking/stealth system, worked on the Henki shapeshift form taming, and added content scaling for the content. For the stealth system we wanted a really lifelike and intuitive feel. This means when an enemy

Hey all! September was a big leap of progress for Taival. As you know, we've been working on this game since 2022, initally with less hours put into it along studies, and now working on it full time. As a lot of time has passed, a particular system of the game had grown into a quite monolithic god c

Waves are gently hitting the side of his small vessel and splashing fistfuls of murky water around, as he approaches a dusky town on the edge of a grim marshland. It's a dark night, but the moon and stars illuminate the smuggler's ship, making the valuables and trinkets gleam and sparkle with white,

Leaves are rustling beneath Gurtan's leather wraps, which were once boots worth enough to feed a big family for a month. Evening air is cold this time of year, as his breath steams in front of him and wind chills parts of his skin through his tattered jacket. Gurtan takes a deep breath. "Stay calm,

Hello dear Patreons! In this month's Bonus Post I wanted to share my workflow on creating new assets for our wonderful game. In the last lore drop you got some inside knowledge about Hermit and I thought we could continue with that and reveal you where he lives. First of all, we always had in mind t

Say hello to Hermit, a peculiar and interesting character. Not much is known about him. He used to live in the fishing town of Lantern's Crossing, but since has went to seclusion. It's rumored he was cast out from the town, but no one knows for sure, except Hermit. No one really knows how old he is,

Hey there, dear Patrons! For this month's bonus post I'd like to show you our progress on updating some basic terrain textures to better fit the mood of the conifer spruce area. By updating just the two terrain types (general rock, spruce forest floor) seen in the photos, we can see good improvement

Hey folks! This month's development update will be quite short. The fact is that there hasn't been a proper vacation for us in an ETERNITY (almost literally, I think we haven't had a full week off since we started working extra hard on Taival in 2024, and we've been working on it since quite much da

Hey all, We wanted to do something different for the bonus post this time around. Something we've never dived into is the external tech that makes Taival possible. Let's get into it! The majority and main development for Taival is done on the Unity game engine - version 6.1 at the time of writing th

Hey all! This month we've reached the biggest development in the history of Taival while not a lot of development has happened for Taival. Hear us out! This month we've managed to do what will be the most important single step for Taival. We're really close to announcing it publicly, but let's put i

Goblins. Such a common concept in the world of fantasy and RPGs, right? We think so too, which is at the same time the reason we want to bring goblins as a race into Taival, but also the reason we want to put a twist to the concept. Let's dive into it! The role of goblins in these kinds of games ten

Meadows is the working name for the very first zone of Taival. Images are a lot more efficient for showing it off to you than us babbling here, so without further ado, take a look!

Deep within an ancient mountain, a dormant Henki is discovered - a tiny creature capable of shapeshifting. A journey is sparked to recover the scattered heartstone fragments from the diverse realms of Taival. In the search for these shards, the companion's ancestral abilities are reawakened, allowin

Hey all! This is the first Patreon development update. To keep you all in the loop, we began working on Taival in 2022, moving to full time development in 2024. The work done during 2022-2024 was mostly back end technicalities, stuff that runs behind the curtains to make the game actually play and w

Hey all! This track, called Pidot (continuing with the theme of Finnish names, meaning a feast or festivities), was built to carry a medieval taverny feel, but came about with a nice sense of wilderness and ambition to it. It's a catchy melody, written to be recognizable, possibly to the taverns of

Hey all! This month's model showcase is a bit different. We're having a new guy taking over the main artist position in our team, we will let you know more in an official announcement later on. For now, here's some of his early work for Taival. We're really looking forward to all the amazing assets

Heya! We've now revised the Patreon tiers starting next month. We changed the rewards to better fit our schedules, while also allowing us to create better content for you guys - we don't have an infinite amount of soundtracks (wish we did) to post for example, so locking down post types like that wa

