Hello, hello! I've been quiet for a bit but a lot's been cooking behind the scenes. I realize that this blog post's subtitle might sound a bit scary, but please read until the very end for all the details!
This update brings you a feature that I've been wanting to put into the game for a very long time. I'd originally tried to get this in for the Early Access launch, but it proved too complex and I didn't get time to work on it again until now.
Automation Options:
- This is a new sub-mode of the main game that you can enable/disable at any point by toggling a new button on the top-right corner of the screen. When turned on, the game enables a whole suite of options aimed at automating aspects of the simulation to turn things into a more passive, screensaver-like experience suitable for chilling out in front of, running on a second monitor, or even streaming.
All of these options are adjustable, so you have a lot of control over the experience. You can run this mode to have the game mostly play itself, or you can choose to automate nothing except dog poop cleanup. It's up to you!
The sub-feature I'm most excited about with this new mode is automatic breeding. Automation Options introduces a new breeding system where dogs will automatically lay fertilized eggs that hatch in the pen, letting entire dog lineages progress without ever having to enter Breeding Mode!
Game Adjustments:
- Petting a cocoon to increase a dog's mutation rate should now have a vastly increased effect. I audited the system and discovered that it was not doing nearly as much as it should have been.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed a loading softlock that could occur in the event that your computer's system time got set backwards since the last time you played. This had to do with how the game would search for automated backup save files and would result in an infinite loop of trying to find the oldest file. This could have resulted in rare softlocks for users switching time zones, or during daylight savings switch-overs.
- Fixed an issue where tutorial prompts would not automatically update when switching the in-game language.
- Fixed an issue that resulted in the toybox "new item" notification icon not properly displaying/hiding itself when switching save files. This icon should now correctly show and hide itself to match the state of the current file you have open.
And with that, the big news...
The subtitle is true, this update marks the end of active Wobbledogs development and gameplay updates. I'll explain more in a second, but first I just want to say that this is not the end you might imagine! Not only will there still be a few more content packs being released to all of you for free in the future, but there are also a few more exciting things happening behind the scenes with announcements to come!
But it's true that feature work has ended. I've been working on Wobbledogs for a very long time. 7 years, in fact. It released on Early Access 2 years ago, and it's been fully released for over a year. It's been my full time job this entire time outside of a few short breaks and brief side gigs. There is of course more that I could add, but that would be the case even if I worked on this thing for the rest of my life. I'm proud of where the game is at. I love Wobbledogs and I'm beyond happy that I got the opportunity to bring it this far. There were many many points during development where I nearly quit, and where I wasn't sure things would ever come together, but I'm happy I was able to stick with it.
The community that's grown alongside this game has been so wonderful. Putting a cap on development is bittersweet for me because although I'm proud of where the game is at and excited to move onto new things, I also know that many of you will be disappointed. I don't like disappointing people, and it's hard for me to make this decision knowing that I will be. In the end, however, I also recognize that I'm very lucky. To have a community that cares this much is special. I know there are many of you who would excitedly wait for updates for as long as I kept putting them out, and that's not something to take for granted. Your enthusiasm is what's allowed this game to grow.
That said, my time on Wobbledogs is done. It's been great, but I was never going to be able to work on this forever. There are still more games I want to make, and with the support that Wobbledogs has received, I'm lucky enough to be able to keep on making them.
I'll be around for the next few weeks to keep an eye on things and fix any new bugs that might've popped up from this update, but after that it's time for me to relax a little and give myself a very very long vacation :')
Thank you all so much, and I hope you'll all look forward to whatever it is I end up making next!
Keep on wobbling.
-Tom
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1424330/wobbledogs
