Overview
Hello everyone! With this patch I wanted to address some of the most important issues in the current build. Number one is that the percentage of players who are reporting corrupted save files and losing their hard earned progress is much higher than I would like to see. I have added some protections to prevent this from happening moving forward. I have also sped up the early game progression, and added a simple food upgrade system. In the future, I may rework this system to make it more interesting, but for the time being it should help to address the issues that active players had with progress being too slow. With this comes a number of highly requested quality-of-life features.
Before getting into the patch notes, I want to make a quick plea. I am a hobbyist solo developer finishing up grad school, but I would really like to pursue game development full time. If you like Chillquarium and want to support me, you can become a monthly supporter -- or just buy me a coffee -- here.
Game development is an uncertain field, and having steady community support can go a long way towards providing a sense of stability. Of course, you have all brought me tremendous value by buying the game, sharing your feedback, and leaving reviews on Steam (even the negative ones!) So your support is not required, please don't feel obligated! But if you would like to help out with development or just say thanks, it is hugely appreciated <3
What's New?
Gameplay Changes
- Rebalanced game pacing. Freshwater Friends now both earn and cost more, the first saltwater tank now costs less, and later saltwater packs cost more. Early game progression is now faster.
- Added a food xp upgrade so active playstyles are more effective.
- Added a couple of secrets :)
Quality of Life Improvements
- Tank income is now displayed in the tank menu.
- Adult fish follow food less aggressively.
- Various minor UI tweaks.
Bugfixes
- Added an automatic backup save file to prevent players from losing progress in the event of a computer crash.
- Packs are no longer lost when a new tank is bought.
Beta Branch
Again, I will be pushing all changes to the beta branch before making them live on the main build. In order to opt in to the beta branch, right click on the game in Steam and select "Properties -> Betas" and select the beta branch. Remember to join the beta at your own risk! I highly recommend beta testers regularly back up your save files locally. Saves can be found at the following locations:
- Windows: C:\Users\ [you]\AppData\Roaming\Godot\app_userdata\Chillquarium\V7
- MacOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Godot/app_userdata/Chillquarium/V7
Once again wishing you all the best with your shiny hunting :)
-Ben
P.s. You may have noticed that we skipped right from patch 1.0.2 to 1.0.4. There is no special reason for this, other than that I kinda... forgot which number we were on. Whoops.