This time we’re taking a brief look into the combat mechanics we have planned out for adventurers in Taival. Most games handle weapons essentially having different attack speeds and damage numbers. We want every weapon type to have depth and flavour to make each fight have something different. That'

Most open world games get you from point A to point B in familiar ways: you run, you ride a mount, or you fast travel. Functional? Sure. Exciting? Not really. But in Taival, we believe getting there should be half the fun! So we threw out the rulebook and rolled in something a little more… unconvent

Somewhere between the rustling trees and the whisper of far-off winds, you find yourself here - at a crossroads. You stop. You look one way. Then the other. Then back again. And just like that, your heart wants both. What if you miss something unforgettable? What if the path you don’t take carries o

Hey all! We've been extremely busy the last few months with publisher stuff (that's all we can say at this point, but it may be a fantastic thing for Taival), and thus we're really sorry for the inactivity here. We'll have all the missing posts from last month as well as some additional stuff for yo

Howdy! Bold bandits are on the hunt for loot. These ruthless, money-hungry crooks lie in wait, ready to ambush any unwary traveler who strays from the beaten path. You can download the 4K wallpaper from link below. Stay tuned, new epic wallpapers drop every month! - Juho, artist and visual wizard

Hello! It's time for a new monthly wallpaper, this time featuring a bird-eye view of sunset forestscape in Taival. As you look upon the tree canopy below, you can’t help but wonder what mysterious creatures roam the shadowed woods… and what secrets lie far beyond the sea and distant horizon. You can

Hey adventurers! This month, we’re diving into (this exact wording "diving into" is important, just keep reading... 😉) something special—our magical potion brewing system! Rather than just crafting potions through a simple menu by clicking and waiting, we wanted to create something more hands-on an

Hey everyone! This time I want to show you a different kind of audio track - this one is a environmental atmosphere as much as it is a musical track. When listening to this, where does it take you? I can feel a icy cold open cavern with icicles above me. The tone of the musical instrument here to me

What kind of fast travel would you like to see in Taival? Or do you absolutely hate fast travel because it eats immersion? You can choose multiple options!

Howdy! This vibrant wallpaper captures a scene of our bold companions gathered together. Something mysterious and intriguing looms in the distance. Is it an ancient secret, or a challenge yet to be faced? This picture puts together the countless stories they’ve lived. You can download the wallpaper

Hey adventurers! One of our main goals in Taival is to create a world that doesn’t just exist for the player—but one that feels alive on its own. We already talked about NPCs having schedules and them being simulated in our previous post, Taival Mechanics #9: NPC Schedules & Simulation, but there’s

Hello there, This month we’re diving into something more technical as we show you how our new character facial expressions work. They are made with things called blend shapes, which allow us to manipulate the shapes of various parts of a 3D character. In simple terms, think of it as a slider: at zer

This track is a shorter, simpler one, yet packs a lot of nuance and feeling. You may immediately picture yourself walking into a magical shop of potions and spells. Thus the name of the track, Taika, is quite simply the finnish word for "Magic". The wind chime like instrumentation oddly enough creat

Happy 2025! This year, our adventurers are embracing the challenge of getting fit and strong. After all, muscularity is a key trait of any professional fighter! You can download the 4K wallpaper from link below. Stay tuned, new epic wallpapers drop every month! - Juho, artist and visual wizard

Hey there! One of the most crucial things in designing an open world game is making the world feel like it's alive. It's easy to simply make the game world big, but to make it feel like it lives on it's own, that things happen there without the player causing them with their own actions is the hard

Hey adventurers! Ever since we were little kids playing video games, we've felt like mounts are one of the key features that make open world games fun and enjoyable. Whether you're speeding across vibrant landscapes or sharing a ride with your friends, mounts add a whole new layer of fun and functio

