Hey guys,
Let's talk about some news.
Update Progress
Over the last few days we've been working on various quality-of-life improvements. We've taken in player feedback and focused on some of the more straight-forward issues to get them resolved quickly. One issue we've seen repeatedly is people starting the game and getting confused by the map generation, thinking the game had crashed while it was calculating the map. To solve this, we've added a load screen to indicate progress while map generation is going on.
We've made a number of additional fixes to save games and added an auto-save feature to help prevent loss of progress. The game will now create periodic saves, as well as save whenever the player goes on or returns from an expedition. The feature can be configured through the game's settings. The game's soundtrack has been expanded with a new ambience and combat track that play on expeditions. Additionally, we added a simple flee behavior to animals so they'll run away when hunters attack them. On top of that we fixed various miscellaneous errors to NPCs, hunting/crafting bills and AI behavior in general. The new build is currently undergoing beta-testing and will be going live as soon as we've made certain there are no additional issues with it.
Forum Launch and Beta Program
With the launch we've seen a large uptick in activity on our Discord community. While a live chat is a great format for casual conversation, it's not very suited to more in-depth discussion of the game, or for tracking suggestions and bug reports. That's why we've launched an official discussion forum on our homepage:
The forum will also house our newly launched beta program: we've opened recruitment for volunteer beta testers to help us test upcoming new builds and track down issues before they make it to the general public. If you're interested in joining head on over to the forum and leave a post.
DRM-Free Version Now on Humble
We were originally planning to distribute our DRM-free release through itch.io, but given the issues the platform has had we switched to Humble Bundle as an alternative, both to handle Kickstarter reward distribution and the DRM-free release. We've opened up a Humble Widget on our homepage through which you can purchase the game DRM-free. A number of people asked us about possibilities to further support the game's development, so we enabled tipping on the widget. If you'd like to leave a bit extra with your purchase you can do so. We're also looking into bringing back some of the old backer rewards, like putting a name into the game, designing an outfit, etc. We're still sorting out the logistics of those, they should be ready next week.
Upcoming Content
While the current update is undergoing testing, we're already working towards more upcoming content. One major upcoming addition is a simple tutorial system with popups to display basic information about how to play the game and use the controls. Other smaller additions will include a few new items and minor quality-of-life improvements.
That’s it for today. Until next time, stay safe and keep surviving!