GroveBound
Grove Bound
Grove Bound is a cozy woodcutting RPG with a twist there’s no combat.
this is an early demo, and there’s plenty more to come. If you have ideas or feedback, feel free to share them. I’d love to build this together with the community.
Wishlist : https://store.steampowered.com/app/3959750/Grove_Bound/
Discord : https://discord.gg/kyPrPr3pN6
Instead of fighting enemies, the world itself is the challenge. The grove is wrapped in darkness, lit only by your lantern and the occasional campfire. Some paths will be blocked, but with a bit of planning, better tools, and upgraded skills, you can work your way through and even shape the grove to your advantage.
There’s no rush here. No ticking clock. Just you, your axe, and a quiet forest to explore at your own pace.
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If you like this project, please consider giving it a rating, and drop some feedback on what you want to see!
Features
Chop, Mine, Fish, Cook & Craft
Spend your days gathering, crafting, and slowly improving your tools as you settle into life in the grove.
Find Your Favourite Gear
Discover and upgrade equipment that suits your playstyle some might even hold little secrets.
Wander into the Grove
Take your lantern and explore at your own pace. The deeper you go, the more there is to find.
Pack What Matters
Your bag is small, so choose carefully. Bring what you need and make the most of what you find.
Meet the Neighbors
Get to know a cast of friendly, slightly odd locals. Help them out, and learn their stories over time.
Little Mysteries Everywhere
Poke around, try things out, and uncover hidden corners of the world.
A Gentle Pace
Keep yourself fed and rested, but there’s no pressure take each day as it comes.
With cute pixel art visuals and a cozy mysterious atmosphere, Grove Bound is about progress, planning, and finding comfort in the unknown one tree at a time.
Development log
- Grove bound v0.2.17 patch notes6 days ago
- Grove bound v0.2.15 patch notes9 days ago
- Grove bound v0.2.10 patch notes11 days ago
- Grove bound v0.2.9 patch notes11 days ago
- Grove bound v0.2.8 patch notes12 days ago
- Grove bound v0.2.7 patch notes17 days ago
- Grove bound v0.2.6 patch notes17 days ago
- Grove bound v0.2.4 patch notes22 days ago
Comments
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I think I may have possibly found a bug! So I got the ember and lit it at the king's place, I solved his puzzle too. But all my MAP progress only got reset, I have to rebuild the bridges and light the fires all over again. All my levels stayed the same, just the map only restarted to the beginning.
I'll have a look
Omg I love this game but I'm very stuck TvT. How the EVER LOVING FUCK am I meant to light the braziers in the moth dungeon. Am I stupid?! I genuinely can't figure it out. However, GREAT game!! I absolutely adore it, I'm in love!
I genuinely can't figure out what "simplest food" means T^T
Simplest food for a fire you need to use a log on it it will change colour then click on the brazier
There was a confusing use option on the braziers i have removed that to make using more obvious
Oh my days i'm stupid, of course. In my head I was literally looking for simplest food. Thank you!!
your not the only one might change it to kindling and a different riddle
I think log is the right answer, It's just confusing since there food for fire and just food lol
I am pretty far along here. I am at least level 9 in all skills, have 3 embers going. 2 questions: is it possible to make the boat and is it possible to get the gem machine going? I am not looking for hints really. I gave the Botch 1K twice and I can mill pine planks so I don't know if the game is done for me for now or what. I can mine coal also, so it is easy to get coins.
sounds like the quest state isn't saving you can get the gem accumulator you have to go to his brothers after you give him 1k ill check why its not saving properly, the boat you just need to bring him the right items and he will try them, but sounds like your mostly done
apologies looks like there was a silly bug that was resetting the quest after you stopped talking to him or left the cave, should be fixed now next time he takes your money he will remember.
LOL, I want a refund. what a scam!! That guy took me for 2k!! Seriously though, thanks. I really appreciate the game and I hope that you add more in the future. I think it's a great concept.