Hi there, Welcome to Lantern's Crossing! This charming fishing town may seem modest at first glance, but it’s a bustling hub of trade for the surrounding region. Its name comes from the lanterns that are an iconic part of local design. The town is encircled by peculiar blue vegetation, which even sp

Happy Holidays! A courageous goblin hurries through the blizzard, desperately searching for their way back home. The snowstorm's fury holds a strange beauty, a chaotic dance of ice and wind. You can download the 4K wallpaper from link below. Stay tuned, more art coming next month! - Juho, artist and

When writing music there is a point to be made regarding to familiarity. It's natural for the brain to attach onto things that it has heard before, that it has attached memories and feelings to. This is something I thought about when creating Hehku. It builds around a repeating mellow sounding harps

Feel like fishing? And when we say fishing, we don't mean just cods and pikes. We're talking about all kinds of cool stuff to reel in with your rod! This month, we're taking you to the peaceful shores, lakes, and rivers of Taival with a look at our fishing system. As you guys voted in our last month

Happy Halloween! Who wouldn't love a haunted Halloween stroll in a graveyard? But beware of the spooky, scary clackers! They’re eager to add unwary travelers to their feast! Gourd Jack-o'-lanterns and a flickering torch will light traveler's perilous path among the ancient gravestones. You can downl

How would you prefer the fishing mechanics to work in Taival? Please leave a comment if you have any other ideas or examples of great fishing mechanics!

Tired of making decisions alone? Or missing out on the story because you weren't the host of the game? As Taival is a quest-driven co-op game, we wanted the important decisions to be made together. We also wanted the players to experience the story at the same time. However, we also want to have all

Heyo! Are you ready for a boss fight? The colossal rock lizard Crystallon is waiting for you deep within the dungeon! This post features our brave little hero Sporix’s encounter with Crystallon. Now, it’s up to our adventurers to help take down Crystallon and its wicked minions once and for all! You

Hello there, This newly designed biome features surreal badlands where only the hardiest creatures can survive. Peculiar rodent-like beings make their homes in caves carved into the cliffs of this hostile world. The badlands are alive with volcanic activity, with a yellow, sulfur-like substance burs

Howdy! It's time for this month’s wallpaper, featuring a fearless adventurer gliding across the sky on zipline. This adventurer is hanging from the line by a (t)rusty old pickaxe—hope it holds! In the world of Taival, a zipline launcher is one of the fastest (and most thrilling) ways to travel. Whet

Do you feel overwhelmed in an RPG game by watching your stamina bar, while trying to maintain mana with potions and keep combo bars up simultaneously? Fear no more, Taival has none of those! We've created a single bar of energy, Virta, which is used to power up everything from crossbows, staves, abi

Hey there, We just dropped a little split screen gameplay clip of Taival on Youtube! 🏕️ The top player shows off the map and fast travel mechanic, the bottom left player visits dialogue and an inn for buying some refreshing beverages, and the bottom right player wanders around the pier area of Lant

Vaellus is a Finnish word for a wandering or hiking. This track is one of the overworld tracks you hear when venturing the wilderness of Taival. It plays on a lower volume in comparison to the music you hear at points of interest, such as towns or dungeons, as it is not meant to take your attention,

Hey there, Here's the wallpaper of the month, featuring the landscape of Taival. After a hike, adventurers might find themselves resting on a cliff, perhaps roasting fish over a campfire or taking a nap in a cozy bedroll. They might travel to a nearby town via a sturdy bridge or explore the surround

Have you ever been annoyed by being one-shot unfairly (or in most cases quite fairly) by an enemy? We definitely have, and to fix this we've developed a unique take on how the player's health is handled in Taival. The player's health consists of a health bar that is divided by hearts. These hearts a

Hello there, Deep under the surface of Taival lies a strange yet cozy village inhabited by mysterious mushroom-folk called the Glimmercaps. Fungal mycelium spreads throughout the sprawling cavern, from the slippery floor to the furthest corners of the deep tunnels, and even the huts of the Glimmerca