Ryder news & patch notes

Hello All!

As summer begins, we wanted to spotlight one of Ryder’s most atmospheric regions: Sapphire Grove.

Hidden beneath towering Thundering Oaks, Sapphire Grove is a forest locked beneath constant rainfall. Glowing mushrooms illuminate the paths below while storms roll endlessly through the canopy overhead. This region is inspired by the thunderstorms that happen at the beginning of summer in our hometown.

The creatures that inhabit Sapphire Grove have learned the way of the storms and have learned to master cloud-themed or lightning-based abilities.

Here are some of the creatures you can meet in Sapphie Grove:

Cumulasaur

The Cumulasaur is a sturdy, cloud-themed dinosaur resembling an Ankylosaur, with billowing clouds adorning both its head and tail.

Driftback

The Driftback is a calm, cloud-humped camel-like creature that thrives in the rain-soaked expanse of the Sapphire Grove. It moves steadily through the marshy terrain, found in an array of shades of blue.

Cloudwool

The Cloudwool is a sheep creature with a coat resembling fluffy clouds, accompanied by small floating cloudlets that drift around its body.

We hope you all are enjoying finding the various creatures in Ryder and getting a chance to meet some of the stormy creatures in the Sapphire Grove!

-Arlin & Elle

Hello everyone!

To all the amazing players of Ryder, thank you for your continued support! We wanted you to be the very first to know: the demo for our next project, Hue Factory, is officially live on Steam!

If you enjoy cozy puzzles, logic, and minimalist automation, we'd love for you to check it out. The demo features the first four levels, where you can place conveyor belts, manage color flows, and unlock the Mixer to start blending secondary colors.

As an indie duo, your wishlists and feedback mean the world to us. We'd love for you to give the demo a try, hit that wishlist button, and join our Discord to show off your factory layouts (or if you haven't already, join our Discord to show us your favorite creatures/moments of Ryder!).

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Thank you so much for playing,

-Arlin & Elle

Hello everyone!

It has been an incredible journey with Ryder (don't worry, we are still here to support Ryder, too!), and as a two-person team, we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes deciding what comes next. We are so excited to share our newest project: Hue Factory.

We’ve taken our love for logic and minimalist design and poured it into a "Cozy Automation" experience.

What is Hue Factory? It’s a minimalist game centered on color theory and efficiency. You’ll be placing machines, mixing secondary and tertiary colors, and managing the flow of an evolving factory.

Why are we telling you now? We are officially "going live" with our social media today! If you enjoyed the logic and puzzles of Ryder, we think you’ll feel right at home with the humming conveyors of Hue Factory.

• Wishlist Hue Factory here:

• Follow our journey on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@yellowtreegames

Thank you for being part of our community. We can’t wait to show you more!

-Arlin & Elle

Ryder is now part of the Steam Spring Sale and is available at 25% off through March 26th at 10 AM PST.

Get in the Spring mood by exploring the world of Ryder! The second region, Emerald Valley, is fully Spring-themed; it features flower-themed creatures and a beautiful Spring landscape to explore!

To everyone who has already supported Ryder, thank you. It means a lot to see players exploring the world and connecting with its creatures.

We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to join our Discord and share your experience, favorite creatures, or feedback:

https://discord.gg/pXRQzmJmB2

Arlin & Elle Yellow Tree Games

Happy Holidays from Yellow Tree Games ❄️

Ryder is part of the Steam Winter Sale and is 20% off from December 18th through January 5th.

Thank you so much for all the support and kind words you’ve shared with us this year. It truly means a lot! We love seeing players exploring the world and creatures of Ryder.

If you decide to jump into Ryder during this cozy winter season, we’d love to hear how your journey goes. You’re always welcome to join our Discord to share feedback, favorite creatures, or just say hello:

https://discord.gg/pXRQzmJmB2

Wishing you a warm, cozy, and happy holiday season.

Arlin & Elle

Get into the cozy season by exploring the Goldenwood, an autumnal forest filled with fall-themed creatures. Ryder is 20% off until October 6th.

