Dev Blog #25 - Peep Sickness, Death, and Mourning

Life on Kewa can’t always be happiness and potatoes!

Peeps can celebrate, Peeps can Strike, but also… Peeps can get sick, pass away, and mourn. Let’s find out more about each of these new behaviours that will roll out in our full game.

Sickness is a mechanic we designed to give Peep wellbeing a greater impact and provide more things for you to consider, encouraging players to think of the wellbeing of the Peeps, and not just their outputs. To avoid your Peeps getting sick, you’ll need to manage your Peeps energy levels. Keep them happy and relaxed with delicious food (potatoes are good, but have you ever had soup?), decorative buildings, and managing how hard Peeps are expected to work. Should your Peeps become sick though, you’ll want to help them recover because if they are sick for too long, the worst may happen.

Luckily, one way you can help them recover is by healing them with the new Apothecary building. (texture pending...)

The Apothecary building produces items designed to give the Peeps more energy, helping them get back on their feet sooner! Peeps will store these items in their homes for when they are needed.

‘But how did my Peep even become sick?!’ You may ask. Peeps will have a chance at becoming sick at the beginning of a shift, the lower a Peeps energy, the higher chance of sickness occuring. And just like in real life (I would hope!), Peeps will stay home for their work shifts while sick.

And unfortunately Peeps can pass away! Peeps sick too long? Death. Peep made a mistake at work while really tired? Possibly death. Peep ate an old potato? Not death, just highly not advised! Just like in real life, death impacts the community. All peeps will lose happiness over the loss, and can start mourning. During a Mourning period, Peeps will mourn outside the deceased Peeps home, and can pay respects at a new building, the Memorial Statue (texture also pending...) and, if a Peep is able to visit a Memorial Statue when taking a break between shifts, they’ll receive an instant happiness bonus.

Steam post image When a Peep passes, you’ll be notified. Their data will remain in the location summary for a while afterwards too, so you can investigate what may have caused their death.

Here’s a quote from our Game Designer MJ on what her favourite aspects of Peep Sickness, Death and Mourning are:

“I think there's two things, one from the very serious designer perspective and one more personal: I like that the threat of peeps dying feels like quite a harsh punishment for failing to properly look after peep needs. I know that sounds evil, but I think strong motivators are a good thing! though I try not to overuse negative ones . On a personal level, I really love the mourning statue and that peeps can gather there when mourning in large groups. It's very relatable and really makes the peeps feel like beings to me instead of little work robots!”

This brings us to the conclusion of our Peep Behaviour dev blogs! Keep your eyes peeled for some new and exciting things we want to share with you, coming soon!

If you want to keep up to date with these little Dev blogs and join the discussion, be sure to head over to our Community Discord! 🔗: https://discord.com/invite/balancingmonkeygames