I'm really enjoying the game, but have gotten stuck with the Moth Dungeon. I am pretty sure I understand the braziers - but nothing I use on them (from logical to not) has worked. Is there a hint I could receive for how to get the door open? I'm unable to progress without Planks and this stinking door is keeping me from them!
I have tried kindling, berries, cooked berries, a torch, the lantern, logs, bunny and rabbit figures, the feather, and both inventory tools.
Just a normal log you use it then click the brazier. It will be a lighter colour when being used
I must have not selected the item properly, but I swear I tried that. To the moths!
it might have been a bug. ill have an investigate and see if i can break it
you can go out of bounds near the northern cavern entrance and the ginger tree
good spot ill get this patched now
thats fixed now no more escaping the map... hopefully
I love the game! I spent too much time on it before my final exams lol... oh just one question, are we supposed to be able to smith the tin bars before we're able to mine the tin? Because I feel like it should be the other way around right?
Opps yea it should be I'll swap those around in the next build
that's been updated now not bronze was also wrong
Pretty good game, enjoyed it so far. Just wondering, is the "Shiny Fish" actually in the game? Not sure if I have to cut up random fish till I get a pearl or something, and I've already got everything else done (Aside from figuring out what doing the offerings actually did)
Yeah they are you need to complete king's quest to get them. There more likely with higher spirits levels
turns out that bait fishing had a bug that caused shiny fish to be rare not less rare. also have made rare fish twice as likely to show up
So, when I click "talk" and chose do you have a quest at Lily, it opens a dialogue box and the game sort of freezes and I have to click on a firely to get out of it. I also tried talking to Igni but the same thing happens. The King, I can talk to but I cannot figure out his note for the password but that's beside the point. I feel like there are things that I am supposed to do that I can't do. PLease help. Thanks, Dave
Sounds like a big I'll take a look
Is the box empty? What device / browser are you on i can't seem to get this behaviour to happen. There should be a steam windows version soon that should run better.
I am using Chrome but I can switch to another. I am using a windows laptop that is new, running 11. OK, for some reason I can talk to Lily and I got her quest done thanks.
super cute game, definitely interested in a full version, wishlisting! I am having a small issue though that seems to be barring any more progress; I lit the fire at the saw mill and fixed it with the gear, but the moment I put logs in and click on something to start the progress, the progress bar pops up for a split second and then it tells me there's no logs in the mill, and my logs disappear from the pile. I've tried different amounts/types of logs, have tried holding button, clicking button rapidly, clicking just once and waiting, trying to hurry from one machine to another, in case I was just getting the input wrong, but it happens no matter what ;w; not sure if I'm doing something wrong, or if it's a bug, but I thought I'd mention it just in case! :3
I'll have an investigate and see if something has broken thanks for letting me know. Once the machine is fixed it should be put something in log pile then spin up each of the machines keep the bars up. So sounds like a bug.
do you have the correct crafting level ? I was not able to get this happening in my testing does saving and reloading still cause it to happen ? very confused by this one
Yep, I have the crafting level :3 It was still doing it earlier today if I clicked on the crank or levers first, but it finally let me click on the gears to start it, and let me make the planks. I just reloaded it to try taking a video, and the issue is gone, I can start it from any of the 3 areas now. I wish I'd gotten more info to help, sorry ;w;
That's okay it's probably something to do with the interaction system
Buenas noches , si no es mucho pedir una traducción al español es un juegazo y créanme una traducción al español seria fantástico , si es posible claro esta
Me encantaría, pero solo estoy trabajando yo en el juego y no sé español. Quizás en el lanzamiento de Steam pueda.
Really enjoying the game so far, but I ran into a bit of an issue. I got the king's note, but I can't figure out the password. I'm fine being stuck on a puzzle, but I keep fishing up more notes in a bottle. They're slowly taking over my inventory and I can't get rid of them because I haven't finished the quest yet.
