Hey everyone! This is our biggest & coolest update yet - by far! There is so much crammed into this update - so buckle up - it's a big one! Due to popular demand, we have added water physics! 🤯
Note: In order to make this and planned future updates possible, we had to upgrade to the latest version of Unreal Engine 4, which required a significant amount of rework behind the scenes. Although it comes with a whole raft of benefits, one downside unfortunately is that old saves are not backwards compatible, despite our very best efforts 😭 More info on this below, including how you can still technically play with your old saves if you want - the old saves are not actually lost!
So here's what we have for you in this latest update:
New Water System
Yes - by popular demand - we've added water... Lots of water... and full on water physics too! This also includes a new water quality. And boy does the new water look so good! Plus - it's actually way more optimised and less taxing on your computer than the previous top quality water!
Buoyancy
As previously mentioned, this isn't any ol' water - this is fully physics simulated water physics, with buoyancy! All building materials now float, so you can now build floating contraptions (assuming they are well designed...!) that can even be powered using Wyvern Engines, propellers, rotators etc! In the beta, we've already seen submarines, Loch Ness Monsters, Titanics... The possibilities are endless!
To facilitate creating buoyant contraptions, we've added Buoyancy Barrels to the Miscellaneous Chest!
Campaign Mode Overhaul - New Items & Wiring System
One of the biggest changes with this update, is actually within the Campaign Mode. The items available to you in the campaign has been drastically changed. In missions, you now have access to lots of new items that were previously only available in sandbox mode - like balloons, pistons, wyvern rocket engines etc. They are stored within the little Misc Chest - so check them out!
We’ve also enabled the use of the wiring system in missions which allows you to execute commands with keybindings to control contraptions much much easier! I've created a high level guide on how the fundamentals of the wiring system works:
Sandbox Slot in levels
We’ve added an extra mission to each level, called - Sandbox! This basically enables a sandbox mode in that level! So build and explore in the campaign levels as you wish!
New Item: Decouplers
These have been added to the game allowing you to decouple parts of your contraptions mid game! You can also recouple them too!
New Save System
As previously mentioned, since we had to upgrade to Unreal Engine 4.27, we’ve had to overhaul the save system, and how files are saved for the game. For this reason, from this update onwards, old saves will no longer work in the latest version of the game. Trust me, we tried so hard to make them backwards compatible 😓 When you boot the game up - it will appear as all your saves have been deleted.
The old saves are not actually deleted or lost though, and are stored separately from the new saves! We are making these old saves accessible through a "legacy" branch of the game on Steam, if for whatever reason you don't want to lose your old saves/scores or want to revisit old builds etc. To access these, right click on The Enjenir in your library, and in the Beta tab, you can select the Legacy version in the drop down menu, as shown below:
Steam Cloud Saves
In tandem with the implementation of this new save system, we've now enabled Steam Cloud Save functionality, which means saves will be synced to the cloud when you quit the game. So switching between computers etc. will mean you keep your saves! Again, this only currently relates to the new saves created from this update onwards.
Scores Updated
Since the campaign mode has been changed so much, having added a tonne of new building materials etc, as well as the previously mentioned overhaul to our save system in the backend, we’ve also gone and adjusted all the scores of the missions to reflect these changes! So, expect different scores will net you a different grades previously. Since we've effectively had to do a fresh wipe of the saves, this is the perfect time to revisit old levels with the new mechanics and see if you can solve them in new and cool ways!
Character Update
With the addition of water, we’ve updated the character to be able to swim! Hold W to swim, or Shift + W to swim faster! Holding S while in the water will just keep you treading water / upright and stop you from sinking. As you might expect, the swimming is fully physics driven, but super easy to use. The character struggles to walk sometimes, but he is an Olympian swimmer!
General Fixes and Changes
A number of other small changes and bug fixes have been implemented including:
- Rebalancing of Wheels
- Rebalancing of Rotators
- Fixing the googly eye bug
- Character UI guide text not disappearing when it should
- A bunch of other random minor bugs throughout the game - too long to list!
Phew, that is a lot to take in! So much new content, mechanics and more! 🥳
Once again, thanks for checking out The Enjenir, we really hope you enjoy this update! We're super excited about it ourselves, and what the future holds for the Enjenir! We apologise again for not being able to get the old saves backwards compatible (we tried hard - trust me!) Sorry to anyone that feels they have lost progress - this is something that has really stressed us out! 😓
Oh, and remember, if you like the game - please consider dropping a positive review / thumbs up on Steam etc. etc. 😉 It helps us massively, and we are so close to 400 reviews - only 2 reviews away! 😁
Cillín & Neil 💘