Ryder is a creature-collecting puzzle adventure where you play as 60+ unique creatures, each with abilities to help you solve over 100 puzzles. Restore life to the land as you journey through vibrant regions themed by the seasons and filled with unique creatures.

Thank you to everyone who’s played Ryder so far! 

We’ve been listening closely to your feedback (and combing through bug reports) and have just pushed a new update live with the following changes:

Performance & Optimization

• Added new settings to help optimize performance for your specific system

• Improved runtime performance across all levels

Gameplay Updates

• Added more spawners for late-level creatures to make finding their variants easier

• Increased interaction circles for larger creatures to make bonding smoother

• Removed the ability to jump over Secret Key and Collectible gates (sorry! you’ll need to unlock them the proper way now)

• Adjusted puzzle gates so they can’t be used to drop into unintended areas

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a few puzzles that were not caching the correct solve state

We’d love to keep hearing from you. Join our community on Discord to share your favorite creatures, swap tips, and chat with us: Join the Discord

If you’ve been enjoying Ryder, leaving a review on Steam is one of the best ways to help more people discover the game. We appreciate your support so much!

Thank you for playing, Elle & Arlin

It’s finally here! After three years of building, designing, and dreaming, Ryder is out in the world.

This is a peaceful, creature-filled adventure where you’ll:

• Solve nearly 100 unique puzzles

• Explore 4 colorful regions, from autumn forests to frozen peaks

• Bond with over 60 creatures and become them

• Unlock unique abilities like wind jumping, ice bridges, and more

• Watch the world fill with sound and life as you restore it

Whether you’re here for the cozy vibes, the curious creatures, or just something a little different, we hope Ryder gives you a quiet place to explore and reflect.

We’re a team of two, and Ryder has been our dream for a long time. If you decide to take this journey, we hope it feels special to you as well.

Thank you for playing. Elle & Arlin

Please note: Ryder is fully functional on the Steamdeck but it needs to be launched with DirectX 11. This may be helpful if you are on a lower-spec configuration as well. Here's how to do that: 1) Click the gear icon from Ryder's library page

2) Click to "Properties" 3) Add -dx11 to the launch options field

4) It should now launch no problem :)

We’re thrilled to finally share the news: Ryder will be released on August 6, 2025 on Steam.

This cozy creature-collecting puzzle adventure has been a passion project for years. We can't wait for you to experience the full journey. Solve puzzles, bring creatures back into the world, and explore regions filled with life and wonder.

If you tried the demo, thank you. Your feedback and support have helped us make the game even better.

In the meantime, make sure to wishlist Ryder so you’ll be among the first to know when it goes live. 🗓️ August 6th — mark your calendars!

Hello, friends!

We’re excited to share that Ryder is officially live in Steam Next Fest, and we’ve released a special demo update just for the event!

For this week only, you can: 🔹 Solve a brand new puzzle 🔹 Meet a brand new creature 🔹 Discover limited-time variants of existing creatures—hidden throughout the world

If you’ve played the demo before, now’s the perfect time to revisit it. And if you’re new to Ryder, welcome! This is a non-violent, creature-collecting puzzle adventure where every puzzle solved brings a new creature back into the world—and slowly restores life to the land.

Later this week, we’ll also be announcing Ryder’s release date, so stay tuned for that reveal!

Until then, we’d love to hear what you think of the update—and if you manage to find any of the special variants, feel free to post them and tag us. We may even highlight a few in a future post on our social channels!

Thanks so much for the support, and happy exploring! —Arlin & Elle

• Creatures are faster and more responsive
• You can now try out actual creature abilities in the demo! You'll get to try the wind burst and wind jump mechanics
• Improved framerate, bug fixes, and better UI behavior
• The creatures have eyes now. 👀
• If you haven’t tried the demo yet, now’s a great time! You’ll explore a peaceful autumnal forest, solve 7 puzzles (4 new from previous version), and meet 5 playable creatures (3 new from previous version).

Happy February!

The Drumpkin

The Snapdragon

The Driftdrake

Crafting a Vision for Ryder

Shaping Ryder’s Core Gameplay

Building a Creature-Rich Puzzle World

The Road to Release