I'm drowning in paper.
oh no Ill look into this now. you can put them all in Igni and save and reload his item slot isn't saved so it will delete them. write down each of the words on a pace of paper in order should help with the puzzle. I might capitalize them too.
Thank you for the hint! When I completed the quest and reloaded, all the additional notes had cleared from my inventory.
It should check if its in your inventory and turn it into a trout instead of giving you another one. it checks for notes and the bottle so not sure what's gone wrong there
A full set of what I did, in case it helps with finding the cause.
Talked with King and received the quest.
Bought Net 3 and fished up a bottle
Broke bottle without talking to the king again, which ended up with a dialogue option of "I got the bottle open" without an interim "I got the bottle" or something similar.
Tried like 15 different words and shelved the quest
fished for an extended period of time (15 minutes or so) and obtained 3 additional bottles.
awesome found the bug patch incoming and i have enable deleting for the note and bottle as you can always re-fish them again. turns out I was overwriting the data for shinny trout so every shiny trout after that first one was a message in a bottle instead.
Save and refresh the page you should only be able to fish up one now and should be able to delete any dupes in your inventory
Fantastic work!
I have not figured out out how to make a fishing pole or buy one. I have been playoing this for a while I have the ability to cook all the fish but no idea how to catch one.
you need to light the fire at kings on the beach using an ember heart to unlock fishing
added the basic fishing net to one of the barrels beside kings so you can do some fishing without unlocking the shop
I just got the net , thanks. The embers seem so inportant I did not know when or when not to use them. It seems like you get two and that's it
There are 4 of them but. No wrong answer.
Liked it! But got stuck. I solved 2 quest/puzzles: Lily's flowers and the standing stones. I put an ember in the NW, and one by the sawmill, then there seems to be no more embers to get. I got planks but couldnt get a fishing rod and couldnt do anything with the copper.
there is one from the lil pirate rat near the saw mill you have to make the oak bridge or go through the mines to get to him. the other one is in the mines and needs quite high forestry to get. you can light them in any order and it changes how the game plays.
also for the copper there is a forge in the mushroom mine to turn it into bars
OK, I’m completely stuck. I’m skilled enough to make mushroom stew but cant seem to figure out the ingredients.
Also, I can’t find King’s bottle. Can anyone give me a hint? (“It involves fishing” is a perfect hint).
Lastly, I may have found a bug: when I saved and came back, the chest in the cave respawned and gave me another ember heart. Was that supposed to happen?
the one by the statues shouldn't ill look into that now. mushroom stew needs the mushroom logs and a bowl to put it in. i think ill add a clue to the dialogue as a few people struggled with how to make it.(its really not obvious) kings bottle is found by fishing lots the higher your spirit the more likely you are to get it just use the best net you can and it shouldn't take long, fishing with bait make it more likely to get fish instead. thanks for the feed back
Thank you for your quick response! I could have sworn that I tried the bowl with the mushroom log…I obviously didn’t or it would have worked! I also was able to get King’s note. I had a feeling I was just being impatient with that one…!
Unfortunately I ran into the same cave bug when I restarted…Now I have 2 extra ember hearts:
I wasn’t in the caves when I saved and quit. I was near the beach campfire both times. Not sure if that might help but worth mentioning.
I'll keep at it when you leave the cave it saves so not sure why it keeps spawning it for you.
if you reload does it respawn it could be my last fix. fixed the saving but you needed to collect it once more to actually save the data.
think i found it or at least something related, dieing and respawning was not saving data so if you went into the cave solved the puzzle and died you could collect the ember heart and puzzle would reset same for the moth mine.
not sure what happened with the chest added in another check just in case, doesn't seem to happen for me when i reload next to it. also updated the Bish dialogue to add in a hint to the mushroom stew.
Is Fishing supposed to take forever, or am I doing something wrong? Seems like it takes me ~5 minutes to catch a single fish.
