- Patch v1.0.4 - Quality of Life Issues and Bug Fixes - 11 January 2026
Game UpdateHey all, thanks for playing Kinsfolk, leaving reviews and giving feedback! Because of that I managed to address all the problems you reported in the hours and days after launch. I been posting daily patches since launch day, but wanted to post one proper longer patch format for folks that are interested in what changed. In no particular order they are: Quality of Life IssuesAdded a Content Notice on the Steam page that the game deals with grief and lossThe nightmare level now has a bit brighter stars to help you navigate when the torch goes outAdjusted the lighting in certain areas like the initial house to make it easier to navigateMade the jumping puzzle in the climbing level less frustrating and fixed several issuesRemoved trees that block views from jumps which was annoyingMade certain jumps easier (especially the ones with frustrating mechanics)Made meshes like trees und…
- Fixing Quality of Life Issues and Bug Fixes - 10 January 2026
Game UpdateHey all, thanks for playing Kinsfolk, leaving reviews and giving feedback, because of that I managed to address the problems you reported. In no particular order they are: Quality of Life IssuesAdded a Content Notice on the Steam page that the game deals with grief and lossThe nightmare level now has a bit brighter stars to help you navigate when the torch goes outAdjusted the lighting in certain areas like the initial house to make it easier to navigateMade the jumping puzzle in the climbing level less frustrating (removed trees that block views and made it easier)Made tooltips easier to read, especially on certain backgrounds like snowBug FixesFixed the footsteps not registering on snow levelFixed several issues with blocking volumes (invisible walls) across a few levels that people reported Fixed missing river SFX in the farm storyClosing RemarksThanks to everyone reportin…
- Launch Day! - 8 January 2026
Launch DayKinsfolk is a short, emotional single-player narrative adventure about a father caring for his child as you explore and relive stories from the past. It’s designed to be finished in one sitting (just under an hour), with a cozy atmosphere, atmospheric music, and story-forward exploration. If you’ve been following along—thank you so much for the support, it means a lot to me. I hope this story stays with you. Vinko
- 10 Days Until Release! - 30 December 2025
Jan 8th Release!Since we are only 10 days from the release of Kinsfolk on Jan 8th, wanted to share a few things. Firstly, some key features for Kinsfolk for folks that are still trying to decide if the game is for them.Key FeaturesA short (about 45 minutes) emotional narrative game with very light puzzle and platforming elementsFully voice acted by Luke DavidOriginal soundtrack by Josh KashdanPlays well on Steam DeckFor fans of Journey, Firewatch, The First Tree and What Remains of Edith FinchI also been asked if the demo will continue the be live, yes it will for the foreseeable future. My goal with it is to give a way for people to try Kinsfolk before buying it.Behind the ScenesLastly, I really wanted to share some behind the scenes work that happened on Kinsfolk since I thought it is interesting now looking back at it after 2 years of development.Concept ArtHere is the original conce…
- Try the demo for Kinsfolk, a casual emotional adventure about fatherhood - 24 November 2025
Made in the spirit of the likes of Journey, Firewatch, What Remains of Edith Finch - Kinsfolk is a casual adventure about fatherhood. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/11/try-the-demo-for-kinsfolk-a-casual-emotional-adventure-about-fatherhood/
- Steam Deck and Linux Support! - 22 November 2025
Steam Deck and Linux Support!I really enjoy using Linux (for my dev work) and Steam Deck for gaming. Since starting Kinsfolk 2 years ago I always wanted to support them properly. I am super happy to announce that the current Kinsfolk demo now runs natively on Linux, and has been optimized for Steam Deck!Try it out, I would love to hear your feedback since all of this will be in the main game as well, so this is the time to give me input.PerformanceSo how well does the game run? Well thanks to a few days of optimizations, and a native Linux build, it is getting about 60 FPS on low, 40-50 FPS on medium and 25-45 on high. I am working on getting it better, especially want to see if I can reduce the drops on high so it is stable above 30 FPS.Art Style Across Graphics PresetsI spent some extra cycles as well to make sure art style does not degrade when reducing quality (low, medium, graphics…
- Kinsfolk is part of Steam Next Fest! - 13 October 2025
If you were waiting to try the Kinsfolk demo, what a better time then now during Steam's Next Fest!The new update has several bug fixes and a bit of new content. I used this new opportunity to create a new trailer and showcase more new content.Enjoy!