(Using Fishing Rod 1 with Worms/Fish Cuts, 6-6-5-5-2 stats)
It is supposed to take a bit higher spirit helps and spirit equipment it's supposed to be a bit afk. But if you think it's far too slow I can speed it up a bit more.
no your totally right its far too slow, have updated it now to be faster and twice as fast if your using bait. If you save and refresh that should be live now let me know if that feels any better, might speeds up fishing and spirit means your more likely to roll a good fish and less likely to get a nothing roll.
Honestly, I don't mind if it's slow on purpose, I just wanted to make sure that *I* wasn't doing anything wrong. I'll definitely test it out, though.
I tried it and it was really slow much better now. Also bait costs money so should be rewarding
I'm not sure what happened, but going into the Moth dungeon seems to have reset bridges and the fires I lit with ember hearts. (Unfortunately, I don't think I can do Lily's quest again to replace the one from her.)
It also seems to have reset chests, thorns, etc., though my skills and inventory haven't changed. Very odd.
This is very odd I'll look into it.sounds like something messes up the save file and it reloaded when you enter/exit the moth mine
Great game! Two potential bugs and one place I just seem to be stuck.
Bug 1: I completed the 3-item task that gets you a chest inside the cave. I clicked on the chest and got a notification that I don't have enough space for the reward. When I exited the notification, the chest was gone, and I didn't have the reward. I tried exiting and re-entering the cave, but no luck.
Bug 2: I'm level 6 cooking. Somehow, I made some fungus sap, even though that says it requires level 9. Now, if I try to make it on any grill I have unlocked, it prevents me, but guess I somehow made some at some point? I'm honestly not sure how.
Stuck: How do I make a plank?? I'm level 6-8 in every skill, but I still haven't figured this out. I've tried using the hammer on everything in/near the sawmill with no luck. Two items tell me "I don't think that's the right machine to use this on," but the other seemingly just does nothing when I use the hammer on it. I've approached the water wheel from the east but can't find any sort of interaction there either.
That is a bug for the first one. Ill get that fixed in the next update.
not sure about bug two ill investigate that.
you need to use an ember heart at the saw mill and complete the quest to fix the sawmill. I think i could have better popups there to make it more obvious. you will be one ember short from that chest being missing it shouldnt have aloud you to collect it if your full. but you only need 3 for the demo. I would advice not using an ember on the pine forest camp to save you needing to restart.
Ahh, I'd already used one on the pine forest. I used them on pine forest and inside the cave. Is there another ember heart I can access at this point, or am I stuck without the chest/without the sawmill working?
you are a little bit stuck lily, has one standing stones has one , Pierre but he is trapped behind the sawmill quest being done. don't worry I'm about to do an update to fix the chest and it will let sawyer show up at the sawmill without the fire being lit.
I have updated with a new build with a few Qality of life changes chests can no longer be looted if your inventory is full or you cant carry the item. sawyer is now there by default so you dont need an ember heart to do his quest. mushrooms in the mines now keep track of there state and are saved. the UI text is now all using the same font. will hopefully get an update tomorrow with a fix to the sawmill and forge not saving items that are left in them. hopefully this helps and you wont have to start over :)
Cool, thanks! I got past the point I was stuck at.
One other one I noticed - crafting the bronze pick is requiring tin instead of bronze. The tin pick head icon shows up in the "recipe," and it won't let me make it with a bronze head.
I have updated the recipe it was using the wrong pick axe head should let you craft it now.
this is so fun i can't stop playing it! One problem is that I grabbed a second yellow flower and now I can't get it out of my inventory :(( it won't burn or sell and I don't know what to do with it
nevermind i just realised theres a destroy button lmaoo
Haha no worries. Glad your having fun.let me know if there is anything else you find weird or would improve the experience. Just working by myself so it's very easy to be blind to some issues. Really appreciate the feedback
the discord invite is invalid it seems lol
try it now think i had accidentally set it to one that expires.
its still invalid lol
also the game deletes stuff in some spots :( like if I put copper in the smelter and don't immediately smelt it, it's gone. Same with wood in the plank thing