- Demo bugfixes update live! - 13 September 2025
FixesHi all, we recently had new players trying the demo (which is awesome!) and reporting some minor bugs and quality of life issues. These have been addressed, here is a almost complete list of all the changes in the new update.Fixed clipping with several story meshesFixed collision which could make you stuck in the initial houseAdjust dialogue and interaction logic to make it feel more responsiveSpeed up the slow walking to make it less annoying but still keep the narrative intentionFixed chicken looking like it is flyingFixed invisible walls that would allow the player to enter the riverFixed the nav mesh allowing chickens to wonder into the riverAdjust font to be more sharper (reduce blurriness)Add escape as a universal way to go back in main menusFixed a bug where you could see an outline of a character flyingMake all setting menus rotate so you don't have to go all the way backFi…
- GALM - Games Against Living Miserably - 8 September 2025
Kinsfolk in GALMFrom September 8th to 15th, Kinsfolk will be part of GALM - Games Against Living Miserably - which is a gaming festival that is helping to shine a light on how games can lift people up when life gets heavy and raising vital funds to help CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably) be there for anyone struggling.What you can do to participate?Try the new Kinsfolk demoCheckout any of the other GALM festival gamesCheckout the CALM charity website
- New Level Showcase & Demo Update! - 20 June 2025
New Level ShowcaseI finally made a lot of progress on the Act 2 of Kinsfolk, together with the art style, story, voice lines and soundtrack being all done..., I can finally show something. Hope you enjoy it, here is a small showcase of the atmosphere.Demo UpdateI haven't updated the demo in a few months, so it is time to do so to get all the new goodies in!The new demo has more voice lines and interactable story elements (especially in the farm level). I would love to hear what you think. I also added a lot of polish and details (the small things) that I always wanted to add but never thought it was urgent to do so.I won't bore you with the details, instead have it a go in the demo and here is just a little screenshot of before vs after.
- Big Demo Update! - 10 February 2025
Just several months back, Kinsfolk demo went live. And, thanks to you all that played it and submitted feedback I collected a lot of ideas how to improve the game further. I incorporated those in the main game already, but also wanted to push a new demo so we can continue building the game together, and as a thank you to the community and everyone that gave feedback. If you get the chance, please give the new demo a go. So what did change? Story and Narration Mechanics One of the main pain points and feedback themes I heard from the players was that gameplay did not feel interactive enough, and that story wasn't engaging. The main problem was that the dialogue was full of long exposition dumps. To solve for that, I broke it down into multiple segments. Both subtitle- and dialogue-wise. Now instead of listening to the story for 30 seconds, you need to explore and find multiple pieces of…
- Help Improve Kinsfolk and Win Rewards! - 5 August 2024
Very short announcement this time! During the whole of August Kinsfolk will be part of the Indie Playtest Fest with a lot of other amazing indie games! If you get playtest any of the games and leave feedback you can win prizes such as Steam Gift cards! Looking forward to hearing your feedback. Check out the full list of indie games on the Indie Playtest Fest website. If you want to participating for Kinsfolk, you just need to finish the demo and leave your feedback here and mention "indieplaytestfest" in the feedback form. As always, if you want to learn more about Kinsfolk, hang out with other players, give feedback, join the Kinsfolk community Discord server.
- Demo and Indie Game Festivals! - 29 July 2024
Demo is Live! The demo for Kinsfolk is live! If you get to play it, would love to hear your feedback. There has already been a few smaller patches to address the player reported feedback. I will soon write a more detailed patch notes for better visibility. Looking forward to hearing more form you all. Discord Community Server Yup, you heard it right! I created a Discord server for Kinsfolk so you can also directly ask for feedback, give suggestions or just report bugs or hang with other folks that played the game. Indie Game Festival Kinsfolk got a Casual Game Recommendation on the Game Connection Indie Game Festival! Playtest and Earn Rewards Starting August 1st, Kinsfolk is part of the Indie Playtest Fest with many other amazing indie devs. You can play the demos (including Kinsfolk's) and win rewards! Check out the page for more details. Demo Patching and More Thanks to folks that ga…
- June 9th 2024 Devlog #2 - 9 June 2024
Hi all, it has been a while since the last update so just wanted to share some progress and things I have been working on. I had some personal things happening which made me lose an entire month of progress on Kinsfolk since it was hard to juggle a full-time job alongside all of that. However, I started working again last week and already have some news and things to show! Let's start :) Save/Load systems Kinsfolk is composed of a lot of smaller stories scattered throughout the world. Now that the number of stories grew, I had to implement a way to save progress so when you complete a story and return back you progress is nost lost! Working on a free and open-to-all demo! I decided to take a slice of Kinsfolk's story and put it as a free demo on Steam! This requires some restructuring since I did not plan to do this initially. I think this is a wonderful way to get some direct feedback…
- 24th March 2024 Devlog #1 - 24 March 2024
Hi all, thought I could share some things I been working on for the past two weeks :) I want to do these short devlogs here and there. Let me know if you enjoy reading them and what you would love to see. After releasing the trailer I got some feedback on the aesthetic of the landscapes and that the animations looked a bit robotic. Below are all the things I worked on and improved. Better Fog System The old fog had ta few problems it was white which caused it to blend both with the sky and the snow on the ground it did not convey well the distance of environments due to it not being strong enough for far elements These can been seen on the image below. You can see that adding a tint of blue to it (due to the sun being warm lighted) and adding more intensity for farther landscape makes the environment look bigger. In the new fog system below, look especially, at how much easier is to gau…
- Kinsfolk Steam Page is Live! - 10 March 2024
Hey all, if you are reading this you must have at least some interest in Kinsfolk :) I plan to use this community hub to put news and updates around the game, hopefully it can also act as some sort of devlog as well. Thank you for checking the community hub, if you want even more news you can follow me on twitter. If you have any feedback or questions for the game or me, please let me know. Stay tuned for more news about Kinsfolk hopefully soon, Vinko
